Elon Musk's Brother Is The Richest Chef You've Never Heard Of
When you hear the last name Musk, the business magnate and CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, who most recently became the owner of Twitter, probably springs to mind. However, few are aware that a second Musk brother exists, one who has become quite successful in the food world. Kimbal Musk, the South African-born chef and Musk family middle child is at the very top of the list of the world's richest chefs, according to a recent ranking by Stacker.
After securing his $500 million fortune by selling off city guide software company Zip2 with his brother Elon and becoming an early investor in PayPal, Kimbal Musk set his sights on Boulder, Colorado to begin the culinary phase of his career under the apprenticeship of chef Hugo Matheson (via The Denver Post). The pair then teamed up to found The Kitchen Community, a non-profit dedicated to teaching children in low-income areas the skills necessary to grow urban farms. The organization has placed 'Learning Gardens' in 330 schools across the country, supporting 100,000 children annually.
Kimbal's vertical farming company is bringing fresh food to cities
In addition to Kimbal Musk's non-profit ventures, he is also the owner of The Kitchen Restaurant Group, the for-profit branch of his Kitchen Community brand. The most well-known eatery to come out of Musk's restaurant group is (as his company's name might suggest) The Kitchen, which was named Colorado's top farm-to-table restaurant by Food & Wine. The restaurant's eco-friendly approach goes well beyond its selection of locally sourced ingredients, with all materials used in the building – right down to the menus and toilet paper – being fully biodegradable.
In addition to overseeing his vast culinary empire, Musk also keeps busy as one of Tesla's largest shareholders, right behind his brother Elon with a total of 629,740 shares (via Investopedia). Musk is also involved in his brother's commercial space exploration company SpaceX and serves as one of the company's board members. The chef's innovation isn't limited to out-of-this-world ventures, however, with his latest invention posed to make a difference on this side of the cosmos.
Square Roots, Musk's vertical farming company is bringing fresh produce to New York City direct from the company's urban farming shipping containers. The farms are climate controlled and compact, meaning they are able to provide local produce to residents in urban centers year-round.