Jose Garces burst onto Iron Chef America in 2008, taking down Bobby Flay in a memorable melon battle. His momentum carried into The Next Iron Chef, where he claimed the title in 2009 after besting Jehangir Mehta. Garces stepped into Kitchen Stadium as an official Iron Chef in 2010, defeating Seattle’s Rachel Yang in Battle Hawaiian Moi. More than a decade later, he was back in the spotlight as a competitor on season 4 of Tournament of Champions in 2023. He also won The James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic in 2009 while chef at his restaurant Amada in Radnor.
Why did you open a restaurant in Radnor?
Amada in Radnor is our third active location, but the story of how any of this started goes back to Old City in 2005. I was walking down Chestnut Street, ran into a friend of mine in the produce business, and he mentioned a spot nearby that its owner was looking to sell. The second I walked in, I had a complete vision of what it could become. That's Amada's whole history in a nutshell: a lot of it came from being open to serendipity rather than sticking to some rigid plan. Bringing that same restaurant out to the Main Line, into a community full of people who'd already been driving into the city for years to eat with us, just felt like the natural next chapter.
Why did you become a chef?
I didn't walk into it with some grand plan. I started at community college with no real direction, more or less a rudderless ship, and it wasn't until I got to Kendall College that things clicked. I remember the first day noticing the crisp uniforms, the tall hats, the military precision of the brigade system, and something about that structure appealed to me immediately. I needed guardrails, and cooking gave them to me. It wasn't until I actually got my hands working in that kitchen that I realized I had a real talent for it, that I could take ingredients and consistently make them taste better than the guy next to me. That competitive streak is what turned a trade into a career.
What is important to you in cooking?
It goes back to my mother and grandmother, both incredible cooks. Some of my earliest memories are standing at my mom's hip while she made dinner, peeling potatoes and carrots for Ecuadorian stews and empanadas. I didn't know it then, but those hours were shaping everything I'd eventually build a career on. Cooking, for me, has always been tied to that sense of family and home first. The technique is important, but it's in service of that feeling.
How did you develop your style?
A few years into my career I made a deliberate choice to stop cooking a little bit of everything and focus on the food I actually grew up eating, Latin and Spanish cuisine. At the time it was underrepresented in the landscape here, so it became the niche I could own. That decision came out of curiosity more than strategy, the same curiosity that got me to Kendall in the first place. Everything since, from Amada forward, has been built on that foundation.
What is the one thing you would tell a reader who wants to make great food?
Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Opening my first restaurant terrified me. I'd already had success as an executive chef, but going out on my own was a completely different kind of fear. The only way through it was preparation and persistence, and trusting that even a failed attempt teaches you something you need. The same is true in a home kitchen. The dishes worth making are usually the ones that scare you a little.
Green Plantain Empanadas with Spinach-Manchego Filling and Artichoke Escabeche
My grandmother taught me the secret to these Ecuadorian snacks. The plantain dough isn’t hard to make if you know the proper technique. You have to knead the dough thoroughly. This makes it more malleable and easier to quickly roll out and fill.
Ingredients (all recipes are below):
- 1/2 cup Spinach-Manchego filling
- 4 Verde Dough rounds
- 8 cups vegitable oil
- Kosher salt, to taste
- 1 1/2 cups Artichoke Escabeche
Artichoke Escabeche (Yields 1 1/2 cups)
- 2 tablespoons piquillo chiles, julienned
- ¼ cup thinly sliced confit artichoke
- ¼ shallot, thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- In a bowl, fold all ingredients together. Escabeche can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.
Spinach-Manchego Filling (Yields 1 cup)
- ¼ pound baby spinach
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 5 cloves roasted garlic
- ½ cup béchamel (How To is below)
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 2 ounces Manchego cheese, grated
Instructions:
- In a sauté pan over high heat, sauté spinach and garlic in vegetable oil. Season with salt. Strain off all excess liquid. Roughly chop spinach and place in a bowl. Mash up roasted garlic and add to spinach.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, combine béchamel and milk. Pour béchamel mixture over the spinach. Add manchego. Mix thoroughly and cool. Spinach-Manchego filling can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.
Béchamel (Yields 2 cups – this recipe calls for only 1/2 cup)
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- Kosher salt, to taste
- In a saucepan, melt butter over low heat. With a rubber spatula, stir in flour. Continue to cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring several times. Stir in half the milk, cooking over low heat until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Stir in remaining milk. Continue to cook over low heat stirring regularly until smooth. Season with salt. Béchamel can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.
Verde Dough (Yields 4 rounds)
- 1 green plantain
- Kosher salt, to taste
Instructions:
- Make 2 slits down each side of the plantain and soak in warm water, about 20 minutes. Peel plantain. Boil plantain in water until very tender, about 45 minutes.
- Put boiled plantain through ricer twice, and season with salt. Pack riced plantain into 4 balls. Place the balls in a bowl, cover, and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Remove from bowl and knead each ball until pliable. The dough should break down and then come back together 3 times. Using a tortilla press lined with plastic wrap, or a rolling pin, flatten each ball. Cover with plastic wrap so the dough doesn’t dry out. Use immediately.
Putting it all together
- To make empanadas, place 2 tablespoons Spinach-Manchego filling in the middle of each of the 4 verde dough rounds. Fold the dough in half, and press the edges of the dough with a fork to seal the empanada.
- In a fryer or a deep, heavy-bottomed 4-quart pan, heat vegetable oil to 375°F. Drop empanadas into oil and fry until slightly browned, 1 to 1 ½ minutes. Remove from oil and drain. Season with salt.
- Divide artichoke escabeche among 4 plates. Cut each empanada in half and place the 2 halves cut side down on each plate so that the empanada halves stand up.
About Jose Garces:
Iron Chef, father, husband, James Beard Award-winner, entrepreneur, and food innovator, Chef Jose Garces is a leading authority on Spanish and Latin-American cuisine.
From Spanish tapas at Amada, his first restaurant, to award-winning burgers and whiskey flights at Village Whiskey, Chef Garces continually pushes culinary boundaries. He also connects with home cooks through enhanced delivery options, virtual cooking demonstrations, and live online classes. Chef Garces is excited to connect with both fans of his work on television, as well as the home cook who’d like to experience “chef life” in their own kitchen.
As a child of immigrants and a leader in the diverse and inclusive hospitality industry, Chef Garces is deeply committed to his Philadelphia community. In 2011, he co-founded The Garces Foundation, providing health services, English-language classes for restaurant workers, and food assistance to immigrant and food-insecure communities.
Chef Garces is the author of two cookbooks, Latin Evolution and The Latin Road Home, published by Lake Isle Press.
chefgarces.com