The cuisine of California reflects the diverse culture of California and is influenced largely by European American, Hispanic American, East Asian and Oceanian influences, and Western European influences, as well as the food trends and traditions of larger American cuisine.
Marie Callender's is an American restaurant chain. Its headquarters are in the Marie Callender's Corporate Support Center in Mission Viejo, Orange County, California. As of April 2024, the company operates 24 locations in California, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah.
Fazoli's System Management, LLC., doing business as Fazoli's, is an American fast casual restaurant chain headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1988 and is now owned by FAT Brands. As of September 2023, there are 211 Fazoli's located nationwide. The restaurant chain specializes in Italian-American cuisine and dishes.
The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. It operates 219 full-service restaurants: 206 under the Cheesecake Factory brand and 13 under the Grand Lux Cafe brand, not including the number of restaurants operated under the North Italia nor any of Fox Restaurant Brands' names. The Cheesecake Factory also operates two bakery production facilities—in Calabasas, California, and Rocky Mount, North Carolina—and licenses two bakery-based menus for other foodservice operators under the Cheesecake Factory Bakery Cafe marque. Its cheesecakes and other baked goods can also be found in the cafes of many Barnes & Noble stores.
California-style pizza is a style of pizza that combines New York and Italian thin crust with toppings from the California cuisine cooking style. Its invention is generally attributed to chef Ed LaDou, and Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. Wolfgang Puck, after meeting LaDou, popularized the style of pizza in the rest of the country. It is served in many California cuisine restaurants. California Pizza Kitchen, Round Table Pizza, Extreme Pizza, and Sammy's Woodfired Pizza are four major pizza franchises associated with California-style pizza.
Romacorp Inc., which does business as Tony Roma's, is an American casual dining chain restaurant specializing in baby back ribs. The first location was established by the founder, Tony Roma, in 1972 in North Miami, Florida. Clint Murchison Jr. purchased a majority stake in the restaurant in 1976, and he and Roma established the jointly owned Roma Corporation. The first international location opened in 1979 in Tokyo, followed by an international expansion with both company-owned stores and franchises. As of 2020, there are over 115 locations on six continents.
CBC Restaurant Corporation, doing business as Corner Bakery Cafe is an American chain of cafes that specialize in pastries, breads, breakfast dishes, gourmet sandwiches, homemade soups, salads, and pasta. Corner Bakery Cafe is considered to be a part of the fast casual market segment of the food service industry, offering a somewhat higher quality of food and atmosphere than a typical fast food restaurant, and offering limited table service.
Michael Mina is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He is the founder of the Mina Group, a restaurant management company operating over 40 restaurants worldwide. He is the executive chef at his two namesake restaurants in San Francisco and Las Vegas, which each have earned a star in the Michelin Guide. He authored his first cookbook in 2006 and has made numerous television appearances.
Nancy Silverton is an American chef, baker, restaurateur, and author. The winner of the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Chef Award in 2014, Silverton is recognized for her role in popularizing sourdough and artisan breads in the United States.
Chris Cosentino is an American celebrity chef and reality television personality known as the winner of Top Chef Masters, a competitor on The Next Iron Chef and for his appearances on Iron Chef America. He is known for his haute cuisine offal dishes, and was chef-partner at Incanto in San Francisco. Forbes Traveler called Incanto "perhaps America's most adventurous nose-to-tail restaurant … On offer are lamb's necks, pig trotters and a five-course nose-to-tail tasting menu perhaps including venison kidneys and chocolate-blood panna cotta." Incanto closed on March 24, 2014. In December 2014, he opened Cockscomb, a restaurant centered around his updated interpretations of classic San Francisco dishes.
Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. is an American private equity firm focused on growth capital investments in middle-market companies in the consumer products, specialty retail and restaurant sectors.
Du-par's is a diner-style restaurant in Los Angeles, California, that was once a modest-sized regional chain. It was founded in 1938 by James Dunn and Edward Parsons, who combined their surnames to create the restaurant's name. The original location still exists at the Los Angeles Farmers Market in Los Angeles' Fairfax District. There is also an associated franchised restaurant at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pascal Rigo is a French Restaurateur who owns a small "empire" of boulangeries, restaurants, and wholesale and retail bakeries in San Francisco and Mill Valley, California, that operate as La Boulangerie de San Francisco, Bay Bread, La Boulange, and (formerly) Cortez, Chez Nous, Gallette, and others.
Roark Capital Management, LLC, also known as Roark Capital Group or simply Roark Capital, is an American private equity firm with around $37 billion in assets under management. The firm is focused on leveraged buyout investments in middle-market companies, primarily in the franchise/multi-location, restaurant and food, health and wellness, and business services sectors. It is named for Howard Roark, the protagonist in Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead. The firm says that its name is not meant to connote any particular political philosophy but instead signify the firm's admiration for the iconoclastic qualities of independence and self-assurance embodied by the central figure in The Fountainhead.
The history of California bread as a prominent factor in the field of bread baking dates from the days of the California Gold Rush around 1849, encompassing the development of sourdough bread in San Francisco. It includes the rise of artisan bakeries in the 1980s, which strongly influenced what has been called the "Bread Revolution".
Momofuku is a culinary brand established by chef David Chang in 2004 with the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar. It includes restaurants in New York City, Toronto (defunct), Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, a bakery established by pastry chef Christina Tosi, a bar (Nikai), and a quarterly magazine.
A16 is an Italian restaurant in California. There are two locations: the original location in San Francisco and a second location in Oakland. The restaurant's cuisine focuses on the Italian region of Campania. In 2014, the restaurant was named to the Top 100 Restaurants in San Francisco list by Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen is a fine dining restaurant chain owned by British chef Gordon Ramsay and based on the reality TV show Hell's Kitchen. As of 2023, the chain consists of seven U.S. locations.
