Bottled water is an important solution to unhealthy water in many regions, possibly in more places than not. Traveling in Mexico as a child (twenty years ago), I noticed two bottles of mineral water in every bathroom of every hotel; no matter the class nor remoteness of the location. Years later, I encountered water on the road in India that looked like milk! Clearly bottled water is an important necessity for many. For others, like much of coastal Florida, the sulphur content of what I grew up referring to as “egg water” is something that any restauranteur should go to great lengths to improve upon for his or her customer. In other places I’ve lived, New Orleans and currently Arkansas, I have had both, award winning tap waters and the availability of local spring waters….trucked and bottled yes, but around the state, not around the country or overseas. I think that different circumstances and different regions, which there are myriad, should all be viewed individually. If our choices were limited to local tap or local spring, water quality would become more important in contributing to the nature of place and the “terroir of location;” a piece of the memory of each place. I remember talking with a colleague who is a few years my senior. He was fondly recalling traveling as a child and eagerly seeking out the different varieties of candy available in different regions of the country. Big Candy has pretty much insured that all the same stuff is available everywhere. This is the kind of monotonization that SLOW FOOD, and I think Alice Waters have endeavored to resist. The elimination of unnecessary fossil fuel and other waste is a convenient, but important byproduct of reducing our needs for packaging and moving things around the world. A quote from the Chez Panisse website follows: It seems fairly evident throughout this thread that the water quality in Berkley is good. Having spent an evening appreciating the work that comes out of her kitchen, I am pretty comfortable letting Alice Waters make a judgment on the quality of water she would provide me. It is a bold decision; this thread proves that, but it is also a huge step on the path that she has taken all along. Additionally, I think that the in-house seltzer machine is a nuance that takes her water service to the next level.
