CALIFORNIAN CUISINE

Californian Cuisine - Luxury Travel Magazine

Lisbon’s Living Legacy

By: Carol West, Issue 36 – Spring 2008

(California, United States of America)

WEST COAST USA’S POPULAR HIGHWAY ONE OFFERS MORE THAN JUST A SCENIC TOURIST DRIVE: CONSIDER IT A TASTING PLATE FOR OUR GOURMET FUTURE.

‘Don’t panic, it’s organic’ could well be Californian cuisine’s catch-cry. Stretching the length of Pacific Highway One’s glittering coastline (from Los Angeles to San Francisco), a dynamic new food movement is being driven by sustainably grown, quality local produce, and is literally going back to its roots. On any given day there’s a certified, organic farmers’ market in southern California where local growers bring seasonal diversity from the farm gate to the plate. Leading chefs and homemakers shop alongside at hessian-covered tables for dew-drenched organic lettuces picked at 2.30 am that morning, as well as Solvang raspberries, plump Santa Rosa plums and purpletinged Heirloom tomatoes.

“Local, sustainable food has quickly overtaken ‘green’ as the cause culinaire,” says Carrie L. Kommers, director of dineLA, an organisation with its finger on the city’s epicurean pulse. “There’s a strong move to grazing on tasting plates that showcase innovative menus and the rebirth of the all-American steakhouse.”

Wolfgang Puck’s ‘Cut’ in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel redefines the genre in an aesthetic environment that’s uniquely LA. “Designed by Richard Meier who created the Getty Centre, the space is sleek and the Eames swivel chairs enable diners to see and be seen,” says Kommers wryly. Handy for spotting Tom Cruise or Steven Spielberg tucking into Kobe beef short ribs.

Teage Ezard, chef/proprietor of Ezard and Gingerboy in Melbourne has just spent a month surveying the Los Angeles food scene. As in Australia, he found the cuisine to be produce and seasonally driven but comparatively conservative. “Tasting menus are a welcome development as I struggle with portion sizes,” says Ezard. “California harnesses its Spanish/Mexican heritage but our food is cleaner, not as robust and there’s an opportunity for an Oz-Asian style concept in America,” he notes. When it comes to organics and sustainability however, Ezard found America to be way in front. “We’re nowhere near that level,” he says referring to the plethora of farmers’ markets and customer demand for sustainably grown foods. Tucked into the corner of Los Angela’s new landmark, the fluid steel Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, Joachim Splichal has opened Patina restaurant. Los Angeles’ top grazing paddock, his small plates of seasonal tasting menus are consumed by immaculate people in sleek architectural surroundings.

In Culver City, Ben Ford, son of Harrison and one of southern California’s brightest culinary stars, has just opened his gastropub, Ford’s Filling Station serving an earthy Cal-Mediterranean menu. In a nearby heritage building, the restaurant/bar Akasha is humming while there’s a two-month waiting list at Fraiche to sup alongside Ewan McGregor or Fergie. Cruising north, our gastronomic journey reaches Santa Barbara where the trend to organic eating is packaged ready for us to sink our teeth into. The New Oxford American Dictionary named ‘locavore’ the 2007 Word of the Year and Santa Barbarians are living the locavore life. Referring to eating locally grown and harvested foods, this popular seaside destination offers sustainable regional food at its farmers’ markets, grocery stores and restaurants. Given the price of fuel, and that most food travels around 2,400 kms in the US before reaching the table, a locavore lifestyle makes very good sense.

At Santa Barbara Harbour, the locals buy rock cod and crab claws caught off the Channel Islands. Buying his fish straight off the wharf, chef Josh Brown’s ceviche using fresh Pacific fish in a citrus marinade served with wonton crisps and a dollop of sturgeon caviar is winning rave reviews at Seagrass restaurant. Down the block, Epiphany is about to get its own moment of supernatural reality with the imminent arrival of Gordon Ramsay to film a new series of Hell’s Kitchen.

‘Life is a Cabernet my friend’ is the prophetic printed message on the window in Carmel’s refined main street. Tucked around a corner, L’Auberge Carmel, the region’s only Relais & Chateaux hotel and restaurant is about to deliver a gastronomic tour-deforce. This is a white glove fine dining experience, without the stuffiness, and the menu demands serious consideration. You can leave it to executive chef Christophe Grosjean to customise an eight course-tasting menu or mix and match your own selections to reflect California’s seasonal rhythms.

Reaching San Francisco, we head for Fillmore, the jazz heritage district where at 1300 on Fillmore, Jamaican-Brit David Lawrence is giving soul food serious profile. Leave the calorie counter at home, this is soul food mamma and the restaurant’s sexy chocolate brown interior is as seductive as Lawrence’s buttermilk-fried chicken with truffled mash potatoes. At Pat Kuleto’s stunning Waterbar, fishermen drop the day’s crab catch straight into the show tanks. ‘Frisco’s hottest seafood restaurant/bar, tucked almost beneath the Oakland Bridge, Waterbar deals only with sustainable fisheries. “We support the little guys who are doing it well, helping the community by buying locally,” says executive chef Parke Ulrich whose philosophy is to present seasonal, regional, organic food that captures salty, smooth, uncomplicated flavours. In an increasingly impersonal world, connecting with the communities that produce our food is a trend to nurture.

Details:

Wolfgang Puck’s ‘Cut’

Ford’s Filling Station

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