California Cuisine - by food author Howard Hillman

California Cuisine

American

An insightful guide
to California Cuisine
for diners and travelers

by an established authority

Why California

cooking is special

California Cuisine is an energizing, relatively new cooking style that has influenced cooks and diners around the nation.

The six pillars that

collectively define

California Cuisine

Fresh quality ingredients

California Cuisine chefs use ingredients that are fresh and from trusted, quality local farmers and ranchers.

Innovative

Cooks are encouraged to try new combinations of ingredients, even if it seems odd to mainstream America.

Unbound by written recipes

One seldom prepares anything exactly the same way twice. Because of this, it is difficult to create a meaningful compendium of truly iconic California Cuisine recipes.

Preserving character

Cooks try to maintain an ingredient's look and natural flavor. In doing the latter, they avoid using too many ingredients in the same dish.

Presentation

Presentation and taste are on equal footing - colors, shapes and other visuals count highly.

Quick-and-easy

Cooks prefer fast, not slow cooking. This explains why grilling is far more popular than roasting or barbecuing meats (backyard grilling is a California passion). Vegetables are more likely to be quickly steamed or parboiled than braised or stewed (and may seem undercooked by national values). Sauces tend to be simple, not involved.

California Cuisine

insights

Alice Waters - The birthyear of California Cuisine was 1971 when chef Alice Waters opened her now legendary Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley. She was the first restaurateur known to emphasize all of the pillars mentioned above.

Bountiful California - The state is blessed with magnificent edible gifts from both land and sea. Its climate and soil enables it to grow most of the nation's vegetables. It has a 1350- kilometer (840-mile) coastline kissed by a seafood-rich ocean current. It has some of the world's best wine growing regions. The list goes on and on.

Diverse ethnicity - California's 35-million-plus people come from many cultures and countries. This helped foster a fusion cuisine.

Not everyone - Of course, it would be a mistake to suggest that everyone is a bona fide California Cuisiner. Most citizens are not. This is the land of fast food, where many of the nation's leading chains - including McDonalds and Taco Bell - were started.

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My food & wine
credentials
My books have been critically acclaimed by major magazines and newspapers. Click the button below to read a sampling (in Acrobat format).