Reforming Restaurants
Moving beyond experimental home cooking and communal kitchens, alternative groups turned to restaurants as a means of inviting people to the experience of eating differently. Among these were places with vegetarian cuisine, from the Moosewood collective in Ithaca, New York, to Greens restaurant and Tassajara Bakery in California. Across the country, every college town’s “health food” eatery was also part of this trend.
I read Diet for a Small Planet and felt truly guilty about my misuse of natural resources, but a life of unpalatable foodstuffs seemed harsh. Then I got the Moosewood Cookbook . . . and discovered that it was possible to eat tasty meatless meals that didn’t feel like sacrifice.
—Letter to cookbook author Mollie Katzen
The Tassajara Bread Book, 1970
Gift of Rayna Green
The San Francisco Zen Center recruited Edward Espe Brown, a Buddhist monk, to open the Tassajara Bakery. It made artisanal, whole-grain breads and supplied restaurants and customers newly interested in food that supported their health. Brown’s book inspired many people to bake bread at home.
