Over the ensuing decades, there have been efforts to foreground the fusion aspects of California cuisine, and therefore its diversity. Burros described fusion as a hallmark of California cuisine as early as 1984 in a list format of the movement’s tenets, which included: “Combining cuisines that scarcely had a nodding acquaintance before, such as Japanese and French.” On a panel in 2013, Ruth Reichl said, “One of the hallmarks of California cuisine is that while the rest of the country looked to Europe this side of the country looked east and south.” But France’s nouvelle cuisine was also arguably sparked by looking toward Japan, and California chefs didn’t look even that far; many of the best ingredients these chefs worked with were grown by Japanese American farmers in their backyard.
In recent years, critics and chefs alike have linked California cuisine back to the state’s long culinary history, deepening it in the process. When San Francisco Chronicle critic Soleil Ho reconsidered California cuisine in 2021, they highlighted the work of Cafe Ohlone, founded by two members of the tribe that has called the Bay Area home long before any settlers arrived. “We want people to know that what we’re doing is work that’s been happening for a long time: work that we’ll continue to do. Farm-to-table is nothing new here,” co-founder Vincent Medina told them.
In 2022, one of the most striking disjunctures in the California approach of the ’70s is the obsession with ethical and pristine ingredients, and the comparable lack of emphasis on the working conditions for the people preparing them. The most generous reading of this dynamic is that California cuisine’s foundations were built in much more affordable times: The radicchio revolution worked because more people could enjoy its abundance. In the Times, Burros notes in 1984 that at California cuisine’s standard-bearing restaurants, the prices were surprisingly affordable. A 1985 story in the Los Angeles Times about a union drive at Chez Panisse claims that most Chez Panisse employees were not interested. “By all accounts, it’s a strange labor struggle. Most employees show no sign of wanting the union. They are a varied lot, including psychologists, sculptors, free-lance writers and students happy to have part-time jobs.” The union activists, the Times reported, had hoped Berkeley’s forward-thinking restaurant owners would welcome unionization, and that they could use that success as a springboard to unionize fast food.