There’s a special glint in the eyes of Heath residents who attend senior lunches at the Jacobs Road Municipal Center, the town’s social and municipal hub.
They look forward to the monthly meal for a good reason: a talented chef named Alice Thompson is a standout due to the same culinary skills that make her business, Juicebox Wine Bar, popular among locals and tourists alike. Her tiny spot in Shelburne Falls is a destination for many who enjoy gourmet experiences. But on certain Wednesdays, when her business is closed, Thompson transfers her gustatory genius to Heath’s Jacobs Road Municipal Center, where she serves as manager of its commercial kitchen.
In September, Thompson prepared arroz de tomate, a Portuguese rice dish with tomatoes, along with peri peri chicken roasted in a red pepper sauce. For dessert, she created superb plum clafoutis, a classic French delicacy with plums baked in a light custard-like batter. Thompson also offers vegetarian options and can work around food allergies. Seniors who are unable to attend may ask to have food set aside for them or delivered.
Heath resident Patricia Tierney, a retired teacher, sang Thompson’s praises between courses at the September meal.
“She’s amazing,” Tierney said. “Whatever she cooks is delicious. Very delicious!”
Tierney, who grew up in Argentina and emigrated to the U.S. in her teens, has lived in Heath for a quarter century.
“We moved here after vacationing in Heath for 10 years,” she said.
Tierney recalled eating lunch in the same cafeteria in 2001 while she was working at the then-school.
“The food is a lot better now,” she added, crediting Thompson’s skills.
In addition to superb food, table service at the senior lunch is courteous and efficient. Council on Aging volunteers serve and clear plates while inquiring about diners’ beverage needs. The monthly event is multigenerational, too, thanks to serving help from a local homeschooling family. Rebecca Sampson and her two children, Julia, 12, and Ben, 9 are wholesome-looking assistants who take time away from their work and play at Maple Shade Farm, where Julia enjoys handcrafts like felting and Ben carves boats from balsa wood, when they’re not doing academic work or helping out with chores.
All in all, the Heath senior lunch scene is friendly and delicious. Now let’s learn more about the gal who has set tongues simultaneously wagging and salivating.
Thompson, 39, was born and raised in Queens, New York, to parents who emigrated from South Korea. Thompson left the city to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she focused on media studies and the arts.
“I worked briefly in Queens at MoMA PS1,” she recounted. “I became good friends with their cafe’s chef.”
MoMA PS1 is a major contemporary art museum known for being artist-centered, community-driven, and embracing boundary-breaking ideas and experimental practices.
“Their chef had a long history of teaching French cooking,” Thompson continued. “I helped him out, and then I met friends of his who are in the same business. Some of them needed help, too, so I did kitchen prep jobs here and there.”
One of those introductions landed Thompson an unpaid internship in France.
“They gave me room and board, and I got to live in a tiny apartment by myself,” she said.
Thompson worked six days a week, with a break each day between lunch and dinner.
“But I was in Brittany!” she said with a smile. “I used my high school and college French as best I could.”
Working in a “very small kitchen with a tight-knit group,” Thompson started out at the salad station and worked her way up.
“That’s how it works,” she said. “You start with salads and other cold foods. A good restaurant operates almost like a military system. You graduate to working with pasta, sauces, the grill …”
The owner of the highly regarded 60-seat restaurant, La Fleur de Sel, also had several other eateries, including a bistro and one situated on a boat where seafood was served. The French take their food seriously. (La fleur de sel refers to a type of salt that forms as a delicate crust on the surface of coastal salt ponds; it is harvested to use as finishing salt.)
Thompson’s experience at Le Fleur de Sel showed her that she wanted to be in the cooking world. Following her Brittany stint, she headed back to New York, where in 2010 she was hired at Le Cirque, the legendary and glamorous French and Italian fine-dining landmark founded by Sirio Maccioni in 1974.
“The customers were really ritzy,” Thompson said. “Trump was always coming in, along with lots of ambassadors and celebrities.”
In Thompson’s first paid culinary position, she worked as part of an 80-member staff. After a couple years, she moved on to other restaurants.
You can check out Thompson’s Shelburne Falls spot yourself, dear readers. Juicebox Wine Bar opened in 2023 after several years under a different name (Delicatesse). And if you’re wondering about the name, here’s a hint: Thompson and her husband, (Chris, a woodworker by profession), have a 4-year-old son, Marselle. Thompson doesn’t provide actual juiceboxes to customers, but she thought the new name was a fun way to signal that she has one foot in the kid world and one in the adult world.
No matter your age, if you have an opportunity to ingest food touched by Thompson’s skillful hands, you’re likely to be rendered speechless. When you manage to recover language, you’ll simply ask for more. S’il-vous-plaît!
Eveline MacDougall is the author of “Fiery Hope” and can be contacted at evelinemacdougall@gmail.com.