The '80s--From Nouvelle to Anything Goes

By Ruth Reichl, Laurie Ochoa and Jonathan Gold

Dec. 24, 1989 12 AM PT

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I n 1980, fancy food was French, pizza was proletarian and salads contained iceberg lettuce. Most people hadn’t heard of California Cuisine. Raw fish was considered fine fare for the seals at the zoo. Had you said “tirami-su” most people would have replied, “God bless you.” Open kitchens were found in diners, grazing was an activity common to cows and blackened was just a nice way of saying burnt.

T hings changed. The ‘80s were an era of restaurant madness when we all learned about Cajun cuisine, graduated from spaghetti to pasta and found out that the waiter was our friend. It was a time when every upscale eater would learn sushi Japanese, taco-stand Spanish and all the Thai words for noodles. Chefs became celebrities. We discovered that vegetables were best as babies and that all olive oil should be virgin. We developed a passion for pepper, an aversion to salt and learned to love chiles.

And that was just for starters. How to Name a Restaurant:

For a dog (Tosh, Orso, Checkers)

. . . a plane (DC 3)

. . . a wine (Le Chardonnay, St. Estephe)

. . . a dance (Cha Cha Cha)

. . . a wife (Rebecca’s)

. . . a chemical process (Patina)

RESTAURANTS: THEN AND NOW

Ubiquitous Waiterspeak:

80: The waiter as friend: “Hi, my name is Eric . . . “

89: The waiter as menu consultant: “This one’s my favorite, but then, I’ve always been a sucker for chocolate.”

First question you ask the waiter:

80: What’s your house white?

89: What’s your house water?

Your date is impressed when you know how to pronounce:

80: Pouilly-Fuisse

89: Pappardelle ai funghi

Famous person you’re likely to see in a Hollywood restaurant:

80: Orson Welles

89: Ed Begley Jr.

Menus:

80: Half an acre of handwritten Italian

89: Yet another data base

Peppermills:

80: Two feet of burnished mahogany

89: Two inches of precision-engineered Lucite

Generic Restaurant Name:

80: Le Restaurant

89: La Trattoria

Important statistical data:

80: How many stars?

89: How many hearts?

Restaurant personality most likely to be profiled in a national magazine:

80: the chef

89: the architect

The restaurateur’s best friend:

80: Gourmets, proud of eating it all

89: Foodies, proud of eating it first

Stop us before we write again about . . .

80: Ma Maison

89: Campanile

How you can tell the chefs from the cooks:

80: The chef wears a toque

89: The chef wears a baseball cap

Swank restaurants pride themselves on:

80: Big plates

89: Big portions

Small bird consumption:

80: Cornish game hen

89: Acton Valley quail

You never order veal because . . .

80: It’s kind of bland

89: It’s politically incorrect

REMEMBER?

Fern bars

Beurre blanc

Blackened everything

Grazing

Oyster shooters

Warm goat cheese salad

Designer meat loaf

Spa Cuisine

Raspberry Vinegar

Mesquite

Toffuti

Kiwis

Radicchio

Edible flowers

Sun-dried tomatoes

Power breakfasts

High-tech sushi

Huitlacoche

Pasta salad

Quiet restaurants

STAR SEARCH

You Knew Chefs Were Celebrities When . . .

1983: Paul Prudhomme took his restaurant on the road; people in S.F waited seven hours to eat.

1984: Wolfgang Puck got married on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”

1988: Jeremiah Tower was on billboards all over America selling Scotch.

’ 8 0 s D A Z E

Fajitas:

The Quiche of the ‘80s.

Honey-Mustard Dressing:

The Thousand Island of the ‘80s.

Haute Southwest Cuisine:

Born not on a wind-swept Arizona mesa but in a Manhattan Beach shopping mall.

Eating It Raw:

Once carpaccio was a specific Italian term denoting thinly sliced raw beef, usually drizzled with olive oil. But in the ‘80s we ate carpaccio of tuna/salmon/sea bass (once known simply as sashimi), carpaccio of vegetables (once known as crudites) carpaccio of mushrooms (once known as mushrooms).

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