Coming to My Senses

Alice Waters's memoir traces the road to 1971, when at 27 she opened a little French restaurant at 1517 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, California, that became Chez Panisse. After a repressive suburban childhood she arrived in Berkeley in 1964, when the Free Speech Movement and campus unrest were at their height, and joined a bohemian circle whose ideas about food, film, politics and design shaped the restaurant's culture. Waters describes finding her own voice as a cook while the wider food culture favored convenience and uniformity. Stories, recipes, photographs and letters run through the narrative of her change from follower to activist. It reached the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list in 2017.

It appears among the books food styling and photography blogger Catalina Penciu recommended in an interview.