At the core of the California lifestyle is our love for great food. Over the years, two restaurants have come to exemplify that focus, receiving lavish praise worldwide for their sophisticated and innovative fare.

• Come to the epicenter of contemporary California cuisine. At the French Laundry’s century-old stone building, Thomas Keller serves French-influenced cuisine of extraordinary quality.
• Alice Waters’s warm and welcoming craftsman-style Chez Panisse, widely regarded as the birthplace of California cuisine, serves sublime dishes created from the freshest local ingredients prepared with the purest inflections.

Californians speak more than 200 languages and dialects—and seemingly eat just as many national cuisines. California’s innovative chefs have taken this diverse mix of  cultures, sensibilities and food influences, combined them with our fresh and local produce, to create a whole new food movement—California Fusion.

• Korean-born Jason Ha describes his Zip Fusion’s seafood-laden menu as “Asian-California fusion.” Translation: The restaurant’s three hip Los Angeles and Corona locations serve wildly creative sushi accompanied by extensive soju and sake choices.

Visitors often associate California food with fine dining. But we are just as proud of our role in developing classic finger food and roadside cuisine, from fish tacos to the granddaddy of them all—McDonalds. California here we come!

• Check out one of the In-N-Out Burger franchises sprinkled throughout the state. Founded in 1948 in Baldwin Park, the chain was California’s first drive-thru hamburger joint.
• What’s your future hold? Visit the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco and find out.

In 1976 the wine world popped its cork in surprise when several little-known Napa Valley wines took top honors over a crowd of French competitors in a blind tasting in Paris. In the years since, California has become the fourth leading wine producer in the world with more than 2000 wineries spread across the state, from Napa and Sonoma to the Gold Country and the Inland Empire.

World-class yes, but California wine is also fun and approachable—a day spent winery hopping and picnicking with a group of friends is a California tradition.

• In 1966 the brand-new mission-style Robert Mondavi Winery was one of just 25 wineries in the Napa Valley. Today, there are some 225 wineries in the valley, but Mondavi is still among the most influential—and popular.
• Frey Vineyards is leading a trend to go beyond organic by becoming certified biodynamic, making the family-owned Redwood Valley winery a self-sustaining agricultural entity in harmony with the local ecosystem.