The 1980s saw an array of New American Cuisine restaurants, which put Nouvelle Cuisine notions of seasonality and, sometimes, lighter sauces, in regional American contexts.
That included Larry Forgione’s An American Place, which opened in New York City, in 1983, the same year that Bradley Ogden became executive chef of Campton Place in Larkspur, Calif.
The following year, chef Jeremiah Tower (pictured), formerly of Chez Panisse, opened another New American restaurant, Stars, in San Francisco, where a young graduate from the Culinary Institute of America named Steve Ells would later intern.