The art of quick and light cooking...... the californian way.....

If i remember correctly and this was in october 2003 and i was doing Kitchen Management Training Programme ..... with the Park group of hotels a boutique class of hotels operating in India ...and i was based in their Chennai unit .... our then executive chef came up with an idea of opening a poolside restaurant on the eigth floor of the hotel..... very true that the swimming pool was on the eighth floor of the hotel...to serve a very different concept of cuisine there.... he termed it as Californian New world cuisine ... and nobody had even heard about this cuisine and neither knew how was it like to cook Californian new world food.....he made us watch a couple of food presentations and they were absolutely artistic.... and he said this is similar to what i want to serve there..... first of all to undersatnd this cuisine was a challenge.... He said its all about using fresh and local ingredients in cooking and presenting it extremely artistic.....
The first doubts to arise here:- Is any kind of food cooked and presented artistically californian cuisine.?
Going back to the history shortly this cuisine was basically introduced by a american lady called Alice Waters in 1971 ..... when she made her first trip to France and there she ate in local smalltime trattoria { a kind of family run restaurants basically serving homely n fresh food for example produced in their own farms and then cooked}... Fascinated she went back and along with couple of her friends opened a restaurant named Chez Pannise....which basically served French food but with a local produce and local flavour.... and this is what is supposed to be the so called roots of this cuisine....and Alice Waters was thus inventor of this cuisine which was strictly no import no frozen food.....
As this cuisine is not based on any restrictions on usage of ingredients focus was mainly made on using organic , healthy ingredients, shifting focus from greasy and heavy food to food cooked in olive oil and herb infused oils.... from using plain rice to using organically grown red rice and black rice.... thers.... so much to experiment in this cuisine ..... So with this concept in mind and the pictures and his research on this cuisine the restaurant was finally opened and till date can assure you they serve the best in the country.....
Some of the delicacies of that restaurant was a PANZANELLA { a salad of fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, spanish jumbo olives , Greek Feta and fresh basil and Pepper}, A Summer fruit salad on Cranberry Jelly, A Streudel of mushrooms with Almond Couscous , A Typical Thai infusion of Lamb Massaman Curry with Organic red rice.... are some all time favourites....
cooking this cuisine is very easy but just make sure that u are using the freshest fish,or meat or vegetable or fruits available......grown locally.....use lot of olive oils for salads and cooking fish, use fresh herbs as in DILL for fish , ROSEMARY for chicken and THYME for red meats and SAGE for Pork.....
Its worth givin it a try and i am sure yout beloved ones are going to pat your backs and say WELL DONE!!!!!
Cheers and Happy Cooking!!!!!