A crew on location in Berkeley to film arguably the city’s most famous current resident wrapped up Wednesday, but not before prompting many neighbors to ask what the big trucks and tents outside her North Berkeley home were doing there.
Alice was being filmed for an episode of Masterclass, an online video instruction series in which writers, actors, and chefs provide tutorials in their area of expertise. Other famous names to have recorded classes include Steph Curry, Dustin Hoffman, Werner Herzog, and David Mamet. Waters, who in the 10-episode series will be teaching how to “cook beautiful, seasonal meals at home,” joins other celebrated chefs who have recorded classes, including Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller.
Love confirmed that filming took place this week and locations included the chef’s home, the Edible Schoolyard at King Middle School, which Waters founded, as well as her famous Shattuck Avenue restaurant, Chez Panisse. The teaser video for the Masterclass also shows Waters harvesting produce from her garden and shopping at a farmers market.
It’s not the first time Waters, who pioneered the farm-to-table movement, has appeared in the movies. She starred in a 2003 PBS American Master film titled Alice Waters and Her Delicious Revolution, and appeared alongside fellow Berkeleyan Michael Pollan in the documentary Food Fight (2008), a look at “how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement rebelled against big agribusiness to launch the local organic food movement.”
