A Love Letter to Santa Fe, Served on a Plate: Greg Zoch

In this deliciously heartfelt episode of The Real Santa Fe, Bunny sits down with producer and director Greg Zoch of Windmill Winds Entertainment—creator of Santa Fe Foods, a docuseries spotlighting some of the most iconic restaurants in town. From the James Beard Award-winning Chef Fernando Olea at Sazón to Market Steer’s powerhouse duo Kat and Christina, Greg shares the behind-the-scenes story of how this cinematic celebration of Santa Fe’s culinary soul came to life.

You’ll hear how his lifelong love affair with Santa Fe began as a child camping at Ski Santa Fe, why he and his wife Teresa decided to capture the city’s vibrant food culture on film, and what makes chefs like Fernando and Mark Kiffin of The Compound true community heroes.

This episode is part travel guide, part tribute, and part foodie inspiration—with stops at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, shoutouts to Wine & Chile Fiesta, and a beautiful conversation about resilience, generosity, and the power of creating joy—on the plate and in life.

🎥 Watch the Santa Fe Foods pilot episode: santafefoods.tv
🌄 Explore more at: windmillwinds.com

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Original Music by: Kene Terry

Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:50.488)
We have a special guest on today's episode, Greg Zoch. Greg Zoch is a guy who has a job that all of us would like to have. He's, you know what, Greg, tell people who you are. I always, I want to be sure we always get the details right.

Well, it depends on who you ask, right? But I will say that for our purposes, I'm a producer and director for Windmill Winds Entertainment. Our most dear to our heart project to date, I think that we're to talk about a little today is Santa Fe Foods, which is an episodic docuseries where we are highlighting some of the best restaurants in Santa Fe. I know there's a lot, but

we had to select a few.

And I'm really curious about the research that goes into this. Do you just have to go around town and eat everywhere over and over?

Yeah, it's grueling and I have, it's just somebody's gotta do it, Bunny. So, right, and we were just lucky enough to have that arduous chore, right? Yeah, research is key.

Speaker 2 (02:05.166)
It is, it is, and food is my favorite kind of research. But I want to know first, Greg, as a teaser, I want everybody to know that we're going to link to what Greg has produced on film. But I want to know your story. How did you end up in this place doing this incredibly cool thing?

Yeah, that's a that's a long story, but the short version is my parents took us to northern New Mexico since I was about six years old. And we actually camped up in what is now the parking lot of ski Santa Fe, that little creek that runs right through the parking lot. Yeah, we were we camped right on there before there was any. It was the end of the road. I mean, it was a gravel road all the way up and we just

You know, we fell in love with Santa Fe over the course of many, many summers and many, many visits. And as an adult, you know, take took our own children and, know, it just this lifelong love affair that we had. My mom and my, my dad, for that matter, you know, they'd been going there since before we were born. So it's a kind of a family thing. My wife's family is actually from northeastern New Mexico, Yates.

is her mom's maiden name, right? And so she has roots that run deep in New Mexico as well. Teresa and I kind of did some math and we figured we were probably walking around the plaza as kids at the same time. know, so fast forward, we've been coming to Santa Fe since gosh, you know, forever. And we were lucky enough.

to find a nice little kind townhome kind of condo thing in South Capitol almost 10 years ago. And we have just, never stops, right? I mean, it just keeps getting better and better and better. And Santa Fe is just one of those special places. know, think Hampton Sides was one of the commentators on the pilot episode. He's a local guy who a lot of people know. And Hampton's very-

Speaker 2 (04:22.83)
Yes.

Yeah, he's got he what a great writer researcher writer. I mean, he just has a knack of making it three dimensional, right? So if you haven't read some Hampton side stuff, you must read Hampton sides. Blood and Thunder's good and they're all good. But he said it best. He said Santa Fe has a really special vibe. And that is probably the best way to describe it because there's so much

to love and you can run a long list of that, but it's really that vibe that's the combination of the people, the sky, the land, the climate, the culture, art, and of course, Great food, one of the best destinations for food in the country, if not the world.

So I have to confess, people who are listeners may not know this, but in my real life, in my other life, when I'm not entertaining myself with stories about New Mexico, I sell real estate in Santa Fe. I send your video to, you know, I have this perfect client avatar and all of my clients seem to be, if they're buyers, seem to be looking in Sedona.

and Boise and Lake Tahoe and Santa Fe. And I don't know, and sometimes Boulder, you know, they talk about how those spaces are somewhat similar. And I always, I send them your video, the season one video, because I'm like, can you, does this exist in those other cities? You did a really good job, of creating not just a story about one specific chef.

Speaker 2 (06:13.656)
but talking about the entire food community. And I'm curious to know where that inspiration came from, other than getting to eat in great places.

Well, that's certainly part of it, right? Yeah. So the, we had a great team, you know, we had a great, my wife is my co-producer, Teresa. And, you know, again, we've just had this lifelong love, love affair for Santa Fe. And the genesis of this project was that we had been following Fernando Olea for many years at his other restaurants. And we, also had met.

this other couple in the course of different gatherings and Lawrence and Susanna Becerra. And so Lawrence tells us that we, we've opened this new restaurant. And I'm like, fantastic. What is it? It's Cezanne. Well, who's the chef? Fernando Ollaia. And we're like, we're in, right? So over dinner one night with them at Cezanne and Fernando, if anybody's dined there or if you haven't, you must, because it's an experience.

Fernando always comes out and greets the guests and talks a little bit and you know, really makes you feel like you're at home and you're special. we, so I turned to Lawrence and I said, Lawrence, have you seen the chef's table on Netflix? And he said, yes. I said, somebody needs to do chef's table on Cezanne or on Santa Fe. And he says, well, if you have a hookup, do it, right? Bring it to us, right? And so,

about a year later, Teresa and I were talking and we said, you know, we've got, you know, why aren't we doing it? Right. So we started doing the, doing all the, you know, the pre-production and we, put it all together, budgeted it out and it was, you know, it's, it's obviously a lot more. It's like we're whipping up a nice meal as you know, there's always a lot involved. Right. So once we got it all on paper, we realized, you know, we need to do a full series on this. And so we just picked six, we could have picked

Speaker 1 (08:22.798)
60 restaurants, right? mean, but we picked six to start off with. so we picked Cezanne, obviously, and that's the pilot. And then there's Sosella, great team over there. And then Restaurant Martine, we've got Market Steer Steakhouse, of course, the compound, legendary compound. Geronimo is also there.

wonderful, wonderful group of chefs. you know, we're, we were really excited to do that. And hopefully we'll be able to do episodes two through six as well. Maybe a couple more.

So you have episodes that exist for every one of those restaurants right now.

We have commitments and we have them all on paper. We have not done the film work on that. We have not shot those episodes.

Okay, I just wanted to be sure I didn't miss something. Yeah. Okay, so you have the pilot and the pilot, tell people a little bit about Fernando first. I know that a lot of folks who have been coming to Santa Fe for a long time might be surprised to know where he began.

Speaker 1 (09:22.061)
okay.

Speaker 1 (09:39.714)
Yeah, Fernando is a very interesting guy, just a real charismatic person. But he came from Mexico, Mexico City, and he has a very interesting backstory. But once he arrived in Santa Fe, he went into like the furniture business or something, right? And then he decided, I'm going to get into the food business, right? He actually owned Burt's Burger Bowl, which you may know of. Yes.

Everybody's been to Burt's Burger Bowl, been going to Santa Fe for any length of time. And he ran that for, I don't know, 20 years or something like that. And then he opened up another restaurant called Izanami. I'm sorry, that's not Izanami. You can cut that out. So then Fernando opened up another restaurant, Epizote, where the old Lotteria.

Now I'm dating myself, right? Well, we're a lot to you.

And that's where my office is now. The Keller Williams offices are where Epizote used to be up above on Lincoln Street, 130 Lincoln. So one of my offices has a balcony that looks out where Epizote used to be.

Yeah, and so Fernando has always had this love of molays and the molay sauce is a very complex sauce that a lot of people, you know, really don't understand or really don't appreciate like they should. And if they go to Cezanne, they're going to learn to appreciate it. But it's a very complex and he's got multiple different variations of this.

Speaker 1 (11:25.102)
and he's just been working on it over the course of his life and he brought that to Cezanne and as luck would have it after we shot this we shot this in the fall of 21 in the in first quarter of 22 for some pickup shots. Fernando was nominated for a James Beard award and if anybody doesn't know what the James Beard award is that's like the Academy Awards for chefs and restaurants and the hospitality

you know, in restaurant industry. And he was nominated for best chef and he won for best chef in the Southwest for 2022. So we couldn't have picked a better guy, a better chef to do as our pilot. And we're just really, really excited about it. But he's really one of the sweetest guys too. He's very kind. He's a good listener. He's very loyal and

and he's just one of those good eggs is what we call him.

Well, in talking about being a good egg, my other great love, and I do believe most people know this, is that I am the board chair of the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico because I'm a stage four cancer survivor. And the Becerras and Fernando and Chef Christian over at Cicela are so, so incredibly generous. This last year for our sweetheart auction, they donated, and this was a hot, hot item, they donated

two separate dinners for, I believe, six people, a chef's dinner at each restaurant. And so these are folks who are not only incredibly successful in the Santa Fe restaurant industry, but really, really generous and really involved in the community. if you're in town, whether you live here or you live in Hobbs or you live in Dubai, when you come to town,

Speaker 2 (13:26.772)
you've, need to eat at both of those restaurants and the others you've talked about, but I want people to know that this, this Fert, this pilot episode is not, it's really a love letter to Santa Fe in general. I, I was so excited. You know, you have, we had Cheryl Jameson on the podcast before. Well, she's like, she's like the encyclopedia of New Mexico food is

Yeah, she really is. Yeah, she is fantastic. She actually was also is one of the commentators in the pilot episode and just lends a, you know, a very warm gravitas to the, you know, entire episode to kind of set it up. She is one of the most vivacious and just knowledgeable people. And she's so well connected. If I ever needed anything, she said, I'll introduce you to that person and that person.

right. And she was just the ever ready bunny, you know, and she she does these wonderful trips to France that she curates with a small group of people. I think she's getting ready to do another one here soon. So hopefully we'll be able to do that one day. And so she's yeah, she's marvelous. And yes, the Basirises and Fernando and chef Christian, they're wonderfully generous with their time and resources. And that's one of the reasons we actually

got involved with Lawrence and Susanna was they had the Las Campanas Compadres, which helps the developmentally delayed individuals in the Santa Fe community. And they've done a wonderful job with that. Equestrian, I think before COVID stopped people from mingling as closely as they need to for some of those programs, they had a wonderful equestrian program that really just made a huge difference in people's lives.

They have wonderful hearts, they all do.

Speaker 2 (15:25.176)
Well, that's what I mean, that's really what most New Mexicans are all about anyway, is that they're involved in their community and they have this great love, you know, whether you're new here or you've been here, your family's been here for 400 years or forever. I loved that you did a piece on wine and chili because as Cheryl says, I believe that was her, she was in the middle of commenting on that.

That's where a lot of chefs who are new to town end up spending some time and getting some recognition,

Yep. Yep. That's a wonderful event. Wine and Chili is probably one of the premier. I mean, there's so many great festivals and events in Santa Fe, but if you haven't done Wine and Chili, you got to do that. It's just a one and that a lot of chefs got their start. Fernando Alea talks about it. He, was one of the first places he got exposure to people. And a lot of chefs will come out and they'll bring, you know, kind of like use that like an experimental kitchen.

So you'll get to taste things that maybe you wouldn't get to taste any other place than at the wine and chili fiesta.

And let's talk about, I'm determined now, I've made a bunch of a lot of lists just while I'm sitting here, people that I've got to have on the podcast, but our friend Kat Crook, Kat and Christina who have market steer, you know, Kat is from Artesia. I mean, you know, she grew up on a ranch in Artesia and has one of the funniest stories about how she became a chef. I'm gonna save that for the podcast, but I know.

Speaker 2 (17:04.76)
folks in southeastern New Mexico are really, really feel a loyalty to her. But so do people who have eaten at Market Steer for the first time. Tell me how you, did you meet them through production of this video or did you know that?

Yeah, no, we've actually been guests at at Market Steer and and we were just so taken with the the warmth and the way they treat their guests. mean, Christina always remembers everybody. I mean, I don't know how she does it, but she is just she is a wonderful steward of of all things Market Steer and and and Kat Kat is she's she's amazing. She's funny. She's got this dry sense of humor.

and she is just a big heart. And so we just kind of fell in love with both of them. And when we had this idea to start adding restaurants, you know, it just happened to be that one of the best steak houses in the country is theirs. And they ran a very successful operation over in Aspen. And it's so wonderful to see them come home to New Mexico. And they bought a house last year or the year before. Right. It's just like they're

realtor.

There you go. So they're just super happy that they were able to to get back to Santa Fe. And it's just a wonderful it's a classy kind of casually elegant place to eat. The food is first rate. I mean, you must not just like about you know, cat Christina and the market steer steakhouse. It's just a wonderful place.

Speaker 2 (18:44.462)
And also another person who's really, really generous to the foundation and who has, and I think that he would say, of course I do, has a reputation for being a, sometimes a challenging guy in the market, but amazing and consistently, the food is consistently perfect. Every time I go there is Mark Kiffin at the compound.

He was on the video for a while. Tell me about Mark.

Yeah, Marcus, he's just a legend, quite frankly, and a James Spirit Award winner himself. The compound is legendary. think he's been there for 20 some odd years. Over 20 years. it's a wonderful place. It's got this great vibe all of its own from the little sunken bar area that I think it's sunken, isn't it?

Over 20 years.

Speaker 2 (19:42.548)
It is. I have to tell you, the first time I went to the Compound Bar, I was like, I don't know what the big deal is. It's tiny. There's room enough for 12 people. Why does everybody think this is a big deal? And what people need to know is if you're coming to town and you want to go to the Compound Bar, you better make a reservation about eight weeks in advance because it's the hottest place to hang out in town.

Yeah. Mark is one of those. He is a perfectionist. He wants everything to be perfect as far as he can control that. And if you've ever been in a commercial kitchen before, it's controlled chaos in the first place, but he has consistently put out one of the best products from service to food to environment.

courtyards are beautiful. The staff are all so gracious and well trained and they everybody just there's not a bad. I've never had a bad time. I've never had a okay time. I think it's all been you know great and Mark is uh you know II really really like him. He is a promoter. Uh he is uh you know he's front of the house, back of the house, all around the house and

He is a first-rate human being and he is a very generous person.

And I can already tell Greg, we're going to have to do a second episode because there's way, way, way too much to cover here. But I want to circle back. mean, you did a really good job of covering, you know, for somebody who's never ever been to Santa Fe, you did a really good job of covering a lot of the high spots. talk about you

Speaker 2 (21:41.59)
You go with Fernando to the farmers market. mean, give folks a little bit of a glimpse into the farmers market.

Yeah, so we wanted to have a chef in his natural environment, right? Which is shopping for food, getting creative ideas. There's something about that Santa Fe farmers market that is just very special. It's so, the senses just come alive. The sights, the sounds, the smells, everything. And it's one of the best, I think it's like the number three

top rated farmers market in the country. It's wonderful. I mean, you can get just about anything. And then they've got the artisan market as well. So you've got people selling handcrafted everything from jewelry to textiles. And that farmers market is so well run. It flows well. It was super exciting to bring Fernando and his daughter.

I think so, yes.

Speaker 1 (22:49.518)
Roberta out to shop for some food to prepare for the dinner that we shot as well. And just the interaction, you know, talking about, remember when we used to come here, you were a little girl and it was smaller. And, you know, it's just, it's a wonderful way to introduce their relationship. And I think that food is one of those things that binds people together and causes people to become closer.

And it was a great venue to take people through that farmers market. It's just vibrant.

It is. I think that's a must see. You we always want to give folks a taste of, know, if you're coming to town for three days, you got to go to the farmer's market. and I know that you are producing pieces that are about a number of chefs. if you knew somebody was coming to town for three or four days,

What would be your, my gosh, you can't miss besides the farmer's market.

other than the restaurants.

Speaker 2 (24:02.646)
Other than Cezanne, Market Steer, CeCela, or Restaurant Martine.

Talking about other restaurants or just Santa Fe. Just you gotta you gotta.

You tell me, you know, if your brother-in-law was coming from California and you weren't going to be here to show him around, what would you tell him you needed to

do? Well, during the day, there's just so much to do and see, you know, I think the drive up to the ski base and it's just one of the best if it's a hot day, you know, what most people consider, you know, hot, it's not really hot, right? it's 90 degrees in Santa Fe, everybody's like, you know, running for the shade, right? But it but it's you know, if it's if it's warm, just get in the car, take a, you know, 20 minute drive up to ski Santa Fe.

That's that Santa Fe Basin is so beautiful. The Aspen trees, I mean, it's just it's one of the it's very alpine. So while Santa Fe is kind of high desert, this ski basin is very much a, you know, an alpine setting. I think, you know, there's a lot of great day trips that you can that you can go out. Even in town, you got Museum Hill, right? There's a lot of things to do and see. I always tell people start at the plaza.

Speaker 1 (25:18.578)
you know, just follow your nose, just wander, because there's so many unique shops. If you want jewelry, if you want handcrafted, if you want just one of a kind items, you don't see a lot of chain stores. It's a truly unique kind of retail experience and historical experience with the Loretto Chapel and, you know, just their

there's around every corner, there's something that is 400, 500 or more years old, right? Including the Palace of the Governors, another great museum to go through. I think the La Fonda Hotel is just that classic, you gotta go in, sit down, have a margarita in the bar. The Plasuelo restaurant is actually very good. It is, it is. You think, well, it's just a hotel restaurant. No, it's very good.

I would say they have the best, and this is hard for me because I love queso and there's lots of good queso, but I think that La Plas Vuelas has the best queso in town. So that's always my...

really good tamale too. If you haven't had that, yeah, they've got this big tamale. It's like it's really good. Hopefully it's still on the menu. It's been a while since I've ordered. But you know that if you get a chance to if it's an opera season, you know that Santa Fe Opera is wonderful, wonderful venue. It's not just opera, you know, we're not huge opera fans. We've been to a few but just primarily because they're late and we're kind of fold up early. But

I haven't had

Speaker 1 (27:00.428)
The venue is a wonderful venue. saw KC Musgraves there and there's a lot of other groups that play there. That's a wonderful. And then day trips. Go to Chama. Go, you know, if the train is running, you know, go to the Cumbres and Toltec steam engine and take a half a day train ride up through the mountains. It's beautiful. The Hemis, Wilderness. And that's what it

The Valle Caldera, okay? If people have not been to the Valle Caldera, it's like going to Yellowstone National Park. It's like this massive caldera or old volcano that's kind of collapsed on itself. And you've been there, I'm sure, right? And it's idyllic.

Well, and I would say to people, if you are a fan of the television series, Longmire, where Longmire's cabin is, is at the Vias Caldera. Most people might think that it's filmed in Wyoming or wherever it's supposed to be set. It's filmed right here.

But yeah, yeah.

So I want to circle back one more time to the video series because the video does this amazing job, especially talking about what people may not know is that Cezanne had a fire that was devastating that I have closed it.

Speaker 1 (28:33.71)
I mean forever. It did close a long time.

Right, seven months, I believe, but you did an amazing job of capturing sort of that indomitable spirit of Fernando and the Becerras and Roberta. Talk about that for just a minute because I thought it was such an important part of how Sanofi's food works.

That was such an interesting experience getting to know that story. And we'd heard about it, but in talking with the people, their emotion is palpable. When you go through something like that where your entire waking life for the most of the day that you are somewhere, you are at this place, and then it's ripped away from you because there was a fire. And luckily, they caught the fire.

early enough that they were able to save the building. They went through a tremendous amount of turmoil to get all the renovations done, the cleaning and the renovations and the art off the walls. mean, if you've been to Cezanne and if you go look around, you can see there's a lot of really beautiful things and those were all there at this fire. Luckily, they were able to save it all and they got it all cleaned up, but it took them

like three times longer than they thought it would be because of one thing and another. And I'll let them tell the story themselves. the kind of the one, two punch there was they had this fire and then they opened up in December of 2019. And we know what happened in March of 2020. So they had another two or three months and then bang, they were hit again. COVID, they got shut down again.

Speaker 1 (30:28.642)
you know, everybody knows what happened after that. But they've come back stronger. And it is an indomitable spirit that just they just would not quit.

Right, right. There is this at the end where you do the chef's prayer. I'm probably gonna make myself cry, but Fernando prays and one of the things he says is that, you know, let me prepare, let me create a space of joy. And that's so moving. That entire prayer is so moving. And I watched it again this morning to remind myself of what he says, but.

But I wanna congratulate you and Teresa because I feel like that's what you've created with this series is that, I'm an amateur foodie because I love to eat, not to cook, but I'm a big fan of people who are willing to show up every single day. And it looks like they're doing the same thing over and over and over. They're producing.

You know, always think, how can they stand that to just create that menu over and over? And yet I think all of these chefs, you know, whether it's, it's the guy who's working in the kitchen at the Plaza Cafe or Mark over at the compound or Fernando at Cezanne, these guys are placed, are creating a space of joy for their customers. And you're doing the same thing by doing this video series. So I want to congratulate you on.

having an amazing idea, having three of my favorite people as commentators, Doug Preston, who's one of the best guys in the world. And Hamptonsides and Cheryl. But I want to know what's next. What's happening in the next six months?

Speaker 1 (32:31.906)
percent. Yeah, great. Thank very much, by the way, for that. Pray we really to I mean, when that when that chef's prayer comes on screen, I just gets me I mean, time that's we wanted to do is we wanted to have not just something that was nice, you know, it's kind of we wanted something that really kind of reached into your throat and in your heart, you know, made you realize this is a really

really hard industry. These people, you know, you think it's hard and it is, but it's way harder than anybody realizes to consistently get up, work 14, 16 hour days, create new menus with, you know, the compound changes their menu like four times a year for every season, right? And that's just, people don't realize just how hard that is. And it's physically hard, it's mentally hard. It's, there's labor. I mean, there's

a thousand things. It's not normal business, but it's not a normal product, but it's something that everybody can get around. so we really enjoy doing it. We just had a great team. So the next six months, so here's our plan. I'll let you in on this. We're actually in the process of building a house currently. We're just north of Santa Fe, just inside the city limits.

We bought this lot before COVID. And so we're going to move there full time sometime this summer. And then we'll live in our South Capitol unit there, our little town home condo, Adobe. And then once that's ready, once the house is finished, we'll move in there. Our plan is we haven't pushed hard.

Santa Fe Foods because quite frankly, you know, our plate is full right now. Right. It's all pun intended. so we will get to that. So bear with us. We will get episode two through six or eight done and then we roll it. There'll be season two and three. mean, again, there's just so many great places to eat and then it's not all just all fine dining. You know, there's some

Speaker 2 (34:31.949)
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:55.938)
great places that are little holes in the wall. Right? I mean, you probably have a few of those that you have that are your special places, right? I do. And so the next six months is get moved, get settled in, continue working on projects that we've got some film projects that we have that are kind of slowly being developed. People want to check those out. You can go to windmillwinds.com.

and that's our website for windmill wins. And then anybody that wants to learn more about the Santa Fe Foods TV show is you can go to santafefoods.tv and that will give you information about that. Or you can just Google or search on YouTube Santa Fe Foods TV and that

And we'll have links. have links. Wonderful. So I don't want people to have to look very hard because I want them to be sure to find you. But Greg, this has been so much fun. This conversation is such a treat for me. I'm so glad you agreed to come on the show.

okay.

Speaker 1 (36:03.47)
Well, I look forward to meeting you in person. feel like I know you and thank you for all of the efforts that you make. I too am a cancer survivor. It's one of those things that touches virtually everybody. Everybody. Either first or second degree of separation. in our lifetime, I think there's a really good shot that we're going to create some treatments that'll take it off the menu.

It gets better every year. It gets better every year. So thank you for that. And Greg, let's get together and have breakfast, some more fun, okay? Got it. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much for this.

What's the cafe?

Speaker 1 (36:43.374)
Thank you, you're welcome.