Johnny Ortiz-Concha on Culinary Initiations and Honoring Time Through Food in Northern New Mexico

Johnny Ortiz-Concha’s journey to finding himself as a chef doesn’t follow the typical career path—which has led him from the mountains of northern New Mexico to the kitchens of some of the country’s most prestigious restaurants. His first job was at Alinea in Chicago when he was only 19 (and the restaurant had just earned its third Michelin star), followed by a stint at Willows Inn off the Washington coast. At 23, while working at Saison in San Francisco, he was named an Eater Young Gun. But right when his star was rising, Ortiz-Concha left it all behind to return to the area surrounding the Taos Pueblo, where he grew up, and to realize his vision for a very personal project. Shed is an intimate dinner series that’s a direct expression of the wild 22-acre farm Ortiz-Concha now calls home. But as you’ll hear, Shed is about more than serving a hyper-local meal. For Ortiz-Concha, it’s a larger investigation into connecting how we live, what we eat, and where we’re from.

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