But a series of hardships, including the pandemic and severe drops in business after the Palisades and Eaton fires, changed the restaurant to a point that Corbin felt it had \u201clost its identity.\u201d In 2025, Corbin and Patterson amicably split their partnership, allowing Corbin to fully focus on Alta and Patterson to launch Jacaranda, his own return to fine dining<\/a>; the duo still operate Locol and their nonprofit, Alta Community<\/a>, together.<\/p>\n After a year of soul searching, Corbin shuttered his West Adams restaurant in February and returned in late May with a new menu \u201cshaped by migration, memory and fire,\u201d according to Corbin, loosely weaving migration routes \u2014 of communities and ingredients \u2014 from across the globe. It\u2019s what Corbin feels is \u201ca true representation of L.A.,\u201d and has proved \u201can awakening\u201d for the chef. <\/p>\n \u201cI started to learn about these cultural collision points in these migrations and trade routes and this big connection between African, Asian, and Mesoamerica or Mexico, and when I thought about it, that\u2019s the same connection that I have right here in L.A.,\u201d Corbin said. \u201cI\u2019m like, well, that\u2019s soul food.\u201d<\/p>\n West Coast oysters with strawberry mignonette, green peppercorn and lemon verbena at Keith Corbin\u2019s reopened Alta.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Now he\u2019s serving dishes such as the West African osso buco, weaving in flavors from Mexico, Asia and the Middle East with scotch bonnets, red palm oil, tomatoes and cinnamon flavoring the coconut braising sauce and its bed of couscous.<\/p>\n Gone is Alta\u2019s signature fried chicken with a vibrant house-made Fresno hot sauce. Gone are the collard greens wrapped in a single leaf and sizzled in smoked oil. Certainly, Corbin is concerned how longtime fans of the restaurant will respond and how much they might miss Alta\u2019s previous dishes, but the chef said he needed to explore and create.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want the box of soul food,\u201d Corbin said. \u201cYou get a Black chef, they cook, they grow, and you box them into \u2018soul food.\u2019 The industry does it, and your own community does it, and then if you try to play with different flavors and techniques within that cuisine, you get beat up about it.\u201d<\/p>\n The chef has always felt connected to food, whether initially by his family\u2019s cooking or his new start in a professional kitchen. After he was released from prison in 2014 \u2014 following charges of robbery, drug and gun possession and arson \u2014 Corbin was unsure of his professional path. Then, in 2016, he applied to cook at Locol, a community-minded restaurant founded by Patterson and celebrity chef Roy Choi. Corbin excelled in the kitchen and as a leader, becoming an owner of the business, and also embarking on Alta with Patterson.<\/p>\n Chef-owner Keith Corbin, left, cooks during dinner service at his reopened restaurant Alta, pictured May 26.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Alta\u2019s reinvention also felt like a return to the restaurant\u2019s origins, where Corbin was cooking original dishes to order \u2014 a process that he felt was taken from him through a string of setbacks.<\/p>\n During the pandemic, Alta flipped its adjacent cafe to a bottle shop, and the restaurant began serving what Corbin characterized as safer cuisine, taking fewer risks to draw in more customers. Entertainment industry strikes further hurt business, and Corbin said in the wake of the Eaton and Palisades fires, Alta would sometimes see only one or two customers at a time.<\/p>\n Corbin stripped down his menu, as well as his format, relying on steam tables to hold batches of fried chicken and other comfort food dishes at temperature instead of cooking to order. Staff introduced programming such as karaoke and trivia nights to attract customers, but Corbin felt it only confused the restaurant\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n Corbin stepped away in February 2025 and briefly cooked at Valle de Guadalupe\u2019s Fauna, then traveled to Europe and explored an array of cuisines, including in Italy, where he took pasta making classes. He saved seeds to plant in L.A. He competed in Padma Lakshmi\u2019s new cooking show, \u201cAmerica\u2019s Culinary Cup.\u201d Reenergized, he got back to work early this year: He\u2019d close Alta and relaunch it, this time without the steam trays and the nightly programming.<\/p>\n \u201cI got bored, I got frustrated, I started feeling trapped. It wasn\u2019t exciting anymore, and so I left the restaurant,\u201d Corbin said, adding, \u201cIt was no longer what I envisioned and what I wanted to represent me and the community, and my ability to create. So I closed it.\u201d<\/p>\n In late February, his staff canceled all existing reservations and began preparing for the new vision, which would draw from Corbin\u2019s years of culinary research tracing dishes and ingredients across continents. Since it reopened, Corbin is experimenting with more nuanced and challenging dishes: fish in a Senegalese yassa sauce; bone marrow adorned with pepper-soup-inspired bacon jam and suya spice; charred cabbage with tahini and a kombu-and-tamarind reduction and a harissa-and-white miso glaze.<\/p>\n He followed African and Caribbean ingredients such as plantains back to Southeast Asia, and peanuts to Mesoamerica, and utilized some of those regions\u2019 flavors too. Now, he\u2019s building layers of flavor through what he calls \u201cspice logic\u201d: Which spices and aromatics from various regions and cultures play well together, and how do they evolve together based on techniques such as braising or simmering?<\/p>\n West African osso buco with tomato-and-coconut-braised lamb and semolina couscous at the reopened Alta.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Bar director Madeline McQuillan revamped the beverage program with spirits representative of West Africa, Mexico and Asia, and produce- and location-inspired cocktails such as a sweet-corn spin on a sour or the South Central Cola, made with rum, lime, sparkling water and a house-made cola syrup.<\/p>\n \u201cNow the bar is matching the energy in the kitchen,\u201d Corbin said.<\/p>\n The restaurant\u2019s woodwork, seating, lighting and pillows got a design refresh, incorporating more earth tones and deep pastels. Excited to show guests the new menu, Corbin also revived Alta\u2019s kitchen counter seating, which he\u2019d removed during Alta\u2019s era of steam-tray preparation.<\/p>\n Alta\u2019s tandem bottle shop is slated to reopen in early August, while Alta\u2019s brunch service \u2014 which might include some of the signatures such as fried chicken, albeit in new formats \u2014 is planned to relaunch in late August.<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784360006_529_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Chef-owner](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784360007_281_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"West](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784360008_801_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n