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»CA.CUISINE Let's See the Menu! by judy zimola Three-star or come as you are, great food places sprout everywhere in California CHEZ PANISSE, above, helped launch the California Cuisine movement in 1971; the creme brulee cart takes part in San Francisco's "Off the Grid" food truck event, top right; abalone, courgettes and basil at Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos, right; the latest cookbook from Thomas Keller of The French Laundry, below. Back in the dawn of California food, before gray salt and blue corn chips and infused olive oils grabbed headlines, there was the alfalfa sprout. It adorned its host, usually a tomato-cucumber-onwhole-wheat sandwich, like a doodle. Perched in a loose scribble of "that's cool, man" green, it tasted like it looked: airy, good-natured, nothing too challenging. The food scene continued in that fashion for quite some time. Anything with an avocado on it earned the label "California," a joke that wore thin with the public and the avocadoes after about the third telling. Then in 1971 came Alice Waters, owner and chef at Berkeley's Chez Panisse. She, along with peers Wolfgang Puck, Jeremiah Tower 2 0 2 013 travel guide to c al i fo r n ia and Jonathan Waxman, brought fresh, local, organic food to the forefront of culinary consciousness. Suddenly, dear old Brussels sprouts and beets found themselves the toast of the table, sharing intimate dinners with artisanal cheeses and flirty purees. The California food scene was irrevocably transformed. The "fresh and local" idea has grown up, to the point where many notable chefs are growing or sourcing their food just minutes from their gourmet kitchens. Asparagus culled from the garden in Yountville's French Laundry is transformed into an "OMG" experience, thanks to founding chef Thomas Keller's obsession with detail—he'll serve it only during the three or four weeks in