Go Ask Alice

Chez Panisse Contingent, Sans Alice, Heading to Cuba

A group of Chez Panisse chefs and alums are heading to Cuba this December as part of a delegation of Americans in order to encourage changes in the Cuban food and farming scenes with a view toward sustainability. As Berkeyside reports, the delegation includes Chez Panisse co-chef Jerome Waag, former Chez Panisse pizzaiolo Charlie Hallowell (now owner of Pizzaiolo and Boot & Shoe Service), Steve Sullivan from Acme Bread who’s also a Chez Panisse alum, and Cuban-American line cook Danielle Alvarez, who will be setting foot on Cuban soil for the first time. The group is getting legal visas and chartering a flight with the help of the non-profit group the Green Cities Fund, and Cuba’s leading environmental group the Antonio Nunez Jimenez Foundation. Green Cities’ Tom Miller, who’s based in Oakland, says that he encouraged Alice Waters to join the cause because Cubans currently consume a primarily non-local diet which requires importing 70 percent of the island nation’s food. Waters is currently not scheduled to join the delegation, but she did make a similar diplomatic, food-focused mission to China last November. [Berkeleyside]

Chez Panisse Contingent, Sans Alice, Heading to Cuba