I developed the idea for New Ranch Cuisine when I was working as a Sous Chef at Star Canyon Restaurant, under Stephan Pyles.  We focused on Southwestern Cuisine, which I love.  Still, I wanted to create a cuisine that was influenced less by Mexican cooking and more by the traditions, the heritage, the techniques and ingredients of dishes common to farming and ranching communities at the turn of the century.  In this way, New Ranch Cuisine is closer to New American than Southwestern Cuisine. 

It’s more subtle than “cowboy cooking,” concentrating on the flavors and techniques from these areas and showing them off in a simple and modern way.  The cooking at the turn of the century in these communities was very pure and practical.  They cooked seasonally, and found ways to inject a lot of flavor into ingredients with seasoning, smoke and, often, curing. 

New Ranch Cuisine encompasses these techniques, and it conjures the images and emotions of the West: bold flavors that reflect the beauty and diversity of the American Landscape.