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 Parkway near Pacific Coast Highway about 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 Department 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 was executive chef and partner in The Deck on Laguna and Driftwood Kitchen, which he co-owned with John Nye.
“We worked together three different times over a decade between Disney’s Mondavi Project and the Hollywood Roosevelt, but we built The Deck and Driftwood Kitchen as a reflection of our love for good food and good people,” Nye said.
“We always wanted to be recognized first for our people, then our food, and lastly, the location. That’s when we knew we had it right. If we had a legacy it was the family and friends we have made in Laguna to this day.”
It’s always a tragedy to read of an unexpected death but especially so for someone such as Rainer Schwartz, who has contributed so much to the communitites in which he lived. The hospitality and restaurant industries will certainly be mourning the tragic loss of such a luminary. Rest in peace Chef