Alice Waters Shares Her Culinary Inspirations from Italy

Plus, 15 years of the Rome Sustainable Food Project and her go-to restaurants in the Eternal City.

What Drew Alice Waters to Italy?

Alice Waters: “When I first visited Rome in the sixties, it was so hot I cooled off in the fountains. However, I loved the culture from the start. My deeper love came when I met Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food. It was in the early days of the movement, but I felt like a member already. We’re so detached from that way of eating in the U.S., but the Italians — thank God for Carlo — still have a strong local tradition. Industrialization is everywhere, but there are many in Italy pushing back in a big way, with people across disciplines thinking about food.”

Vision for Her Work in Rome

“This was always about building a new educational model. It was once believed that food would be a distraction from academics, which was strange — what better place for exchanging ideas than at the table? It was completely intuitive. I brought Mona Talbott, who worked with me at Chez Panisse, to be the first head chef at RSFP. Chez Panisse had always had interns, and we continued that in Rome — teaching young cooks how to purchase food directly from farms. It began simply, just foraging around to find the right ingredients. One early find was a regenerative farmer, Giovanni Bernabei. We still get produce from him. His picture is hanging above the stove.”

How Has the RSFP Evolved Over Time?

“At the first lunch, back in 2007, we probably had a third of the fellows. The second day, everybody. There was an immediate energy, and it’s really changed the intellectual character of the academy, which is now bringing in scholars who are thinking about landscape and climate change. An institution like that should have the most advanced thinking about food systems. We’ve collected that wealth of knowledge into a series of cookbooks. The most recent is Carne, but we also have Pasta, Verdure, Zuppe, Biscotti…”

Favorite Spots to Experience Local Cuisine in Rome

“My favorite place to eat is Armando al Pantheon, a Slow Food restaurant right by the Pantheon. Moreover, I enjoy other organic restaurants such as Piatto Romano in Testaccio. Additionally, in Ostiense, you can find Trattoria Pennestri and Marigold, a café just down the street.”

What Has This Work Taught You?

“My nonprofit, the Edible Schoolyard, is based on the idea of school-supported agriculture. I always use the example of the Academy, and how quickly it won people over, to show what is possible. We’ve been so indoctrinated to think it’s impossible to change our food system, but I know it’s not. Moreover, the beauty of it all is that the best-tasting food is the food that’s procured locally, in season. I call it a ‘delicious revolution.'”

A version of this story first appeared in the September 2022 issue of iBestTravel under the headline “Growing Together.”