Patrick McDonnell is a founding partner of McDonnell Kinder & Associates and by vocation, a chef with a career that spans multiple disciplines including food journalism, advertising executive, commercial actor, brand spokesperson, speaker and professional photographer​.
His culinary career began in London in 1968 with with the Savoy Hotel Group (the Savoy, Claridges, Barclay and Connaught Hotels and Simpsons in the Strand and Stones Chops House).
He returned to the United States in 1973 and joined the Rouse Company's Hotel Division in Baltimore. In 1975 he and his wife and partner Coral opened Sarabande to critical acclaim. Over the next 5 years they added the French Quarter and re-launched the Cromwell Valley Inn and also opened the Black Pearl for an investment group in Jim Rouse's new Harbor Place.
In 1980, Patrick and Coral decided to step onto a national stage by moving to New York City to take the helm of the ground breaking Nouvelle Cuisine restaurant, Le Coup de Fusil. And in 1981 he took the position of Executive Chef of the iconic Rainbow Room, high atop Rockefeller Center. At the time it was the largest grossing restaurant in the world.​
Following the Rainbow Room, Patrick moved into a corporate career, becoming the corporate chef for General Foods. This was followed by senior executive culinary and marketing positions with Kraft, ConAgra, ARAMARK and Noble & Associates.
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Additional Highlights - Patrick was the culinary director of Michael and Ariane Batterberry's Food Arts Magazine from 1988 until the magazine closed in 2014, when the magazine ceased publication.
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Patrick also developed and executed the Performance Nutrition programs for the United States Olympic Ski and Snowboard teams for the Nagano Olympics in 1997 -1998 and the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2001- 2002. And he founded the fund raising charities - Chefs Care the 911 Foundation after the World Trade Center attack of 2001, and co-founded Chefs for Humanity with Cat Cora after the Tsunami of 2004.
Awards - Food Arts Silver Spoon, Condé Nast Top Movers and Shakers, NRN Top 50 Tastemakers, The USSA Gold Medal Award.