Our Chefs

Noe Cano

Noe Cano, Chef de Cuisine, is an invaluable asset to the School. He does all the food purchasing as well as prep and assisting with the classes. He has been at the School for 20 years. Noe has worked at many of Santa Fe’s top restaurants including La Casa Sena, Coyote Cocina and was chef de cuisine at Hotel St. Francis. He has worked alongside many of the chefs of Santa Fe as well as some celebrity chefs. He was instrumental in the production of a segment of the Food Network’s show called Dinner Impossible, which celebrated the traditional foods of New Mexico.

Michelle (Mica) Chavez

Michelle Chavez brings 26 years of experience to the stoves of the Santa Fe School of Cooking. Her experience began in the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of 14 rolling pasta for a family friend. She eventually rose to the position of Sous Chef in an upscale Northern Italian Ristorante at the age of 21. In 1996, she returned to her hometown of El Paso, TX and became Executive Chef of Café Central for 7 years. In 2003, she was the Chef De Cuisine for the Professional Golf Association Champions Dinner in Rochester, NY and has cooked for numerous notables including presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Vicente Fox of Mexico. She moved to Santa Fe in 2003 and co-owns a catering company called Coriander. In her spare time she windsurfs, snow skis, mountain bikes, gardens and mentors young chefs.

Lois Ellen Frank

A Santa Fe, New Mexico based Native American Chef, Native American foods historian, culinary anthropologist, James Beard Award winning author and photographer, Lois Ellen Frank’s first career experiences were as a professional cook and organic gardener. Ms. Frank has spent over 20 years documenting the foods and life ways of Native American communities throughout the Southwest writing and photographing many articles and papers on the topic. This lengthy immersion in Native American communities culminated in her book, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations, which won the James Beard Award upon its release. In 2010 she released the Taco Table, which won the Glyph Award upon its release. She completed her PhD dissertation in May 2011 in Culinary Anthropology entitled: The Discourse and Practice of Native American Cuisine, Native and Non-Native Chefs in Contemporary Southwest Kitchens, which she is planning to publish as an upcoming book, tentatively entitled, “The Turquoise Plate”. She is the chef/owner of Red Mesa Cuisine with Diné chef Walter Whitewater.

Jeff Drew

Jeff entered the culinary field at the early age of thirteen as a caterer, later attending The Culinary Institute of America in New York. He completed an externship at Harrah’s, a five-star-five diamond resort in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

After graduating from the CIA, Jeff joined chef Jimmy Schmidt as part of the opening team to the nationally acclaimed Rattlesnake Club Restaurant in Michigan and continued for six years in the capacity of Chef de Cuisine, assisting in opening four restaurants, with the last one being a Southwestern concept.

He then became Executive Chef of Mark Miller’s Coyote Café in Santa Fe for seven years, involved in food product design, development, and testing for the Coyote Cocina line of premier Southwestern food products and cookbooks.

After Jeff’s daughter was born, he knew the mountain lifestyle was where he wanted to raise his child and moved to Jackson Hole, WY, to be the Executive Chef at Snake River Grill. Soon after, Jeff became an owner of the restaurant and guided its evolution for the next 23 years.

Jeff was one of eight professional chefs from across the country awarded a scholarship from Beringer Vineyards to the prestigious School for American Chefs in Napa.

Jeff was nominated “Best Chef: North West” three years in a row at The James Beard Awards – the country’s most coveted honors for chefs and restaurants. He has been a guest chef in several parts of the country, including The Masters of Food & Wine, The James Beard House in NYC and most recently The Milan Culinary Expo at The Worlds Fair in Italy.  He has been featured in various television spots such as The Food Channel, CNN and The Travel Channel. His credits have been acknowledged in national publications, such as Esquire magazine, The New York Times, and Food Arts.

Jeff retired from the restaurant business in 2023 and returned to Santa Fe, where his heart & soul always remained.

Rocky Packard

A Santa Fe native who got the got the itch working in restaurants at the age of seventeen. After working various positions in the business Rocky attended the California Culinary Academy and graduated in 1983. Immediately out of school he opened Santa Café and steered the kitchen for three years after which he moved on to the notable restaurant Periscope. After the Periscope he functioned as a private chef for a Hollywood producer and started to work part time at Mark Miller’s Coyote Café which turned into a Sous Chef position.  Rocky was enticed to take over the restaurant space in the Hotel St. Francis, On Water was born.  Due to bad economic times in Santa Fe, On Water closed and Rocky was asked by Mark Miller and Mark Kiffin to open a Coyote Café in Austin, Texas. After three years in Austin Rocky was recruited to function as Regional Executive Chef for the California Café restaurant group based in the Bay area. Trying to balance profession and home life Rocky got out of the restaurant business and acted as corporate chef for several small regional chains in the San Francisco area. After being laid off due to a corporate takeover Rocky went on to fill the position as Social Enterprise Manager where he did business development and taught homeless individuals entry level jobs in order to get them back into the workforce. Nearing retirement, he spent some time teaching culinary at the west coast U.S. Coastguard training base in northern California. Rocky and his wife Susan chose to retire and came back home to Santa Fe and is enjoying semi-retirement.

Peter O’Brien

Accomplished, self-motivated Hospitality Executive with over 30 years of experience as an Executive  Chef, Restaurant Owner, Director of Food and Beverage and Vice President of Operations. Experience  expands all aspects of restaurant and hospitality operations including fine dining restaurants, catering  company, luxury resorts, private clubs, and restaurant chain. Very successful and consistent track record  in entrepreneurial, corporate and development settings, cultivating strong and transferable skills as a  culinary and service innovator. Through clear vision, decisiveness, strong initiative, team motivation, passion for excellence, strong communications and organizational skills, I have consistently over delivered results throughout my career servicing such high-end clients as Michael Dell, Lady Bird Johnson, President George W. Bush, Walter Cronkite and James Baker.

Moved to Santa Fe with his in 2012 to manage the clubhouse at Las Campanas. Moved back to the kitchen 6 years later as the executive chef of Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi and after a COVID layoff became the Chef of Sky-Fire at Auberge Resorts, Bishops Lodge and Chef de Cuisine at Mark Kiffen’s incredible Compound Restaurant. Peter is currently working with his wife Cara on their High Mountain Cuisine catering company and their quaint little culinary kiosk Pedro’s Santa Fe located at CHOMP Food Hall on Cerrillos road. For more information about Peter and his wife Cara at www.highmountaincuisine.com or visit their Pedro’s site www.pedrossantafe.com.

Allen Smith

Allen Smith, Certified Culinary Professional, brings an extensive culinary background to The Santa Fe School of Cooking. Allen has most recently returned from Dubai, UAE where he completed project management of a new style grocery market that included an interactive café and cooking studio. He also completed the development of an exclusive Culinary Center, where he established the concept and professional curriculum. Prior to that, he was a Career Program Instructor at The Institute of Culinary Education in New York. He has extensive experience in food styling, recipe development and catering.

MaryDawn Wright

Chef MaryDawn grew up spending her time between White Bear Lake Minnesota and Espanola New Mexico. It was on a wood stove on a back porch of a small farm along the Rio Grande where she learned and fell in love with traditional New Mexican cuisine. After obtaining a degree in Anthropology she became a certified pastry chef, and then a classically trained French chef. Her approach to teaching combines culinary history with classical technique mixed with a dash of fun. During her extensive career she has worked in several world class restaurants, owned her own restaurant in Taos NM, worked in kitchens from Australia to Israel, designed recipes and products for multinational food companies, and taught cooking and baking techniques to audiences ranging from home cooks to corporate executives and professional chefs. MaryDawn is also a member of Les Dames de Escoffier, an organization of women leaders in the food, beverage and hospitality industries. She is happy to call New Mexico home again and to share the breadth of her experience at the Santa Fe School of Cooking.