Gourmet Gyms Are Hardly A New Trend

By JULIETTE ROSSANT My hat is off to Jeremy Caplan at TIME magazine for his article this month "Gyms Go Gourmet." Yet, while "members old and new seem to appreciate the fancier fare," either Caplan or his editors do little service to attention-deficit, memory-short American readers by omitting the previous incarnation of gourmet gyms in spa cuisine. Among their more famous promoters are LA-based Joachim Splichal, most recently in a newly incarnated venture led by his wife and business partner Christine Splichal at Kinara Spa. Joachim Splichal was on top of spa cuisine in the 1980s, which appeared at actual spas (most famously the Canyon Ranch SpaClub) as well as Windstar cruiseline. Two decades later, wife Christine Splichal's Kinara Spa has taken this process a bit further by creating her own spa and then including a Kinara Café within it -- featuring, as one would hope, menus prepared by husband Joachim. Spa cuisine became so popular in the 1980s that it penetrated restaurants themselves early on and has been a regular feature for weight-conscious Americans on Splichal's menus, most famously at his Patina restaurant, a famous Hollywood high-end hang-out. Come on, TIME magazine, and do your readers a real service by putting news items into perspective! Or, is there some conflict of interest, since Joachim is not opening at the new Time-Warner Center in New York, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Thomas Keller & Co.?