I assess:
The "family dinner" preceded D.C.'s premiere inaugural event for foodies: a series of $500-a-plate charity dinner parties hosted by Waters, the founder of Berkeley's famous Chez Panisse restaurant and the doyenne of America's sustainable-food movement. The events, collectively called "Art.Food.Hope.," served as Waters' latest attempt to use the palate to change the politics of Washington. They heralded, she said, "a new beginning for the American table" -- a table filled with fresh, sustainable, local, delicious foods. Waters' own epicurean epiphany occurred at such a table; as a college student, she left the chaos of 1960s-era Berkeley and took respite in France. There, her first spoonful of soupe des legumes changed her forever. "I wanted to eat like that and live like that," she said.But getting politicians to promote the view that Americans should eat more like the French is a hard sell. Being a fat, unhealthy cow is as American as, well, apple pie and cheeseburgers. George H.W. Bush made much of his taste for pork rinds. Bill Clinton happily publicized his appetite for McDonald's. George W. Bush told Oprah how much he loved PB&J on white bread. None boasted of his affection for Chez Panisse's $95 prix fixe.And that's the other problem. Good food -- the sort Waters features at her restaurant -- is considered a luxury of the rich rather than a social justice issue. As Waters frequently argues, no one is worse served by our current food policy than a low-income family using food stamps to purchase rotted produce at the marked-up convenience store. Her vision is classically populist: It democratizes the concrete advantages health, pleasure, nutrition -- that our current food system gives mainly to the wealthy. But her language is suffused with the values and the symbols of, well, the sort of people who already eat at Waters' restaurant. Thus, in promoting an agenda that benefits poor people with little access to fresh food, Waters tends to communicate mainly with rich people interested in fine dining.
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