Chef

Andrew Kirschner

Discipline: Chef
Venue: Tar & Roses · Restaurant

Portrait of Andrew Kirschner

i. Biography

Chef/owner Andrew Kirschner leads Tar & Roses in Santa Monica, where the restaurant’s identity is built around the coastal setting and the discipline of a wood-burning oven. The work here turns on technique and restraint, with fire, timing, and precision carrying the plate rather than ornament or excess. In that frame, Andrew Kirschner’s kitchen reads less as a style exercise than as a method.

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The Climb

He then moved on as chef at Santa Monica Yacht Club in Santa Monica (2015–2017), extending his standing in a city that rewards consistency and nerve. Since 2011, he has been chef/partner of Tar & Roses, a role that tracks the long arc of a career shaped by control, craft, and the disciplined use of flame.

Today

At Tar & Roses in Santa Monica, Andrew Kirschner works as chef/owner, with the restaurant still closely tied to the place that helped define it. On the city that shaped the room, he said, “Being from Santa Monica, having the opportunity to open not just one, but two restaurants was awesome. But this city is notoriously tough.” The line lands as a working statement about Santa Monica itself: familiar ground, but not easy ground.

Career - Chef/partner — Tar & Roses, Santa Monica (2011–present) - Executive chef — Wilshire Restaurant, null - Chef — Santa Monica Yacht Club, Santa Monica (2015–2017)

Signature

Andrew's signature dishes include whole fried snapper, ricotta gnocchi, oxtail dumplings, and yellowtail crudo. Read together, they point to a kitchen that moves between crisp and tender, rich and delicate, without losing balance. The range suggests comfort handled with precision, and precision kept free of fuss.

In Their Words The second line gets to the center of the work: heat approached steadily, not theatrically. It describes a kitchen where the oven is part of the craft, not a backdrop to it, and where each movement has to earn its place.

Recognition

The statement narrows the frame to Tar & Roses and to the kind of focused practice that now defines his work there.

FAQ What is Andrew Kirschner's current role? As of 2026, Andrew Kirschner is Chef/Owner at Tar & Roses. Where did Andrew Kirschner work before? Andrew Kirschner's earlier career included Wilshire Restaurant and Santa Monica Yacht Club.