Joachim Splichal is a celebrity chef based in Los Angeles, California. In 1991 he was declared “Best California Chef” by the James Beard Foundation. Four years later in 1995 he was inducted into their “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America". Splichal is best known for his fine dining restaurant Patina located in the Walt Disney Concert Hall (formerly on Melrose Avenue), his chain of Pinot restaurants and the Patina Catering company.
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Joachim Splichal was born and raised in Spaichingen, Germany. At age 18 he began in the hotel industry, working at leading hotels in Canada, Morocco, Israel, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. In his early twenties he moved to France to start his culinary training, working as a saucier at La Bonne Auberge, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Antibes in southeastern France. At age 23 Splichal was hired as a sous chef by Jacques Maximin to work at the Chantecler restaurant in the Hotel Negresco in Nice. Maximin became Splichal’s mentor and during this period he began to win many culinary awards, including the "Youngest and Most Creative Chef" title from the Cercle Epicurean Society.[1]
Splichal moved to the United States with only a few belongings in 1981 to serve as Executive Chef at the Regency Club in Los Angeles. In the years that followed he worked at the Seventh Street Bistro and began Max Au Triangle. Splichal opened Patina in 1989 in Hollywood with his wife Christine, an international business expert. Patina relocated to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003.[2] Patina has made Gayot's list of the Top 40 U.S. Restaurants every year since 2004.
Splichal’s specialties are French cuisine and California Cuisine. Menu items at Patina include grilled hamachi belly, “minute poached” live spot prawn, and New York strip steak. The dining room features not only a cheese and dessert cart, but also a tea cart and caviar cart.[3] Splichal’s Pinot brand of restaurants offer signature dishes such as rosemary marinated quail, Arctic char with braised celery root and Piemontese tortelloni. They are traditionally more casual in atmosphere and many of the restaurants are housed in or near major art or music venues.[4]