Eat American!

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Undoubtedly one of the most decisive influences on America's professional cooks was France's nouvelle cuisine, word of which reached this country about 20 years ago. Two messages registered seismic waves. The first was that the chefs were no longer servants but stars, an idea that inspired new talent to take up the profession. Not only did young people gravitate to cooking, but many who had trained for other careers switched. Says Wine: "It used to be that parents proudly said, 'my son the doctor' or 'my son the lawyer.' Now my father says, 'my son the chef,' and I'm a lawyer!" Indeed, many of the most dedicated chefs seem to regard their occupation with almost a missionary zeal, feeling perhaps that by cooking "honestly" from scratch and only with natural ingredients they are doing something altruistic. And in an era of mass production, the notion of handmade food fulfills the desire for craftsmanship that weaving and pottery making used to.

The second message was that anything goes; the ironclad, oppressive dos and don'ts of classic cooking vanished. French chefs reached out to the Orient for ingredients and preparations and broke all the rules. Suddenly, creative minds went to work, often overzealously. "I don't want to be like everyone else," says Bradley Ogden, the 32-year-old chef who performs diligently if unevenly at San Francisco's Campton Place Hotel, proving that individuality itself is not the prize.

Alice Waters, 41, is usually credited with popularizing new American cooking with the innovative cuisine she served at Chez Panisse, opened in 1971. But two years earlier, in High Falls, N.Y., John Novi, 43, began free-associating ethnic influences for dishes at his DePuy Canal House, a restored wood-and-stone tavern dating from 1797. Now Novi, just back from an eating tour of Italy, plans to add new creations to his old favorites, such as a soup of kale, brisket and hominy, and fried troutlings with a sweet pepper and horseradish dip. Len Allison and Karen Hubert, who run Huberts, a superior restaurant off Gramercy Park in Manhattan, admit their debt to Novi, whom they consider the father of new American cooking.

There are specific reasons why California has come to be identified with the trend. Notes Weimer: "In terms of the food world, California has a rich history of ethnic immigration. Another reason is equally compelling. It's the incredible climate, which enables anything to flourish here."

But even in the yuppie culture, the power of nostalgia is not to be denied. In contrast to the subtle refinements of new American cooking is the current fad for hefty, rough-around-the-edges, down-home or "Momma" cooking, encompassing a variety of regional and ethnic styles. What is regarded as Momma cooking in one part of the country is a bold new taste sensation a few hundred miles away.