ADAM MEDINA RANCHOS

Ranchos Plaza Grill

Adam Medina

The fridge at home is sparse. Enough fixings for an easy sandwich — pastrami or corned beef, some store-bought kimchi for an extra tang — after a long day at the Ranchos Plaza Grill, where owner-chef, Adam Medina, spends most of his time.

At the restaurant, the fridge is full of spirits. Not of the alcoholic assortment, but the kind that live on even after passing, whether in photo or in recipe.

Medina’s father’s spirit is in there. Medina’s father; who cooked all his life, running a catering business and working restaurants, like the Don Fernando in Taos. Medina’s father discouraged his son from the demanding restaurant business, but Medina went to the now-closed Los Angeles Culinary Institute anyway. The two opened the south-end grill in 2000. Dad’s special touch is in the chile sauce, because dad showed Medina how to prepare the chiles, pair them with pork for a rich relish.

This means Medina’s grandmother’s spirit is in the fridge, too, because grandma taught dad what he knows about chile. Medina remembers leaving the Ranchos home to visit grandma in Peñasco on weekends. She had a big garden and taught Medina to let the chiles age red, then string them into ristras and how to make a simple chile caribe.

“Watching my grandmother cooking, I learned that you’re not only cooking with your hands or mind, you’re cooking with your heart,” says Medina, 49. He now sources his red chile powder from a lady in Dixon, and the green chiles from a larger vendor, because the restaurant goes through 70 to 80 pounds of ‘em a week. The sauce is a signature item.

In the spirit of the family line, both sons are interested in the culinary arts, despite Medina’s trying to push them away from it. One leads the Culinary Arts Program at Taos High School and the other helps at the restaurant. His daughter studies clinical psychology.

Medina jokes, “I told her, that’s what me and my son are going to need after all this time in the kitchen.”