Trendsetter

Kimbal Musk, co-chef/ owner, The Kitchen

Earth-friendly eating is pure pleasure at this upscale Boulder, Colorado, bistro. The building is powered entirely by wind, the cooking oil is recycled into biodiesel fuel, and the menu of local and organic foods is as sophisticated as Musk's training at the French Culinary Institute in New York.

Q:What's most rewarding about running the Kitchen?

A:Just making people happy. It's amazing how many customers tell me how glad they are that we're successful. A restaurant can be busy and profitable and still do good things.

Q:What do you want diners to remember when they leave the restaurant?

A:That they've truly eaten Colorado food. It's not just bison and game meats anymore.

Q:What are your favorite local ingredients?

A:Colorado peaches are shockingly good. The corn is wonderful. And this summer's tomatoes were amazing. We do a grilled peach, grown on the western slope of the Rockies, with a Berkshire blue cheese from Fort Collins on top of bruschetta—a slice of heaven.
—interview by Molly Pindell

(Photograph by Diane Huntress)