Two chefs invested in growing corn that will benefit their menus and the environment, be available for other chefs, and support local farmers.
What do chocolate, coffee, caviar, and corn all have in common? They all taste better when they’re produced sustainably.
Chefs Johnny Curiel and Kelly Whitaker take this philosophy seriously. Many of us are just now starting to celebrate corn season, whether by dusting off the grill and cooking up some cobs, nixtamalizing some masa to fry up fresh tortillas, or trying out new grilled corn recipes. The duo, however, has been thinking about corn all year long.
Toward the end 2025, Curiel and Whitaker, both big players in Colorado dining, partnered with the MASA Seed Foundation to plant 20 acres of heirloom corn in Boulder, Colorado. The chefs turned to the MASA Seed Project’s founder Richard Pecoraro to plant and cultivate the Oaxaca green, Chihuahua blue, and Concha white pozole varieties. The plan had multiple goals. First, both chefs want to experiment with heirloom varieties they think will work well on their menus. Beyond that, they want to bolster local foodways.
Now, Curiel and Whitaker hope the initiative kickstarts a movement of restaurateurs and home cooks thinking about where their corn comes from. “Most corn in the U.S. is not grown as food for people. It is primarily feed, fuel, and industrial processing,” says Whitaker. “In that system, corn is often planted in simplified rotations, dependent on synthetic nitrogen, and associated with soil degradation, nutrient runoff, greenhouse gas emissions and loss of crop diversity. Our Boulder MASA project is trying to reverse that relationship — corn as food, culture, biodiversity, and soil stewardship.”…