"Mr. Joseph Littleshoes Esq." > writes:

>
> Even back in the 1940's & 1950's California had a reputation for being
> a kind of Mecca for "health food nuts" people wanting the sun and a
> healthy diet......

Exactly. I notice EVERYONE who puts Alice on a pedestal chose to
completely ignore, or at least not acknowledge, the reference I posted
from Saveur magazine about the Ranch House.

I have nothing against AW and have no doubt she was the catalyst that
made CC World famous. I also have no doubt she an excellent chef
having seen her and her acolytes in action over the years (Anyone
remember Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers?). Jeremiah Tower once had
a cooking show on PBS. Great chefs all, but I take exception to the
whole CC nonsense.

> Unfortunately were talking about a primarily middle class phenomena,
> the wealthy have always been able to afford to eat well, if they
> choose to do so.

Nothing wrong with that, but to hijack a whole style of cooking and
say we --and our mescalune messiah-- own this style of cooking, is
ludicrous.

What is "California Cuisine" (CD: note the quoate around both words)?
Is it local produce? Alice's menu says, "All our produce, meat,
poultry, and fish come from farms, ranches, and fisheries guided by
principles of sustainability." And....?

In 1892, all food came from farms, ranches, and fisheries and it was
all sustainable. What? You think farmers said, "We'll grow radishes
this year, but next year we're putting in a Wells Fargo coach stop!"?
You think she gets her garlic from a victory garden across the street?
Nonsense. She gets it from Gilroy like everyone else. There's no
sustainable fishery in the Bay. You gotta go up/down the coast and
those are dying, too.

Is CC about fusion. Don't even go there. To say AW invented fusion
cooking is just plain retarded. CA cooking has been about fusion
since the first Boston whalers landed on the shores of Alta
California. We've been hard at it ever since.

Is CC about fresh? I was eating "fresh" on a little ranch in Oakdale
in 1956. Eggs from the hen house. Chickens beheaded 15 ft from the
kitchen door. Fruit and nut trees were the standard landscaping of
the yard. Yes, there were farmer's markets in pre-CC Oakdale. Fresh
fish from the Stanislaus River, 75 yards away. Beef butchered in the
pasture and fresh calves liver on the dinner plate 45 mins after the
steer got a .22 bullet to its brain. Show me CP getting food fresher
than that.

Did Alice promote more organic farming and boutique foodstuffs. Yes.
Absolutely. Would it have occured without her? I have no doubt.
Hippies pre-dated AW in getting back to the land (remember communes?)
and going back to raising food and baking homemade bread, etc. You
think they all waited for Alice to drop the flag? When I lived in OR
in '74-75, I was astonished to discover almost every other house,
whether in town or out in the country, had a serious vegetable garden
in the back yard. Most of 'em never heard of Alice Waters.

Near as I can tell, the only thing that distinguishes "CC" is high
prices and pretentiousness. I've read one of the defining factors of
CC is presentation, the trend to stack vertically. Wow. Now there's
a culinary breakthrough. Can Alice stack soup?

So, fine. The well-off have discovered fresh food --stacked
vertically, mind you-- and Alice is your savior. You can lay claim to
your Collie-fourn-ya Kwi-zeen and bow to the esteemed Alice. Knock
yourself out. Who am I to steal your fantasy.

nb