Alice Waters Masterclass Review: Complete Features & Details

Alice Waters is one of America’s most influential chefs. She’s known for her commitment to seasonal ingredients, local farms, and sustainable farming practices. She’s been called “the mother of American cuisine.”

Her restaurant, Chez Panisse, opened in Berkeley, California, in 1971 and quickly became famous for serving simple dishes prepared with care. Today, there are over 180 restaurants around the world named after her.

People love Chez Panisse’s cooking, but let’s see what Alice Waters Masterclass review has to offer.

History 

Waters studied French cooking under master chef Paul Bocuse and her menu focused on seasonal ingredients prepared simply and without fussy techniques.

Her early success led to appearances on TV shows such as Julia Child’s ‘The French Chef’ and PBS  ‘Great Chefs’. In 1990, Waters published  ‘The Art of Simple Food’ which became a New York Times bestseller. 

In 1995, she co-founded the ‘Edible Schooleardship project’, which encourages students to learn about growing food.

She was awarded James Beard Award in 2011.

Introduction

In her opening section of Alice Waters masterclass review, she’ll set down what she’d like to teach you. She’s aiming to help you understand why food matters, and why you should care about where it comes from.

She wants to give you a sense of freedom around food, and make sure you know exactly what you’re eating.

Alice Waters MasterClass course starts off with a quick lesson about where it came from and why it exists. Then it moves into the meat of the class, which focuses on the art of home cooking techniques, ingredients, and equipment.

We learn about how to make bread, pasta, salad dressings, sauces, soups, desserts, and even ice cream.

Let’s look at the Alice Waters Masterclass in a bit more detail. 

Lessons 1 & 2

Alice Waters teaches by talking about the importance of having access to real, wholesome ingredients. She says that most people don’t realize just how much production costs and that it’s expensive because farmers must invest a lot of money in growing food.

Waters goes on to talk about the benefits of buying seasonal produce, and how you’ll learn more about your food if you buy it directly from the source.

She explains that you won’t find out anything specific about the farm if you purchase something pre-packaged.

Next up, Waters talks about the “farmers’ market,” and how it differs from grocery stores. She says that local farmer’s market offer a unique experience, one that’s different from shopping online.

She explains that by going to farmer’s markets you’ll meet the person who grew your vegetables, and you’ll see firsthand how he works his land.

Finally, Waters shares some tips for preparing the best possible vegetable lunch dishes. She says that you should always use the freshest ingredients you can find and that you should never overcook your food.

Lessons 3 & 4 

In this lesson, Waters guides us through a simple, meatless meal — complete with side dishes and dessert.

You’ll learn how to time your cooking (so you don’t overcook), and you’ll see why she prefers to cook with three distinct cooking methods: roasting, steaming, and raw. She explains how each works best for certain vegetables, and she shares some easy recipes for each method.

In lesson 4 Waters takes us through some of her practical daily cooking tools. She introduces us to her daughter, Fannie, they discuss Alice’s philosophy of food when it comes to equipment. coo

And she shares some tips on Alice’s essential kitchen tools to achieve better results.

Lessons 5 & 6 

In this lesson, Waters dispels the myth of what a “pantry” is. You’ll learn how to stock your kitchen with the basics you’ll always need—and why those essentials are important. 

In addition to the above, you’ll learn about the different types of food storage containers, and why you want to keep them organized. Then, you’ll take a look inside Water’s home pantries to show you exactly where to store everything.

Finally, you’ll get some ideas for stocking your shelves with the things you use most often.

In Lesson 6, you’ll look at ways to increase the shelf life of food. Now it’s time to look at what happens to your food once it gets into the fridge. 

With her waste-free mindset, Waters shares how she keeps her kitchen stocked with ingredients that can be used over and over again.

She talks about choosing the right vegetables for preservation, cooking pantry-based healthy and beautiful meals that can be stored for later, and extending the life of well-stocked pantry ingredients.

Lesson 7 

Lesson 7 focuses on the leaves, herbs, and aromatics of the kitchen garden.

She talks about the parts of plants that are often discarded, but that contain flavor profiles that are just as interesting as those found in fruits and veggies.

Alice shares tips for using leaves, herbs, and aromatic spices in dishes like soups, stews, salads, sauces, bread, and cakes. You’ll find out how to make flavorful combinations that bring out the best in each ingredient.

Lessons 8 – 9

Waters starts with a quick lesson on salsa verde, a classic Italian herb sauce. She then shares her favorite recipe for a beautiful salad featuring ingredients she grows herself in her kitchen garden.

In part one of this tutorial, Waters introduces you to the basic techniques needed to cook and prepare vegetables and fruits. You’ll learn about cutting up produce, peeling, seeding, slicing, chopping, mincing, grating, and pureeing.

Then, you’ll see how to add flavor to your food without adding salt. Finally, you’ll learn how to combine different types of products into a single dish.

Part two of this video focuses on pairing and substituting herbs. Waters explains why certain herbs work well together and what you can do to modify recipes to suit your taste. 

Lessons 10 – 11

In this video,  Waters introduces us to the world of baking. She shares some of her most cherished memories of growing up in Berkeley, California, where she spent many hours at her grandmother’s kitchen table learning about food.

This experience taught her to appreciate good ingredients and inspired her to start a small farm in Northern California.

Finally, Chef Waters shares her secret for the perfect ricotta-filled ravioli. She uses a simple method to combine the ingredients.

When you mix the ricotta with eggs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, you end up with a creamy mixture that holds its shape well. And, when you add the filling, you want to work quickly so that it doesn’t dry out.

Lesson 12 

In Lesson 11, they covered the idea of following seasons and learned about the four seasons of nature. In lesson 12 it’s time to put those lessons into practice.

In this lesson, you’ll be challenged to go out and try something that’s in season. 

You’re going to challenge yourself to taste what’s in season. And once you experience the difference between ripe and unripe fruits, you’ll start putting together a seasonal eating bowl.

Then you’ll see just how versatile fruits are, and how easy it is to repurpose them. 

What Masterclass To Take Next

There are several courses related to food in Masterclass. Take a look, read and expand your cooking skills:

Michael Pollan Masterclass
Roy Choi Masterclass
Wolfgang Puck Masterclass
Madhur Jaffrey Masterclass
Gordon Ramsay Masterclass
Thomas Keller MasterClass
Niki Nakayama Masterclass

Conclusion 

The Alice Waters masterclass series concludes with an overview of the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired during the tutorials.

You’ll learn how to use the tools of modern Middle Eastern cooking to create delicious meals. You’ll also discover how to incorporate a market-fresh dinner with herbs into your everyday meals.

Alice Waters MasterClass’s worth is that you’ll pick up some useful skills needed to create delicious and nutritious meals.