Alice Waters' Twitter avatar
(Updated with Alice’s second tweet. Which is that she’s going to announce a campaign to support the Edible Schoolyards movement in conjunction with Chez Panisse’s 40th birthday. So, not as funny as the fake suggestions, but a worthy cause.)
Big news in the food world as Berkeley Chef Alice Waters joined Twitter nation.
I have 233 followers _ love you all! _ after more than a year of trying my darndest to be pithy, but I’m not at all bitter about that.
Waters, a founder of Berkeley’s famous Chez Panisse restaurant, and a pioneer in the slow food, eat local movement, said when she opened the account that she wanted to make an announcement today. By her second tweet, she had revealed what that was. “Going to Twitter HQ today to launch Chez Panisse’s 40th Birthday campaign to support @edibleschoolyrd (s) everywhere – thrilled but nervous!”
But in the run-up to the first post, speculation had run rampant as to what she might be about to say.
Leading the #PredictingAliceWatersTweets movement was the mischievous @RuthBourdain, the mystery tweeter whose posts are a mash-up of the lyrical style of food editor and author Ruth Reichl and the blunt force pronouncements of chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain.
Some of the choicer suggestions: “What’s the best app for slow tweets?” (RuBo) and “Who moved my chevre?” (food writer Tom Philpott).
Alice’s first tweet? “The destiny of nations depends on how they nourish themselves.” Brillat-Savarin via MFK Fisher.
Whether you’re among the many who love Alice for her decades of dedication to improving the way Americans eat or one of those who sometimes find her grating, one thing is clear: She knows how to command an audience.