Chef-founded and ranch-rooted, Net Zero Ranch closes the loop across Northern New Mexico.
Kualani Kennedy, owner, comes from a ranching and farming background. From an early age she was involved in cattle ranching and growing food farm-to-table. Her young adult years led to forty-three years in kitchens: a Culinary Institute degree, New York's Michelin-starred lines, and decades as a private chef — from New York City to San Francisco to an off-grid cabin in the Sangre de Cristos.
In 2022 the Hermit's Peak fire — the largest in New Mexico's history — took her kitchen. Kennedy cooked through the evacuation, pulling off fifteen weddings while the mountains still burned. By summer's end she held fifteen five-star reviews and a quiet realization: in the ashes, she had started a company. Net Zero Ranch was born.
"The only way to deliver a meal worth remembering is to know exactly where the food comes from."— Kennedy
The name is a real place — her home, off the grid, run on sun and well water, her horses providing the fertilizer for the flower and herb gardens that flavor NZR's dishes and decorate your event tables. The loop she lives is the loop she built the company on.
Kennedy is the creative force behind Net Zero Ranch. Her Taos kitchen is privately owned and run by a talented farmer-and-baker duo who source from the Taos and Santa Fe farmers markets and partner with local stores carrying organic products. They are the NZR chefs who prep and cook your food, and design and bake your cake and desserts — all in one kitchen, all from scratch.
In nine steps the loop closes — regenerative ranchers grow the food, our crew cooks it over live fire and wood smoke, guests gather on compostable ware, and every plate and scrap returns to living soil.
"We don't do pretty. We don't paint plates, and we skip the microgreens. Our food is beautiful just the way it comes off the grill — out of a tossed salad bowl, or our own bruschetta with fresh, tasty toppings. Natural, real, and delicious."— Kennedy