Food History of Sacramento

Key eras

1848 to 1900, the Gold Rush table

Sacramento was laid out in December 1848 and incorporated in 1850 as the supply depot for the gold fields. The Hangtown Fry, a fried egg, bacon and oyster scramble, originated in Placerville (then called Hangtown) in 1849 and travelled into the saloons of Old Sacramento. Chinese, Italian and German immigrants opened restaurants along J and K Streets in the 1860s and 1870s, and Sacramento's first Chinatown formed around I Street between 1st and 5th, one of the largest US Chinatowns by population in 1880.

1900 to 1960, the canning capital

By 1910 Sacramento was one of the largest fruit and vegetable canning centres on the West Coast, with Libby, McNeill and Libby on the Sacramento River and Del Monte on the south side. The Sacramento River Delta supplied asparagus, pears and tomatoes; the Capay Valley shipped peaches and apricots. Japanese-American truck farmers grew strawberries and root vegetables along the Florin road south of the city until World War II internment closed the farms.

1960 to 2000, the Sacramento Valley table

Biba Caggiano opened Biba on the Capitol corridor in 1986, the long-running Bolognese anchor that mentored a generation of Sacramento cooks. Rick Mahan opened The Waterboy at 2000 Capitol Avenue in November 1996, putting French-California cooking on the city map. Randall Selland and Nancy Zimmer opened The Kitchen in May 1991, the chef's-counter format that walked guests through every course and later moved to its current 915 Broadway address in Land Park. Randy Paragary's Paragary's Bar and Oven on 28th Street, opened 1983, was Sacramento's first wood-fired-pizza room and the K and R Street investment driver that trained the kitchen leaders who would open the city's farm-to-fork era.

2012 to 2026, America's Farm to Fork Capital

In 2012 Mayor Kevin Johnson and Visit Sacramento declared the city America's Farm to Fork Capital after restaurateur Josh Nelson of Selland Family Restaurants proposed the slogan. The first Tower Bridge Dinner was held September 2013, a long-table chef gala served along the Sacramento Tower Bridge spanning the Sacramento River between Old Sacramento and West Sacramento, with the bridge closed to traffic for the night. The water tower at I-5 and Richards repainted with the slogan in 2017. Localis on S Street (Chris Barnum-Dann), Canon in East Sac (Brad Cecchi, Michelin Bib Gourmand 2019 onward) and Mother on K Street made the city's modern farm-to-table style. The Kitchen earned a Michelin star in 2019, the city's first.

Immigrant influences

• Chinese: Sacramento's first Chinatown along I Street between 1st and 5th was one of the largest in the US by 1880. The current Chinatown Mall on I Street holds the rebuilt community after urban-renewal demolition in the 1950s.
• Mexican-American: The largest immigrant community shapes Sacramento from the taquerias on Franklin Boulevard and Stockton Boulevard to the Cesar Chavez Day Plaza Mexican-American food festival each March.
• Vietnamese: Stockton Boulevard between Florin and 65th Avenue is the city's Vietnamese commercial corridor, the strongest pho, banh mi and bun bo Hue belt in the Sacramento Valley.
• Hmong: The Hmong community settled in Sacramento from the late 1970s on, growing into one of the largest US Hmong populations. Hmong egg rolls, Hmong sausage and papaya salad appear at the New Year market each November.
• Italian: The Italian community arrived in the late 1800s to work the canneries and the railroad. Biba Caggiano's Biba (1986 to 2020) on the Capitol corridor was the long-running Bolognese anchor; Allora on Folsom Boulevard and OBO' Italian Table carry the lineage.
• Russian and Eastern European: Russian-Molokan immigrants settled in West Sacramento in the early 1900s. The community shapes the rye-bread shelves at Corti Brothers grocery in Sierra Oaks and the Eastern European bakeries along Watt Avenue.
• Punjabi: Punjabi-Sikh families farm peaches, walnuts and rice across Yuba City and the Sacramento Valley. The community sustains the gurdwara temples and Punjabi restaurants in Carmichael and Rancho Cordova.

Signature innovations

• Hangtown Fry: Gold Rush egg, bacon and oyster scramble, Placerville 1849
• Tower Bridge Dinner: long-table chef gala along the Sacramento Tower Bridge, started 2013
• Visit Sacramento's Farm to Fork branding, declared 2012
• Selland Family Restaurants, the family-owned anchor of the farm-to-fork era
• California State Fair food competition, longest-running US state-fair food awards