California Cuisine Thrives in Lesser Known Regions

California cannot be pigeonholed. It's flip-flops and snow skis. Wine country, desert and frigid forests. Avocados, artichokes and mountain trout.

And the food culture is much more than just L.A. and San Francisco.

On the eastern edge of the state, the Tahoe food scene is heating up with a new generation of young, ambitious chefs and restaurateurs who’ve answered the call of the mountains. A scene once dominated by pizza and pub fare...