She has been hailed as a genius, and she has been criticized as a fierce ideologue and “food Calvinist” for her unbending commitment to using only local, organic ingredients. Alice Waters⎯chef, author, and proprietor of the legendary restaurant Chez Panisse⎯has changed not only how we eat but also how we think about food and the way it is produced.

California College of the Arts (CCA) will recognize this extraordinary culinary pioneer with an honorary doctorate degree at its 103rd commencement exercises on Saturday, May 8, at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco. Waters will deliver the commencement address to more than 400 CCA graduates and their families. She will also be honored at a private dinner and participate in the post-commencement reception at CCA’s San Francisco campus.

About Alice Waters
Alice Waters is the undisputed leader of the culinary philosophy that cooking should involve only the finest and freshest seasonal ingredients, produced sustainably and locally. She is a passionate advocate for a food economy that is “good, clean, and fair.” Over the course of nearly 40 years, she and her Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse have cultivated a large community of local farmers and ranchers whose dedication to sustainable agriculture assures the restaurant a steady supply of fresh and pure ingredients.

In 1996 at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, Waters helped create the Edible Schoolyard: a one-acre garden, an adjacent kitchen/classroom, and an “eco-gastronomic” curriculum. By actively involving 1,000 students in all aspects of the food cycle, the Edible Schoolyard is a model public-education program that instills the knowledge and values needed to build a humane and sustainable future. The program has been nationally recognized for its efforts to integrate gardening, cooking, and sharing school lunch into the academic curriculum.

Waters established the Chez Panisse Foundation in 1996 to support the Edible Schoolyard and to encourage similar programs that use food traditions to teach, nurture, and empower young people. The success of the Edible Schoolyard led to the School Lunch Initiative, whose national agenda integrates a nutritious daily lunch and gardening experience into the academic curriculum of all public schools in the United States.

Waters is vice president of Slow Food International, a nonprofit organization that promotes and celebrates local artisanal food traditions and has 100,000 members in more than 130 countries. She is the author of eight books, including The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution (2007). She has won numerous awards and accolades, including a James Beard Foundation Award, a Bon Appétit lifetime achievement award, and, most recently, recognition by the French Legion of Honor.

About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) is noted for the interdisciplinarity and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 20 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CCA currently enrolls 1,800 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl.

Please see CCA's 2010 commencement exercises section for additional information, or call the college's Student Affairs Office at 510.594.3666.