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.
Martin Yan is a Chinese-American chef and food writer. He has hosted his award-winning PBS-TV cooking show Yan Can Cook since 1982.
Cioppino is a fish stew originating in San Francisco, California, an Italian-American cuisine related to various fish soups in Italian cuisine.
Rick Bayless is an American chef and restaurateur who specializes in traditional Mexican cuisine with modern interpretations. He is widely known for his PBS series Mexico: One Plate at a Time. Among his various accolades are a Michelin star, the title of Top Chef Masters, and seven James Beard Awards.
Jeremiah Tower is an American celebrity chef who, along with Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, has been credited with pioneering the culinary style known as California cuisine. A food lover from childhood, he had no formal culinary education before beginning his career as a chef.
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.
Zuni Café is a restaurant in San Francisco, California, named after the Zuni tribe of indigenous Pueblo peoples of Arizona and New Mexico. It occupies a triangular building on Market Street at the corner of Rose Street.
The Washington Square Bar & Grill was a landmark restaurant adjoining Washington Square in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. Known widely as the Washbag, so named by columnist Herb Caen as a play on words, it was a favorite gathering place for a generation of writers, politicians, musicians, and social elite.
Tartine is a small, US-based bakery chain. As of February 2022, it operates three locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, five in Los Angeles, and six in Seoul Capital Area, South Korea. Its original bakery opened in 2002 in San Francisco's Mission District, at 600 Guerrero Street.
Cass Calder Smith, FAIA is an American architect. He and his firm, Cass Calder Smith Architecture + Interiors, are known for high-profile restaurant designs in San Francisco, California, and New York City.
Cynthia Pawlcyn is an American chef and cookbook author known for the restaurants she opened in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Napa Valley between 1983 and 2008. Pawlcyn was an early advocate for using local, sustainable meats, and produce in her restaurants. In 2009, Pawlcyn appeared in the first season of Bravo’s "Top Chef: Masters."
Tanya Holland is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, podcast host, writer, and cookbook author. She is known as an expert of soul food. Holland is an alumna of Bravo TV's Top Chef, where she competed on the 15th season. She was the owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, California, which received national recognition and multiple Michelin Bib Gourmand awards.
Hugh Acheson is a Canadian-born chef and restaurateur. He has owned four restaurants in Georgia, and serves as a judge on the reality cooking competition show Top Chef, and as an Iron Chef on Iron Chef Canada.
Judy Rodgers was an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. She became famous at Zuni Café, in San Francisco, California, of which she became chef in 1987. Rodgers' food was influenced both by Chez Panisse, where she had worked, and by the food of France, where she had spent time as an exchange student living with the family of Jean Troisgros. The Zuni Café Cookbook, published in 2002, spread the influence of her painstaking, attentive approach to food further outside the United States.
The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.
The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.
Charles Phan is an American chef, cookbook author, and restaurateur. He is the executive chef and founder of "The Slanted Door" restaurant in San Francisco, California and The Slanted Door Group of restaurants. He has published two cookbooks on Vietnamese cuisine.
Recipients of the James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant include:
Reed Hearon is an American chef, cookbook author, businessperson, and restauranteur. During the 1990s dot-com bubble, he opened many notable restaurants in San Francisco, California, including LuLu, Rose Pistola, Rose's Cafe, Cafe Marimba, and the Black Cat. Hearon is known for his work with French, regional Mexican, and Ligurian cuisines.
