Bob Lynn
Owner/Executive Chef

Born in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, entrepreneur, self taught chef and restaurant man Bob Lynn has brought his culinary talents to California with the opening of La Grande Orange Café in Pasadena’s 1934 historic Del Mar train station. Now a resident of California for nine years, Bob and his wife (artist, Sara Abbott) reside in a loft in Santa Monica that he designed and built on the second floor of a 1951 post modern building.  Having operated over 54 restaurants including La Grande Orange Grocery, Chelsea’s Kitchen, La Grande Orange Café, Radio Milano, LGO Pizzeria and soon to open La Grande Orange Santa Monica, Lynn’s simple culinary approach is hard to beat.  Mission: help great ingredients realize their full potential. True to that philosophy and passionate to take American classics to a whole new level, Lynn has always emphasized cooking fresh, organic and seasonal food before it became cool to talk about.

At the age of 13, using family and friends, Lynn made his way into a position as sous chef in one of Chicago’s finest German restaurants.  Before long, his steak tartar recipe and other simple “Berlin Style Bistro” food were big hits amongst diners.  He found himself in an environment that quickly began to feel like home.  With a straight-forward Midwestern culinary sensibility he soon realized that food, cooking, and wine came naturally to him.  The middle child amongst five brothers and sisters, his family celebrated adventure in the kitchen.  Showcasing a natural culinary talent at a very young age is eventually what brought Lynn to Houston’s during its rise as a leading restaurant company.  Twenty five years later he then turned his attention to his own venture LGO Hospitality, leaving Houston’s with the title of executive vice president.  His latest project La Grande Orange Santa Monica is an obvious fit to both his business and artistic identity. When Lynn is not in the restaurants, he is testing new recipes, spending time with his other culinary and restaurant friends, studying art, doing yoga, and listening to the music that eventually makes it into the dining room.