California Cuisine

This was inspired by a dish created by Alex Padilla, sous chef at Boulevard, the San Francisco restaurant owned by Aidells's wife.

Red onion, capers and fresh dill make nice toppings. Serve the pizza with lemon wedges.

It’s unclear just who the Louis of Crab Louis salad fame was; perhaps he was affiliated with the Olympic Club in Seattle, where opera star Enrico Caruso, who visited there in 1904, is said to have fallen in love with the crab salad. San Francisco also claims the dish, which reached its zenith there in the teens, as a specialty at Solari’s restaurant and at the St. Francis Hotel.

Wolfgang Puck gets the credit for redefining pizza at his trend-setting Spago restaurant in West Hollywood. The inventive pizzas came topped with everything from goat cheese and Black Forest ham to artichokes and exotic mushrooms. Duck sausage pizzas, like this one, were a real hit.

San Francisco is famous for its sourdough, and a wide variety of apples are grown in Sonoma. In this sensational dressing, both ingredients are combined with almonds, which are harvested throughout the state. If you are roasting a turkey in a 350°F oven, cook the stuffing alongside, covered for 45 minutes and uncovered for about 15 minutes.

For the fastest grain bowl, use bulgur—which steams in just 10 minutes—as the base for sheet-pan chicken thighs and roasted broccolini.

The combination of juicy mixed citrus with sliced avocado and sautéed shrimp is striking and, yes, delicious—but we all know that the bed of crispy rice is why you’re here.

Yes, you can eat butternut squash raw!

Like the one you make with the packet of soup mix, but with no weird chemicals and 1,000 percent tastier.