fanny singer

Fanny Singer shares memories from her unconventional childhood, growing up in the revered Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California alongside her mother, legendary chef Alice Waters. She describes how the restaurant’s staff became an extended family (often referred to as “La Famille Panisse”), talks about the sophisticated palate she developed from a young age (think: salmon roe), and discusses how her work today marries her past and present (collaborations between her company, Permanent Collection, and Chez Panisse). In the show’s second half, Alice Waters joins the conversation to reminisce about time spent cooking for and with her daughter, reading Fanny’s memoir, and cultivating a sense of family at her restaurant. 

Read Fannys original My Family Recipe essay. 

My Family Recipe is created by the Food52 Podcast Network and Heritage Radio Network, inspired by the eponymous Food52 column.

Adapted from Food52’s much beloved column, My Family Recipe (the podcast!) is brought to you by the Food52 Podcast Network and Heritage Radio Network. Enjoy interviews with writers and chefs, parents and children about what is passed down along with the foods we know and love. 

Follow My Family Recipe wherever you listen.

Adapted from Food52’s much beloved column, My Family Recipe (the podcast!) is brought to you by the Food52 Podcast Network and Heritage Radio Network. Enjoy interviews with writers and chefs, parents and children about what is passed down along with the foods we know and love. 

Follow My Family Recipe wherever you listen.

Adapted from Food52’s much beloved column, My Family Recipe (the podcast!) is brought to you by the Food52 Podcast Network and Heritage Radio Network. Enjoy interviews with writers and chefs, parents and children about what is passed down along with the foods we know and love. 

Follow My Family Recipe wherever you listen.

Slow down, says Alice Waters, the food-world force behind the legendary Chez Panisse restaurant and the Edible Schoolyard organization. As Alice explains in her latest book, "We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto," the world of fast food and disposable everything is not the way forward for mankind or the planet. Alice joins us from her home in Berkeley, California, to share her point of view, reminisce about the 50th anniversary of Chez Panisse, and reveal a few details about the restaurant project she’s working on in Los Angeles. It’s not Chez 2.0, she stresses. Fanny Singer, Alice’s daughter, author of the memoir "Always Home," and co-founder of the design brand Permanent Collection, joins host Kerry Diamond for the second part of the show. Fanny talks about her lovingly written book and the project she’s curated for Absolut Art that celebrates her favorite room in any house—the kitchen.

Thank you to AIX Rosé for supporting this episode! 

What with the country in total turmoil, and people doing a lot of fretful handwringing, it might be time to take a breather and celebrate someone who's brought an abundance of solid joy to the palates of so many.

Katie talks with Fanny Singer, the daughter of famed chef and farm-to-table trailblazer Alice Waters, who in 1971 started her Berkeley, Calif. restaurant Chez Panisse intending to feed her community of 60's friends and fellow activists. In the process, she created an entire culinary movement that forever changed the way we think about food.

Fanny's new book, Always Home: A Daughter's Recipes & Stories, is an ode to her mother that rings true and clear. Her pure -- and deeply requited --  love for her mother is in ample evidence on every page.

Katie and Fanny explore the ways in which Alice expressed her love for Fanny, and the many gifts she has bestowed upon her daughter -- and the world.

Don't forget to visit us at ourmothersourselves.com. And while you're there, please contribute your word to the mother word cloud.

Music composed and performed by Andrea Perry.
Artwork by Paula Mangin. (@PaulaBallah)
Producer: Alice Hudson
Intern: Rosie Manock (@RosieManock)