"The best-tasting food comes from people who are taking care of the land and nourishing it," Waters said in a recent StarChef.com interview, reflecting on her reason for choosing local, organic farmers. Over the years she has developed strong relationships with the farmers who supply her with their freshest and best foods. She serves as a model for chefs in fine dining restaurants everywhere, winning awards such as Best Chef in America from Gourmet magazine.

"Alice Waters introduced here what is a very old French tradition--since World War II," says Brigitte Benquet, owner--with Ivan Semenlick--of Brigitte's restaurant in Santa Clara.

A Parisian by birth, Benquet says it is difficult to find the organic foods she requires for her organic Mediterranean French menu. She was happy to discover America Fresh, a supplier of six restaurants in the Silicon Valley region and many more to the north. Like Waters, she says, "We build our menu around what is fresh and available --like the baby artichokes." Benquet steams the artichokes with vinaigrette and serves them with lamb and garlic.

"We're very gourmet and healthy," she says.

Robin and Brian Gardiner, owners of America Fresh, harvest eight acres of land in Hollister. They live in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where they also grow some crops, like blackberries, from their Summit Road property. The recent rains have given a boost to their spring produce. "We have sugar snaps, new potatoes, arugula, spinach and spring garlic coming in. April will bring the fruit--melons and strawberries," says Robin Gardiner, seeming to revel in the bounty. "And of course the rainbow carrots."

America Fresh counts among its clients local eateries such as downtown San Jose's Eulipia, Viaggio in Saratoga and Vin Santo, in San Jose's Willow Glen area.

A.J. Szenda, chef at the Almaden Country Club and a regular customer of America Fresh, takes scarlet, yellow, purple and pink carrots, steams them, tosses them with honey and Dijon mustard, and serves them with fresh dill. He also makes a spring salad with baby arugula by taking the young peppery greens, combining them with baby gold and red beets, rubbing them with garlic oil and roasting them.

At Restaurant Sent Sovi in Saratoga, chef Josiah Slone says, "Spring has sprung!" GreenLeaf Farms of San Francisco brought him the first English peas and the "wonderful green garlic" tt he combines with potatoes to make soup.

"The garlic looks like a giant green onion," Slone says. He uses the English peas in an emulsion to pour over the top. Slone also grows his own sage, mint and lemon thyme in beds and pots around the restaurant. He'll be planting tomatoes there in May. This month, he's planning a dinner built around the fresh mushrooms of the "The King of Mushrooms," Todd Spanier.

Spanier, who is based in Daly City, also supplies The Basin, Gervaise and the Plumed Horse in Saratoga, along with Café Marcella in Los Gatos. He imports exotic mushrooms from all over the world, like the woodsy-flavored porcini from Africa and the trumpet-shaped chanterelle from Morocco and the Pacific Northwest--distant locales made necessary because of the limited local growing seasons.

At the Plumed Horse, chef Ron Cohn sautés his alba pioppini mushrooms to serve with a filet. With the spring garlic he gets from America Fresh, he makes a nage (aromatic broth for seafood), combining it with the concentrated stock from fish and blanched garlic. With the English peas, he makes a thick coulis (purée) to be served with fish. "The way to keep all food good is to keep it fresh," Cohn says.

And another way to eat those first peas of the season? "Just steam a bowl of wonderful, freshly picked peas with a pat of really good butter and maybe some basil," says Alice Waters.