California Cuisine

California Cuisine is a cooking direction connecting cooking styles and ingredients of different food cultures together and emphasizes the use of fresh, seasonal ingredients from the region. The origin of the California Cuisine is attributed to Alice Waters, the Californian restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley founded in the 1970s. After experimenting with different cooking styles Alice Waters emphasized increasingly the use of regional ingredients. Typical for this style of cooking is the use of seafood and fresh vegetables, which are only lightly cooked and the use of fresh fruits and herbs that can be purchased locally.

Background

Several chefs have contributed significantly to the success of California Cuisine. This includes Jeremiah Tower, which is a long time been chef of the restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He led in California with great success several restaurants. Among the supporters of the California Cuisine and the Austrian Wolfgang Puck is counted among other prominent events - such as parties at the Oscars - hosted. Alice Waters is considered, however, still regarded as the most prominent representative of this Cusine.