thedrifter
06-05-07, 06:43 AM
June 5, 2007 - 12:00AM
Former Marine gives TV rivals food for thought
By Tom Mayer Sun Journal Staff
He's already well-plated.
There's the single, multiple-meaning name: JAG, short for Joshua Adam Garcia, a former Marine.
There's his experience: current chef du cuisine at New Bern's Lieu Secret and veteran chef of myriad upscale eateries between New York City and North Carolina.
There's his resume: a four-year stint in the military cooking for thousands of troops abroad and at Cherry Point; graduate of the New York Restaurant School; mentored by New York's Marcello Russo Vivito under a two-year tutelage.
There's the back story: He's the kid who shouldn't have made it.
JAG survived the rough side of the Bronx in a rougher household with three siblings and no father. Yet through luck, hard work and determination, his youth also included a move to New Jersey with a stepfather he calls "dad," a dream to become a chef accomplished by entering the military and applying the GI Bill to his culinary education, several successes and setbacks in the restaurant industry, a just-announced engagement and an opportunity to soon become a stepfather himself.
These things - name, rank, resume and story - made him appetizing to Food Network executives looking for their next star, the Havelock resident said during a recent series of interviews.
These things and one other.
JAG likes to dream, and he dreams big.
And so this 25-year-old chef from the south side of the Bronx thinks he's going to have his own Food Network show, a show transmitted to 90 million households.
He thinks he'll have his own restaurant featuring his own culinary creation: "Latino Fusione," the way he cooks today combining Latin roots, Italian cooking and formal French training.
He thinks he's going to beat out 10 competitors - he's already outlasted two, who were sent home during Sunday's premier episode - and emerge a colleague and contemporary of guru chefs such as Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Duff Goldman and Guy Fieri.
And the thing is, he just might be right.
"On the set they say I'm tough, and there's a reason for that," JAG says.
Then he makes the reason clear.
"I'm not there to make friends."
What he will be there for - "there" being a New York City television studio - is to win The Next Food Network Star. The reality television contest eliminates one TV host chef per week following a series of culinary challenges.
The winner, chosen in the finale by viewers voting for one of the remaining two, is selected to host a new Food Network series.
The show began its third season Sunday and continues to air on Sundays at 9 p.m. (The premiere episode will air again Thursday starting at 9 p.m.) JAG aims to ensure he'll make it to the end.
"Anybody can be a chef," JAG says. "Anybody can go to culinary school. It's passion that drives you forward.
"Are you willing to put in that time?"
Apparently, he is. For two months, as the show is taped, JAG is required to put his life on hold. He lives, works and eats with the other contestants who range from caterers to a certified financial planner. He has no contact with his family or fiance .
He also decorated a wedding cake - a nouveau experience for the French chef - and catered a wedding for 100 people in six hours.
That was during Day 1.
The planned challenges get tougher from there.
No holds barred
But listen to JAG tell his story and you believe that the poor kid from the city could actually win the thing.
He overcame youthful "indiscretions" - "I was a little punk, constantly in trouble, getting out of control and hanging with the wrong crowd" - to make captain of the wrestling team, earn a martial arts black belt and join a choir.
And he always liked to cook.
From helping his grandmother make sausages during summers spent in Puerto Rico, and from cooking for his siblings while his mother worked as a nurse's assistant, JAG learned to be comfortable in the kitchen.
Later, a chance to train, cook and earn money for culinary school by joining the Marines seemed a natural fit for the 17-year-old high school graduate.
Soon he was cooking aboard an aircraft carrier.
"I was making 3,000 waffles every morning," JAG said. "That's how I learned to be fast."
The former Marine says such military experience will serve him well as he enters the contest.
"I'll have to disassociate from the outside world," he said - a skill he's mastered.
"There are two things that will separate me from the other contestants," JAG says. "I was in the Marine Corps and I'm used to being alone.
"And I can handle the tension."
Well, that's three things. And there's a fifth: The single name he turns on and off like a verb.
"JAG it up," he says. "You'll see.
"I've got a name. They'll like that."
Ellie
Former Marine gives TV rivals food for thought
By Tom Mayer Sun Journal Staff
He's already well-plated.
There's the single, multiple-meaning name: JAG, short for Joshua Adam Garcia, a former Marine.
There's his experience: current chef du cuisine at New Bern's Lieu Secret and veteran chef of myriad upscale eateries between New York City and North Carolina.
There's his resume: a four-year stint in the military cooking for thousands of troops abroad and at Cherry Point; graduate of the New York Restaurant School; mentored by New York's Marcello Russo Vivito under a two-year tutelage.
There's the back story: He's the kid who shouldn't have made it.
JAG survived the rough side of the Bronx in a rougher household with three siblings and no father. Yet through luck, hard work and determination, his youth also included a move to New Jersey with a stepfather he calls "dad," a dream to become a chef accomplished by entering the military and applying the GI Bill to his culinary education, several successes and setbacks in the restaurant industry, a just-announced engagement and an opportunity to soon become a stepfather himself.
These things - name, rank, resume and story - made him appetizing to Food Network executives looking for their next star, the Havelock resident said during a recent series of interviews.
These things and one other.
JAG likes to dream, and he dreams big.
And so this 25-year-old chef from the south side of the Bronx thinks he's going to have his own Food Network show, a show transmitted to 90 million households.
He thinks he'll have his own restaurant featuring his own culinary creation: "Latino Fusione," the way he cooks today combining Latin roots, Italian cooking and formal French training.
He thinks he's going to beat out 10 competitors - he's already outlasted two, who were sent home during Sunday's premier episode - and emerge a colleague and contemporary of guru chefs such as Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Duff Goldman and Guy Fieri.
And the thing is, he just might be right.
"On the set they say I'm tough, and there's a reason for that," JAG says.
Then he makes the reason clear.
"I'm not there to make friends."
What he will be there for - "there" being a New York City television studio - is to win The Next Food Network Star. The reality television contest eliminates one TV host chef per week following a series of culinary challenges.
The winner, chosen in the finale by viewers voting for one of the remaining two, is selected to host a new Food Network series.
The show began its third season Sunday and continues to air on Sundays at 9 p.m. (The premiere episode will air again Thursday starting at 9 p.m.) JAG aims to ensure he'll make it to the end.
"Anybody can be a chef," JAG says. "Anybody can go to culinary school. It's passion that drives you forward.
"Are you willing to put in that time?"
Apparently, he is. For two months, as the show is taped, JAG is required to put his life on hold. He lives, works and eats with the other contestants who range from caterers to a certified financial planner. He has no contact with his family or fiance .
He also decorated a wedding cake - a nouveau experience for the French chef - and catered a wedding for 100 people in six hours.
That was during Day 1.
The planned challenges get tougher from there.
No holds barred
But listen to JAG tell his story and you believe that the poor kid from the city could actually win the thing.
He overcame youthful "indiscretions" - "I was a little punk, constantly in trouble, getting out of control and hanging with the wrong crowd" - to make captain of the wrestling team, earn a martial arts black belt and join a choir.
And he always liked to cook.
From helping his grandmother make sausages during summers spent in Puerto Rico, and from cooking for his siblings while his mother worked as a nurse's assistant, JAG learned to be comfortable in the kitchen.
Later, a chance to train, cook and earn money for culinary school by joining the Marines seemed a natural fit for the 17-year-old high school graduate.
Soon he was cooking aboard an aircraft carrier.
"I was making 3,000 waffles every morning," JAG said. "That's how I learned to be fast."
The former Marine says such military experience will serve him well as he enters the contest.
"I'll have to disassociate from the outside world," he said - a skill he's mastered.
"There are two things that will separate me from the other contestants," JAG says. "I was in the Marine Corps and I'm used to being alone.
"And I can handle the tension."
Well, that's three things. And there's a fifth: The single name he turns on and off like a verb.
"JAG it up," he says. "You'll see.
"I've got a name. They'll like that."
Ellie