Why Alice Waters Brought Her Edible Schoolyard to NOLA

The Edible Schoolyard 20^th Anniversary Gala

March 26^th, 2026

Patron Party 6pm-7pm | Main Party 7pm-9pm | Late Wave 9pm-10pm

As co-founder of the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans at FirstLine Schools, it often falls to me to tell the Origin Story.

I was at a Nation’s Institute annual fundraiser in December 2005, just months after the federal levees broke. During the cocktail hour, my friend Calvin Trillin introduced me to Alice Waters, the famed founder of Chez Panisse, often credited with creating the farm-to-table movement.

Trillin probably introduced me as a New Orleanian and son of Ruth Fertel of Ruth’s Chris fame. With those three name-droppings, Bud Trillin, New Awyuns, and Ruth’s Chris, my foot was firmly in the door.

I probably had Alice’s attention when she heard New Orleans. She wanted to do something for New Orleans, she said in her quiet, breathy voice, as many people at the time were saying. But her reason was unique: because Chef Paul Prudhomme saved my career.

With that she had my attention.

Well, I replied, let’s bring your Edible Schoolyard to New Orleans. I support a school that already has its students gardening. But first, I added, how did Chef Paul save your career?!?

The tale was easily told but it went back to 1976 when the French wine industry held its annual blind tasting between French and American wines. That year it was Chateau Haut-Brion, the legendary Bordeaux first growth versus Chateau Montelena from Calistoga in Napa Valley, a wine made in the Bordeaux style. The French were stunned, flabbergasted beyond flabbergasted by Montelena’s taking top honors in the blind tasting. Hollywood made a film about it: Bottle Shock (2008).

The next year, not to be left behind by their oenophile compatriots, the American culinarians decided to show off regional American cooking. They put together a weekend at Central Park’s famed Tavern on the Green and invited 200 food writers to taste their wares. Chef Paul would cook Friday, Alice and her crew Saturday.

Chef Paul brought a traditional battery of cooks, 15 in all, Alice explained. Then she lingered over Paul’s showstopper, for dessert a Cajun cottage confected of chocolate planks. Inside nested macerated Ponchatoula strawberries—back when they still had taste, she added, winning my admiration. (She’s in Berkeley yet she knew our strawberries, alas, weren’t what they used to be). Then, she said, Paul’s servers brought around hot sabayon sauce—a kind of warm Italian custard—which they spooned onto the cottage roofs melting into the strawberries. Showstopper indeed!

The next night, it was her turn. Now, Alice is quick to note that she is a restaurateur not a chef. She had brought 2 cooks with her, no battery of 15. She wondered that morning in the Tavern kitchen, how she would pull it off?

In walked Chef Paul trailed by his battery.

Need some help, Alice?

Oh, no Chef, we’ll manage…., she managed.

No, Alice, we’ll help.

So Paul directed this cook to start the fire for the lamb, this one to shuck the west coast oysters.

Alice’s punchline: Chez Panisse was only five years old in 1978. Without Paul, I would have fallen on my face before 200 food writers, the end of my restaurant.

I knew about the Edible Schoolyard. I soon learned where it came from. Before she was a restaurateur, Alice was a Montessori teacher. Edible Schoolyard teaches through experiential and interdisciplinary learning.

—Not interested in carrots? I bet you’ll want to taste them if you grow them with these tiny seeds.

—Wondering how many beans you can plant in this 10 sq. ft. garden? What if each plant needs a square foot? Math class works it out in the garden.

—Wondering how to make a carrot taste really good? What if we cook it together?

—Your family doesn’t eat like this? What if we invite them next Wednesday night to demonstrate what you’re learning? You can show them how and take home a bunch to cook at home together.

The Edible Schoolyard teaches children to make healthy connections to food and the natural world.

The Birth of Edible Schoolyard New Orleans

So, after much negotiation, which to my delight included a tête à tête at Chez Panisse with Alice to celebrate the deal, she came to New Orleans the next April. I had brought together a team of philanthropic gardeners led by Cathy Pierson and Karin Giger, both themselves forces of nature. We met at the synchronistically named Samuel J. Green School led by the redoubtable Tony Recastner. We hammered out a way forward.

Green had a huge backyard covered in concrete and long used as the staff parking lot. The first challenge was to jackhammer the concrete. The next step was to remediate the soil that, soaked for five weeks in Katrina’s polluted waters, had traces of toxic chemicals. The garden was eventually planted, and Alice came to inspect the next year. We were off and running.

Today FirstLine has four edible gardens: Samuel J. Green, Arthur Ashe, Phillis Wheatley Community School, and Langston Hughes Academy. They serve over 3000 students pre-k through 8^th grade each year. ESYNOLA, Alice’s most successful satellite, is not without its imitators around town and around the south.

On March 27^th we will celebrate the 20^th anniversary in the Samuel J. Green school and garden. Join us. There will be over 50 restaurants serving your favorite local dishes. Wine will be provided by the superlative Murphy Family’s Presqu’ile Winery, a wine to rival Chateau Montelena, in Santa Maria, California.

Anyone interested in dinner chez moi for a good cause? You can find this and the other items in the auction here.

Though the patron party is sold out, limited general admissions tickets to the 20th anniversary gala are still available. Tickets here.