New chef at the Palace

The Cincinnatian Hotel has a new chef for its fine-dining restaurant The Palace. He's Joe West, who comes most recently from acclaimed American restaurant Bluestem in Kansas City, where he was chef de cuisine. There he worked for Colby Garrelts, James Beard Award winner of Best Chef, Midwest, 2013.  Throughout his career, he's worked with other James Beard award winners and Food & Wine Magazine Best New Chefs.

Born in Japan, where his Marine father met his mother, West grew up in Kansas City, and started his career as a prep cook at 40 Sardines there when he was 16. He went to Johnson and Wales culinary school on a full scholarship after  winning their  high school cooking and  recipe contest in 2007.

While in school, he did a stage at Alinea the year in opened. After, he was pastry chef at Bluestem for a time, and  earned a 3 1/2 star rating from the Kansas City Star for Delaware Cafe when he was just 22.

He was chef de partie at Michelin 2-star Alex Restaurant in Las Vegas and worked his way up to  sous chef at Stratta, both under Alessandro Stratta at   the Wynn Hotel  in Las Vegas.  Two years ago he returned to Kansas City as chef de cuisine at Bluestem: it's a progressive fine-dining American restaurant; they offer 3, 5 and 10-course menus.

West said that working at Alex at the Wynne was a formative experience for him. "It was the kind of place where the cooks push themselves and each other, always striving for excellenc.," he said from the highway between  Kansas City and Cincinnati.  "They demanded professionalism in  every single thing, down to the handwriting on your lists."  He also had a culinary home at Bluestem, where he worked three different times. "It's an independent restaurant, where the budget is strict and every guest counts. They have incredibly high standards."

West starts at The Palace this week, (it's currently closed for some re-modeling) and will be working on a new menu that he thinks will be ready in about a month. "As a chef, my philosophy is to make people happy,  give them an experience they'll never forget.  I've always worked in the best place in town, I hope to make The Palace that place."

You can follow the new chef on Twitter at @joe_west.