San Francisco has been setting the direction of American cooking for fifty years. California cuisine — seasonal, ingredient-led, lightly handled — took shape in the Bay Area in the 1970s, and its assumptions are now so widespread that they read as ordinary.
The city’s Chinatown is the oldest in North America and still a working neighbourhood rather than a display. The Mission is the home of the burrito style that carries the district’s name, and the taquerias there remain the benchmark.
Sourdough is a genuine local specialty, tied to the bacteria in the local air and the Gold Rush bakeries that first exploited it. The Ferry Building marketplace is the easiest single stop for a survey of Bay Area producers.