Practicing on President

When President Reagan ambles down the chow line at David Murdock’s ranch near Westlake today--along with 300 other Republican Party and Hollywood insiders--he’ll be eating the Western-style fixin’s of chef Joachim Splichal.

Ribs, Santa Barbara shrimp marinated with cilantro, suckling pig, tamales, corn-on-the-cob and Splichal’s own chili are on the menu that he describes as “barbecue with a Southwestern twist.”

If the chef sounds familiar, that’s because his last local restaurant, Max Au Triangle in Beverly Hills, was one of the most critically acclaimed restaurants in the country. Brilliant was a common adjective, and one critic wrote that Splichal’s cuisine gave Los Angeles an entirely new interpretation of modern dining.

But few could regularly afford the prices Splichal needed to charge for his cuisine. Foodies mourned when Splichal shut Max’s doors in 1986.

“At first, I thought I might settle in Paris,” Splichal says. “But in France, I would have had to start all over again. I said to myself, ‘Why go backward?’ ”

Instead, Splichal moved forward into a whirlwind stint as jet-set chef. In and out of hotel rooms for two years, he participated in countless charity events and was a consultant at a series of restaurants including Q.V. (a.k.a Quo Vadis) in New York, 21 East in Chicago and the Regency Club in Westwood.

“These corporations pay a lot of money,” Splichal says, “but they want their 16-hour days from you. And with consulting, you’re always on the run. One day it’s Hong Kong, the next Orlando, Fla., or Singapore or Hamburg. . . . It’s a crazy life. I decided I want to settle down with my wife (Christine), open the restaurant of my dreams and find the right recipe for starting a family.”

He seems to have found the right ingredients for his new restaurant. After a nearly yearlong search, he found a location on Melrose, the site of the venerable Le St. Germain. Patina (“It’s a finish that with age gets better and better,” he says) is the name; the place should open sometime early next year. And the food? Splichal will reveal only that it will follow the current trend toward accessible dining.

“Let’s just say, we won’t have the same $70 average check that we did at Max.”