Jimmy Schmidt

The Climb

Training at University of Illinois, Luberon College, and Maison du Vin in Avignon gave Jimmy Schmidt a base that reads less like credentialing than method: place, discipline, and repeatable technique. In the kitchen, that kind of formation shows up as control over timing, attention to ingredients, and a habit of working from what a region gives rather than from abstraction. That approach was already in practice at Chez La Mere Madeleine in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, where Schmidt worked as senior chef until 1977. In that role, precision was part of the daily work, and the kitchen asked for a cook who could read ingredients closely and treat execution as interpretation. Detroit expanded the scale. From 1977 through 1985, Schmidt served as Executive Chef and General Manager at the London Chop House, where the job joined kitchen authority to front-of-house responsibility. Menus, pacing, and room rhythm all sat inside the same remit, making leadership as much a part of the craft as cooking itself. That broader remit carried into Denver in 1985, when Schmidt became chef and restaurant founder at the Rattlesnake Club, a role he held through 2010. Founder is the operative word here: it points to a kitchen built around a point of view, not just a list of dishes. Today, Jimmy is chef of Morgan’s in the Desert, La Quinta Resort & Club, continuing a practice shaped by season, setting, and appetite.

Today

Seasonality sits at the center of Schmidt’s stated method, along with a preference for clean flavor over excess. He has said: "My simple inspiration is to preserve and enhance the natural beauty of the bounty of nature." That is a working definition of restraint: keep the ingredient legible, but shape it with enough care to bring its best qualities forward. He frames the same idea in terms of contrast, nutrition, and memory: "Seasonal ingredients captured at their peak of flavor and nutrition, in contrasting and accentuating collisions of flavors inspire the senses to nourish both mind and body and engrave warm memories for years to come." In practice, that means a kitchen interest in balance and tension, where flavors meet in ways that sharpen each other without losing coherence.

Signature

Blue Corn Blini w/Salmon, Curried Lamb Sausage, and White Chocolate Ravioli show the same working logic that appears in Schmidt’s philosophy: use contrast deliberately, and let familiar forms carry new combinations. The dishes are named plainly, but the structure beneath them depends on tension, balance, and a willingness to put tradition into active use.

In Their Words “Seasonal ingredients captured at their peak of flavor and nutrition, in contrasting and accentuating collisions of flavors inspire the senses to nourish both mind and body and engrave warm memories for years to come.” “Cooking applies my unique perspective of nature’s flavor, biological and nutritional components to the taste and align the nutrition to a delicious nourishing harmony.”

Recognition

Jimmy Schmidt has received James Beard Foundation, Who’s Who of Cooking in America (1984).