Before Eduardo Garcia was known as the amazing “Bionic Chef” as a 15-year-old kid looking for an after-school job in Paradise Valley, Montana. He found a job application for Chico Hot Springs Resort, giving him three options; dishwasher, cook and preparatory cook.
“I knew I wasn’t a cook, I knew I didn’t want to wash dishes for a living and I didn’t know what ‘prep cook’ meant,” he said.
By process of elimination, he checked the box next to prep cook.
Garcia attributes his first job to developing his sense of business and a passion for cooking. He rode his bike uphill both ways to work.
“It was the beginning of me learning that for anything you’re going to try for, you’ve got to be willing to show up, clock in,” he said.
Garcia told his story Wednesday in Baker Ballroom as part of the Kennedy Lecture Series organized by the Kennedy Lecture Series Committee.
Garcia shared meaningful moments from his career with the audience.
After he graduated with an associate’s degree from The Art Institute of Seattle, Garcia got the opportunity to work as a chef on a yacht. The first time he was offered the job, he turned it down. He spoke to the audience about experiencing new places and new people, and how his job as a cook connects him to people.
“The humanizing part of my job started to reveal itself,” Garcia said when discussing his work on the yacht.
When his boat was docked, Garcia had to hunt down ingredients wherever they happened to be. He became familiar with local salesmen and was respectful of their business. It wasn’t just about putting food on his own and his clients’ tables, it was also about helping others put food on their tables. He learned the value of connecting with people.
After working there for ten years, he felt the need to move on from his role.
“I was realizing that I wasn't as fired up and passionate about working on a yacht as I was my first seven years,” he said.
Garcia moved on to start his company, Montana Mex.
“I founded the company to bring healthy, organic, Mexican-inspired foods to the grocery industry,” he said to Baker’s audience.
After discussing his career milestones, Garcia brought up personal struggles.
“You don’t plan to get electrocuted,” Garcia said, regarding the pivotal event in his life.
Eduardo Garcia lost his left arm in 2011, in an electrocution accident eight months after he incorporated Montana Mex and seven days before he was supposed to sell his cooking show to the Food Network.
According to Garcia, his doctors described him as “a bag of bones with a heartbeat.”
In Baker Ballroom, he shared a picture with the audience of himself in a hospital bed puzzling over his new stump.
After his recovery, Garcia found himself thinking of Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare. He knew his accident was going to slow him down from moving on with the rest of his life, but he would get there eventually. Relearning how to cook with a prosthetic was difficult, but he persevered.
“I had to take real ownership over what was going on and I couldn’t try to hide my amputation,” Garcia said.
Cris Warner, a freshman studying restaurant, hotel and tourism, attended the event. Garcia’s revelation of college being a possibility for him resonated with them.
“I just really resonated with a lot of the things,” they said. “Specifically, just kind of like, the realization of like, ‘Oh, I could go to college.’”
“I love when he said, ‘I always give 110% because no one’s really around to tell you, ‘You could have, would have, should have,’” Kitty Crino, a senior majoring in retail and fashion merchandising, said.
If people are interested in learning more about Garcia, they can watch his documentary "Charged." The documentary is available in 27 different countries and in seven different languages.
Garcia is now a host of Magnolia Network’s, “Big Sky Kitchen With Eduardo Garcia.” He won the James Beard Award and was nominated for an Emmy. He’s now chewing on ideas for a cookbook, he said.
Garcia hopes to return to Athens eventually and engage with the local produce market.
