A well-known Orange County chef has died in a car crash in Dana Point, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
Rainer Schwarz, 59, was driving an Audi on Crown Valley Parkway near Pacific Coast Highway around 4:50 p.m. Monday when the vehicle veered off the roadway, traveled through landscaping and came to rest in a parking lot, according to Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Gerard McCann.
Investigators were working to determine what caused the crash and Schwarz’s death, McCann said.
Schwarz, who was born in Klagenfurt, Austria, began his culinary training at age 15 and later worked at the Grand National Hotel in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he met Chef Joachim Splichal before relocating to Los Angeles.
He also worked as a chef in Colorado, where he opened several bistros and pubs in the Denver area, and later served as executive chef at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood in 2009.
In Orange County, Schwarz worked at The Deck and Driftwood Kitchen in Laguna Beach, as well as Hendrix Restaurant in Laguna Niguel.