On Monday, September 28, 2026, the American Academy in Rome welcomed chef and restaurateur Alice Waters and the local farmers that supply the Rome Sustainable Food Project (RSFP) with fresh produce for the Academy's community meals every day, to the Academy for a special lunch.
This visit marks the beginning of a year-long celebration, concluding in the spring of 2027, to commemorate twenty years of the Project.
Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California and The Edible Schoolyard Project, and a leader in the farm-to-table and Slow Food movements, founded the Rome Sustainable Food Project (RSFP) with collaborator Mona Talbot in 2006.
RSFP is more than a kitchen that serves meals to Academy residents, guests, and staff—it is an ecogastronomic endeavor that partners with local farmers, an internship program that operates as an integrated institutional culinary program, and an essential part of the way the Academy supports and nourishes its community.
“The most important thing is that people eat together and they’re not just eating, but they're being nourished by this project,” said Alice Waters in an interview during lunch.
“And so much so that they're asking, ‘What farm did this come from? How can I get more? Who's in the kitchen? How can I connect with the cooks?’ These are the questions, when answered, that will spread the word around the world.”
The vast majority of the RSFP’s produce comes from organic and regenerative local producers such as Assunta Bernabei, who began working with the Academy twenty years ago with her husband, Giovanni. The producers are chosen because their practices honor the health of the soil, ecosystem and animals.
“When we started, organic farming was nothing; nobody believed in it,” she said in an interview on Monday. “Giovanni cared about it because he wanted to eat healthy, so he started growing organically outdoors, and that’s how we still do it today, without greenhouses, right out in the countryside.”
RSFP producers are invited to lunch periodically the fact in order to properly thank them, celebrate their work, and to reinforce a sense of collaboration within the community and network.
“There is an awareness and appreciation in the Academy’s kitchen of the producers, and that is something that cannot be taken for granted in professional kitchens,” said Giancarlo Gentili, another local producer. “It’s a fantastic place, so it’s a great opportunity for us to come here.”
“For us, it's a privilege to work with them,” said Head Chef Sara Levi, “to be able to have this ongoing relationship with them, to create a network of cooks and farmers and producers, and to be able to turn that into a community.”