Who is Alice Waters from Paris to the Moon and what is their importance?

Alice Waters was a chef and the owner of a well-known restaurant in Berkeley who had been asked to consider starting up a restaurant in the Louvre. She came to Paris to research the possibility, and met Gopnik there. A pale and pretty woman of about fifty, Waters had charisma and a California idealism that attracted chefs and many other people to her. Gopnik cooked dinner for her with fear, and did not do a good job, but she was kind.