There’s a certain kind of quiet you only find in the Hill Country, especially after a day spent outdoors. At Joshua Creek Ranch, the landscape does most of the talking: rolling terrain, spring-fed water, and wide Texas sky, less than 20 minutes northwest of Boerne. But the day doesn’t end when the hunt is over, or the sun slips behind the trees. It ends at the table, where the ranch has long paired its sporting tradition with unforgettable meals and hospitality that feels easy and unforced.
That dining experience is entering a new phase, and Executive Chef and Director of Food & Beverage, Robert Kennon, is helping steer it in a way that remains both elevated and unmistakably Hill Country. “I would say it’s straightforward,” Kennon says when describing the ranch’s flavor identity. “Everything… you don’t have to think about it when you’re eating it.”
Joshua Creek Ranch was opened in 1990 by co-founders Joe B. and Ann Kercheville, who built it around the outdoors and the idea that a great experience should seem seamless. Dining is part of the ranch rhythm, where guests are invited to stay on the property, slow down, and settle in. “The guests want to talk to you,” Kennon relates. “It’s very personal and intimate.”
Kennon’s story, though, begins far from Boerne. “I grew up pretty much on the ocean,” he says of his formative years in Hawaii, where food was part of daily life. “Fishing and catching crabs were always a part of my childhood. And when you have the fish and the crabs, you've got to cook them.”
Fresh seafood was constant, and so was exposure to different flavors. His high school, he said, was “about 98% Asian,” and spending the night at friends’ homes meant encountering cuisines he’d never seen before. A traditional Japanese breakfast with seaweed in the morning didn’t feel strange—it felt exciting.
The moment cooking became something more happened in tenth grade. Some friends were visiting, and his mom showed him how to make simple lettuce wraps. “When they took their first bite, their eyes lit up,” he recalls. “I realized that food brings happiness, and I was pretty good at manipulating flavors to create happiness.”
Before culinary school, Kennon was in college, taking prerequisites to transfer into the California university system. Unengaged with his coursework, he walked out of finals at the end of his second year and went to San Francisco, where he was accepted into the California Culinary Academy. However, he didn't tell his parents right away. “I tell my doctor dad, ‘I want to be a chef,’” Kennon remembers of the conversation with his father, a surgeon and U.S. Army colonel. “He was just like, ‘How are you going to support a family flipping burgers?’”
Culinary school introduced him to restaurant life, but the real education came during his externship at Jardinière in San Francisco. “When I got to Jardinière, it was a whole different world,” Kennon says. The kitchen was demanding, and he worked long, unpaid hours doing basic tasks—stocks, gnocchi, braises—learning how a serious kitchen operates. When the externship ended without a job offer, it was discouraging but clarifying. “This career, you gotta make it yourself,” he says. “No one’s going to hand you anything. The hungry dog gets the bone.”
After years of cooking across the country—including fine dining, corporate chef leadership, and private chef work—Kennon felt drawn back to Texas, where he spent childhood summers and has family roots that stretch back generations. “The Hill Country is so different and so unique,” he says.
When he was younger, Boerne didn’t feel like a food destination. But over time, he noticed a change—new restaurants, breweries, and a younger generation willing to try something new. “In the last eight years,” Kennon says, “the next generation are foodies. The new restaurants that are opening up are packed.”
In 2019, he moved to the ranch just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which changed his cooking philosophy. “I refined it to make it simpler,” he says. “In fine dining, you take something that’s easy and make it as hard as possible. Here, nice ingredients are the showcase.”
Kennon wasn’t looking to return to restaurants when Joshua Creek Ranch entered the picture. He was doing private chef work when he met Joseph Kercheville, the owner’s son, at a friend’s house. A conversation about hunting dogs led to the discovery not only of the ranch's proximity, but also of shared interests between himself and Kercehville. Once he saw it, the appeal was immediate. “We know how many people are going to be there for reservations,” he says. “It’s a set menu that changes every day, so it didn’t seem stressful.” And because guests often stay on property, feedback travels quickly. “The hunting guides come back: ‘They wouldn’t stop talking about the food,’” he says, smiling.
During hunting season, wild game becomes central to the menu. “Pretty much every night we have some type of game,” Kennon says, pointing to pheasant and axis deer as favorites. Some guests arrive unsure about wild game, often because of a past bad experience. Kennon sees that as an opportunity. “They’ve had it before, but it was cooked improperly,” he says. “Then they try it cooked properly, and it changes their mind.” Even with his Pacific Rim background, he is mindful of his audience. Hunting-season guests often want comfort—“the big steak… a potato”—so he introduces new flavors carefully, letting small touches add interest without saturating familiarity.
Joshua Creek Ranch has been doing what it does well for 35 years. Now, Kennon says, the ranch is exploring ways to intentionally elevate dining, particularly through special-occasion dinners that can draw guests from beyond the ranch. “They let me have free rein for these events,” he says, describing a five-course dinner designed to “knock people’s socks off.” The response was immediate, and guests loved it.
These events are a bridge, Kennon says; a chance to execute elevated cuisine in a relaxed ranch setting that’s close enough to Boerne and San Antonio to feel like a discovery. For him, memorable dining isn’t just about the menu. It’s about how guests feel. He pays close attention to allergies and preferences, making sure no one feels left out. “That’s hospitality,” he said. “Doing whatever it takes to make the guests have a good experience.”
In looking ahead, Kennon returns to what keeps him here. He’s the eighth generation connected to the area, and he talks about his four-times-great-grandfather, Ferdinand Ludwig von Herff, and the pride he takes in cooking at the first homestead in support of the Cibolo Nature Center. “To feel that history,” he says, “and that I’m related to him, keeping his name alive; that makes me very, very proud.”
If he’s been pursuing the same goal since tenth grade—that food that creates happiness—Kennon hopes this upcoming chapter should taste like something guests carry home well after the last bite. “We get to create it,” he says excitedly. “After 35 years of Joshua Creek doing amazing things, now it’s time to do that and do it a little higher.”
joshuacreek.com | 830-537-5090 | 132 Cravey Rd.
Coriander Crusted Axis Loin with Smoked Date Relish
Ingredients
4 Axis loins, 6-8 ounces
4 tablespoons coriander seasoning (¾ cup ground coriander, ½ cup sea salt, ¼ cup black pepper)
6 ounces chayote squash, medium dice
2 French breakfast radishes, shaved thin
6 ounces Medjool dates, pitted
2 ounces (each) fennel and red onion, medium dice
2 tablespoons Marsala wine
2 tablespoons lemon oil
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
4 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Directions
- Smoke the dates at a medium temperature with heavy smoke for 20-30 minutes. Cool in the refrigerator and cut into medium dice.
- In a medium-sized pan on high heat, sauté the fennel and red onion in olive oil. Cook for 1-2 minutes until the fennel and onion have a little crunch and light caramelization.
- Turn the heat to low and deglaze with wine, then add apple cider vinegar, lemon oil, water, honey, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cook on low heat for 2 minutes and turn off the heat.
- Add the dates and mix well. Once the dates absorb the liquid and plump up, place them in a container and set them aside.
- Season the Axis heavily with the coriander mixture on all sides.
- Using a large pan on high heat, add ½ cup of olive oil and heat until the smoke point is reached. Caramelize the loins for 1-2 minutes on each side until medium-rare. Remove from heat and let rest.
- Reduce the heat to medium. Cook squash for 3 minutes until tender, then season with salt and pepper.
- Slice each loin into three pieces, then place them in a triangular pattern. Spoon the chayote squash into the center of the triangle. Place a dollop of date relish on half of the axis. Garnish with the thinly sliced radish, and enjoy.
“I realized that food brings happiness, and I was pretty good at manipulating flavors to create happiness… After 35 years of Joshua Creek doing amazing things, now it’s time to do that and do it a little higher.”