People: Sep. 10, 2001

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A seven-hour lunch for 600? Why not, when you're legendary restaurateur ALICE WATERS, 57, of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., and celebrating your 30th anniversary in business. Waters revolutionized the American way of eating with her emphasis on fresh, organically grown produce and unfussily prepared meat and fish with a Cali-Tuscan twist. If not for Waters, we'd still be wandering in that culinary wilderness between Salisbury steak TV dinners and French foo-foo food smothered in cream. Waters' anniversary meal cost $500 a head and featured lamb, spit roasted over oak and cherrywood fires, served with sauteed chanterelles, and mulberry ice cream cones for dessert. Missed the foodie event of the year? Waters is offering her services on eBay, with proceeds going to her Chez Panisse Foundation for youth and community projects. Bids for a Waters-prepared dinner for eight start at $44,000. The anniversary dinner was a bargain.