Eduardo Rodriguez

Career Since 2020, Eduardo Rodriguez has held the two jobs that define a small restaurant’s center of gravity: chef and owner of Zacatlán in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Born in Zacatecas, Mexico, he carries that place into the room as part of the restaurant’s working language. The connection is direct in his own words: “People in Zacatecas feel a kinship with Santa Fe. We understand each other.” National recognition followed in 2022, when the James Beard Foundation named Zacatlán Best New Restaurant.

At a Glance The line between kitchen leadership and ownership is the defining feature of Rodriguez’s work at Zacatlán, a role he has held since 2020. It signals a chef responsible not just for service and standards, but for the business structure that supports them. His point of reference remains Zacatecas, the city where he was born, and that origin is carried forward in Santa Fe, where the restaurant came into wider view with the James Beard Foundation recognition in 2022. Rodriguez has framed that effort as long preparation rather than sudden arrival: “For the past 24 years, I have been tilling the soil to harvest the dream of having my own restaurant.”

Signature

Mexican-Southwestern cooking is the language Rodriguez works in at Zacatlán. The style sits at the intersection of the places that shape his life and business, with Zacatecas and Santa Fe in conversation rather than in opposition. In practice, that makes the restaurant a site of connection as much as category: the cuisine reflects a cultural overlap that Rodriguez recognizes and uses as part of the work.

In Their Words “For the past 24 years, I have been tilling the soil to harvest the dream of having my own restaurant.” “People in Zacatecas feel a kinship with Santa Fe. We understand each other.”