California cuisine

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California-style pizza at Chez Panisse in Berkeley Chez Panisse pizza.jpg
California-style pizza at Chez Panisse in Berkeley

California cuisine is a food movement that originated in Northern California, in the United States. The cuisine focuses on dishes that use local and sustainable ingredients, with attention to seasonality. [1] [2]

Contents

The food is historically chef-driven; Alice Waters's restaurant Chez Panisse is an iconic example. Dishes and meals low in saturated fats and high in fresh vegetables and fruits with lean meats and seafood from the California coast often define the style.

The term "California cuisine" arose as a result of culinary movements in the last decades of the 20th century and is not to be confused with the traditional foods of California. California fusion cuisine has been influenced by French, American, Italian, Mexican, and culinary styles, among other food cultures.

History

One of the first proponents of using fresh, locally available foods was Helen Evans Brown, who published Helen Brown's West Coast Cookbook in 1952. She advocated using fruits and spices available in one's neighborhood, forgoing poor grocery store substitutes, as well as fresh seafood, caught locally.[ citation needed ] The book received wide acclaim and became the "template" for what is now thought of as California cuisine. [3]

Alice Waters, who opened the restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971 in Berkeley, has contributed significantly to the concept of California cuisine. [4] [5]

At about the same time, in Yountville in the Napa Valley, Sally Schmitt [6] began serving single-menu monthly dinners that emphasized local ingredients, continuing the concept when she and her husband Don opened the French Laundry in 1978. [7]

In Los Angeles, Wolfgang Puck was also an early pioneer of California cuisine, starting with his work at Patrick Terrail's [8] Ma Maison and later with Ed LaDou on California-style pizza at Spago and Asian fusion at Chinois on Main. [9]

Mark Peel, who worked for both Waters and Puck, went on to co-found La Brea Bakery and Campanile Restaurant [10] with his then-wife Nancy Silverton. As executive chef, he mentored other up-and-coming chefs. [11]

Daniel Patterson, a modern proponent of the style, [12] emphasizes vegetables and foraged foods while maintaining the traditional emphasis on local ingredients and presentation. [13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The birth of California cuisine is generally traced back to Alice Waters in the 1970s and her restaurant Chez Panisse. Waters introduced the idea of using natural, locally grown fresh ingredients to produce her dishes. California cuisine is... local, based like most traditional regional cooking on available ingredients including abundant seafood. Fresh vegetables, lightly cooked, and fresh fruits, berries, and herbs characterize the cuisine generally, but California cooking is also in fact a fusion of cooking from around the world." Benjamin F. Shearer Culture and Customs of the United States Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007 ISBN   0-313-33877-9, 440, page 212
  2. ↑ Goldstein, Joyce (2013). Inside the California Food Revolution: Thirty Years that Changed Our culinary Consciousness. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. pp. 3–5. ISBN   978-0-520-26819-7.
  3. ↑ Parsons, Russ (October 5, 2016). "3 Classic (and Vastly Underappreciated) Books That Changed the Way We Cook". Saveur (185). New York City, New York: Bonnier. ISSN   1075-7864 . Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  4. ↑ Straus, Karen Cope (June 1997). "Alice Waters: Earth Mother of California Cuisine". Vegetarian Times . Retrieved November 16, 2013. Because of Waters, we now have lighter, fresher California cuisine based on locally-grown, seasonal food
  5. ↑ Food Fight, Revolution Never Tasted So Good! A Documentary by Chris Taylor, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Sally's Kitchens Sally's Kitchens: A Half-Century of Real California Food". Sally's Kitchens. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  7. ↑ Goldstein, Joyce (2013). Inside the California Food Revolution: Thirty Years that Changed our Culinary Consciousness. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. pp. 3–5. ISBN   978-0-520-26819-7.
  8. ↑ "Wine Talks with Paul Kalemkiarian: Famed Restaurateur Patrick Terrail of Ma Maison". winetalks.libsyn.com. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  9. ↑ "America's 10 best steakhouses". Fox News. July 19, 2013. Archived from the original on July 19, 2013.
  10. ↑ Gold, Jonathan (September 28, 2012). "Campanile closing? The dining scene loses a standard-setter". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  11. ↑ "Six degrees of Campanile chefs". Los Angeles Times. September 29, 2012. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Daniel Patterson and Gabrielle Hamilton: On Food and Writing". Time Out New York. Time Out. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
  13. ↑ Schwartz, Charlie (October 15, 2013). "6 Lessons from the Pioneer of Modern California Cuisine". Huffington Post. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
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