Food Network chef embellished USMC record

[thedrifter]

Food Network chef embellished USMC record
By C. Mark Brinkley - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 12, 2007 18:51:01 EDT

Would you like lies with that?

Former Marine Josh Adam Garcia has been cooking up some tall tales in the kitchen on his quest to win the title of “The Next Food Network Star.”

The popular reality television show, now in its third season, brings together 11 real-world cooks to compete for a six-episode series deal on the network. Last season’s champ, Guy Fieri, has quickly become a standout on the network, now working as host of the new shows “Guy’s Big Bite” and “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.”

After a June 1 interview with the former Marine cook, Military Times began digging deeper into Garcia’s past. It seems that much of the story, provided by both Food Network and by the man himself, doesn’t check out.

Touted as a graduate of the New York Restaurant School and a former Marine who served in Afghanistan, Garcia’s record is actually much less stellar. For starters, he never finished culinary school in New York.

“He attended, but did not graduate,” said Midge Elias, director of public relations at the school, now known as the Art Institute of New York City. Privacy rules prevent the school from releasing any further information, such as number of course hours completed or whether the former Marine used the GI Bill to help finance his training, as he claimed in multiple interviews.

Garcia, who turns 26 later this month, was a Marine, enlisting Aug. 15, 1999, for a four-year enlistment that should have ended in 2003. Instead, Garcia was discharged eight months early as a private for reasons that the Marine Corps declined to discuss due to laws protecting his personal information.

Enlisted for more than three years with no promotions? Not even the Marine Corps is that tough.

In a follow-up interview Monday, Garcia was asked to explain why he called himself a former corporal. He owned up to non-judicial punishments that cost him rank, but he blamed his military troubles on a hazing conspiracy at his former unit. Garcia also claimed that he fought his administrative separation and was ultimately exonerated, but none of that can be independently confirmed because of privacy rules.

The Marine Corps has no record of Garcia’s rank being upgraded from private by any review board.

Likewise, the service has no record of Garcia ever deploying to Afghanistan, and certainly not as a member of 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, the infantry unit Garcia said he accompanied to the war zone in 2002. In fact, Marine officials at the battalion’s home at Camp Lejeune, N.C., said the unit did not deploy to Afghanistan that year.

“When I was in the Marine Corps, I was a grunt for a year and a half, two years, and um, became a cook,” Garcia says in a video profile for Food Network, going on to tell his story of growing up in low-income housing in New York’s south Bronx, cooking for his family at age 7. Marine officials said Tuesday that the only military occupational specialty listed in Garcia’s file is food service, and there’s no record of him holding an infantry specialty.

Now living in Havelock, N.C., not far from the gates of his final duty station, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, Garcia is the chef de cuisine at the French fusion restaurant Stacia’s Lieu Secret in nearby New Bern.

When confronted with the inconsistencies, Garcia said he never specifically told the Food Network he went to Afghanistan, but instead let producers there “believe what they wanted to believe.”

During the June 1 telephone interview, a conference call with the chef and a publicist for the network, Garcia was asked several times whether he was embellishing or omitting details from his military record. Rather than correct any inaccuracies then, the former Marine stuck to his story.

“I was just afraid of what they would say,” Garcia said in the follow-up interview Monday, which was not monitored by the publicist. “I’m not dishonorable, dude. The unit was trying to cover up hazing, a big hazing scandal.”

During a second phone interview later that day, Garcia asked that the truth behind his military record not be revealed. He told stories of fights that stemmed from being a victim of hazing, and of a command that wanted to ruin him forever.

“Everything I’ve worked so hard for will come crashing down,” he said. “Everybody there (in his military unit) told me I’d never amount to nothing. The worst thing I did was let the Food Network believe something that wasn’t true.”

It’s unclear what role his military past and culinary training played in his selection for “The Next Food Network Star.” There was no requirement for either in the audition process, and some other contestants have no culinary training or formal kitchen experience.

But, the former Marine admitted that it was during the final selections for the show that he let the “war hero” notion take hold.

“That’s my fault,” he said. “I let them believe it, that’s my fault.”

When contacted about the inconsistencies Tuesday afternoon, Food Network issued a brief written statement:

“Food Network conducted routine background checks on the competitors featured in the series,” according to the statement, attributed to Bob Tuschman, senior vice-president of programming and production for Food Network (and a recurring judge on the show). “It has come to our attention that some facts about Josh Garcia may have been misrepresented. We are currently investigating this situation and will have a resolution soon. His updated bio, pending further review, has been posted on the Web site.”

The online profile no longer included any references to Afghanistan as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, but still referred to Garcia as a graduate of the New York school after the statement was released. Garcia’s personal MySpace page also lists him as a graduate of the school.

When contacted a final time for comment Tuesday afternoon, Garcia finally stopped talking.

“You’re going to have to talk to the Food Network,” he said. “I don’t have anything else to say.”

The bulk of “The Next Food Network Star” episodes have already been filmed. New episodes of air each Sunday night (repeats air throughout the week) through July 22, with a panel of guest judges voting on who stays or goes.

The voting is opened up to America when the field is down to the final two, and viewers will decide on the winner.

Ellie

[jebollenbach]

Another dirt bag embellishing a lack luster career.

[10thzodiac]

As a corporal I recall a private that wanted out of the Corps so bad that he heard that if you got the clap 3X they would discharge you. Guess what he did

Besides always throwing away his dog tags and t-shirts and for a reason I don't recall I was on his sh!t. A naval gun-fire sergeant E-5 attached to my unit pulled me on the side and told me, "Some guys that are terrible Marines, could possibly make very good civilians."

Sh!t, Ollie North embellished his service, WTF, let this kid cook if he can !

[Sgt Leprechaun]

What a moron. But, that seems to be typical. Yeah, career privates went the way of the dinosaur many, many, moons ago.

First a grunt, then a cook? I bet he was a permanant messman, the closest he got to the kitchen was the 'takeout' line at French creek!

[thedrifter]

Taste of fame
Former Marine competes for Food Network series deal
By C. Mark Brinkley - cmark@militarytimes.com
Posted : June 18, 2007

Food Network could be getting some "Semper Fry," if a former Marine cook has anything to say about it.

Former Cpl. Josh A. Garcia, 25, (he goes by "JAG," a play on his initials and military background) is among 11 finalists selected to compete for the title of "The Next Food Network Star," a prize that includes a six-episode series deal on the network.

Last season's champ, Guy Fieri, has quickly become a standout on the network, now hosting the shows "Guy's Big Bite" and "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives."

Now in its third season, the cooking competition kicked off June 3 with a two-hour premiere. New episodes air each Sunday night (with repeats throughout the week) through July 22, and a panel of guest judges decides who stays or goes.

The voting opens to America when the field is down to the final two, with viewers choosing the winner.

Taping of the third season has wrapped up, but the contestants aren't saying who wins. (We can tell you that Garcia breezed through the first episode, showing flashes of both Marine toughness and cooking flair that intimidated and tantalized the judges.)

The expressions on his face as the judges applaud his work say everything you need to know about Garcia. Alternately humble and brash, JAG seems genuinely embarrassed when "Iron Chef" Bobby Flay praises him.

"Everything I've tasted so far has been really good," Flay said when he and the other judges assembled at the end of the first episode. "I was saying to these guys, 'I'd let him cook in any one of my kitchens whenever he wants.'"

High praise from one of the best-known chefs in America can't hurt your reputation, but Garcia doesn't have a big head about it.

"Oh my God, forget it," Garcia said in an interview days before the first episode aired. "Meeting them was an incredible honor. I've been following Food Network since before I went into the service."

The 'JAG' man

Raised in New York's south Bronx before moving to New Jersey as a teen, Garcia comes from Puerto Rican roots. As a child, he would visit there, helping out at his grandmother's restaurant. Back home, he would help his mother with her culinary tasks.

"I started cooking at 7," he said. "We used to go from church to church and cook."

After enlisting in the Corps in 1999 with plans to become a Marine cook, Garcia said he began military life as an infantryman, but "complained enough that they moved me."

After attending the food service program at Fort Lee, Va., Garcia headed to the Corps' mess halls, whipping up meals on Navy ships and deploying to Puerto Rico and Okinawa. His Food Network bio says he served in Afghanistan, and while the young chef admits he deployed there in 2002, he dodges questions about his warzone experience.

He's happy to talk about life after the Corps, which he left in 2003 after finishing a tour at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. From there, he used the GI Bill to help pay his tuition at The New York Restaurant School, a $50,000 education that required student loans. While in school, he worked as a sous chef in New York and New Jersey, honing his skills.

Now living in Havelock, N.C., not far from the Cherry Point gates, Garcia is the chef de cuisine at the French fusion restaurant Stacia's Lieu Secret (www.lieusecret.com) in nearby New Bern.

"If you knew me before I was in the Marine Corps, I never would have made it on the show," Garcia said, crediting the military lifestyle for giving him the skills to compete.

"The discipline was one of the biggest things that helped me, being able to hold my poise under pressure," he said.

A star is born?

Viewers are introduced to the beefy, smiling Garcia early in the first episode, sporting close-cropped hair, earrings and an old woodland-camouflage Marine blouse over a polo shirt and jeans. A few minutes into the show, Garcia and the group are taken to the Food Network kitchens, where Flay gives them one hour to whip up a dish for a potluck dinner, and one minute to present it.

"I want to teach people about my cuisine, and bring out new dishes that the Food Network has never seen before," Garcia says during the show. "My goal is to 'JAG it up.'"

Garcia's bruschetta appetizer is a hit, much to the former Marine's delight.

Next up is a visit with Duff Goldman, star of "Ace of Cakes," who gives the contestants 90 minutes to decorate a wedding cake.

"Wedding cake experience? Doughnut, zero, nothing," the expressive Garcia says, making a circle with his hands.

He makes the most of it, though, finishing off his cake with a goofy acrobatic move for the camera - which sends the chef tumbling to the floor. Never missing a beat, Garcia comes up beaming at the camera, pointing and smiling as if he planned the move all along. It doesn't help him win the event, however, though no real criticisms of his cake are ever offered.

Reality show vets might think the day is over, but that's not the "Next Food Network Star" way. In comes chef Robert Irvine of "Dinner: Impossible," in which the former British Royal Navy cook pulls off, well, impossible cooking feats in record time. Playing on that theme, the contestants are divided into groups and instructed to cater a 100-person wedding in six hours.

Garcia is unfazed. "I'm the bada-- in the kitchen," he tells the camera, and it seems as if he means it. His potato gratin with broccoli rabe is a hit, even as his team falls apart during the challenge.

"My biggest fear is that the selection committee will associate me with this drastic failure," Garcia says. Luckily, it doesn't, selecting two other contestants to pack for home.

Life after television

What comes next for Garcia remains to be seen (keep up with Josh at www.militarytimes.com/entertainment, where we'll recap his performance after each episode). Even if he doesn't win the top prize, the exposure he's receiving is almost as valuable, as he hopes to eventually open his own restaurants.

In the end, being on the show was a positive experience for him, he said. Positive, and hectic.

"Very, very busy. It's kinda like the Corps," Garcia said. "There's a lot to be expected out of a star, if you want to be a star."

[LOG4]

Absolute sh*t bird!! Too many of these ones still in the Corps, too.

[jetdawgg]

The pimping of the USMC continues.........

[JCam0331]

why do people lie about things like that...seriously its so dumb