{{Short description|Food from the US state}} {{about|the style of cuisine identified with some famous Californian chefs|the broader cuisine of California|Cuisine of California}} {{Use American English|date=February 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} [[File:Chez Panisse pizza.jpg|thumb |California-style pizza at Chez Panisse in Berkeley]] {{American cuisine}}
'''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.<ref>"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 [https://books.google.com/books?id=F4jlN-LPJhkC&pg=PA212&dq=california+cuisine Culture and Customs of the United States] Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007 {{ISBN|0-313-33877-9}}, 440, page 212</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Goldstein|first1=Joyce|title=Inside the California Food Revolution: Thirty Years that Changed Our culinary Consciousness|date=2013|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, Los Angeles, London|isbn=978-0-520-26819-7|pages=3–5}}</ref>
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 Chinese 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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Helen Brown, 60, cookbook writer; Author of Volume on Cuisine of West Coast Is Dead |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/07/archives/helen-brown-60-cookbook-writer-author-of-volume-on-cuisine-of-west.html |website=nytimes.com |date=December 7, 1964 |access-date=February 9, 2026 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> The book received wide acclaim and became the "template" for what is now thought of as California cuisine.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Parsons|first1=Russ|title=3 Classic (and Vastly Underappreciated) Books That Changed the Way We Cook|journal=Saveur|date=October 5, 2016|issue=185|url=http://www.saveur.com/classic-historical-cookbooks-that-changed-everything|access-date=November 11, 2016|publisher=Bonnier|location=New York City, New York|issn=1075-7864}}</ref>
Alice Waters, who opened the restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971 in Berkeley, has contributed significantly to the concept of California cuisine.<ref>{{cite news|last=Straus|first=Karen Cope|title=Alice Waters: Earth Mother of California Cuisine|work=Vegetarian Times|quote=Because of Waters, we now have lighter, fresher California cuisine based on locally-grown, seasonal food|date=June 1997|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0820/is_n238/ai_19684398/?tag=content;col1|access-date=November 16, 2013}}</ref><ref>''Food Fight, Revolution Never Tasted So Good!'' A Documentary by Chris Taylor, 2008.</ref>
At about the same time, in Yountville in the Napa Valley, Sally Schmitt<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sally's Kitchens Sally's Kitchens: A Half-Century of Real California Food|url=https://sixcaliforniakitchens.com/|access-date=March 27, 2021|website=Sally's Kitchens}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goldstein|first1=Joyce|title=Inside the California Food Revolution: Thirty Years that Changed our Culinary Consciousness|date=2013|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, Los Angeles, London|isbn=978-0-520-26819-7|pages=3–5}}</ref>
In Los Angeles, Wolfgang Puck was also an early pioneer of California cuisine, starting with his work at Patrick Terrail's<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wine Talks with Paul Kalemkiarian: Famed Restaurateur Patrick Terrail of Ma Maison|url=https://winetalks.libsyn.com/patrick-terrail|access-date=March 27, 2021|website=winetalks.libsyn.com}}</ref> Ma Maison and later with Ed LaDou on California-style pizza at Spago and Asian fusion at Chinois on Main.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/07/19/america-10-best-steakhouses/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719131323/http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/07/19/america-10-best-steakhouses/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 19, 2013 | work=Fox News | title=America's 10 best steakhouses | date=July 19, 2013}}</ref>
Mark Peel, who worked for both Waters and Puck, went on to co-found La Brea Bakery and Campanile Restaurant<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gold |first1=Jonathan |title=Campanile closing? The dining scene loses a standard-setter |url=https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-gold-20120929-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |date=September 28, 2012 |access-date=March 21, 2019}}</ref> with his then-wife Nancy Silverton. As executive chef, he mentored other up-and-coming chefs.<ref>{{cite web |title=Six degrees of Campanile chefs |url=https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-gold-box-20120929-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |date=September 29, 2012 |access-date=March 21, 2019}}</ref>
Daniel Patterson, a modern proponent of the style,<ref>{{cite web|title=Daniel Patterson and Gabrielle Hamilton: On Food and Writing|url=http://www.timeout.com/newyork/food-drink/daniel-patterson-and-gabrielle-hamilton-on-food-and-writing|work=Time Out New York|publisher=Time Out|access-date=November 16, 2013}}</ref> emphasizes vegetables and foraged foods while maintaining the traditional emphasis on local ingredients and presentation.<ref>{{cite news|last=Schwartz|first=Charlie|title=6 Lessons from the Pioneer of Modern California Cuisine|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/daniel-patterson_n_4099040.html|work=Huffington Post|access-date=November 16, 2013|date=October 15, 2013}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|California|Food|United States}} * New American cuisine
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * California Fusion wikibook * [http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodasian.html Timeline: The Introduction of Asian foods to California] at FoodTimeline.org
{{California}} {{cuisine}}
* Category:Fusion cuisine