Chef Jimmy Schmidt has won a James Beard Award for “Best Midwest chef” and co-authored a cookbook with Alice Waters. But the chef is more interested in talking about what the Nebraska cows eat where he sources his beef than in pitching television shows, and discussing the electrolyte content of the all-natural energy drink he has engineered for Corvette racers or the foundation he helped start to keep U.S. children from starving than about empire aspirations. Like a rattlesnake, who Schmidt has named Denver and Detroit restaurants for, the chef is currently all-but-hiding in the far tip of the Palm Desert, now cooking at octogenarian La Quinta Resort’s new Morgan’s in the Desert. This weekend, La Quinta lowered the median age of its guests by a few decades while opening its doors to the media for a night to taste what chef Schmidt is cooking. While Morgan’s is currently serving dinner, an official grand-opening date is set for the end of the month as the menu is adjusted. Will city diners flock to the dunes to taste Schmidt’s cooking? Take a look at our Morgan’s in the Desertslideshow and judge for yourself.
