Lunchtime in Beverly Hills. A bold, bright, high-ceilinged room with sun streaming through the skylights and a mighty bamboo tree thrusting toward the roof. The regulars, mostly show-biz honchos, pour into Chaya Brasserie to talk their way through low-cal power meals. The plates, sprouting salad greens, look conventional at first, but in fact, the fare is novel: a combination of the vaunted California cuisine (roughage) and subtler accents from Asia -- tuna and salmon tartare, lemongrass, ginger. Called Cal-Asian cuisine or Pacific Rim cookery, it is the latest gourmet buzz.
The idea of Pacific Rim cuisine began taking shape about 10...
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