Inside the California food revolution : thirty years that changed our culinary consciousness / Joyce Goldstein ; with Dore Brown.

ISBN:

9780520956704

9781299708853

Title:

Inside the California food revolution : thirty years that changed our culinary consciousness / Joyce Goldstein ; with Dore Brown.

Author:

Goldstein, Joyce Esersky, author.

Personal Author:

Goldstein, Joyce Esersky, author.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 348 pages) : illustrations.

Series:

California studies in food and culture ; 44

Contents:

Thirty Years of Food Revolution: A Historical Overview -- One Revolution, Two Ways: Northern versus Southern California -- Defying Kitchen Convention: Self-Taught Chefs and Iconoclasts -- Women Chefs and Innovation: The New Collaborative Kitchen -- New Flavors: Upscale Ethnic, Eclectic, and Fusion Food -- New Menus: The Daily Menu and the Story behind the Food -- Restaurants Reimagined: Transformations in the Kitchen and Dining Room -- A New World of Fresh Produce: Reviving the Farm-to-Table Connection -- Custom Foods: Chefs Partner with Purveyors and Artisans -- Merging the Worlds of Wine and Food: Common Cause -- Afterword: The Continuing Evolution of California Cuisine.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Cooking, American -- California style -- History.

Restaurants -- California -- History.

Added Author:

Brown, Dore, 1956-

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2013

Publication Information:

Berkeley :

University of California Press,

[2013]

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
641.59794 23	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In this authoritative and immensely readable insider's account, celebrated cookbook author and former chef Joyce Goldstein traces the development of California cuisine from its formative years in the 1970s to 2000, when farm-to-table, foraging, and fusion cooking had become part of the national vocabulary. Interviews with almost two hundred chefs, purveyors, artisans, winemakers, and food writers bring to life an approach to cooking grounded in passion, bold innovation, and a dedication to "flavor first." Goldstein explains how the counterculture movement in the West gave rise to a restaurant culture characterized by open kitchens, women in leadership positions, and a surprising number of chefs and artisanal food producers who lacked formal training. The new cuisine challenged the conventional kitchen hierarchy and French dominance in fine dining, leading to a more egalitarian and informal food scene.

In weaving Goldstein's views on California food culture with profiles of those who played a part in its development--from Alice Waters to Bill Niman to Wolfgang Puck--Inside the California Food Revolution demonstrates that, while fresh produce and locally sourced ingredients are iconic in California, what transforms these elements into a unique cuisine is a distinctly Western culture of openness, creativity, and collaboration. Engagingly written and full of captivating anecdotes, this book shows how the inspirations that emerged in California went on to transform the experience of eating throughout the United States and the world.

Author Notes

Goldstein Joyce :

Joyce Goldstein was chef and owner of the groundbreaking restaurant Square One in San Francisco. She received the James Beard Award for Best Chef in California and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. She is the author of twenty-six cookbooks, and her writing appears in the San Francisco Chronicle, Sommelier Journal, Fine Cooking, and many other publications.

Dore Brown is Principal Editor at University of California Press.

Reviews (2)

Choice Review

In this culinary paean, award-winning cookbook author and former celebrated chef Goldstein defines the seminal food revolution of the 1980s-90s in America and pays homage to scores of unheralded food producers who contributed to it. Originating in California and credited primarily to Alice Waters and a few other superluminaries, this revolution took on the eastern culinary establishment, the French, and, of course, Chef Boyardee. Scoffing Escoffier along with canned food, it was characterized by fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients and close, warm relationships among producers, and between producers and consumers. Goldstein constructs portraits of the revolution's leaders, primarily through their own words. They are courageous, generous, innovative, persistent autodidacts, and passionately dedicated to eradicating the dreary Eurocentric foodscape of American cuisine. In one chapter, the author makes a valiant attempt to define the highly amorphous term "California cuisine," contrasting northern California cooking with its southern counterpart. Other chapters focus on the rise of the open kitchen, the role of the menu as food narrative, and the increasing presence of women on the culinary landscape. Despite its frequently effusive tone, this volume is highly readable and a valuable introduction to an event that has changed American views about food and eating. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. D. M. Gilbert formerly, Maine Maritime Academy

Library Journal Review

The now mainstream preference for fresh, seasonal, local foods has its roots in the development of California cuisine. In this thorough account, chef, restaurateur, and food writer Goldstein, the winner of the James Beard Award for Best Chef in California and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, chronicles this revolution and its pioneers. In the 1970s, a handful of passionate, innovative cooks and food producers began adopting a new approach to food. The result, later known as California cuisine, not only affected food but also agriculture, the wine industry, service, and restaurant design. Chefs sought out fresh, seasonable, and sustainable ingredients, while conventional cooking equipment and kitchen setups started to change, as chefs favored the open kitchen and tools such as wood-burning ovens. The conventional hierarchical kitchen brigade was abandoned for a more collaborative model, and women began breaking into male-dominated kitchens. Many may be familiar with Alice Waters and her legendary restaurant, Chez Panisse, but Goldstein and coauthor Brown (principal editor, Univ. of California Press) introduce readers to almost 200 other chefs, artisans, and farmers who have been a part of this movement. VERDICT An engaging history of a culinary revolution that has had enormous influence over the entire country.-Melissa Stoeger, Deerfield P.L., IL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.