idea. >> tonight on "q&a" on c-span. the c-span bus is on the 50 capitals tour, visiting every state capital and hearing about each state's priorities. we kicked off the tour december 15 in dover, delaware and have visited 12 state capitals. our next stop for the 50 capitals tour is tallahassee, florida, and we'll be there december 6 with interviews during "washington journal." >> next we'll hear from two prominent chefs, jose andres and alice waters. they talk about their approach to cuisine and how to make food and agriculture part of school curriculums. hosted by "the washington post," this is a little over an hour. >> where is jose? there he is.

[applause] >> all right. welcome. wow, what a great day and a packed room. not surprisingly. good morning, everyone. i'm mary beth albright, the food anchor here at "the washington post." i'm very pleased today to be joined by two of the food world's biggest names, undeniably, jose andres and alice waters. to those watching online or to those in the room, we will be taking questions for alice and jose on twitter. please tweet those questions to us using the #foodforthought, which you see right behind us. so alice waters is the author of this new memoir and it's called "coming to my senses." but i think the book really is mesmerizing because of its subtitle which is the making of a counterculture cook.

and we will talk a lot with the counterculture today and talk about food as a tool for change which both of our chefs here know a little bit about. and we'll talk about her 46-year-old restaurant in berkeley, california, which has been at the forefront of the organic and local and sustainable food movement and she's by any account a titan of the industry. and another titan of the industry is here, a chef who continues the tradition of using food as a tool for change, jose andres who is the owner of the 27 restaurants food group who returned yesterday from puerto rico. [applause] >> where his nonprofit world central kitchen was on the ground for one full month serving an island that is still

75% without power since hurricane maria. and it all started with a quote with a tweet on september 24, and it read -- does anyone in d.c. have a satellite phone we can borrow? kind of urgent. that was jose andres' tweet and he was on the first commercial flight to puerto rico and in the month he was there, he and his troops as of yesterday delivered two million meals. [applause] >> that is more than the red cross and that is to the most remote areas of puerto rico. and this is by boat and over collapsed roads and to people without food and water and used school kitchens and food trucks and puerto rico's largest stadium. many have criticized the federal government's response. so jose, i'm going to start

with a question for you. on october 1, you sent a series of many tweets saying with a you would do if you were donald trump. if i were donald trump, i would stop attacking the media. if i were donald trump, i would not attack a leader that works nonstop for her people, meaning the san juan mayor. and if i were donald trump, i would be in puerto rico to lead no more than two days after the disaster. now we're at "washington post" live and we're talking about the making of counterculture cooks, using food as a tool for change. and the president might not -- might right now be watching. we know he's a fan of social media. and so -- [laughter] >> there's a camera right over here. -- i think ring

that's a call to arms. the international symbol. and i'm wondering if you could look at the camera and say whatever is in your heart to the president of the united states. >> wow. i don't think we have to say anything to one person. i think we have to keep all of us talking between us, the constitution of america, which we love. doesn't say i, the person, it says we, the people. you know, what i know is my faith in humanity has multiplied by 10. watching people that had no used to see the happiness in their faces, how they came together to be we, the people, all for one, one

for all. not complaining and making the best of what they had. probably the reason i'm in puerto rico and other hurricanes and other earthquakes is precisely the person who i'm here for today, which is alice, people like her, especially here, and a few others, it's people like me go to things like this and try to accommodate enough change, is because people like her, a woman like her began doing what nobody thought was possible, and she didn't do it by planning. she didn't do it by talking p. she did it by action. . in puerto rico, the only thing we did was begin cooking. we didn't plan. we didn't meet. we began cooking and deliver one meal at a time.

what alice 47 years ago began doing, she began cooking. and this tells by actions you change the world. by talking, you learn english. [laughter] >> i thank alice because she's been this person, where people like me, she planted the seed of let's make things happen. and she deserves any round of applause every single second we can because she made people like me and hundreds of thousands of others to get behind her, behind the simplicity of containinging the world one place at a time. for that, alice, we love you orever and over. >> coming of age in the

counterculture in the 1960's, berkeley, you write in your book that the esos of that time is morality, emthy, frugality, love of nature and love of children. you also write when the dominant culture behaves immorally, you begin to feel betrayed. what i'm wondering, you heard the news in 2017, do you feel that it's time for a counterculture revival and do you see that happening through food? alice: absolutely i see it happening and i think i've always been a part of the counterculture because i really didn't believe what the government was telling us. and about vietnam, about what was happening with civil rights. was inspired by the

free speech movement in berkeley. i arrived at berkeley in 1964 and i heard mario savio speak and he stood up on top of his car and he talked about how important it is when something is immoral, you need to demonstrate against it. you have to protest. his protest was so peaceful and with the us together hope that we were powerful because we gathered together and we -- i mean, i wasn't brave enough to sit in and be arrested, i'm sad to say. i wasn't. i hope i will be now. able to do this. jose: you were arrested?

alice: no, i wasn't arrested ut many friends were arrested. but i heard what was being said, if we gathered together and we believed that we could change the world. and i've neve lost that. mary: there are many types of bravery other than just being arrested. i will have to say, there's a lot of bravery in your book and it's dedicated to mario because of the work that he did and the free speech movement. and jose, i wanted to ask you, for those of us who weren't able to follow your twitter feed while you were over in puerto rico, there is a photo that i think is emblematic of this kind of issue of the counterculture. can you tell us a little bit about this photo and talk about what things were like on the

ground for people in rural areas. it looks like it might be hard to speak about this. jose: no. t's emotion, that's all. this is in eloisa, 30 minutes west of san juan by the water. this is a community that these nd of caribbean, afro-american, forgotten when things go well, and it's a shame i forgot their names but e i'm like dory, very time we go, we still have 10 foot tracks, those are stories that will be told, those foot tracks, getting

everywhere where they were not getting to and we were one of the foot tracks. and we're always there, no waiting. but they will never eat until the last person in the line. and they were there helping with the food, the water, and there were millions of thanking them for the service they were doing and shows you how in this moment the best of people shows up. and we had many kids that -- and lola was making sandwiches two weeks in a row nonstop and the father and mother was working one of the other food trucks and kids like them showed me the world is going to be great. we only need to make sure we keep empowering them to be everything we want to be and especially help.

alice waters couldn't an man, she had to be a woman. deep that in the most respect to her, that i do believe we need to be putting more woman at the very top of the decisions that are going to be improving the world in years to come. i've never seen more soft-spoken leaders making things happen one community at a time in kenya and haiti and in puerto rico. big boys sing their but use smart, gentle solutions where everybody can rally around, like alice. alice never called her schoolyard project alice waters farm. she doesn't even put her face in any of the books, i feel ashamed in the first one, my face was in her cover. she's not trying to say me, me,

me, and forget you. but she did over all these years was the big belief that she was almost like the shepherd behind the sheep and the lamb. she was making sure they keep moving forward and go to the good places and the water places and to the foot places and she's in the back, and you n't notice her but saw how she kept getting bigger and more people kept joining her dream. that makes it our dream. that's the power of what alice has done in a supersilent, humble way. it was never about her. was about the idea that was for the people, for we the people. that's why i'm in awe being because t this stage she's shown many of us the true leader is the one that is not

this. mary: our edible schoolyard project was born from, and you write about this in the book, you are actually a certified ternational montessori teacher,o so that's why the edible schoolyard came from was this love of, as you were saying, love of empathy and teaching and love of children, love of nature. and would you like to maybe some people in the audience and maybe those watching online don't know about the edible schoolyard project and maybe you'd like to give a little overview of it and also tell us what it is. and also the influence of your mother because your mother was such a large person in your life and was an activist who instilled that in you. alice: she never was a real tivist, she was someone,

-- in who believed in the big picture of democracy. she really believed that nobody should have too much money, that we should all share it, and if you made over a certain amount, you should give it all back. d she was -- she voted for adelaide stevenson in the 1960's and made me wear a button to school and i was the nly third grader that had an adelaide stevenson button and i was just pushed aside when the ike songs came on. mary: you have the ike songs in here that are actually written in the book. alice: i remember those.

but when i had a daughter, i started to think about the big icture of the world and it was really 34 years ago, she's now an adult, but at the time when i had her, i just thought we couldn't be an island unto ourselves there in berkeley, what was happening beyond that was inevitably going to affect the way that we lived in berkeley. and i thought about my teaching and how public education is our last truly democratic institution. nearly every child goes to school. and i thought that's the place to reach them is when they're very little and bring them in to a really positive relationship to food and to nature. and all of my montessori

training just sort of came back to me. and she believed in educating the whole child and educating the senses because those are our pathways into our mind, our touch, our taste, our smell, our seeing, our listening. and if our senses are closed down, we are not able to connect with the world around us. and i really believe that our senses have been closed down. many in the way that montessori talked about her work in the slums of nameles and in india. but -- naples and india. but ours have been closed down by the fast food culture that we live in. everything is meant to be fast, cheap, and easy. and we are not touching and we

are not tasting. and we're not gathering at the table anymore. mary: and yet telling our children to wait for things. alice: exactly. and when 85% of the kids in this country don't have one meal with their family, we're losing our humanity, our connection with each other, our sharing of food. and those two little girls that you were with in puerto rico, the idea that you should wait until everybody has food before idea , i mean that's an that comes from eating around the table and knowing how much food there is and being able to share with everybody that's there and saying please and thank you p. and even though there wasn't anything tasty on very ents' table, i was

yeah, favorite irish and english descent. jose: yeah, they were getting you ready. alice: we did have a victory garden in the back yard, and during the war my parents started that and so we had to find corn and tomatoes that i have loved all my life. and they dressed me as queen of the garden for a costume ontest, and i had an asparagus skirt, a lettuce leaf top and had a crown of true bares and peppers -- of strawberries and peppers bracelet, and to tell people, i think i remembered i won.

jose: you never took that off. mary: may we have a moment here. we're sitting in a room of people, i'm assuming, love food, love the food that you make, and i'm wondering, we're talking about the importance of food and there's been such a -- there's been a populous movement in this country, right, with politics, is there a populist movement in this country coming for food? because are we worried that food -- that good food isn't priced out of the -- of how ople can afford it or how -- alice: i feel there is movement. it's kind of underground, which i love that we haven't really shown ourselves yet. but a lot of young people around the country are becoming farmers. and they're growing a great

diversity of fruits and vegetables and they're selling them directly to restaurants and so the experience that i've had at my restaurant over these years has been to develop a network and to actually support one farm of kenard completely. so whatever he grows, we buy but we always -- he sort of gives us a bill at the end of the year, whatever it costs, we are willing to pay. and he feels, you know, like he can really do the work without worrying. and it's the reason that i'm hoping that in schools that they could become the support for the people growing

food, ranching and fishing, that the schools would buy from them and without a middle man. to buy directly for the people doing the work of the planet. so i'm very confident that if we were to have school supported agriculture not only with these kids eating food good for them but that it would really help to change agriculture and could change it overnight. and so that is kind of the master plan. jose: we know you have one. we don't have time to go through your important question. but the food for thought is how

you are in haiti or puerto rico or how it's possible that the can of soda, coca-cola, pepsi, is cheaper than a bottle of water. just think about it for a second. nd i love my rum and coke. but it's food for culture we need to talk about. we have water that comes for free from the sky but somehow water becomes more expensive than coke itself. i still don't get it. we are all part of the problem. because we all keep paying for that water more expensive than coke. so it's kind of this conundrum that we need to be eantsing. for me i think with food, for everybody to take it, because they can be saying we are foodies and like to pay more for our green fees because our green fees -- green peas are

better. and food is becoming a very expensive thing in the united states and a lot of people cannot afford the vegetable that you guys are able to buy. going to farmers markets today, it shows you how expensive it can be buying those foods but at the same time, we need to keep those farmers alive. i think when you go to places like iowa and you see half the crops are soy and half are corn, and the corn is not even used to feed humanity but now becomes fuel and how our usda secretary now is also the energy secretary. all this is fascinating but at the end of the day, the same way unfortunately september 11 happened we never even we thought was going to happen, do we have our next september 11 but one day being with so very few types of seeds they in mass quantity of food we are providing to america and one

day we'll have the biggest september 11 by a pest or one hing we don't foresee, day all those crops are feeding it does by this huge amount of diversity that we are so lucky to have from mother earth is going to give us the security of humanity. that is so important. going back to something you were saying --

[laughter] translator on the number one number. [laughter] >> you don't need a translator. >> i think it is something so interesting that you said about the water versus the coke. there was a controversy over what fema was bringing to the island of puerto rico versus what you are serving. you were serving fresh fruits and saying we would never serve chips and what fema was bringing its, chocolate pudding, and vienna sausages. the mayor of san juan was calling them out for it. i do think there is an interesting comparison between those two things. luckily, you signed a $10 million contract with fema, as i

understand, to serve good meals, hot meals, for the next two weeks. correct me if i am wrong. >> i do not even know what i find with fema. [laughter] >> i can imagine you have had a busy month. >> we were many millions in the red. we were spending almost 300,000 or $400,000 a day. the only thing we did was feed people. when they say fema has a contract, it almost looks very wrong. at one moment, they said they even hired jose, and i said what? [laughter] >> i am there on my own time and i pay for my own cigars in my own room. [laughter] >> the water issue, which is fascinating, it has plenty of sweetwater places across the island. many of them were active.

many of them were working. because those two or three people in charge of that left fema, the issue is not lack of water. the issue was lack of communication. fake news 101. when somebody goes and says, the water wells are infected, and on top of that, you don't have epa there testing every water source , you will --s o puerto rico needed one million gallons a day. they have the water on the island. the only thing they had to be doing was making sure they were functioning in the water places, which is not hard to do. aching to the water was tested in making sure the leaders were communicating on time to the people that the water was ok to be drinkable by all. this was not information that has been delivered. no value went into this. we had to bring in one million gallons a day from outside. that was not happening. the island was going thirsty. four weeks ago, i saw a woman

who had not had a decent glass of water in 48 hours. this was around the island. those problems are man-created. luckily for us, we have water that is more than water. waters -- all of these problems are low hanging fruit opportunities. what was happening in other parts of the world is somehow -- sometimes created by nature. but this crisis is created by humanity. we have to make sure humans are at the service of taking care of humans, and not becoming the problem instead of bringing the true solution one glass of water , at a time in this case. , >> this has turned into an interesting conversation. [applause] >> you can go ahead and speak if you like. >> i just wanted to tell you a

small water story. , the at a university university of indiana, bloomington. put in watered to so thats on the campus, everybody could have water for like one of seems the big corporations, dare i nestle, had given funds to the university. and along with that, came a contract for bottled water. let the would not university put in water fountains because it would cut into their bottled water business. so, this is what is happening. and i go many places and visit many enlightened universities around the country, but these corporations have, you know,

really locked in their withacts, and sweetened it a donation for a building, or an endowment or something. difficult for the university to take the risk. for one, ist waiting hope the university of california can do this because they have a food and agriculture initiative that they want to achieve by 2025. but they are going to have to go up against that big-money, and it always comes down to that. jose, i don't know if you have experienced that, but these countries by the wells, by the water rights to you know, the areas. i am not surprised they haven't bought them for all of puerto rico. and then they basically selling

back to us. >> one of the interesting things, when we were having our discussion last week, in advance of our "washington post" live discussion, and we were talking about puerto rico, you had mentioned the wildfires in northern california. in that you were believing that there might be relationships you wanted to talk about there, and how you had been affected by the wildfires. >> this is for you. it is incredibly emotional because the chefs from the house and lost their winery burned completely to the ground. it feels like what is happening in puerto rico. everyoneemergency and

is doing what ever he or she can do, and it is beautiful to see that. to feel that. that restaurants are really to seeo go up to napa people come together. it feels like a war zone not there. it is something very, very shocking to all of us. i'm -- yeah. >> ok. [applause] thee can talk about restaurant, now that we are talking about it and how it was born out of the counterculture. 46 years ago, which is pretty extraordinary for a restaurant like this that has really started a movement and has stayed at the top of its game,

and stayed -- i hate this word in the restaurant world, and stayed relevant for 46 years, he boughtding eventually for in berkeley, $26,000 which you cannot buy a parking space in berkeley for $20,000 these days. >> i wish i had bought a lot more real estate. >> yeah, no kidding. [laughter] bornd it was a restaurant out of the counterculture because it was born out of you feeding a bunch of people let your house who were living communally. and out of the spirit of generosity, which is why the subtitle of it is the making of a counterculture cook. so, i would love to hear more about the start of that restaurant, and you feeding the people that you were writing the newspaper column for called "alice's restaurant."

,ou and your crystal ball before you had a restaurant, you were writing about the restaurant called "alice's restaurant. ." talk to us about that. >> it was an abusive or call the -- it was an article in the san francisco express times. the people were writing for a just came over. my friend david was a calligrapher and also a printer. they're are all these people writing about music and art, but they all thought that maybe they should have something about food. and david said he would be happy to have that. and we ended up calling it "alice's restaurant." after the song.

i was spending all my money on feeding these folks, these friends, and i thought, well, maybe i can just open a restaurant and they could pay. [laughter] >> well, the only problem was is i cannot see them anymore because i was so busy in the kitchen. work out, but i hired a lot of them to work with me in the restaurant. us, that was our profession. we were literary justices. literary guests. >> how many of you have been here? shame on the rest. i remember the first time i went. my daughter is 18 now, so 18 and a half years ago. there in sane

francisco because she was pregnant from my daughter carlotta. she was like, i need food. i need good food. [laughter] .> and we went to berkeley i bought my way in and at the ate bought my way in and we at this amazing place. have you call it? in the cafe. i used my child in my pregnant wife, right? to like tot going you, and especially european chefs, i mean, even the spanish were more pretentious than the french. [laughter] already was a super big fan

of our big champion. we love her. but when i went there, i could not believe what i saw in front of be. we ate an amazing menu of these amazing pizzas coming from the wood stone oven, and many amazing dishes, but you know the moment i realized the power of this woman? for desert, we had dates and clementines. [laughter] >> and they put me a clementine that i had to peel myself. [laughter] >> and i was like -- >> a tangerine? >> a tangerine. dates.y were [laughter] smelled that tangerine, it was a revelation.

where i come from in spain, we have very good stuff. that one was unbelievable. to this day, we keep talking about it, and i have been going back to some of those farms to make sure i can buy them from my home. that day, i never ate a date like the one i got. it was a date i cannot describe. so when you see that somebody is giving you a clementine on a plate and charging you a lot of money for it -- [laughter] >> that is the moment you ask yourself about the meaning of cooking. what she did was exactly that. it is an amazing way to be bringing together people and farmers, and an idea that simplicity becomes the most sophisticated, complicated thing at the same time.

and to this day, every time i , this is theine moment that i saw the power of this movement that she created by only given -- only giving importance to the things everyone was overlooking. amazing things, partnering with amazing farmers, and making sure we continue feeding the people. thank them. i remember when she came to my restaurant, she would come in and we interacted a few times here and there, but she would said, where are those asparagus from? [laughter] >> she goes, chile. and i am like, chile? [laughter] >> ok. let's teller they are from maryland, like you said -- let's tell her they are from maryland,

like you said. it is i created fake news, november. people. [applause] >> but i did not believe it. >> we do not lie to her, but that was a conversation. >> you cannot fool alice waters. >> we rely, she is coming into the restaurant. i am like, you know the champagne you sell in your restaurant comes from france? ain't seasonal? i just fired back at her from the beginning. [laughter] >> an amazing thing, they're talking about the amazing things this woman has had. even if we are never perfect, at least you tried to reach for that perfection and find the right balance. and which he did more than anybody was she made people me like -- she made people like me

think. every time we serve a plate of food, we think. and she was not only feeding our bodies, but feeding our souls and our need to ask the right question, and try to get the best possible answers. but having that information, we will be feeding america and this planet in a better way. that is the real power, and that ofthe biggest contribution what we did over the last 46, 47 years. [applause] >> i thought you were doing a mic drop, and that's it. i'm out. it is true. one of the great things i looked in this book is alice, you mentioned you were counterculture, but you could never be a hippie because you cannot get down with their idea of food. [laughter] >> their idea of food was too uncivilized. they were putting vegetables and

a pot with rice and i could not , eat with them. you were too much of a european centralist ever be a hippie. [laughter] >> yeah. i mean, your love of food would not allow you to be a hippie. you would walk into -- this is one of the best descriptions i ever read. you would walk in your natural food -- [laughter] [indiscernible] [laughter] >> you could walk into a natural food restaurant and said it would smell like vitamin powder and incense. you would be like, i got to get the hell out of here. [laughter] >> this is hysterically funny to know that alice waters, who is at the pinnacle of food, has such a sense of humor about food, if such a relief for people. that is one of the reasons i love reading your book. >> thank you. i am very sensitive to that aroma. [laughter] >> that is another reason you

could not be a hippie. alice: yeah. you know, i love it when you walk into the restaurant and you can smell a fire burning. when a restaurant does not smell good, you just sort of worry about it. [laughter] alice: you worry about the kitchen. that has always been a way that we sort of welcomed people into this space, that we try to reach this -- that we try to reach them subconsciously. sometimes i have to burn rosemary to make it happen, but it really predisposes people to food that we are serving. and i think it's -- when my daughter would come home from school, i always kind of wanted to make the chicken stock sort of happening then, so that she would feel the warmth of the

house. that she would want to come into the kitchen and be curious. and it worked like a charm to get her up in the morning. i roasted peppers right on the stove, and she would run down the stairs and say, would you put those in my lunch question lunch? and i always did. and i think that is the way we have to reach children. and we use all of those techniques, if you will. preparing of the classroom. she talks a lot about that. of making it a beautiful space. for kids to be in. it isey just know that for them. she puts flowers on the table. you don't have to say a thing. they just now. well, somebody cares about me. and i think our kids really need

to feel this. anymore not at home learning about the tables. their parents are both working and everybody is busy. and they are grabbing food where they can. .o, to make a place for them that is part of the we're trying to do in the school. we are trying to make school lunch part of academia, so we eatget time and focus to lunch together. and so, we have been experimenting. placemat.e a and the placemat is about the study of the geography of the arabian peninsula because that is what the kids are talking about in their classroom. so, we are using the academic

minutes from that geography class. and it shows on there. yeah. [laughter] alice: but what we are serving -- is this taboulierving them a soup with arot little hot, red pepper in it. they're eating the food of that place. they may be studying the silk road in india, and maybe you are serving them the lentil soup or the spiced yogurt. way that we can lesson indigest that a whole different way. using all of our senses.

and this is what i am hoping might happen in new york city because you know, i don't know if you know because you are not in town, but the bellagio decided they were going to see all the students in new york city for free. all of them. [applause] and she wants to feed them nutritionally good food. and of course, we know that and good the ground support for the farmers in and around new york city. and i am just hoping and b can have a conversation about school lunch being really civilized in that way, and part of the academic sessions. >> and i think that brings us to a great question that we have on twitter. gina asks, how can the influence those we want -- how can the

influence those who want to make health-sustainable choices that may not have the resources to do so? affordability are access. it sounds like this would be a great way to do that. alice: certainly. school, i think is the best way. the kids bring them home to their families. i always use the example of hosea. i will buy an expensive chicken, but i know how to make three meals from that chicken for a family of four. and i hear jose knows how to make six. [laughter] alice: this is about cooking. this is about learning how to cook. -- learning how to cook affordably. in a few you grow your own food, of course, that is the very best way to grow it. during world war ii, we grew it on the front lawns of the post office. beganack when the crisis

a few years ago, and they were , they say can you cook for a valentines menu? i said, do you see that in my body? i am not that type of chefs. i said it was a little more respect. to me, i would say let me do things that are meaningful. and so, i give them the idea of we have this crisis, let's show them how we can maximize a chicken and not make one male, but i saw my mother doing it. six. i said, let me use this information. that is what we did. i'm talking about the school, if we should be feeding children for free or not. at the end, it is all the same thing. in new york, the school system will feed all children and it

benefiting the local economy in ways we don't understand. you will be hiring more people. if you are smart, doing it cheaper when things really happened by the volume you can be achieving. but the question here is very sample. do we want to invest as a community, as a country, in the health of our children? or do we want to throw money at the problem and fixing them when they are 60 years old and unhealthy? and when we explain that problem in such a simple way, i would believe that we want to invest more money into the solution, which is keeping every american healthy versus throwing money at the problem, with all due to my friends who are doctors and hospitals, then throwing money at diabetes, or cancers related to the food they ate when they were younger.

this is a very simple thing. who do we want to be? creators of solutions, or throw money at the problem that we will never be able to fix? investing into solutions. it is much more fascinating to have the economy, the community we love, as we wanted. healthy, young communities. helping the economy, the moving forward, and walking toward that horizon. a country that is healthier, smart. we keep investing in what is important. the health and well-being of every single american. if you're with me, that is what you should be going for. that is what this woman has been doing. [applause] [laughter] >> that is great! >> why you invited him. we only have a few minutes remaining. and in those few minutes remaining, i would like to talk

now, and howt is it got there. writes in her book about beginning it and saying it started from her visit to france. it says, when i got back from france i wanted to eat like the french. and the only way i could get those flavors again, was to do the dishes myself. no restaurants in berkeley and san francisco were cooking that way if they were, i couldn't afford them. i had a certain taste in mind, and i really wanted to get the food there. it all went back to france. i had been awakened to taste there, and i wanted to -- and i wanted everybody to be awakened the way i have been. i was convinced i could win people over if i cut them the right food, if i got them to taste something they had never had before. so, alice, what do people taste with this that they never have before? just one started with

menu downstairs. and actually, we still just have one menu downstairs. anhave the cafe upstairs and friendst menu so their can come with their children and eat affordably. the fulltairs, we had price menu. and i cannot believe we changed it every single night. this,aybe we have done you know, this duck thousands of time, but every time we rethink it and we try to come up with different kinds of things to serve with it. in this meal is really choreographed by us to bring people to taste things that they have not tasted before. but it is very much a collaboration the way it happens

a most like a little bit of combo that you have a group of people in the kitchen who are all counted in different ways. and we come together, and we try to make something greater than the sum of the parts. and i think it has been a kind of word-of-mouth that has happened over the years. we don't write the recipes down. pastry little bit in because you have to be more precise, but you are trying to withto it with respect what you have found in the market that day. is always knew things that are surprising. and it is the way we work. >> in that way it is more like a dinner party. alice: it is. it is just like that.

so, that helps to reinforce that feeling that you are coming into somebody's home to have a meal. way oft french kind of service is very, very important to me. alwaysad is kind of there don't maybe not after the main dish, but there is a little on every plate. i think it sort of refreshes the pallet. it is very, very important to me. >> jose, what do you want people to taste that they have never tasted before? before i answer that question, i will say that the only thing i am touched by is is i -- touched by alice never understood why she keeps saying the french way. the spanish when? -- way? [laughter] you are in san francisco. my ancestor helped build that.

eric is halfway spanish. ok. fake news. [laughter] >> you could paella. >> we do cook paella. jose: do you know what i want people to eat? we want you to start thinking when you are about to eat. inant to to put your nose the farmers' market in those theing peaches coming from farms and smelled those peaches. i want you to get that apple and feel it with your hands how hard it is, and then how do you see and how amazing it is. steak isay a piece of the most boring thing in mankind, but we keep going for the state. mouth,u put it in your and besides the five seconds a pleasure is the closest thing to sex, the next 15 seconds you , look like a lion. [laughter] jose: munching something that is

tasteless and nonsense, but you feel so empowered because you are like a lion. we are moreetimes like a butterfly. i produce honey now. i have two behind at my house and my daughters help a couple of times a year. i want you to put your finger in that honey, and for one second, close your eyes and pretend you are that butterfly. that is what i want you to do. to understand that you do not need to look for the most sophisticated dish. even chefs like us sometimes look for those dishes. sometimes, the simplicity of listening to the ingredients. listening to the fruits in the vegetables. there is an amazing story they want to tell you, but the noise does not allow it. they are describing the flavor. but to do that, you have to listen. and if you listen, it will come back to you in ways you could

never imagine. that is what alice has been telling us all along. we are listening everyday more and more her teachings. listen because there is a story behind every one of those ingredients, those smells, those flavors. but the stories we learn from them, thanks to the guidance of people like alice, we can have an opportunity to improve the world we live in, one flavor at a time by only listening to , them. >> beautiful. [applause] i was just going to say, that is why i call it a "delicious revolution." this is not hard to do. once youomething that get connected, you are always there. you are always there. these kids get connected so quickly. they are longing for nature. they are longing for that

experience just as jose described it beautifully. jose: and this year can from sea urchin.nd a put your nose and give the -- which aren up urchin upive the sea and describe life. >> i have to say you are not the actual chef, which surprises some people. what is so interesting in your book as he said when you were a kid he played baseball and you left being the picture because you're always in the game and had control over the game. and so, i think that really resonated with me because that seems like your role. you are always in the game and you always have to know what is going on in the game. you, as a young girl, as a

pitcher, that role really stood right? y mind, jose: there was no coach that was there to take that picture out of the game. [laughter] >> speaking of which, how wasn't watching the world series in puerto rico? because baseball is huge out there. jose: the same thing that i answered when fema said i was getting paid. say what? i open an account, order food, and they sent me food, and i said, oh wow! >> were people in the town square watching? jose: yes yes. . the mayor. we have been sending him food forever. the biggest problems of the world have very simple solutions. we only have certain leaders that they seem to believe that

they are bigger leaders by making us believe that the problem is so big that they can only fix them. i don't need leaders like that. we only need people like us to choose to make it happen. [applause] jose: it is the truth, and i endorse this message. [laughter] >> i mean the camera is still going if you want to say something. jose: i am very smart. [laughter] jose: i left the school when i was 14. i never went to university, but i am smart, too. [laughter] [applause] >> i think we will even at that. [laughter] jose: i am talking to everybody. >> i understand. i understand. it is a must to be a camera in the room. ok, coming to my senses is a

phenomenal book. it is honest, and funny, and authentic, and accessible. and there are fantastic stories in this. i am going to tell you if you want to know how alice waters mistakenly stumbled onto the set or if youdfather," want to know how she was on a plane that louis armstrong and on,band was riding if you want to know how she punched a drummer in the face for mistreating her sister, and how she got kicked out of her story for drinking too much, these books will be on sale outside and alice will be sticking around to sign them for a little while. and you can watch highlights from today's events. the whole thing is a highlight, right? make and don't try to reservations at a restaurant because you will not be able. [laughter] alice: you are all welcome. jose: you can try, but you will

never get in. >> you can watch highlights from and more programs at washingtonpostlive.com. thank you all very much for coming. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> today on c-span, the doctor talks about the link between

your zip code and your health. here are a portion of his remarks. >> have been looking at the data for over a decade saying why are we spending so much and other countries that are similar spending so much less in their health is better? not only do we spend more, we actually get worse outcomes for what we spend another countries, so looking at this data, and they decided to do something different. they wanted to look at per , but addalth spending per capita social services and social benefits pending. that,en they did typically the u.s. is way up in the big spending. when the added social benefits pending, they found the u.s. was now in the middle of the pack. we were no longer the big spender. when you add health care and social spending, we are not the big spender.

so what they pointed out and this was in the new york times and subsequently became a book called american health-care paradox, what they pointed out was we had the accent on the wrong syllable. we are spending our money on health care and getting worse health results, and those countries that's been roughly two times on social services and social benefits compared to what they spend on health have better health outcomes. >> we will shut that entire event with the doctor later on at 6:30 eastern on c-span. trump and herania son baron received the white house christmas tree to be shown in the blue room. it was brought to the white house by horse-drawn carriage. ♪ [playing "o christmas tree"]