Tenth Annual Food History Gala
Thursday, October 17, 2024
We're kicking off another exciting Smithsonian Food History Weekend with the 10th annual Food History Gala, in support of the Smithsonian Food History Project! Join us for an elegant evening featuring the presentation of the Julia Child Award by The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts to this year's recipient, Alice Waters.
Waters has been a champion of local, organic agriculture for over four decades. In 1971, she founded the groundbreaking Chez Panisse, a neighborhood restaurant in Berkeley, California, that offered a single menu each day featuring local produce and fresh ingredients. She founded the Edible Schoolyard Project in 1995, a program that has been replicated in over 6,000 schools around the world.
We are pleased to announce that tickets for this year’s gala are now sold out. We are incredibly grateful for the overwhelming support from our community. Your participation in this event helps sustain the Smithsonian Food History Project’s mission to explore and preserve America’s rich culinary heritage.
Although ticket sales have closed, we encourage you to stay engaged with the Smithsonian Food History Weekend and follow along as we share highlights from this exciting event. Thank you for your support in helping us continue to tell the stories behind America's food traditions.
Alice Waters
Alice Waters is a chef, author, food activist, and the founder and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California, which first opened its doors in 1971. She has been a champion of local sustainable agriculture for over four decades. In 1995 she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project, which advocates for a free regenerative organic school lunch for all children and a sustainable food curriculum in every public school.
She has been Vice President of Slow Food International since 2002. She conceived and helped create the Yale Sustainable Food Project in 2003, and the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome in 2007. Her honors include election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007; the Harvard Medical School’s Global Environmental Citizen Award, which she shared with Kofi Annan in 2008; induction into the French Legion of Honor in 2010; and induction into the National Woman’s hall of Fame in 2017. In 2015 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama, proving that eating is a political act, and that the table is a powerful means to social justice and positive change. Most recently, Alice was awarded the honor of “Cavaliere dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana” in 2019, and in 2022 she received the Henry Ford Society’s inaugural Carver Carson Award recognizing achievements and innovations in environmental protection and agriculture.
Alice is the author of sixteen books, including New York Times bestsellers, The Art of Simple Food I & II, The Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea, and, a memoir, Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook. Her newest book is We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto.
