When You Talk Creative Food, You’Re Talking California

California cuisine. Is it food, or a state of mind?

Light. Lean. Sparse. Healthy. Sunny. Herbal essence. That’s the mind talking.

But, in reality, it refers to food like duck sausage pizzas and goat cheese salads.

Remember how hot California cuisine was? Southern California restaurants seem to be avoiding the term these days.

Could it be the same fare that trendy restaurant wanna-bes today call “eclectic”?

Chefs and educators laugh at the descriptions, but they’re serious about California’s new-found international reputation for food and cooking.

Whatever California cuisine was, and whatever it is now, it has certainly influenced American and foreign tastes.

But pinning it down, defining it, seems to be difficult even for those who founded it. They also say it has taken new turns recently.

“Maybe people are getting better at it,” said Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, one of the restaurants known for it in the early days - as long ago as the early ‘70s - and more recently, the restaurant that introduced the usage of the names of individual farms and producers on the menu.

“It’s always going to be around. It’s evolving,” said Johnathan Robinette, executive chef and director of culinary education at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

California cuisine had its beginnings in the process of taking recipes from Mediterranean cuisine and trying to adapt them here, said Waters, who along with Jeremiah Tower of Stars in San Francisco and others in Northern California, is noted by the Culinary Institute of America as leading the movement.

In Southern California, Michael’s in Santa Monica has often been named as the first dining spot for California cuisine.

The restaurant opened in April 1979 with a menu combining classical French, nouvelle French and what host-owner Michael McCarty describes as “my own American upbringing.”

A 1984 cookbook, “Cuisine of California” (Marmac Publishing; $9.95), is typical in the lack of any precise definition for the trend.

“California cuisine is born of sunshine, adventure and romance,” wrote Stanley R. Kyker, executive vice president of the California Restaurant Association, a trade organization.

“It’s not a thing, but an experience captured in the magic of unexpected combinations, perfected in the tradition of excellence by our great chefs.”

Wolfgang Puck is more down to earth about it. “It’s whatever is available and whatever cultural influences are around.”

Puck - of Spago, Chinois on Main, Granita and Postrio fame - translates that into his restaurants’ menus.

Of his credo, he said, “It’s spontaneity; it’s what’s available today.”

Both Puck and Waters flinch at the use of the word cuisine.

Puck believes that California cuisine - oops, the California way - is more a restaurant style, even including decor.

It’s as much decor and positive attitude as it is food, agreed Michael McCarty of Michael’s.

He defines California cuisine as “the freedom to evolve.”

“It’s a way of life. It’s a philosophy. It’s more than the food itself, it’s a movement,” he said.

“American (including Californian) cooking hasn’t had the concentration and interest to be called a cuisine,” added Waters.

There are some traits that are commonly agreed upon.

California cuisine is strongly associated with freshness, natural flavors, with a range of ethnic influences.

It also is linked with quick cooking unhampered by any tedious or traditional methods.