California cuisine is having a moment in Europe – and it’s not just avocado toast and cursive neon signs hanging on the walls.
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“But no, avocado toast is not the new croissant,” says Weger, who grew up in San Diego and spent 14 years in Venice and Hollywood kitchens, including Gjusta, Gjelina and Tender Greens“Perhaps most significant flaring of organized rebellion” in modern food “took place in California,” a food critic in the Financial Times wrote recently of West Coast cuisine taking root in Britain. “All nations are here, and all leave their culinary footprint.
With space for about 20 diners at a time during lunch and dinner, Garvey, 36, and his staff have crafted a meeting of Californian, Japanese and, on occasion, French flavors . It’s high on citrus, salt, acid, and seafood — like Scottish langoustine flambeed table-side over a piping hot lava rock. It’s low on butter, though foie gras dipped in cherry jelly makes its appearances for the taste buds that gravitate toward the creamy, savory and decadent.
It can feel like a vague, catch-all term, meaning different things to different people. At its core is often the idea that chefs are in direct communication with local farmers, adapting their menus to accommodate in-season produce.In the 1970s and 1980s, the culinary influences of immigrant communities from Asia and Latin America blended with the state’s counter-culture and environmental movements, resulting in what many call “California cuisine.