In 1970s California, meals weren't structured as "appetizer-main-dessert." An engineer's day at Xerox PARC revolved around light, modular meals: a grab-and-go breakfast (granola, fresh fruit), a composed salad lunch assembled at the campus cafeteria or brought in a box, a shared loaf of sourdough, and a weekend "farm-to-table" dinner inspired by Alice Waters' Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Freshness, raw ingredients, and local sourcing take precedence over sauces and long cooking.

Two emblems of the Bay Area's terroir: the Hass avocado, rich and plant-based, omnipresent in light California cuisine, and the wild sourdough, fermented by bacteria unique to the region. Together, they sum up a table that values fresh, living, and homemade over industrial.