Friend: “What does ‘New American’ cuisine mean?”
Me: “They serve mashed potatoes, which are not called mashed potatoes, at about 3-5X the price of mashed potatoes.”
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OK, so I know: It's A Joke. But! I enjoyed reflecting on the question—it's really so distinct from other American food! I guess I see its influences most clearly from Nouvelle cuisine, interpreted via Alice Waters and co in California, then with growing international influences.
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Like yeah, lots of places are just serving normal food with pretentions. But then, as a Californian, I can look at a menu for a new place and *instantly* tell if it's New American. It's odd… Here are menu excerpts from two popular SF restaurants. One is; one isn't. So clear!
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(…now is probably the time to confess that I have a cron job that archives menus daily from various New American restaurants around the city for later study and menu planning…)
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I mean did you know that The French Laundry publishes its menus every day—and they change, almost completely, every day? It’s hard to ask for a better guide to what’s in peak season on any given day and what one should do with it, even for home cooks. For free!
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That is such a delightfully idiosyncratic thing to have a chron job for! Patrick’s replies are always full of such fascinating people, I love it
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Nice! I did something similar a while ago for Deliveroo to make searching in menus easier :)