Sacramento Bee photograph/Owen Brewer

Kurt Spataro is missing in action from his eponymous downtown restaurant, as well as from other restaurants of the Paragary Restaurant Group, of which he is executive chef and partner.

Spataro is out of the kitchen and putting in desk duty following a February skiing accident in which he sustained a fractured left ankle that required surgery to install a six-inch steel plate and eight screws.

"I was making a series of wide turns, nothing fancy, when I caught an inside edge. Before I could recover my balance, I tumbled head first and ended up on my back, facing up hill, about 40 feet from where my skis came off," says Spataro, who was skiing the west bowl of Sierra-at-Tahoe at the time.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who frequently has dined at Esquire Grill, another restaurant for which Spataro is executive chef, and who had his own skiing mishap earlier this year, hasn't stepped up to offer Spataro his crutches or cane.