Kimbal Musk

chef/co-founder

Kimbal is an entrepreneur who has found and advised several companies and nonprofits.  His first company, Zip2, was acquired by Compaq in 1999.  He has also been an investor in, advisor to or board member of companies including:  PayPal (acquired by Ebay), Tesla Motors (Publicly listed: TSLA), SpaceX, OneRiot (acquired by Walmart) and SolarCity.

After selling Zip2 in 1999, Kimbal decided to pursue his passion for food and cooking and attended the renowned French Culinary Institute in New York City.  Following graduation, he moved to Boulder, CO to start The Kitchen, Boulder’s Community Bistro, with partners Hugo Matheson and Jen Lewin.  The Kitchen is now a family of three restaurants (The Kitchen 2004, [Upstairs] 2005 and [Next Door] 2011), with a fourth scheduled to open in Spring 2012 in Denver, CO.  Since opening, The Kitchen has been named one of “America’s Top Restaurants” according to Food & Wine, Gourmet, and the James Beard Foundation and has raised money to help plant and support gardens in 52 elementary schools in the Denver metro area through The Kitchen Community, their 501(c)(3) non-profit.

In 2011, with the experience of working with school gardens for over seven years, and witnessing the positive impact the gardens had on children in the Denver community, Kimbal and Hugo worked with Denver Public Schools to create a more permanent solution to school gardens.  The result was the ‘Learning Garden,’ a fun, experiential learning environment built as an extension of the playground.  The first Learning Garden was installed at Schmitt Elementary in Denver, CO, in September 2011, with 6 more planned for spring 2012.