Ghost Ranch is entering a new chapter for food and hospitality, with a renewed focus on the dining hall as more than a place to eat. The goal is for it to be a true gathering place, where guests can feel nourished around the table and connect with the place and the people that make Ghost Ranch special. Cody Castillo joined Ghost Ranch as Executive Chef in July to help bring that vision to life.
Cody grew up in Los Angeles and has spent much of his life around food. Some of his earliest memories of cooking come from time spent with family, gathered around the table. His career has taken him around the world and into some of the most demanding kitchens, but along the way, Cody realized that what he wanted from food had less to do with perfection and more to do with people. “I love fine dining. It’s something I’ve always been attracted to,” Cody says. “But throughout the years, my mission to food has kind of changed.” That change was a renewed focus on community, the kind that comes from people sitting together around a table. “I wanted to get back to that. That whole sense of just one big kind of family thing. I feel like that’s where I flourish.”
That is exactly what drew Cody to Ghost Ranch. His family is from Chimayó and Española. “I really care about northern New Mexico. I care about where my family’s from,” he says. “The rich culture that we have in this state, and especially up in this region, how old it is, how much history there is. I feel like Ghost Ranch embodies that.” For Cody, food is one way to tell those stories.“Not every day is going to be New Mexican food, but I want every day to be comforting,” he says. “Whether it’s a New Mexican staple, an American staple or a Middle Eastern staple, it’s going to be something that’s warm, inviting and loving. You’re going to know it’s made with love.”
He is also looking toward the landscape beyond the kitchen. Cody hopes to build relationships with nearby farmers and producers to help bring more local food from the surrounding region into the dining hall. He’s already imagining a garden near the dining hall, where fresh ingredients could be grown and used in the kitchen. “I want to just get more from the land. I want to steward the ingredients from here.”
When asked about his favorite foods, Cody doesn’t immediately name a complicated dish or fine-dining creation. He goes back to the foods that remind him of family: his grandmother’s papitas and green chile stew, his dad’s flat red enchiladas and carne asada cooked on the grill.
“I’d have to say my favorite foods are comfort foods, because it reminds me of the time that I loved the most, and that was being a child,” he says. “The things that make me think of family, the things that make me feel happy.” And if he could choose one last meal? “I’d have to have some arroz con gandules,” he says, followed by a piece of pecan pie.
It feels fitting that a chef with an extensive culinary background comes back to food this way, not to technique or perfection, but to the meals and people that made him feel at home.
If you’ve ever dined at Ghost Ranch and found yourself sitting down to a meal with strangers, chances are you left as friends. That sense of connection is at the heart of what Cody brings to the table. As he puts it, “food is one big family thing.”
