Chez Panisse served its first dinner on August 28, 1971, a fixed menu of pate en croute, duck with olives, salad, and almond tart--all for $3.95. Forty years later, you might eat something similar in the Berkeley, California, bungalow from which Alice Waters launched her food revolution, bringing America mesclun salad, Tempier Bandol wine, and the philosophy of "fresh, local, organic." Her recent initiatives--lobbying for a garden on the White House lawn and getting healthy meals into public schools --are more impressive still. "I see my own personal arc in some way as 'free speech' to 'free lunch'," Waters says. This month, Chez Panisse celebrates its big 4-0 with fund-raising dinners in homes and restaurants around the country to benefit Edible Schoolyard Initiatives.