Alice Louise Waters is an American chef, restaurateur, activist, and author. She is the owner of Chez Panisse, a Berkeley, California restaurant famous for its organic, locally-grown ingredients and for pioneering California cuisine. Waters opened the restaurant in 1971. It was consistently ranked among the World's 50 Best Restaurants from 2002 to 2008. Waters has been cited as one of the most influential figures in food in the past 50 years, and has been called the mother of American food. She is currently one of the most visible supporters of the organic food movement, and has been a proponent of organics for over 40 years. Waters believes that eating organic foods, free from herbicides and pesticides, is essential for both taste and the health of the environment and local communities. In addition to her restaurant, Waters has written several books on food and cooking, including Chez Panisse Cooking, The Art of Simple Food I and II, and "40 Years of Chez Panisse." She is one of the most well-known food activists in the United States and around the world. 

April 28th, 1944 in Chatham Borough, New Jersey (Age 79)