Menu Themes

Sometimes a particular ingredient serves as the theme for an entire menu. Alice Waters was particularly inspired by a meal she’d had in a Japanese restaurant. “I had a fish that was alive, that they killed on the spot,” she remembers. “They took the filet off one side and grilled it, and the other side was sliced for sashimi right on the counter. And the bones were deep-fried. It was a great idea for sort of understanding that fish, and an inspiration for a menu.

“I guess that’s a lot of what we do at Chez Panisse—celebrate one vegetable or meat or another,” says Waters. “With spring lamb, you’ll think about a menu that goes around that lamb. I’ll think about what’s growing at the same time that that little lamb was, and probably end up with asparagus and spring onions. I always look up classic preparations of lamb and how people cook it in the spring—baking it in the hay, for example—to inspire what we might do.