We want to prompt our new "Earth to Alice" feature by saying this: we love Waters. We love her hat. We love Chez Panisse. We love Waters as a revolutionary icon. We love the way she uses the tines of a fork to carefully mince garlic so as not to bruise the oil. We love her breathy voice. We love her as one of the most important philosophers of our time. We just love her for being her. (Anthony Bourdain, we should point out, is not a philosopher. He is a Wally George-like on-air personality who cooks things.)

That said, the slow food movement mafia Donna has some of the most -- how can we put this delicately? -- detached ideas. Take, for example, her recent visit to an LA schoolyard to promote her Edible Schoolyard project. What Waters would like to to see on school lunch tables, in addition to organic food grown from school gardens, are flowers. LA Times reports:

When Alice Waters talks about improving school lunch, she doesn't just mean making the chicken nuggets more nutritious. She wants to see a table set, maybe with flowers. She wants children to have enough time to have conversations as they eat.

Sadly, schools barely have enough money for books, teachers, and basic security. Then again, a tasteful spray of organzas and lilacs pairs nicely with Pizza Fridays.

(via Eater)