When Chez Panisse closed its doors in mid-March at the onset of the pandemic, staff cleaned out the refrigerators and divvied up ingredients that would ordinarily be the stars of its meticulous dishes.

At the time, Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters had no idea what was in store for the famed 49-year-old Berkeley restaurant or its 100 furloughed staff members, but she did know the next order of business — attending to the farmers who supply Chez Panisse. Read more