A version of this article appeared in the June 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Relentless Idealism for Tough Times
The Idea in Brief It’s good that a recession forces businesses to operate more efficiently, but many panic and make damaging trade-offs. Alice Waters runs a thriftier kitchen these days at Chez Panisse, but she still gives top priority to quality and sustainability, both indispensable to the brand. In contrast to the many business owners […]
Summary.
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In 1971, when Alice Waters founded Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, chefs at even the highest-end restaurants were still using frozen meat and produce. Waters chose to focus on fresh, simply prepared food using organic ingredients. She invented what is now known as California cuisine and went on to launch a sociopolitical movement based on her ideas about food and community.
Her unwavering commitment to quality has produced some steep business challenges in the past, but Chez Panisse has survived for nearly 40 years and is now regarded as one of the best restaurants in the world. What does the recession mean for its future? In this conversation with HBR editors, Waters shares her thoughts.
She believes more than ever in the importance of buying “real” food from people who are taking care of the land, but the restaurant kitchen is becoming thriftier and is recycling with even greater energy and enthusiasm than before. Waters keeps her staff motivated and loyal in part through an unorthodox form of job sharing: The two chefs in the main restaurant are paid for a full year but work only six months each, spending the rest of the time developing their skills in France. The café chefs are paid for five days a week but come to work only three, using the other two to visit the markets and create their menus.
Waters couples her passion for sustainability with a readiness to adapt. She has traveled around the country presenting dinners in collaboration with local people and believes that her restaurant can change with the times. “We could transform ourselves into a soup kitchen or move to a farm,” Waters says. “There’s a lot of flexibility in the big vision of what Chez Panisse is.”