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Chef Kim Müller
Brings Slow Food Philosophy
To the Galisteo Inn’s La Mancha Restaurant
Ancient groves of cottonwood trees sidle up to the banks of the Galisteo River, which spills out into a large juniper-dotted basin at the feet of the turquoise mines in New Mexico’s Ortiz Mountains. Nestled among the cottonwoods is the rambling, adobe-walled Galisteo Inn, home to La Mancha Restaurant and Kim Müller, the restaurant’s new chef.
 Müller, who hails from Santa Fe’s award-winning Compound, has a history with food that began when she supported herself with cooking as a college student and later progressed to work with famed Los Angeles chefs and restaurateurs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. Now, she applies her devotion to the much-acclaimed Slow Food International, a non-profit organization founded in 1989 to preserve locally grown food and food traditions, to La Mancha’s freshly revamped menu.
“Food is still a very big part of life in many parts Europe – people live to eat in France, Italy and Spain, while here in the United States, people eat to live,” said Müller. “The Slow Food movement has become an international group, with about 10,000 members in the U.S. and 60,000 worldwide, with big initiatives undertaken to protect and preserve native food traditions and certain foods disappearing because of globalization.”
With menu items that include Native American-harvested wild rice, locally raised lamb and chicken, and vegetables and herbs from local farmers, as well as those grown in the garden Müller is planning on site, La Mancha’s uncomplicated yet sophisticated, wholesome dishes bring back an appreciation for food the way it used to be.
“I’m trying to keep the menu seasonally based while staying within the themes of Mexican and Southwestern flavors,” said Müller. “I don’t like stuffy food. The menu is very straightforward. Halibut is in season right now; we added a spicy salsa verde which is a nice puree of pumpkin seed, cilantro, parsley and chile. I love clean, simple dishes.”
Galisteo residents frequent the Galisteo Inn’s La Mancha, the only restaurant in town. However, Santa Feans and long-distance travelers alike enjoy the 305-year building’s architecture and frontier décor, as well as the restaurant’s excellent fare.
“I’ve met a lot of people from the village,” Müller said. “Everybody knows everybody here. It’s an artistic, close-knit community that wants somewhere to eat – they are almost 25 miles from downtown Santa Fe. They are happy to have somewhere to go where they’ll be treated well and get nice food without an overblown menu.”
Selected by Bon Appetit Magazine as one of the country’s top ten culinary destinations, the Galisteo Inn’s La Mancha Restaurant has also enjoyed the limelight in Concierge.com’s list of the country’s best country inns and hotels.
“I would never work anywhere where I don’t like the food, that’s my philosophy,” Müller said. “At a certain point in your career there’s only one job for you. That’s why I’m at La Mancha.”
High Resolution TIF picture of Kim Müller available here.
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