Coming to My Senses (Waters) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Coming to My Senses … then take off on your own:

1. What impression of Alice Waters have you come away with after reading Coming to My Senses? How would you describe her: her personality, drive, creative impulses? What do you find most impressive? Did anything about her disappoint you or irritate you?

2. If you're old enough to have lived around the time Waters was growing up, say within 15 years or so of her time (before the culinary arts exploded in this country), were your experiences of homemade cooking similar to Waters'  — the use of canned and frozen vegetables, bottled dressings, iceberg lettuce?

3. Talk about Waters' awakening in France after her sophomore year in college. Did you ever have the kind of eye-opening (or taste-bud exploding) moment that she did?

4. Waters writes of her dislike for "the hippies' style of health-food cooking." Why? Considering that both were striving for healthier food and earth-based produce, how did Waters see her own style as different from theirs?

5. Talk about Waters' somewhat "irregular" youth. How would you describe it — the drinking, backseat sex, cutting classes, basically flaunting the rules of discipline. How much do you think that background prepared her to go up against the prevailing stodgy, hierarchical culinary culture?

6. Discuss the inspiration — both the people and ideas — behind Chez Panisse and the way in which Waters eventually realized her vision. In other words, talk about how Waters got the restaurant up and running. What most surprised you … and what did you most admire in Waters' story?

7. If you've read memoirs by other culinary greats, perhaps, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, how does this book compare?

8. What influence has Alice Waters had on how we Americans think about food and cook it, both professionally and at home? Consider your own personal culinary style and food preferences, too.

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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