culture. chefs join "the washington post" for a discussion on cooking and cuisine philosophies and integrating food in the school curricula. this is just over one hour. this is just over one hour. announcer: please welcome marybeth albright and today's guests. [applause] welcome. what a great day. and a packed room. not surprisingly.

good morning. i am marybeth albright, the food anchor at the washington post. i am very pleased to be joined by two of the food world's biggest names, jose andres and alice waters. to those watching online, we will be taking questions for alice and jose on twitter. please use the hashtag #foodforthought. alice waters is the author of this new memoir called coming to my senses. i think the book is mesmerizing because of the subtitles, the making of a counterculture cook. today we will talk about food as a tool for change. and we will talk about her 46-year-old restaurant in

berkeley which have been at the forefront of the organic food movement. she is a titan of the industry. and another titan is here, a chef that continues the tradition of using food as a tool for change, jose andres. he returned yesterday from puerto rico. [applause] marybeth: where his nonprofit was on the ground for one month serving an island that is still 75% without power since hurricane maria. it all started with the tweet on september 24 and read, does anyone in d.c. have a satellite phone i can borrow? kind of urgent.

he was on the plane to puerto rico. in the months he was there, he delivered as of yesterday 2 million meals. [applause] marybeth: that is more than the red cross and that is to be most remote areas of puerto rico. this is by boat to people without food and water. many have criticized the federal government's response. jose, i will start with a question for you. on october 1, you sent a series of tweets saying what you would do if you were donald trump. if i were donald trump, i would stop attacking the media. i would not attack a leader who

is looking out for people. i would be in puerto rico to lead more than two days after -- no more than two days after the disaster. now we're at washington post live and we are talking about the making of counterculture c ooks and the use of food as a tool for change. we know the president is a fan of social media, he might be watching. [laughter] marybeth: so there is a camera right over here. and i am wondering -- [laughter] marybeth: i think that is a call to arms. the international symbol. i am wondering if you can look at the camera and say whatever is in your heart to the president of the united states. : i do not think

we have to say anything to one person. i think we have to have all of us talking between us. the constitution of america, which i love, does not say i a person. it says we, the people. [applause] --jose: what i know is that my faith in humanity has multiplied by 10. watching people who have nothing, who have no hope, no water, no electricity, just to see the happiness in their faces, how they came together to be all for one and one for all. it is making the best of what they had. part of the reason i am in puerto rico is precisely because the person i am here for today,

people like alice and a few other. if people like me go to things like this, it is because people like her, a woman like her, they can do what nobody thought was possible. she did not do it by planning or by talking. she did it by action. in puerto rico, the only thing we did was begin cooking. we did not plan, we did not meet, we began cooking and delivered one meal at a time. what alice began doing, she began cooking. these are measured by actions and can change the world. by talking, you learn english. [laughter]

think --thank alice because she planted the seed of, let's make things happen. she deserves any round of applause because she made people like me and hundreds of thousands of others to rely behind her and the simplicity of changing the world one plate at a time. for that, alice, we love you forever. [applause] marybeth: alice, coming of age in the counterculture in 1960's berkeley, you writing your book -- right in your book that the east coast of the time -- that the ethose at the time is morality and love of children. and that when the dominant

culture behave immorally you begin to feel betrayed. you have heard the news in 2017. do you feel it is time for a counterculture revival and do you see that happening through food? alice: absolutely. i see it happening. i think i have always been part of the counterculture because i really did not believe what the government was telling us. not about vietnam, what was happening with civil rights. i was inspired by the free speech movement in berkeley. i arrived there in 1964. a man stood up on top of his car in his suit and tie and 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 together as a whole group so that we were powerful because we gathered together and i was not brave enough to fit in and be arrested, i am sad to say. jose: you were not arrested? alice: i was not arrested. but i heard what was being said, that if we gathered together and believed we could change the world.

i have never lost that. marybeth: there are many other types of bravery, not just being arrested. there is a lot of bravery in your book and it is dedicated to mario because of the work he did in the free speech movement. jose, for those of us who were not able to follow your twitter feed while you were in puerto rico, there is a photo that i think is emblematic of this 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 ? you look like it might be hard to speak about this. jose: there is a little bit of emotion.

this is in a community west of san juan, by the water. this is a caribbean, african american community. if they are forgotten when things go well, imagine now. these two girls that were there, i am ashamed, i cannot remember their names, i am like dory. [laughter] jose: every time we go, we have 10 food trucks. it was amazing, those trucks other truckswhere couldn't go. people were always there.

these girls were always there but they would never eat until the last person on the line got food. there were people thinking them for the service they were doing. we had many kids. we had this one girl who was making sandwiches for two weeks in a row, eight hours a day nonstop. kids like them showed me that the world is going to be great. we'll may need to make sure we are empowering them to be everything we want them to be. especially girls. alice waters couldn't be a man. she had to be a woman. i mean that. [applause] jose: i mean that the most deep respect to her. i do believe we need to be putting more women at the top of

positions where they will be improving the world in years to come. i've never seen more soft-spoken leaders making things happen in kenya and haiti, and puerto rico, by not using the big voice, but using solutions that everyone can rally around. like alice. she never called her schoolyard waters farm. she didn't put her face in any of his books. i feel ashamed of my first one. my face was on the cover. [laughter] jose: she is not trying to save me, me, me and forget you. what she did was had a big belief that -- she was almost like the shepherd behind the sheep and lambs.

she made sure that they had good places and they would move to the water and food places. she is in the back. you do not notice her, but somehow it keeps getting bigger and bigger and more people kept feeling her dream that makes it our dream. that is the power of what she has done and a silent, humble way. it is never about her. it was the idea of for the people, we the people. awet is why i am in all -- being here with her. i think she has shown many of us -- that a true leader is one that you do not notice. marybeth: let us talk about that. she was born -- the project was born from -- and you write about this in the book, that you are a certified montessori teacher. [applause]

alice: that is where the edible schoolyard came from. this love of empathy, teaching, children, nature. maybe some people in the audience do not know about the edible schoolyard project. marybeth: maybe you would like to give a little overview of and tell us what it is. also, the influence of your mother because your mother was such a large person in your life and in activist who instilled that in you. alice: she never was a real activist. she was someone who believes in what i liked to say in the big picture, 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. she voted for stevenson back in the 50's. she made me wear a stevenson button to school, and i was the only third-grader -- [laughter] alice: that had a stevenson button and i was pushed aside. and then the ike songs came on. they are terrible. when i had a daughter, i started to think about the big picture of the world, and that was 34 years ago. she is now an adult. at the time i had her, i just

thought we could not be an island onto ourselves in berkeley. what was happening was inevitably going to affect the way we lived in berkeley. i thought about my teaching and how public education is our last democratic institution. every child goes to school and i thought that is the place to reach them. when they are very little and bring them into a really positive relationship to food and to nature. and all of my training came back to me. she believed in educating the senses because those are the pathways into our mind, our touch, our taste, our smell, our

seeing, or listening. if our senses are closed down, we're not able to connect with the world around us. i really believed that our senses have been closed down. many in the way that montessori talked about her work in the slums in the slums 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 are not gathering at the table anymore. marybeth and yet, we're telling : our children to wait for things. alice: exactly.

and when 85% of kids in this country do not have one meal with their family, we're losing our humanity. our connection with each other, our sharing of food. those two little girls who you are with them puerto rico, the idea that you should wait till everybody has food before you eat. that is an idea that comes from eating around the table and knowing how much food there is an being able to share with everybody who is there and saying please and thank you. even though there was not anything tasty on the table -- [laughter] alice: i was very unfortunate. they were irish and english. they didn't have.

jose: they were getting you ready. [laughter] alice: we did have a victory garden in the backyard. during the war, my parents started that in here we had corn and tomatoes. they addressed me as queen of the garden for a costume contest and i had an asparagus skirt. a lettuce leaf top. i had a crown of peppers. as i told people, i think i remember that i won. [laughter] jose: and you never took the costume ever? [laughter] marybeth: it is interesting we are sitting in a room of people who love food love the

, food you make. i am wondering -- we're talking about the importance of food and there has been a populist movements in this country, right? with politics. is there a populist movement in the country coming for food? are we worried good food is being priced out of how people can afford it? alice: well, i really feel that there is a movement. it is kind of underground which i love that we have not really shown ourselves yet. but a lot of young people around the country are becoming farmers and they are growing a great diversity of fruits and vegetables. and they are selling them directly to restaurants. the experience i have had over

the years have been to develop a network and to actually support one farm completely. whatever he grows, we buy it but -- whatever it costs, we are willing to pay. he feels like he can really do the work without worrying. it is the reason that i am hoping that in schools that they could become the support team for the people who are growing food, ranching and fishing. that the schools would buy from them. without a middleman.

to buy directly from those people were doing that work for all of us for the future of this planet. so i am very confident that if we were to have school-supported agriculture, not only with these kids be eating the food that is good for them, but it would really help to change agriculture, and it could change it overnight. and so that is kind of the master plan. jose: we know you have one. in fact, we do not have time to go in business through your super important question, but how about haiti in puerto rico? how is it possible that a can of soda is cheaper than a bottle of water? just think about it for a second.

i love my rum and coke. [laughter] jose: but is that something we need to be thinking about? we have water that comes for free from the sky but somehow , water becomes more expensive than coke itself. i do not get it. i still do not get it. we are all part of the problem, because we all keep paying for the water more expensive than coke. it is kind of these conundrums that we have to be answering. for me, i think with food, for everybody to take it seriously because they can be saying we are foodies and we like to pay more for our green peas because our green peas are better. now that food is becoming very expensive in the united states and a lot of people cannot afford the same kind of vegetables that you and i are able to buy, going to farmers markets today, it will show you how expensive it is buying those

foods. at the same time, we have to keep those farmers alive. i think we need up to places like iowa and you see half of the crops are corn and the corn is not even used to feed humanity by now becomes fuel and now our usda secretary is also the energy secretary, this is fascinating. at the end of the day, the same way that september 11 happened how we thought it would never happen, do we have our september 11 but with it being with so few types of seeds, that went day -- that one day will have the biggest september 11 by something like a past, something we did not foresee?

one day all of those crops feeding american humanity, they will not be any longer. this could happen. this is a national security issue. when we ask for diversity of vegetables and fruits and more farmers and bigger farmers, it is because humanity's future depends on it. not because we want to have 120 vegetables to put in our risotto so we can charge you $100 a plate. it is deeper than that. it is about this diversity. 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. marybeth going back to something : you were saying -- [laughter] jose: we have a translator on the number one number. [laughter]

it happens. marybeth: 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 in were cheezits, 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. jose: i do not even know what i signed with fever.

[laughter] marybeth: i can imagine you have had a busy month. jose: 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] jose: you did what? i am there on my own time and i pay for my own cigars in my own room. [laughter] jose: the water issue, which is fascinating, puerto rico has had 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 of the islands, you will -- 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. making sure 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. nobody wanted to touch the water. 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.

it is a waters -- all of these problems are low hanging fruit opportunities. what was happening in other parts of the world is 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. marybeth: this has turned into an interesting conversation. [applause] alice i just wanted to tell you : a small water story. i was at a university, the university of indiana, bloomington. and they wanted to put in water fountains on the campus, so that everybody could have water for

free, but it seems like one of the big corporations, dare i name it, nestle, had given funds to the university. and along with that, came a contract for bottled water. and they would not let the 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 contracts, and sweetened it with a donation for a building, or an endowment or something. and it is very difficult for the

university to take the risk. and i am just waiting for one, i 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 , they buyby the wells the water right 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. marybeth: 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. and that you were believing that there might be relationships you wanted to talk about there, and how you had been affected by the wildfires. alice: it is very fresh in my mind. this is for you. it is incredibly emotional because the chefs from the restaurant lost their house and winery burned completely to the ground. the way that everyone has responded all around the area feels like what is happening in puerto rico. it is an emergency and everyone is doing what ever he or she can do, and it is beautiful to see that. to feel that. that restaurants are really ready to go up to napa to see and to haveeople

everybody come together. it feels like a war zone up there. it is something very, very shocking to all of us. i'm -- yeah. marybeth ok. : [applause] marybeth: we can talk about the restaurant, now that we are talking about it and how it was born out of the counterculture. how it got started 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, and in a building that originally for

$26,000 in berkeley, which you cannot buy a parking space in berkeley for $20,000 these days. alice i wish i had bought a lot : more real estate. jose: yeah, no kidding. [laughter] marybeth: and it was a restaurant born 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." you and your crystal ball, before you had a restaurant, you were writing about the restaurant called "alice's restaurant." talk to us about that. calledit was a newspaper the san francisco express times.

the people who were writing for it came over to our house for dinner. my friend david was a calligrapher and also a printer. he was engaged with all of these other people who were 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]

alice: well, the only problem was is that i cannot see them anymore because i was so busy in the kitchen. it just didn't work out, but i hired a lot of them to work with me in the restaurant. and none of us was a professional. we were all literary. how many of you have been to her restaurant? shame on the rest. i remember the first time i went. my daughter is 18 now, so 18 and a half years ago. my wife had me there in san francisco because she was pregnant from my daughter carlotta. she was like, i need food. i need good food. [laughter] jose: and we went to berkeley.

no reservation. . i bought my way in and we ate at this amazing place. have you call it? alice in the cafe. :jose: i could not get in the cafe. i used my child in my pregnant wife, right? i am not going to lie to you, and especially european chefs, i mean, even the spanish were more pretentious than the french. [laughter] this, alicewaters waters that. i 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 me. 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 dessert we had dates and clementines. and they put me a clementine that i had to peel myself. [laughter] jose: and i was like -- a tangerine. and they were dates. [laughter] jose: when i smelled that tangerine, it was a revelation. where i come from in spain, we have very good stuff. very good citrus. 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] jose: and dates. 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 have a tangerine, this is the moment that i saw the power of alice waters and the movement she created by only giving

importance to the things everyone was overlooking. amazing things, partnering with amazing farmers, and making sure we continue feeding the people. i remember when she came to my restaurant, she would come in and we interacted a few times here and there, but she would come in, and i said, where are those asparagus from? [laughter] jose: and they are like chile. , and i am like, chile? [laughter] jose: ok. let's tell her they are from maryland, like you said. it is november. i have a greenhouse that produces asparagus in november. i created fake news, people. [applause] alice: but i did not believe it. jose: we do not lie to her, but

that was a conversation. marybeth: you cannot fool alice waters. jose: i am like, you know the champagne you sell in your restaurant comes from france? ain't local and ain't seasonal? i just fired back at her from the beginning. [laughter] jose: 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 what she did more than anybody was she made people me 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.

by all having that information, we will be feeding america and this planet in a better way. that is the real power, and that is the biggest contribution of what we did over the last 46, 47 years. [applause] marybeth: 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 -- i loved in the 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. 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 sensualist to ever be a hippie. [laughter] 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] marybeth: 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] marybeth: this is hysterically funny to know that alice waters, who is at the pinnacle of food, has such a sense of humor about food, is such a relief for people. that is one of the reasons i love reading your book. alice thank you. : i am very sensitive to that aroma. [laughter] marybeth: 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 them subconsciously. sometimes i have to burn rosemary to make it happen, but it really predisposes people to the 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?

and i always did. i think that is the way we have to reach children. and we use all of those techniques, if you will. the montessori preparing of the classroom. she talks a lot about that. of making it a beautiful space for kids to be in. and they just know that it is for them. she puts flowers on the table. you don't have to say a thing. they just know. well, somebody cares about me. and i think our kids really need to feel this. they are not at home anymore learning about the tables. their parents are both working and everybody is busy. and they are grabbing food where they can.

so, to make a place for them. that is part of what we are trying to do in the school. we are trying to make school lunch part of academia, so we can get time and focus to eat lunch together. and so, we have been experimenting. and we made a placemat. 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 them is this -- we are serving them a tabouli

salad, a carrot soup with a little hot, red pepper in it. we are serving them hummus. 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. and it is a way that we can teach and digest that lesson in 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 -- feed all the students in new

york city for free. all of them. [applause] alice: and she wants to feed them nutritionally good food. and of course, we know that begins in the ground and good support for the farmers in and around new york city. and i am hoping that we can have a conversation about school lunch being really civilized in that way, and part of the academic subjects. marybeth: and i think that brings us to a great question that we have on twitter. gina asks, how can the influence to makeo want 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 j ose. 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. 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. jose: the thing with the chicken was back when the crisis began a few years ago, and they were coming, 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 check and and make six meals out of it. i saw my mother doing it. and so we try to share that information. at the end, it is all the same thing. feeding every children will benefit the local economy. will be hiring more people. by thewill be cheaper volume you can be achieving.

invest as a community, as a country, and the tolth of our children, or from money at the problem when there are 60 years old and unhealthy? such a explain that in simple way, i believe that we want to invest more money into the solution, which is keeping rathermerican healthy than throwing money at the , with all due respect 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? i am the type of guy that believes in investing into

solutions. it is much more fascinating, it helps the economy from the bottom up, and help keep the community we all love as we want it. healthy, young communities helping the economy, the moving forward, and walking toward that horizon of a country that is healthier and smart, but 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] >> that is great! >> that's why you invited him. we only have a few minutes remaining. and in those few minutes remaining, i would like to talk about where it is now, and how it got there. and alice writes in her book it andhe beginnings of

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 tastes there, 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? alice: we started with just one menu downstairs. and actually, we still just have one menu downstairs. we have the cafe upstairs and an a la cart menu so their friends can come with their children and eat affordably.

but downstairs we have a fixed price menu, and i can't believe we change it every single night. yes, maybe we have done this, you know, this duck thousands of times, but every time we rethink it and we try to come up with different kinds of things to serve with it. and 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 , almost like a little bit of a jazz combo, that you have a group of people in the kitchen that are all talented in different ways. 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. maybe a little bit in pastry because you have to be more precise, but you are trying to come to it with respect with what you have found in the market that day. and there is always knew things that are surprising, and it is the way we work. way it is more like a dinner party. alice: it is. it is just like that. of course, it is in a house, so that helps to reinforce that feeling that you are coming into somebody's home to have a meal. but that french kind of way of service is very, very important to me. the salad is kind of always

there. 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 touched by alice is i never understood why she keeps saying the french way. i mean, the spanish way? [laughter] you are in san francisco. my ancestor helped build that. eric is halfway spanish. ok. fake news. [laughter] alice: we do cook paella. jose: do you know what i want people to eat? alice and me we want you to , start thinking when you are about to eat.

i want to to put your nose in the farmers' market in those amazing peaches coming from the farms and smell those peaches. i want you to get that apple and hands, howh your hard it is, and then how do you see and how amazing it is. i would say a piece of steak is the most boring thing in the history of mankind, but we keep going for the steak. when you put it in your mouth, 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. and then sometimes we are more like a butterfly. i produce honey now. house two beehives at my

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 dream 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. but sometimes, the simplicity of really listening to the ingredients, listening to the .ruits and 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. mary beth: beautiful. [applause] alice: i was just going to say, that is why i call it a "delicious revolution." this is not hard to do. this is something that once you 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 a sea urchin. use your nose and the seer chip , and you willup understand life. [laughter] mary beth: 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 out in my mind, right? jose: there was no coach that was there to take that picture out of the game. [laughter] mary beth: speaking of which,

how were they 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 food. shop, i open an account, order food, and they send me food. oh wow! [laughter] mary beth: were people in the town square watching? jose: yes. the mayor, one of the great -- 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. they stop us from fixing like the -- from fixing the problems. we only need people like us to choose to make it happen.

[applause] jose: it is the truth, and i endorse this message. [laughter] mary beth: 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] mary beth: i think we will leave it at that. [laughter] jose: i am talking to everybody. mary beth: i understand. i understand. there just happens to be a camera in the room. senses" ising to my a phenomenal book. it is honest, and funny, and authentic, and accessible. 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 of "the godfather," or if you want to know how she was on a plane that louis armstrong and his band was riding on, and 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 sorority 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 event. the whole thing is a highlight, right? jose: and don't try to make reservations at her restaurant because you will not be able. [laughter] alice: you are all welcome. jose: you can try, but you will never get in. mary beth: you can watch highlights from today's events and find out about upcoming programs at washingtonpostlive.com. i'm married and all right, the food anchor here at "washington

etht -- i'm mary b albright, the food anchor here at "washington post." 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] >> the bus tour continues with stops in raleigh and montgomery. they will speak with state officials. follow the tour and join us on january 16 at 9:30 am eastern for our stop in raleigh when our

washington journal guest is josh stein. >> i've been attacked by the right-wing, the russians, the truck campaign and now i can -- now i can add to that list, the clinton campaign. >> sunday, donna brazil talks about her life and politics in her memoir, hacks. .sk i was here at kent ng hillary was very excited. she has roots in illinois. friend mignon, we were in the third floor. i didn't know barack obama. washington, rahm

emanuel. i haven't heard of barack obama. 2003. him spring let me say this, the rest is history. execute and day, sunday night on c-span -- q and a, sunday night on c-span. 31, 1988, aer flight was destroyed by a terrorist bomb killing 270 people. markedth anniversary was by a remembrance ceremony at allington national ceremony. speakers included jeff sessions and family members of the victims. this runs an hour and 25 minutes.