[6] Towards the end of Rodgers' time at Stanford, a friend introduced her to Alice Waters' Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse, where she rapidly graduated to taking single-handed charge of lunch service.
[8] Her style was further influenced by the books of Richard Olney, Elizabeth David and Waverley Root and a French apprenticeship with Pepette Arbulo of the restaurant l'Estanquet in Les Landes.
[10] On returning to the United States, Rodgers worked for Marion Cunningham, cooking "homey, American fare" at the Union Hotel in Benicia, California.
After her death, Jonathan Gold described the book in the Los Angeles Times as "possibly the greatest, most generous cookbook ever written by a working American chef".
[16] She was remembered in the New York Times as creating a dining experience that "helped transform the way Americans think of food through its devotion to local, seasonal ingredients meticulously prepared.