Go Ask Alice

Is Alice Waters the Milli Vanilli of Chefs?

Culinary lip synching?
Culinary lip synching? Photo: Getty Images

In response to yesterday’s story in which we imagined the rock-star equivalents for a couple dozen famous chefs, one of Grub Street San Francisco’s followers, dubbed the Dapper Diner, replied with a zinger about our Alice Waters/Joni Mitchell comparison. “Alice Waters would be Milli Vanilli … is she really a chef?” Now, this discussion of whether Waters was ever truly a chef so much as a restaurateur has dogged her a lot over the years, and most people are pretty well over it. But this prompted newly minted Twitter addict Jeremiah Tower (who just announced plans to publicly cook in San Francisco for the first time in over a decade) to chime in regarding his old friend Alice.

As Tower explained to Grub Street last year, his much talked-about feud with Alice was “really mostly — well, at least half, or two thirds, I don’t know the proportion — whipped up by the press.” He added, “There’s still a lot of love between us.” But he couldn’t miss an opportunity to remind everyone who was really cooking back there when Chez Panisse earned its first buzz: him.

[JeremiahTower/Twitter]
Earlier: If Chefs Were Really Rock Stars, Who Would They Be?
Jeremiah Tower Launches Website, Joins Twitter, Can’t Stop Tweeting
Jeremiah Tower on Decamping to Mexico, Champagne Fasting, and All the New Books He’s Writing

Is Alice Waters the Milli Vanilli of Chefs?