“Every city has its own personality, and I’ve been very lucky to find one that suits me as well as Philadelphia does. ”

~ Jose Garces

By Ben T. Levy  |  Send to Friend

Philly’s adopted son, Chef Jose Garces, is having a hell of a year. His new Cantonese via Peruvian dim sum joint Chifa, Garces’ fourth restaurant in Philly, has been warmly embraced by diners and stodgy critics alike. This summer, he’ll also launch Village Whiskey, a paean to brown liquor. And, on his third nom, he just brought home the James Beard Award for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic. All this, and he remains startlingly humble in an industry where humility is as hard to come by as a tin of Beluga.

First off, obviously, congratulations for your James Beard Award (for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic). You were nominated twice before; do you feel these things give you more creative leverage?
Winning is fantastic,  even better than I imagined, but I don’t know about creative leverage. Generally, I think that the work a chef does in his or her restaurant is what allows them to take any next step in their career. But awards certainly help, and it’s incredibly rewarding to be recognized for what you do by others in your field. These awards are like the Academy Awards for chefs, the most coveted in the industry.

On the competition tip, you also beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America a while ago, is cooking in ‘Kitchen Stadium’ as intense as it looks on TV?
The intensity is for real. Working within that tight time frame, with only two sous chefs, to prepare a menu on the spot for some of the toughest judges in the world of food was very challenging, but we were ready for it

What was your approach to the madness of it all?
The main focus there is the same as it is in the restaurant: serving a delicious meal to guests who are excited and eager to enjoy your food. When I began to think of it in those terms, it made it easier to relax and find my rhythm.

Did you and Bobby Flay have any words after the battle?
We were both very friendly to each other. I respect Bobby as one of the top chefs in the country. It was an honor to go to battle against him. It hasn’t changed my life, but I will say that victory felt really, really good.

Your food has always been Latin in influence, but having come from South America, Chifa is in a way the most personal venture or yours, at least in the geographic sense. How long had the idea been brewing? 
I had the notion percolating for a long time. When I think of how I’d like to go about creating a restaurant or a menu, I draw from my family heritage, my culinary training, and my imagination. In this case, fusing Latin ingredients with Asian preparations caught me and wouldn’t let go. I arranged to travel to Peru with the team for Chifa and really delve into the world of this hybrid cuisine. By the time we got home, we were all anxious to get into the kitchen and apply the things we’d seen to creating a menu and conceptualizing a way to bring that food to Philadelphia.

You come from Chicago and got your chops in NYC, but Philly has embraced you as its own. Is this your home now?
It feels great to head home for Mercat (Garces’ Chicago restaurant), but Philadelphia is home to me; I started my family here, I started my business here and the city has taken me to places in my career that I never could have predicted growing up, cooking alongside my grandmother in our family kitchen. Every city has its own personality, and I’ve been very lucky to find one that suits me as well as Philadelphia does. 

What do you predict for the Philly food scene?
Nothing but growth and even more diversity as young chefs come of age and then strike out on their own, experimenting and creating new dining experiences.

What Philly restaurants are you into right now?
Vetri, Xochitl, and Zento are a few favorites.

Any favorite authentic South American food in town?
Tierra Colombiana has great Cuban and Columbian food.

Who are your favorite people to cook for?
My family; both because it is such a strong tradition for us and because I love the way they dig into a meal, letting the food become a jumping off point for conversation.

What are their most requested dishes?
Ecuadorian-style ceviches; caldo Gallego, or Galician white bean and ham stew, for my daughter; arepas and tacos and other dishes that my family has been preparing for each other for generations. 

What are three ingredients you can’t live without?
Smoked paprika -- it’s got a subtle, unmistakable flavor that I just love; pork -- in all its delicious forms; and potatoes -- there are so many ways to use them and they always taste great.

The service and small-plating styles in your restaurants seem to all be derived from tapas, dim sum or bocas -- style small plates. Why are you drawn to this service style?
Food has always had a special mystique for me because of its ability to bring people together. And I’ve always thought most fondly of meals I’ve shared with friends in the literal sense, sampling and nibbling from each others’ plates and discovering the flavors and textures before us as a group. Small plates are advantageous because they afford people that opportunity to share an entire meal, rather than just the time while they’re eating it. Each dish arrives as soon as it’s prepared, rather than waiting for slower plates to be assembled and come out at once in a stodgy procession of impossibly large portions. It allows guests to sample the menu, rather than finding themselves saddled with an enormous entrée they don’t love and wishing they’d gotten something else.

How important was Chef Douglas Rodriguez’ role in your career?
Douglas was an inspiring influence for me from a very early point in my career. When I saw an opportunity to go and work for him, I left a position as executive chef and returned to working as a line cook, just to absorb his knowledge. It was a great decision for many reasons, both because he became a mentor -- and a friend -- and because it humbled me and taught me not to confuse titles with good work. 

So do you try to adopt a mentor role in your kitchens now, like Rodriguez did for you?
I hope that I’ve been able to be that kind of a teacher to the chefs who work with me. I often come to think of my sous chefs and my line cooks as family, and I hope that I inspire them as much as Douglas inspired me. 

What is one piece of advice that you’re always giving to young cooks?
It’s advice that Douglas Rodriguez once gave me: Find someone you admire and learn everything that you can from them. It’s the best way to grow, but this means literally working 24/7 for a few years.

A young line cook in his first week, what could he do that would make you the angriest?
The phrase "I can’t." The answer, in any situation, is that of course you can. You just need to find the way to do it and make it happen. Whether it’s a difficult recipe or a particularly busy Friday night on the line, it’s important to just stay focused and do what is expected of you.

Your next project, Village Whiskey, is slated to open pretty soon. This is really your first venture with no overtly Latin theme. Are you stepping out of your comfort zone a bit?
From a culinary standpoint, Village Whiskey is a departure. But for a whiskey lover like myself, it’s the kind of place I’d love to go for a drink after a long night in the kitchen. I can’t wait to grab a seat at that bar and order a perfect Manhattan.

At the rate you’re going, you’ll have a joint on every block by 2020, how many more places can you see yourself opening?
If you’d asked me that same question four years ago, I’d have answered you the same way: the focus of my current project is the foremost thought I have and I tend not to look much further than that. For now, I’m enjoying the ride at Chifa, looking forward to Village Whiskey, and looking just far enough ahead to make sure that I have a healthy balance of work and my family.