Longtime Chez Panisse chef Cal Peternell to leave

Cal Peternell will be leaving Chez Panisse after more than two decades in the Berkeley restaurant. Cal Peternell will be leaving Chez Panisse after more than two decades in the Berkeley restaurant. Photo: Special To The Chronicle Photo: Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Longtime Chez Panisse chef Cal Peternell to leave 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Chez Panisse chef Cal Peternell will hang up his chef's jacket on July 5 after 22 years with the Chez Panisse family.

Peternell told Scoop he still has a passion to cook, and, in his eyes, coming to work everyday at Alice Waters' landmark kitchen still had its luster.

"I felt like partly I wanted to go while I was still loving it," Peternell said. "It's just more I wanted to do my own thing a little bit. And really just find out what that thing is."

The industry vet will join a Chez alumni club that's essentially a who's who of American chefs and restaurateurs -- Russell Moore, Charlie Hallowell, David Tanis, Jonathan Waxman, Suzanne Goin, Mark Peel and Dan Barber are all on the list, among many others.

While Peternell said his future career options outside of a traditional kitchen post "are deliciously open," he does have a few concrete plans. He will publish his third cookbook in the near future, and also launch his "Cooking by Ear" podcast which focuses on teaching people how to "cook with pleasure."

Peternell joined Chez Panisse in the mid-1990s, a lifetime ago in any situation. But especially in the Bay Area where the restaurant climate has changed rapidly over the last few years. Peternell said the landscape changed the most in terms of labor.

"What's happening right now is that it's hard to get cooks," Peternell said. "We're competing with wealthy people hiring private chefs. We're also competing with start-ups bringing chefs into the corporate space. And it's also just hard for restaurants to pay cooks a wage that could let them live in the Bay Area comfortably."

In hopes of addressing the labor dilemma, Peternell said he's toying with the idea of starting a cooking school that could offer scholarships that could help the applicants live in the Bay Area while learning from industry veterans.

"We could train a new generation of cooks," Peternell said. "Right now it's just in the pie in the sky idea phase. But I'm definitely looking at it."

Peternell's curtain call over the next month or so at Chez Panisse will feature menus inspired by former chefs at the restaurant, like Wednesday's homage to the cuisine of Jean-Pierre Moulle. Moulle, who retired from Chez Panisse in 2012, after joining the restaurant in 1975. Other menu inspirations in the weeks to come include Gilbert Pilgrim (Zuni Cafe), Peggy Smith (Cowgirl Creamery), David Tanis, Christopher Lee and Jerome Waag.

Chez Panisse: 1517 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email jphillips@sfchronicle. Twitter: @JustMrPhillips