Jose Garces of Amada
Eli Kulp sits down with Chef José Garces, a Philadelphia based chef who is considered one of the leading culinary authorities on Spanish and Latin American cuisine.
After being born to Ecuadorian parents and being raised in a culturally diverse neighborhood in Chicago, José spent time in Spain where he learned the craft of Spanish cooking, and brings those influences back to Philadelphia in the form of his restaurants such as Amada, Village Whiskey, Volvér, Tinto, and more.
You can learn more about Jose at his website garcesgroup.com
Transcript:
Jose Garces Of Amada
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You lie here. Welcome back to the chef radio podcast. Thank you for tuning in today. We have a great show. Jose Garcia's chef Jose Garcia's. He's an iron chef. He is one of the forefathers of restaurant tours in the Philadelphia area. He's got restaurants in New York as well. He's basically become a national brand through his company.
You know, today we're going to talk about him, his journey as a, as a son of immigrants in Chicago and how he grew up to be a chef. He is today. We're gonna talk about growing, you know, how he grew his brand. I mean, his, his name and his brand blew up with that. He was able to grow this restaurant empire. He had to go through a restructuring process for his company.
You know, he had had a couple, uh, bad breaks. And we're gonna talk about that. He's so open. He's so honest, he's really a genuinely great guy to talk to you as so honored to sit down with him. Cause I hadn't had that ability yet to really sit down and talk with them, you know, on a, on a deep level. So Jose, thank you for being so honest and open.
I think everybody who's listening is going to have some great takeaways and I really appreciate everyone out there listening as always leave review. It really helps. I really appreciate it. And um, enjoy the show. Everybody is going to be a great one. Thank you guys.
Jose Garces: [00:03:25] this
Eli Kulp: [00:03:27] is the chef radio podcast.
Jose Garces: [00:03:33] Each
Eli Kulp: [00:03:33] week, groundbreaking chef talks,
Jose Garces: [00:03:36] chef, uh, chef, chef
Eli Kulp: [00:03:39] cooking, hospitality,
Jose Garces: [00:03:41] environment food. Is that really what it stands for? I
Eli Kulp: [00:03:44] never really knew that Liberty. You straight from the minds of the people who shaped the way we eat.
Jose Garces: [00:03:48] It had to believe in the possibility of food we're going to discuss.
Eli Kulp: [00:03:54] These talks, these ideas and more on the chef radio guests.
Hey everyone. Welcome back to the chef radio podcast. We have a great guest in the studio today. We have chef Jose Garcia. How are you today
Jose Garces: [00:04:12] doing grainy life. Thank you. Thanks for having
Eli Kulp: [00:04:14] me. You know, you've been at it for a long time. Done some great things. Uh you've you're an iron chef, your father, husband, James Beard award winner.
Uh, entrepreneur food innovator, best known for, uh, you know, li as a leading culinary authority of Spanish and Latin American food. Um, your restaurants include Amada Tinto, yet village whiskey, you know, so many of great ones, um, that you've, that you've helped. Uh, you know, bring to Philadelphia and going back to, you know, when was it when he sort of really took off on your own?
Jose Garces: [00:04:46] Yeah, I mean, it's funny. I just had to do a quick, some quick calculations on my time in the industry overall. And so I usually equate that time, like in the industry to when I, when I started culinary school, which was 1993, so I've been doing it 28 years and that's pretty, pretty intense, you know, that's, that's, you know, and sometimes, you know, I, I equate it sometimes to sports athletes in their careers.
That's maybe like two, two times over maybe two and a half. And so unless you're like LeBron or, you know exactly, you
Eli Kulp: [00:05:20] got some yeah. Indestructable genes, but
Jose Garces: [00:05:23] it's, um, you know, and I, what I really appreciate about this time is that 28 years later, I still feel like. Super enthused, super charged about, you know, food and, and, and, you know, culinary possibilities and kind of the future of food.
So that feels, you know, really good that I could hopefully share some of that knowledge and wealth. And, and for me, when I think about when I started, it really, you know, was, was through culinary school. I did a stint in Spain, came back, was in New York for about five years. Just learning how to become a chef, being inspired by all these great chefs are in New York in the late nineties.
So
Eli Kulp: [00:06:03] when, when, uh, you came back from Spain than
Jose Garces: [00:06:07] you were in New York. Yeah, I was in a, yeah. and, um, saviah I worked actually for a priest who owned a, he was a man of the cloth, but also a man of the dollar. He owned a few different, uh, eateries. Uh, one of them was Michelin starred on a. In Porto by news, which was a, um, a port city, but also kind of like a party city in the Southern part of Spain.
So, uh and that's where, that's where I really learned Spanish culture, Spanish cuisine got to know all these cool Spanish cooks from different parts of Spain. So from the North, from the South, you know, and it really got a full grasp of like Spanish food. Uh, but yeah, it was there. Um, how long were you there for?
I was there for about six months. So yeah, through the summer. And then I spent some time in Sylvia and, you know, I was planning on staying and offered me a position in, in severe. But, um, my, uh, girlfriend at the time said, Hey, get your ass back to New York. We're going to, we're going to get going on. Uh, so.
Anyway. Um, yeah, it was in Spain. And then when I finished there, I came to New York and just really was still pretty wet behind the ears. Still felt like, you know, I had a lot to learn and my first gig was actually opened a Zagat guide when I got to New York. And I was like, okay, let me look, let me look at the top, you know, food guys, you know?
And so, um, unbeknownst really to the market and what was going on again, I was a Chicago guy in Spain then I'm like in New York. Um, and I saw, I just picked the guide and started moving around dropping resumes and, you know, starting to like, you know, just, you know, wanting to be wanting to cook, uh, and. I found, uh, my first gig was at the rainbow room with uh, Waldy Maloof.
So while he was still the river. Yeah. So while they had just taken over and he was really excited about, you know, the opportunity to be in this iconic restaurant. And, uh, I was there, he had a team of chefs that had been with them for a long time, so it was a good, a good, um, learning environment. And boy, I remember just getting.
Getting my butt kicked every night. Yeah. They had, um, they had like crazy services, right. They had a pre theater, which is about 300 covers. Then they would have dinner and another like three, three 50, and then they would have this like crazy supper, like at 11. So supper was from like 11 to like midnight.
Holy cow. I mean, I was like changing. I was changing my uniform, like after every, every one of those services. Cause I was just kind of sweat all the way through. And you know, when I, when I think about that experience, I'm like, you know, that really. Like I learned how to cook and learn how to become a good saute cook fast and like, you know, fluid.
Uh, but I also learned that shoot, I don't want to do this the rest of my life. Like I want, I want to get, uh, I want to get on the other side of the line and how do I get there quick, because this, this, this could be a grind here. Um, but yeah, just had, you know, good experiences in New York. I was at the four seasons hotel.
I worked for a chef named Susan. We were there. And I think the, my takeaway from that was. Really the four seasons culture and their service culture and kind of how they ran their company and business. I really appreciated that and the opportunity to kind of grow and go to other properties. I thought it was, um, hugely valuable in terms of forming my opinion of hospitality and becoming a chef.
One
Eli Kulp: [00:09:40] of the best
Jose Garces: [00:09:40] groups out there definitely, uh, spent some time with, uh, Doug Rodriguez and, um, and that's really how I came to Philly. I was in his stable of chefs. We had opened a couple of restaurants in union square, uh, Chicago, uh, South American eatery and Pepa, a Spanish topless place, which you know, I started touring Spain with Douglas.
He was a great. He was, he's a great guy to like, do a culinary tour with, I mean, you go and he's just like, all right, we're getting the whole menu. We're going to try everything. I looked at everything. It all looks good. Let's try it all. And, uh, yeah, just a great innovator and someone who, you know, has been inspirational in my career.
Eli Kulp: [00:10:19] Let's talk about him for a minute. You was a big part of bringing sort of that Spanish, uh, those flavors to the States, because for a long time that, you know, Spain was not, was sort of overlooked from culinary standpoint. Yeah. So what was that, what was that period like? Uh, in New York with him bringing those recipes?
Uh, he
Jose Garces: [00:10:40] was, he was awesome. He was on fire during that time. He was at Yuca in Miami, which was kind of, um, you know, pretty like what he would call like novel, Latino. Right. And I think his, what I, what I appreciated about him was his ability to interpret all these Latin cultures and kind of like digest it into.
Some like real usable, uh, dishes or for the marketplace. And he would, he was taking foods from South America, from central America, from Mexico, from Spain, pretty much from everywhere and bringing it to the table. I followed him when I was in cooking school in 93, he was like pretty hot. And the, you know, the godfather of Nueva Latino cuisine.
So when he was in New York, he had a great restaurant called Patria and, uh, that place was just absolutely, you know, on 20th and park Avenue, just on fire, like really like one of the, one of the best hottest, I would say, Latin restaurants of all time, like I think really, really put, put Latin cuisine out there and then he opened, he actually left there, uh, which I don't think was a great, um, a great move on his part looking back.
Right. But he left there, he got independence from, you know, the ownership group there he's, you know, felt like he was ready to like branch out on his own. And, um, and that's kind of where I had come to meet him. And so Tacoma was now his like next iteration after Patrizia right. And so he had, he had like great chefs, great Latin chefs that had been, had been with him.
And then he was just bringing everything to the table. He met, he made this like fantastic CBJ bar that was in the middle of the dining room. Uh, all the food was really inspired by Peru, by, uh, the Caribbean by Cuba, by Ecuador. I mean, he just was bringing everything that's every everything in the kitchen sets.
Cool. And it was, the environment was infectious in terms of just the learning and the ingredients, the food. So, uh, yeah, really memorable time in my career for sure.
Eli Kulp: [00:12:44] And then he opened down here, right?
Jose Garces: [00:12:46] Yeah. So then he was, he was in, um, he was in New York at Chicago when Steven Starr came, um, He came to the restaurant.
Remember when he came and he, you know, he met Douglas and, you know, kind of offered Douglas this opportunity to open, uh, open almond to Cuba. And, uh, I was in his kind of stable of shafts and he was like, Hey Jose, you know, how do you feel about going down to Philly and being my, uh, exec chef over there? So I was like, ah, that, you know, I was kind of ready for a change.
I felt like, you know, five years in New York, I was, uh, you know, I needed to kind of flip it up. It was too much, too much of a good thing. A lot of, a lot of hanging out a lot of late nights and that yeah, well sets the New York does.
Eli Kulp: [00:13:30] Right. I mean, it, you learn a lot, so many people get hung up in that. And they don't get the, they get eventually sent home with their tail between their legs and broke and out of work and burn
Jose Garces: [00:13:43] bridges and that's.
Yeah. Yeah. And that I've saw that happening to a lot of people. And I just felt like knowing my personality, it was time for a change and also an environmental change. And so, so I welcomed the opportunity, came to Philly, worked, you know, worked side by side with Douglas and Steven to create the menu at almond and Cuba.
And funny enough, if those of you that know Steven, he's a pretty, pretty interesting cat. Uh, and it has a really interesting management style. So explain that real quick. Just say, I'm going to give you an example. And I, and I, and I have a lot of respect for Stephen and what he's done and who he is as an, um, restaurant tour entrepreneur.
But, you know, we, we opened Alma and you know, at that time, you know, if you go back in this time, Time, capsule and Philly. What
Eli Kulp: [00:14:35] restaurants did he have? The,
Jose Garces: [00:14:36] so he owned, we had, um, he only had continental and Buddha con were his only two. And when we opened Alma, Alma, and Morimoto were kind of opening at the same time.
And so, you know, Steven and trusted Douglas and myself to put, put our menu in. And during that time there was, um, it was another chef who's still here, uh, Guillermo porno. And he was, uh, he was the chef of Paseo and it was like a four-star Latin restaurant. Right. And, uh, you know, the media was like, Holy cow, you know, this, this, this thing's about to go off.
You know, you got Douglas coming in, Alaska, the giant on his turf, right on his tail. And so, you know, it was, there was a lot of apprehension I think, towards, and then Philly has that, you know, we protect our own, right. We protect you protect our. Our people are, who have been loyal to us a customer basis is like that.
And so, you know, we opened this restaurant and it's like, I think our portion sizes were really big Douglas was I think at the time, like maybe not as focused, right. I'll just say that. Right. It just kind of like, you know, playing, playing, playing the plane, his cards and, um, and it wasn't like really working, right.
It wasn't like the, our sales were like, okay, not too great. Uh, and Steven was like, he brought us into the office, both Douglas and I was like, Hey guys, listen, I'm going to turn us into a Chinese restaurant. So, uh, yeah, so that kind of lit a fire and, uh, uh, you know, Douglas and I both work towards.
Modifying the menu getting like honing things in, getting the food tighter, like better execution of service. And that actually proved to be a winning form. Okay. Okay. It's still there today. It's still there today. Yeah. I mean, uh, gosh. Yeah. 20 years later.
Eli Kulp: [00:16:32] Yeah. 20 years. That's cool. I mean, Steven star, that's what he does.
He, he sees a concept, uh, you approaches that concept and uh, you know, brings it to Philly or, you know, whatever. So, and he's at that, that was his, that's his winning recipe. I think now he's doing more unique ones working with chefs directly, uh, more about the chef than necessarily the, the cuisine or the style.
Um, so he's evolved as
Jose Garces: [00:16:58] well. Okay. I think so. Yeah. I've, I've, I've appreciated that he's partnered with chefs and like really, uh, embrace the, the chef culture and realize how important that is to the end game. Uh, yeah. And his, you know, his. His shtick, I think early on was a little more environmental right.
Designed feel and great. Let's create the beautiful box and yeah. Less about, less about the food. Yeah. Throw a party. Uh, but yeah, really influential time in my, in my career. And that kind of, you know, I think that we started with like, Hey, how did you kick this thing off? So that time with Stephen and Douglas, I was there for about four years, four and a half years.
Uh, I opened Alvez with, with Steve as well. They're still open doing, doing great. Yeah. And I was, you know, I kinda, you know, listen, Steve, you still own me on that one. Cause I, I actually know that that restaurant was trust before and, uh, I saw it go out and I was like, wow, this, this build-outs really nice.
Could be nice to like flip over. And so I actually brought, brought that to Steve and said, Hey man, you know, like, I, I want to do a different concept. I'm good at Alma, but I'm like ready to like spread my wings a little bit. And uh, he was like, yeah, well, you know, do a tasting for me. And, uh, and initially I actually did Spanish tapas.
He's like, ah, man, I really liked this, but the Philly market won't take to it. Okay. And then we did Mexican and he was like, God, this is like, this is perfect. This is gonna, this is gonna crush. So, uh, yeah, we went, went on our way. We did Alvarez together. And so yeah, that period of time is what I call like my like sponge period or super growth period where I had like a, uh, a flavor mentor and kind of a business organizational mentor that I could look to and just kind of like take all of it in and then.
And then move forward. So by 2005, I knew, you know, I knew how to read a P and L really well. I knew how to like, you know, kind of manage, manage our books and kind of drive profitability, be a good marketer work. The, obviously the culinary side of it. So by that, well, that's, that's
Eli Kulp: [00:19:07] one of those things though, that is priceless in a chef's career.
So many chefs, you know, you know, you, so many guys, like I wanna work for the best one. I worked for the best they grind and grind and grind and grind and grind and nut. There's nothing discussed about food costs or PNL or how to, how to run a kitchen, you know, financially. And then they go off on their own eventually.
And they're, they, they, all they know is to cook and the financial side
Jose Garces: [00:19:31] to suffers. Yeah. The business side, I think was, you know, a great learning experience, certainly under in Steven's organization. Again, I take my hat off to my I'm the. I'm the chef and entrepreneurial today, a lot to do with has a lot to do with that time.
And I kinda, you know, I go back to my New York days, Eli, and I remember I I'm more of a, an experiential learner. So when I started there, I'm like, you know what, I'm going to take a few gigs. I'm gonna spend a year somewhere and then move on and get more experienced with the ultimate goal. Obviously opening my own place.
And so, uh, and then I watched some of the other like cooks and, you know, kind of what I would call like grinders. Right. They were, they would go work for, for John George or Danielle. And, you know, it'd be picking like shovel for like five hours at a time. And I'm like, guys, I mean, that's great. And it's a good experience, but you can pick that up, like go stodge for a couple of weeks.
Right. And so. Um, that's just the, what the approach I had and everyone has their own course, but I did find that those guys that really like grow, like we're grinding, it didn't last very long and industry, you know, over time, it just kinda like ground them out. So you gotta be, you know, again, as, as chefs is up and coming chefs, I would, I would caution against that.
Well, I mean,
Eli Kulp: [00:20:49] just the, you know, they learn in that environment and then they bring that environment to wherever they're going and those environments are rough and there it's all about, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's the bootcamp. You're, you're getting torn down and hopefully get built up, but there's no guarantee you could be, um, sort of GRA find yourself, grinding your way out of the industry pretty quick.
Jose Garces: [00:21:12] Certainly, certainly. And that, that makes a lot of sense. And I think again, like for me, Gathering all these experiences was always in the, in the form of, okay, when I'm ready to create my own environment, what is it going to look like? And so I feel like, you know, when I, when I started the company and started the group, it was under that auspice of, you know, I've, I've seen kind of the worst of the business.
I've seen the best of it and, you know, let's, let's get somewhere. That makes sense for, for me.
Eli Kulp: [00:21:42] That's cool. So, um, at that point, you know, you started building your name Alvarez, right? Your name was on the, on the front door with Stevens, right? I mean, so people started to learn who you are. Um, and then how long were you Alvarez before?
You're like, alright, I can do this.
Jose Garces: [00:22:02] I was at Alvez for about two years and, you know, I oversaw both almond and Alvez and that was, that was kind of a good, you know, my first multiunit experience and, you know, I kind of, I volunteered it, it wasn't like. Most chefs, maybe the time might've been like, you know what, I'll just go to Alvarez and, you know, I'll leave Alma, but I had, uh, I gained an emotional connection to these, to these restaurants I always have, because I feel like that's the way to really, um, you know, make sure that you're fully invested.
I, I, the way I am. And so having both of those under my, under my legs just gave me confidence to like, you know, uh, move on to a motto, which was my first restaurant in 2005. So that was again, kind of fortuitous. I had, it's so funny. I walked the streets of Philly, like find space, right. And then the space, the space kind of informs the concept.
Right. So I remember, uh, walking by, um, a motto, which was Adriatic initially, that was, it was a Mediterranean restaurant with like a C like a seafood fish market. And the back is kind of pretty, pretty cool, but I met, I, I. Ran into the chef and he's like, Jose, you know, this place is like, it's killing me. You want, you want, are you interested?
Have a look. And I was like, man, this place has got great bones. And it really felt Spanish. In many ways. It had like, kind of made me feel like the, the, the old, old part of Barcelona, Bo Bardi Gtech kind of feel. And I'm like, Oh man, this, this place feels good. And it says a great, great aura and energy still to this day.
Like I walk in there, I'm like, Oh, this is a beautiful restaurant. It feels like home feels like, you know, like I, I remember kind of cooking our first top us on the plancha and making our first pool book. I go and, and all of these things. So. Uh, but got there. And again, up until that point, I'd really been a chef worked for never like negotiated a lease, built the restaurant, you know, had contractors to deal with, never had a market on my own.
So huge, huge learning experience. And, uh, but had gained a following in Philly. So for four years, I'd kind of put my time in here and people knew me from Alma. They knew me from Alvez. So that really kind of helped perpetuate, uh, things in a model. Nice, nice, nice.
Eli Kulp: [00:24:26] And I mean, a moderate, the story is, I mean, you, uh, you found, you found a, uh, you touched a nerve on that one and it was fantastic.
Restaurants still is. I mean, still going.
Jose Garces: [00:24:38] Yeah. You know, um, people love it. It's funny. I, I went to Steven when that, when that opportunity came about and I'm like, Hey, what do you think? I mean, I liked, I liked this restaurant. I wanted to do my Spanish top us. He's like Jose. Nobody affiliates pork you're you're yeah.
You're barking up the wrong tree, old city. That location sucks. Nobody's going there. And you know, it was, it was a time when, you know, I look back on it and I remember like, you know what, I'm just going to go with my gut feeling here. They're going to like, you know, let that like come through. And yeah, I feel, I feel pretty good about that.
Eli Kulp: [00:25:21] Hey everybody, we're taking a quick break. Get Emilio here, uh, from di Bruno brothers, Amelia, how are you doing? Ah, fantastic. Great, great to see you. Um, you guys have some great stuff going on in. You know, these virtual cheese events I'm hearing about, are they they're going gangbusters? What what's going on?
Because I know sort of some that since the pandemic hit, right, you've had to pivot a little bit.
Emilio Mignucci: [00:25:45] Yeah, listen, we, you know, pre pandemic, we had a lot of events scheduled, you know, pandemic happens, those events all cancel, but you know, the, these, you know, we were doing a lot of corporate business and events and they transitioned to the virtual events and the virtual events had been gone so well that they become a really, um, great part of our business.
And, you know, People just get in touch with our corporate account team or, or our catering team, or, you know, the easiest way is just go to corporate@thebrunodotcomorjusttobruno.com and just ask, uh, you know, for some of these events, but we booked them three, four or five nights a week. They're basically like, uh, happy hours.
And, you know, we send out, I mean, it's, it's really easy. We, you know, you reserve the date, we send out whatever, you know, tasting kit or box that you're interested in. And then, uh, we send you a link. Yeah, it's a loud lawn for, um, for like a zoom meeting through it and, and, you know, we help you celebrate,
Eli Kulp: [00:26:48] so you have a cheesemonger that will be there and it could be for any special occasion, it could be something for the office.
Yeah.
Emilio Mignucci: [00:26:56] We've done them for families. We've done them for different offices. We've done. Gallas the Phillies just hired us a few weeks ago to do one for them. We, you know, we did a lunch for Jose Garcia, a launch for his website and stuff. Can we, you go, that was fun. You know, like, so, you know, listen, all of our friends and buddies, like, you know, and, and a lot of them, like if.
If not me then Alex or haunted, like you get, you know, some of our really cool, listen, it's fun for us as marketers to get on there and to teach people. And they, you know, we're not having as much to that in store currently. So, uh, yeah, they, they work out really, really great. We've done them for like families, just like people during the holidays only to get together with their families and they couldn't travel.
So they were just hiring.
Eli Kulp: [00:27:41] So you guys, I mean, we got some big events coming up. I mean, you got mother's day coming up for sure. Father's day. You have, um,
Emilio Mignucci: [00:27:48] Yeah. So we incorporated like, like a special monthly one. So we were doing like this month. Well, you know, Valentine's day was choosing chocolate. There you go.
We're doing a, um, we're doing a, um, father's day with, um, like how to pair, um, uh, the whiskeys with cheese Roco and, you know, uh, uh, mother's day brunch, cheeseboard, and delegates cheeses. We're doing like every month we have a seasonal or a special one plan for like the public. And so we'll take out a script, 50, 60 people up to a hundred, you know, randomly
Eli Kulp: [00:28:24] so cool.
So people can just go to your website. They bruno.com, bruna.com and get signed up.
You worked for Steve, you saw the model of, you know, growth and multi multiunit ownership. When did you start? Like, who did you meet? Who are the keepers? Your key partners in that. And how did you go from a Mata to what, you know, a massive
Jose Garces: [00:28:54] restaurant? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, what had happened was, so I had, I had poured everything into a motto.
I had, um, I had a lot of, you know, it was levered up, you know, but because we, we needed a pretty big loan to get, get it open. Uh, and so I'd put a ton of time and effort. And honestly, the first couple of months we were not hitting our proforma at all. I was, I was petrified. I was really like, you know, uh, shoot, am I going to give up my house?
You know, like, how's this going to play out? And we just like, kind of like grinded, right. And then eventually, you know, the sales pick picked up and it was, um, a nice. Uh, certainly a nice growth spurt, but also like, you know, media started picking up. I think we started getting some national attention around it, which was really, really cool.
So that kind of, you know, again was, I think a good lesson for, for people is just, you know, for young chefs are starting your business. Don't, you know, it may take a little bit of time, right? It takes some time you gotta grind and you gotta just do, you know, do your best work.
Eli Kulp: [00:30:00] It's you're, you're evolving.
You're, you're testing the market, what's working. What's not, and you're just figuring it out.
Jose Garces: [00:30:07] Yeah. And you know, every time, you know, we wouldn't, we weren't hitting, I would remember Stevens by saying, Hey, you know, nobody eats pork. Yeah. It was like that, maybe that guy was maybe he was right, right.
Eli Kulp: [00:30:19] Do people eat pork?
Jose Garces: [00:30:20] I mean, I mean, they do certainly. Yeah. My, uh, per Nila. Sala has been our, one of our number one sellers for 15 years. So crispy pork shank cooked, you know, comb fee then roasted and then crisp it's, you know, it's a perfect bite of pork in my opinion. So, uh, yeah, so I think with, with a motto came, um, some like recognition and accolades.
So we started like getting like some notices and food and wine magazine. Uh, James Beard started like picking up for us. We opened our second restaurant. We opened Tinto a basket wine bar and Rittenhouse. And, um, you know, the first I would say, so I got nominated for a beard in 2007, which was great, you know, to be, um, you know, nominated by your peers, start to get that like, you know, that recognition.
And, uh, and then I also appeared on iron chef in 2007. I actually had, um, Had been, uh, auditioning for the season of next iron chef. Okay. And I got bumped off, uh, Michael Simon ended up winning that season. I didn't make the cast. Right. And they said, yeah, you didn't make the cast, but we like you. Why don't you come back and compete?
And so I, uh, competed against Bobby Flay that year battle Mellon. I had my two chefs was awesome, uh, very memorable event. Um, and we beat Bobby. That was really cool. And so yeah, we started to get like, you know, garner like, okay, James Beard nominated one on iron chef one, all these little things that just kinda came in, I would say, you know, as you could see kind of my story, it's all very like fortuitous.
I feel very fortunate. I've been like, you know, you, you work at it, but it's just kinda, you know, again, it's more of like this thing as a marathon, right. It's not, it's not a sprint. And so, um, You know, and I wasn't really looking for any of that. I was just wanting to open my first restaurant, make it, make it successful and like, enjoy that.
And so, um, so we're starting to get these, you know, kind of accolades and things. And then, um, you know, opportunity in Philadelphia starts to come in, you know, different various developers and, and whatnot. And then, and then you think. And then I had my first call, it like licensing agreement, which was, which was great for me.
Um, in 2008, I opened Mercado Alla plancha in Chicago. So that was, that was a partnership. That's a big jump. Oh yeah, that was a, that's also going home for you. Right? I went home. I born and raised in Chicago, uh, left when I was 22. Never, never made it back, but um, still love it. I have family there and it was great to great to be able to go back regularly.
And so that was a partnership with, uh, Sage restaurant group based out of Denver. Um, I had actually worked with Peter. His name was Peter Karpinski was one of the, uh, directors of ops at the time. Um, here in Philly, we both worked under star. So Peter knew me from those days and he said, Hey, I work with this group at Sage.
Uh, we're doing a Spanish place inspired by a Barcelona and cut the Luna. Would you like to, you know, come out, you know, help us get it off the ground, maybe, you know, license it, whatever. And I was like, yeah, that sounds, that sounds awesome. And so that was my first dip into, you know, really bringing knowledge to the table, bringing, uh, thoughts and ideas around design and food and monetizing that as a chef.
Right. And so that was like, that was like a kind of a groundbreaking moment for me professionally. And just from a entrepreneurial standpoint, understanding, wow, I can, I can monetize my, my thoughts, my brand, my persona, and, and I don't have to, you know, turn out 900 covers on the rainbow room line. I can actually just, you know, use, use my brain and what, what I've been able to do.
So that's. That was awesome. And we actually got a, an Esquire, we got restaurant, uh, we got to arrest at, I don't know if it was restaurant of the year. It was like, you know, top restaurants, Esquire at that point, John Mariani had like a really big following. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, it's still out there. Yeah. So, um, yeah, I mean that, those licenses seeing opportunities along with kind of brick and mortar, like local things was kind of our strategies.
Maybe do a combination of the two grow, grow the brands that way. Maybe I always looked at Philly as well as like a, you know, a great prototype market, a beta market where there's a lot of different swaths of demographics here. So if you can make an, I have an idea that works here, you could probably take it on the road or take it Nash.
And so, uh, so, and I also had this yearning and craving of. Developing and creating new, new things as well. It's just something that, you know, it lives within you. And I don't think that everybody can understand that, you know, can really get that. Hey, you know, you got one thing, you got two things. Why don't you, why aren't you just like, happy with that?
Why don't you just do those two things? I can't as much as I, as much as I, I think it's, you know, it makes good business sense from time to time. I'm a creative person and I kind of want to like, and want to want to spread my, I kind of want to see how those ideas formulate. I'm one of these folks that I think I love taking, um, starting from nothing and really like having, you know, putting the pieces.
Eli Kulp: [00:35:59] Well, I'm wondering, like, where do you, where do you think that came from? And I want to, you know, I want to go way back a little bit and, you know, talk about your family, your parents. Sure. Like, um, You know, where did, where did that, do you know where that sort of gene came in?
Jose Garces: [00:36:14] Yeah, I think so. I've been, been spending a lot of time with my dad lately, 75, great guy.
Um, you know, my, my dad, uh, immigrated from Ecuador, uh, the late in the late 1960s, he, uh, we had an, uh, an agrarian family. My, his grandfather had a 600 acre farm and, uh, you know, really, you know, he grew livestock, chickens that all kinds of exotic fruits and whatnot. So he came from that kind of background, but he wanted to, he wanted to come to the, uh, the States and, and go to college.
So he went to, uh, university of Illinois, Chicago, eventually my mom came over and, um, so both of your parents are from Ecuador, both. My parents are from, from Africa, from Quito. And, uh, yeah. And so there's, their story is very much an immigrant story. They're like, like a hard. Hard knocks, you know, he's here, he's working, he's working, part-time at the Palmer house as like, um, uh, I think like a, a bellhop while he's going to university of Illinois, Chicago, my mom's working in a factory just trying to like make ends meet.
And then there's a, at the time in the early, late sixties and I was born in 72, there's two boys, my younger brother came three boys in the house. And so we're living this kind of, and we're in Chicago, which, uh, you know, is a pretty dynamic city. Um, you know, has it's certainly has its challenges. I grew up in a call it a it's a Mexican Polish, Italian, Irish neighborhood.
So I'm in this mix and you know, here I am, I'm like, kind of, I'm this Ecuadorian kid who's in this pretty like diverse neighborhood and really trying to, um, Americanized myself as quickly as possible.
Eli Kulp: [00:38:08] Right. Which is what a lot of immigrant kids do. I mean, you know, you don't want to stand out very long.
That's
Jose Garces: [00:38:14] really how you feel. And, you know, and I, I mean, I'll take it even a little step further, you know? I mean, I think I was, um, exposed to some like racial slurs, right. Racial kind of like inequities. I felt it. And so I was even more motivated again at the time because my parents were really, they they're they're like surviving.
Right. He's you know, my dad eventually graduated and got a job. It was, it was, it was okay. But it was like still like still like, uh, uh, Tufts slog and my, and, and so feeling that outside kind of pressure to simulate and, you know, really be more American. Um, while at the same time, you know, my parents are, you know, they're teaching us Ecuadorian culture and Latin culture at home.
I think that combination of the two things that, that, that those two dynamics that were going on in my environment kind of spit out, spit out this guy here. And so, um, you know, I think that that was really, uh, you know, again, uh, forming, forming time, you know, uh, as far as me as a, as a, not only as a person, but certainly as a coach.
So
Eli Kulp: [00:39:26] did you, uh, when did you realize you wanted to cook? Like when, when did you get into restaurants where that
Jose Garces: [00:39:33] happen? Yeah, that's pretty, pretty funny story. So my, my grandma Amada is I named the Mon after my . Yeah. So she was, she was an amazing cook. She was like the matriarch of our family. She taught everyone how to cook.
She taught my mom, my dad, uh, they had a lot of like a big family. Again, from like this kind of, you know, we always had fresh foods and so she would come to Chicago regularly during the summer and, and cook and hang out with us. And it was really, it was really a special time. And I, I was like her understudy that it'd be there, like, you know, making, making, doughs, making a rapist, making pond, DeBono, learning her her and my mom, my mom like carried it on after she left.
So that was really my exposure to food.
Eli Kulp: [00:40:23] So she would make some VJ's. Ah, was that, was that, was that a big part of the meal for you or is that like a unique, uh, every once in a while?
Jose Garces: [00:40:31] No, that was, that was pretty standard. Maybe like twice, twice a week, three times a week, you know, always shrimp on Sundays, maybe a fish during the week.
Uh, all like, you know, fresh lime juice, the cilantro. Um, you know, making so Frito making empanadas does, it was just like, it was there. It was always happening. So, so I was just, you know, soaking that up and really, we had no professional, uh, experience in restaurants. Nobody was interrupting the business. It was like really foreign to us.
We'd like to go out to eat. Uh, and so I went to a couple of years of undergrad and then I decided I was going to go to, I think, university of Illinois and that summer I, uh, stumbled. Uh, I was a lifeguard at, uh, foster Avenue beaches, my summer, my summer gig foster Avenue beaches kind of on the North shore of Chicago.
My, one of my lifeguard buddies was like, Hey, you should, uh, we were talking about this kind of this life of. Not really knowing where we're going and not really being passionate about it. And we're like, man, we're going to school, but like what, what is it, where are we going to go with this? And so he was like, you should, you know, go check out Kendall Kendall college, which was in Chicago and Evanston at the time, right across from Northwestern.
And, uh, I got there and I was like, Oh man, this, this is cool. This is like, there's some uniformity, there's some rigidity to, to this. Uh, I was a football player and wrestler. So I, I, I kinda liked structure. I appreciated it a lot. So I got there and I'm like, ah, this, this could be really fun. Explored it, enrolled that fall.
And it wasn't until a year later, That I started, you know, as we got into like our various classes and classroom structures and demos and things that, uh, you know, we were given tasks. Now here's five ingredients make what you can. And I started realizing that my dishes were like better. They were like, they started, they were alive.
I'm looking at this guy's dishes, you know? And so,
Eli Kulp: [00:42:36] but you also had a background of what, what food looks like and tastes good.
Jose Garces: [00:42:42] Exactly. And I, I guess I didn't put any value on that at the time. And so. All of a sudden I'm realizing why. Well, you know, and I can, I can put flavors together. I can put things together.
And, and I, and I really enjoy this. So it was like a moment for me, again, like a little later in life, you know, not, not really, but like as far as like, you know, getting a profession or getting a career going, I was like, okay, I think, I think this, this is gonna work. So, uh, yeah, it was just a moment of, okay, I have, I have a talent that I didn't even know.
I possessed didn't even like, yeah. So
Eli Kulp: [00:43:19] that's, that's cool, man. Yeah. It's, it's always, uh, it's always fun to hear how people find their way into our industry. Yeah. A lot of people it's, you know, it's like, you know, we're all a bunch of broken toys. Some, you know, we'll find this out of accident or a necessity, you know, with our low barrier of entry.
Jose Garces: [00:43:39] Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, you know, I, I appreciate that and I find. You know, I think I've been, I've been fortunate. We've had had a lot of restaurants. I've been able to mentor a lot of people and a lot, lot of good cooks. And it's funny when, you know, we have, at a certain point, we had, you know, culinary directors and, you know, people, folks that were overseeing the staff and they were like, chef we're, you know, we don't have any talent.
I'm like, what are you talking about? You've got about 300 people that you could train easily and bring them up. And like, you know, and I still am a firm believer actually, we're going through that now. Right. In our industry. There's, you know, there's, there's been a, you know, kind of an Exodus right. From, from the workforce.
You know, people have been discouraged. They've thought, you know, man, you know, open, close, open, close, when is this going to end? And you know, I don't want to do this anymore. I want to, I'd rather go somewhere. That's a little more secure, which I insecurity. And so we're finding ourselves and I, and I appreciate this more than anything is like back in this time where, um, we have to train, we have to train, we have to, you know, any, any of those, uh, souls who still want to give it a crack I'm open to, to training people.
Cause I think it's, it just brings me back, uh, almost 20 years where there was a lack of workforce and we had the train people to, you know, right. Wow.
Eli Kulp: [00:45:07] And that's saying, you know, back then it's people didn't have any idea of what, you know, good food looked like. You know, the only way they knew they had to money to go out to eat, there was no, you know, there's very little, you know, TV happening other than, you know, some core ones like iron chef.
So yeah. You have to kind of train people from
Jose Garces: [00:45:29] scratch. Definitely. And you know, I think that's the. You know, like you had mentioned, like you get this like low barrier venture, that's kind of, you know, scrap heap, like folks that come in and are like, maybe down our luck or just, you know, wanting, wanting to look for opportunity to like find a home, you know, find a calling.
And so, uh, when I look around and I see those types of folks, I'm, I'm drawn to them and just trying to figure out, okay, how do we, how do we elevate you? How do we get, you know, get you where you want to go. I think that's like, that's one, I like the unspoken, like really nice things about, uh, the industry that has been, has been rewarding for me, for sure
Eli Kulp: [00:46:11] as Coleman, the, you know, as your brand grew, uh, when did you, when were you like, Holy shit, like, this is, this is massive.
Um, was there ever a moment of like, you were just like, Oh my God, like. What have I built? Yeah. How do I, how do I keep this thing going?
Jose Garces: [00:46:33] Yeah. Yeah, no, there was, um, there was a moment for sure. I mean, at one point we were, uh, I think we're at 24 restaurants across five different States, uh, you know, full service, catering company, catering and event division, um, quite a bit.
And, and actually, you know, I felt, I felt really good during that time. I felt like I had built up. So it's funny when I, when I started a Mata it's all about team, right. It's all about building the right team. Yeah. Like to, to be able to, um, execute on vision and strategy. Right. So when I built the model, I was like, okay.
You know, we got to a point where we're like, all right, I think we have enough where we can hire like a special events coordinator. Right. We can bring this person in and they're going to like, and then we got to the point where like, okay, uh, Let's see, you know, we have two restaurants, maybe let's hire, um, you know, a marketing person let's hire someone.
That's going to focus on marketing. Maybe like start, start with us. And then, you know, and so over time we built up a team and then during our kind of, I would say like our heyday or our max, we had an awesome team of seven. Like
Eli Kulp: [00:47:49] I said, thousands employees by
Jose Garces: [00:47:51] then or something. Yeah. I mean, I think at a certain point we maxed out around 800 employees.
I think that that's like the big number and that, that was like, that was more than enough, plenty. And, um, you know, had had a lot of confidence going in. We had, um, We had one particular project that was really successful for us, that really fueled everything. Right. So, um, so again, I'd built up like a great, what I felt like a, like a C class.
Right. I had, you know, a CEO CLL class guys. Right. And they're like walking around doing, I'm like, okay, we're good. We're good. I feel like you guys have suits covered. And then we had a, we had an event that really caused a lot of like friction and pain and kind of like, you know, uh, problems. So we, uh, we were at revel casinos and I've been part of the project since Oh, seventh inning.
Like I designed it, they start, they stopped. You know, eventually they got their capital, they reopened and they opened in 12. So we opened with those
Eli Kulp: [00:48:53] that was a beautiful casino and hotel and everything really state-of-the-art
Jose Garces: [00:48:59] amazing property, two and a half billion dollar asset. You're just like, and I had, um, a beautiful restaurant there.
So I had a motto there on call it like just really, uh, just so nicely designed ocean views. And so we had, uh, gosh, we had four restaurants there and that was really, you know, she usually successful driving a lot of like revenue and income to this thing that I've built, this kind of like beast, right. It was like moving and needed to be fed in 2014, the summer of 14, they, you know, revel files for bankruptcy, closes the door, shutters a door.
We probably had maybe 30 days to like. Scramble and figure out what was going on. It was quick, quick, right? It was a bit, it
Eli Kulp: [00:49:46] was big news because I mean, around here, like you were at that point, you know, your empire was built. And when people started hearing about this and knowing, I mean, how many employees were like that you had to either relocate or were out of work?
Jose Garces: [00:50:04] Yeah, it was a big deal. had 3000 employees and they had to let everybody go and they, and they closed, they shut, they went on, they went on sale. They brought in a buyer who bought an, ultimately was like just, it was a real estate play for him. He was just hanging on to it until he can get the next best bid.
And that was, that event was like, uh, it was pretty tough on, on our business, on our, like, uh, our infrastructure. We had a fight kind of fight, fight back after that. And that was, again, I think all of these experiences. Have built who I am today, you know, and I, you know, you're humbled by these things. You, you know, you feel, you, hopefully you take away as much as you can so that you don't, you know, ma make the same mistakes going, going forward.
And that, uh, and that happens though, you know, it's a reality of, of business. It's certainly a reality in our business. Well, it has a
Eli Kulp: [00:51:02] life, right. And it, it a lot, like when you grow, then, you know, things happen that major event happened. Your whole company felt the ripple effects of that. Um, but you know, you S you just keep going.
Yeah. That's what you're at. That's where you
are
Jose Garces: [00:51:18] now. Keep going for me. My, my positive positivity and kind of optimistic outlook has, has always helped me. And especially in this, yeah, in this situation, you gotta, you gotta stay positive and optimistic.
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What was the toughest time for you though? When, um, you know, publicly, it was, you know, a lot was being written. You know, a lot of people had opinions, you know, here, you know, people painted it like a fall from grace almost sometimes, you know? And I mean, going through that personally, senior, your company, having to.
Uh, restructure and to survive. And you having to kind of give up a lot of what, you know, you'd built. Like, what was that personally like, uh, for you? Was it man, for me, I I'd fill a devastation, but you know, it sounds like you were handled it as well as you could.
Jose Garces: [00:54:26] Yeah. I think that, um, during that time, you know, you really have to, uh, stay grounded, you got to stay, uh, close to the ones you love and that support you.
And, you know, I think, you know, from my perspective, I knew that, um, most of the things that were being written were unfactual, you know, are kind of sensationalized. And so, uh, I took that with a grain of salt, but also with, with humility, right. There's, there's things that, uh, certainly we could have done better and, you know, and yeah, there's an accountability to it as well.
Like you have to have that accountability piece to it in order to like have peace and then be able to move on. So. Uh, I had, I had those moments. I discussed those moments with my closest advisors and friends, and really just, um, did a lot of like soul searching a lot of like meditating, a lot of like, you know, kind of embracing, uh, family life embracing kind of the things that are, that are really important.
And I found that that was, um, that was my way to, to get through. And, um, and on the other side of it, um, which was always kind of the thought is like, Hey, you're going to get on the other side of this. Just, you know, hang tight, hang in. And so, um, that was always kind of my, you know, My carrot and, uh, and yeah, and still, listen, you're still getting on the other side of it.
Right. You're still like, you know, working through things. You're still like you find yourself still like, um, sometimes jaded from the experience, but, um, you gotta stay positive again and optimistic and work towards work towards things that make you happy and are successful. Nice.
Eli Kulp: [00:56:17] That's great, man. As good to see that you're, you know, you're continuing to go and your, your company is still there.
So, uh, w what do you have now? Um, like where where's your focus in the, in the restaurants and, you know, as far as I know you're doing something right now with, um, village whiskey, right. Or, yeah. Right. You've your concept reconceptualize that little.
Jose Garces: [00:56:39] Yeah. So we expanded village and, uh, just kind of, we, we actually shrunk Tinto down.
Tito was. Two spaces before we kind of brought it back to its original iteration, which was just this wine bar. And one section it's the whole corner of 20th and, uh, 20th and Sansom is an interesting, like architectural piece too. And we had three different, three different townhomes and we connected them all through the various, like various openings and basements and whatnot.
And it's a pretty, very much like a New York style, uh, space. And so, uh, yeah, so village always had a huge demand and was a smaller footprint is laying about a thousand feet in there. So we're able to expand next door and give people the village dining experience a little more openness. Uh, so that's yeah, we did that beginning of this year and yeah, I think the company is, is moving forward.
There is a, the brands are our moving forward. Obviously we've had a rough go of it with, with COVID and, and you know, normalcy and, uh, You know, dining and restrictions and employees, and kind of, you know, trying to figure that out a year of like figure, you know, making sure that we keep our core group together, our core like management team and, um, employees, and then get to this moment here, which I think we're on the cusp of right.
We're starting to feel like, you know, we've survived a year of COVID and we're open, right. We're still we're open. We're doing it. We're, you know, we've done everything that we can to keep everyone safe, keep our employees safe, but also, uh, just be in business. Right. And so that's, that to me is one of our, uh, biggest crowning achievements is to get through.
COVID and be standing here at the end of it and still, and be like, okay, we're here now. Let's let's let's plow. Let's plow forward. Absolutely. Uh, so the restaurants are, are in, are in really good shape. Um, yeah. Looking forward to seeing, seeing what, uh, what becomes a bit, and then, um, yeah, this past year with the restaurants kind of being, you know, less occupying less of my time and having, you know, having a little more time for myself, uh, I took the opportunity to, um, to work on personal brand, right.
Things that are outside of the outside of the restaurant industry, so to speak, but still food-related
Eli Kulp: [00:59:11] let's
Jose Garces: [00:59:11] talk about that real quick. Yeah. Yeah. So,
Eli Kulp: [00:59:14] um, Jose, would you mind turn the mic towards you? Just turn more. It's kind of slowly
Jose Garces: [00:59:20] drifted. Um, so yeah, so. This year, we took the time. Uh, I took the time to really think about there, there are a number of things that I've always wanted to do, and because I've been so embedded in the, in the restaurant company and what we're doing with, you know, restaurants, menus, et cetera, uh, with things kind of slowing down on that front, it really gave me some time.
And so, uh, a lot of, I would, I would call it like buckets of, of things that I wanted to do. One, one would be, I've always wanted to get into. Retail product development, right? I've I've yeah. I've, I've felt like there's been a hole in the market. I don't think the chef world has really like focused or like really like paid attention to what's out there.
And there's a lot of space. There's still there's good food out there, uh, in the retail area, but there could be improvements. So especially in the Latin space, I feel like there's, you know, there's been like, you know, Goya has been like dominating, right. For like decades here and like their foods, if it's good, but it could be much better.
And I think it, you know, he doesn't represent, uh, the Latin food, I think the way it should all due respect to Goya and whatnot, but it just, I felt like there was room there. So I think, um, retail, retail, product development, taking 25 years of experience and, and so that's kind of underway. Um, and then. I also thought, you know, with my experience on television, on an iron chef and judging and food network, et cetera, um, I've always was in front of the camera.
I wanted to get, uh, get behind the camera and start thinking about like, um, media and content creation actually actually podcasts as well. It's on the, maybe on the horizon. Yeah, but it's, uh, I did a 24 part, um, web series called cooking space that I'm hosting on my, on my channel, which was. Which was a ton of fun.
Uh, you know, I executive produced it. I re I wrote it. It's, you know, they're eight to 10 minute pieces. Really cool. Just really based around like home cooking. I have a great videographer team here in Philly that we just, you know, we, we came together and we knocked out yet 24 and like, like six days just kind of crank Oh wow.
For a day. Yeah. So, uh,
Eli Kulp: [01:01:48] and how can people find
Jose Garces: [01:01:49] that? So people can go to chef garcias.com and find it, and as well as on YouTube, have a YouTube channel called, uh, yeah, it's just chef Jose Garcia's and you'll, you'll see all the, all the episodes are up there. Like, yeah. They're eight to 10 minute segments that usually like one, one or two recipes.
Uh, in fact, our burrito bowl is going up Wednesday. We're, you know, with 24, right. We're able to release two a month for a year. And that's, you know, again, part of. Part of what we're, we're doing on a regular basis as chefs is kind of, you know, we're selling a little bit. And so yeah, this is selling, but also giving back some value.
And so, uh, yeah, it's been, it's been great. Um, and I'm looking forward to filming, filming another season. That's good. But, uh, yeah, so we've got that Latin live is interactive cooking classes that were just, you know, starting to ramp up. That's more of a live, live class. I've been doing quite a bit of virtual demonstrations as well.
That's, that's been, that's been happening. Uh, so yeah, I mean just a couple of things to really focus on, on a personal brand. I honestly, I recommend most chefs get into that space because a lot of times we, um, we ended up working for others or when we are working for ourselves, we're so like consumed by our business, that it doesn't give you an opportunity to look outside and have a look and see.
What other opportunities are there for you that are maybe not as heavy of a lift or just really where you can use your, your, your knowledge IP, et cetera, to create some, you know, maybe passive income for you and that sort of thing. So there's, um, there's,
Eli Kulp: [01:03:34] there's that some good, some good advice. Um, you got me thinking now.
Yeah. Yeah. That's great, man. That's cool. Bef before you winded down, you know, something that's really passionate for I'm passionate about is how chefs can, you know, Reach outside their four walls, the restaurants and helping the community in any way possible. And you've really set the standard in Philadelphia and, you know, you and Mark, Vetri both have really great foundations that the do a lot of great work and the Garcia's foundation that you founded gosh, was 15 years ago.
Uh, you know, that that really helps, um, you know, people from the Latin countries learn English and get sort of assimilated here. Tell us a little about that and kind of the, the impact that you've seen over the years. Okay,
Jose Garces: [01:04:25] cool. Yeah, the Garcia's foundation, we started it really with, um, just a, just a quick story on how, how it started.
One of our, um, one of my cooks at Tinto, he was the butcher. Uh, his name was Philippe Lopez. He, uh, he was, uh, he'd been with us for a couple of years. He came, uh, he didn't show up for work. Uh, and that was really odd for him and a few, you know, a few days go by and we're like, Hey, what's really what's going on with Philippe.
So we went to see him and he was like, chef, I feel really sick. And, um, you know, I don't want to go to the doctor cause I don't want to get deported. Right. I don't want to like, you know, it's, I've been feeling like this for a while. And like, I, you know, I feel like if I go there, they're going to like, you know, I'm going to get deported.
So, you know, I'm just gonna like try to try to ride it out. Yeah. So Philippe, uh, ends up, um, He ends up, uh, con we, we got him situated with, with U Penn. We got kind of like started to like work some, some channels where we could get him seen and cut. It turns out he has cancer and dies like within, like within a few months.
So that was pretty, pretty devastating for us to like, experience and go through. And so, um, so yeah, so we decided to, you know, start this foundation really with an eye towards, you know, restaurant workers, the immigrant community in Philadelphia, and how do we help them really assimilate? How do we help them?
Like kind of come up out of the shadows and, you know, um, yeah. And give them support because obviously it's needed, it's still, you
Eli Kulp: [01:06:02] know, with this guy. I mean, he's I in the stories, you know, it tells itself, but you know, Immigrants coming here, not knowing what's possible not having the knowledge of like, Hey, I can go see a doctor and I'm not going to get deported.
Or Lisa, you know, this is a resource for them to, um, when they, when they arrive or, you know, as they get a job, you know, find insurance and all that. Yeah, definitely.
Jose Garces: [01:06:25] And so that, that was kind of our, our, our tasks. So we started these community health days that were, uh, once a month and that has been great.
Um, so my ex wife, Beatrice Garcia, she has a dental practice. She was, uh, hosting them there along with, um, you know, free dental screenings, diabetes, cholesterol, just like a one-stop shop where you could walk in there if you don't have insurance, or you're afraid to go to the doctor and at least get resourced, right.
Figure out where you're at. And then if you have an issue, you can go here. Uh, and then at the box school, we started our, um, Call it, uh, literacy through job training. So we were doing this like a restaurant job training. And while we were doing the job training, we were teaching English and that has really been a hugely successful program.
You know, we have about a hundred students, um, per semester, at least. And, and yeah. And so, you know, that the whole thought of it is like, well, you know, by learning English there, you're going to gain confidence and they're going to gain, you know, this ability to perform better at work, but also like to ascend, you know, into higher positions.
Um, and then this year with the, um, when the pandemic hit and restaurants closed and like a lot of these, you know, businesses where this community was working shutdown, we felt like there was definitely, there was a need, um, For food. Cause you know, without, you know, they didn't have any, you know, they weren't getting unemployment benefits or help.
Yeah. So we started a pantry program, uh, and we were doing food boxes. One box would feed a family of four for a week. And so we started those in March. We're doing, um, we partner with Giordano's Donald's grocers and down in South Philly really where the community lives and uh, yeah, we're doing, um, still, uh, on a weekly basis, we hand out about 200 to 250 boxes.
Right. Uh, so yeah, it's, you know, I think, um, that part of it is just, uh, something you just feel like, like you ha like. Like, I felt like, like we have to do this. We have, you know, it just was coming from within. And I, you know, I give a lot of credit to our foundation board, the foundation, uh, executive director, Robin Morris, Jillian, who's her Jillian, who does the ERL programs, uh, Beatrice who's still, you know, runs community health days.
It's really, uh, it's been fantastic. So that's awesome, man.
Eli Kulp: [01:08:56] That's great to see. Um, all right, well, listen, this has been awesome. Uh, get to know you more on a personal level, your history, your background, your origin story, and you go cool. Before we go, though, uh, I'm going to subject you to the 11 question session.
You got him random questions and uh, and then I'll fire them off rapid fire. Uh, so I think you might've answered this one, but I'm gonna ask you anyways, uh, who had the biggest influence on your career?
Jose Garces: [01:09:26] Biggest influence professionally culinarily at the two-prong, uh, Douglas Rodriguez.
Eli Kulp: [01:09:32] Nice. Um, if you had to work at a fast food restaurant, what would you choose in and out burger?
There you go. Don't eat, uh, besides your knife, what's your most valued
Jose Garces: [01:09:44] kitchen tool? My spatula, my offset like plancha spatula is if I use it for everything.
Eli Kulp: [01:09:51] Yeah. It's so hard to find good ones. Yeah. It's so hard to find. Good offsets Pat. It's like, you should invent like a perfect officer couldn't spoon, you know, like, you know, you need like a, yeah, like a signature perfectly, you know, ergonomically designed.
That's right. That's sort of so hard to find. Yeah. Yeah. Like fall wrath is like the only thing it comes out and you're like, come on, there's gotta be something better. Uh, all right. Uh, favorite place in Philadelphia to chill
Jose Garces: [01:10:17] your place is, um, Wissahickon Valley park. I've been doing, I've been doing it. I moved out to, um, we moved out to manioc a couple of years ago and have been enjoying, embracing that part of the city.
And, uh, yeah,
Eli Kulp: [01:10:32] it's, it's really manioc is, is really like the only, almost like subdivision of Philadelphia that you want to go to in a way, because like a lot of C's like, Oh, they have, you know, Atlanta has like five points and, you know, Seattle has like queen, queen, Anne, and, and you know, this, you know, beacon Hill, they're all very different neighborhoods each 20 go to and, uh, manioc has that for Philadelphia.
Jose Garces: [01:10:58] Yeah, I think it's, it's a, it's a cool, like funky little neighborhood it's gone through. It's like, Iteration of independent businesses. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, um, I think honestly, geographically, it's, it's, it's awesome. You can get the town in 15 minutes, you can get to whistle Hicken and five, you can get to Chestnut Hill, you can get to the main line.
It's pretty like pretty dynamic. You get to KOP and like, and like 15, 20 minutes. So it's like, it's on the map. It's, it's a, it's a great place. And I'd love to see what's what's happened there, uh, recently in terms of development and neighborhood and community. So it's pretty cool. Nice.
Eli Kulp: [01:11:37] If you're not at work, what are you doing?
Jose Garces: [01:11:39] If I'm not at work, you might find me, uh, hiking. Uh, you might find me gardening on my rooftop garden, uh, and you know, on a good day, maybe playing some, playing some really choppy golf. Nice,
Eli Kulp: [01:11:56] nice. Um, Favorite season to cook.
Jose Garces: [01:12:00] His favorite season to cook in for me is, uh, the summer because I love to grill. I love my big green egg, uh, and I just, um, love being outside.
So it's, it's, I love marinades rubs and putting things on the grill and like, kind of like that hot moment. Uh, so yeah, that's my still my favorite. I love the fruit of the tomato tomatoes, corn, and you know, all the like summer, like yeah, the
Eli Kulp: [01:12:28] bounty. Yeah, for sure. Nice. Uh, if you could, was the first thing you would change about our industry.
Jose Garces: [01:12:37] Wow. Okay. Um, when it goes deep. Yeah. No, it's good. It's a good way. And I think it's, it's, there's an awakening. There's a couple of things to answer it in two ways. Um, so one, one thing would be, um, currently, like, you know, there's, there's been a lot of talk about minimum wage and getting, you know, Fair and equal pay for, for, you know, back of the house in front of the house employees and kind of, you know, I just, I feel like that system that we're currently in is so antiquated and broken, that that would be kind of the first place I would, I would look to try to like, you know, move is just, how do we make this?
How do we make our business fair and equitable?
Eli Kulp: [01:13:19] How do we rebuild the mouse trap? Yeah. It's really, it's, it's like fundamentally screwed
Jose Garces: [01:13:27] up. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's, there's a market perception issue that we have. And I, and I always, I always go back to this. It's like, you know, how is it possible that the chicken entree for 25 years has remained 18 to $23?
How you can't get out of it? How is that possible? And I'm going to give this to all the, like the folks that go out there and eat, it costs more money. It's like, it's not, it's not the same. The problem is that. The market, right. The restaurant market, and that is competitive. And so, so prices get driven down and to, to the point where are, you know, who suffers employees.
Right. You know? And so that needs to be changed. Yeah. I'll even go into, um, you know, currently what's happening with, you know, the delivery partners, right? So I launched two ghost kitchens this, this past year. Uh Libby's and Rustica, Libby's a plant-based concept. Rustic has proven chicken, just love. I love it.
I love this intersection of food and tech that's happening. I really like that's, that's a cool place to be right now, figuring it out, seeing how it goes, but there's a market perception issue in terms of, Hey, if you want to be on your couch and order your food from your phone and, you know, um, you know, you want to just get it delivered and not have to wash any dishes.
Costs a little more money. Right. And so let's, let's get, let's all get on the same page here. Be realistic here. Yeah.
Eli Kulp: [01:15:00] That's yeah. It's the, uh, you're right. There's a big misconception about what the price of
Jose Garces: [01:15:07] businesses today. Yeah. And, you know, honestly, I'll go back to my time as a farmer. So I had the farm, we talked about this earlier.
I was growing organic veggies and, you know, I was weeding and cultivating and doing everything on our own. And at the end of the day, shoot, that carrot was really expensive. Like it was yeah, like super dicey for that. And so again, it's a market perception that, you know, food is, um, you know, inexpensive and it can continue, continues to get, to get higher.
Um, so yeah, we'll see. I'd love to see kind of that, um, You know, th th the mindset, the market perception start to shift. It's a more realistic terms. Right,
Eli Kulp: [01:15:52] right, right. Um, what are like, what's a good place that you love to eat in Philly?
Jose Garces: [01:15:58] Uh, gosh, I have a few, few favorites. Um, family, our family spot is Dante and Luigi's in South Philly.
Just a really solid, I love, uh, them some garden. I love, uh, Sally over there and her stuff. Um, Joey, uh, Baldino Palazzi social. I love what he does over there. Yeah. There's I mean, there's so many good restaurants and, you know, shoot, I know, um, the pandemic has taken a toll on the industry, but, um, and we had such a really good thing going here.
It was like, it was like getting, like, I mean, the like great spots were just like coming at it, like control. Yeah. So, uh, I hope that. That momentum comes back and we can, you know, kind of reestablish. Yeah,
Eli Kulp: [01:16:50] for sure. All right, cool. Um, what's your biggest fear?
Jose Garces: [01:16:55] Biggest fear. A general in general? Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, biggest fear.
I mean, I'm, I'm always still fearful for my kids and, and their, their like their lives or something, you know, something bad happening to them. So that, that, you know, that keeps me up and, you know, and it's like, my, my daughter's going to, um, she's going to college next year. She's going to, um, uh, Loyola of new Orleans and I'm like, I'm excited for me,
Eli Kulp: [01:17:27] place her there for
Jose Garces: [01:17:28] a reason.
Possibly. I mean, no, she, she, she chose, she got, uh, you know, I'm, I'm really, really proud of her accomplishments and, you know, her ability, you know, her drive to go there. And so, uh, but you know, like I'm fearful yeah. Of, you know, something, you know, creeping up on her. So I don't know. We'll, we'll see. Um, but yeah, that that's still remains, you know,
Eli Kulp: [01:17:56] it hasn't really, uh, uh, for sure.
All right. What motivates you
Jose Garces: [01:18:02] motivates me, you know, um, I S I still, after 28 years in this business, I get, I get motivated by food experiences. I actually, I think, I feel like I, I dream of like, okay, how can I make this like really delicious? How can I take this thought and really, you know, be inspired and do it.
So I think, you know, food still drives me every day. It really does. It's like, it's, it's just so ingrained. And I just, I can't, I can't get enough of it actually, you know? Um, I don't know if you guys have watched, uh, if you've seen, um, Mark Wayne's on YouTube. He's pretty awesome. He's like, he's like, I travel for food.
I, I would highly. Recommend checking out his stuff because Mark Weins Mark means, and I don't know, Mark, all I know is I've become a fan because he goes to like exotic places. I mean, he goes all over the place and really gets into those crevices and the food is just, I mean, you're looking at it and I'm like, Oh yeah, that's that could be really, so, uh, yeah, food is still, still my driver.
Cool.
Eli Kulp: [01:19:09] All right. Last question. Uh, if you could share a meal with somebody, um, you know, past or present, who would it be?
Jose Garces: [01:19:15] Uh, I'd like to hit up Fowchee for a little bit. I mean, he's really, he's been through some shit,
Eli Kulp: [01:19:21] man. He has as been, been through
Jose Garces: [01:19:23] the ringer. He has been through the ringer and I thought, yeah, you know, I thought with this new administration, he might get like a little bit of a, like a reprieve and like things kind of like chill out for him, but it's like, man, I mean, he's got, he's got a pretty thick skin and I appreciate, um, Everything that he's done for us.
Yeah. So, uh, yeah. I'd love to just maybe grab some Italian with him at his favorite Italian. Yeah.
Eli Kulp: [01:19:49] Nice Jose. This has been
Jose Garces: [01:19:51] fantastic. I, my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me appreciate it.
Eli Kulp: [01:19:56] Yeah. Best of luck on everything you got going on, man. Thank you. I'm excited to see it. We'll keep it rocking. See how it goes can right brother, you have a great day.
All right,
Jose Garces: [01:20:07] thanks again. Thank you.
Eli Kulp: [01:20:11] Thanks for listening to the chef radio podcast. If you'd like to support the show, please leave us a review. Wherever you listen to your podcast, it helps others find the show and allows us to continue to make great content. The chef radio podcast is produced by radio kismet post-production and sound designed by studio D podcast production.
And I am your host, Eli called.