#186 - Chef Jose Garces - Iron Chef, James Beard Winner & Restaurant Empire Builder on Beating Bobby Flay, & Scaling Culture 🍳🏆

Episode 186 • 17th February 2026 • Built Not Born • Joe Ciccarone

00:00:00 00:53:02

Start at

Embed

Chef Jose Garces - Iron Chef, James Beard Winner & Restaurant Empire Builder on Beating Bobby Flay, & Scaling Culture 🍳🏆

He beat Bobby Flay on national TV. He built a 25-restaurant empire. He's a James Beard Award winner and Iron Chef.

But the biggest lesson? It came from watching his mom cook dinner after a factory shift — tired, organized, and making it happen anyway.

What You'll Learn:

The leadership lessons he learned watching his Ecuadorian mom run the home kitchen
How getting fired from his first chef job became his biggest breakthrough
What it's like to cook under extreme pressure on Iron Chef America
The moment he almost lost it all — cutting his finger mid-battle, blood everywhere, 45 minutes left
How to scale culture across 25 restaurants without losing your soul
Why he took a $12/hour line cook job after 10 years in the industry
The wellness shift in his 50s that made him a better leader, dad, and partner

Power Quote: "There are no failures. It's just a function of learning and growing." — Chef Jose Garces

Timestamps:

🍳 0:00 - Introduction

👨‍👩‍👦 3:00 - Leadership lessons from his mom's kitchen

🤼 6:30 - What wrestling taught him about competition and grit

💼 10:00 - Working since age 8 and the entrepreneurial mindset

🔥 14:30 - Getting fired and taking a $12/hour job to learn from the best

🏆 20:00 - Opening Amada and betting everything on Spanish tapas in Philly

⚔️ 26:00 - Beating Bobby Flay and becoming an Iron Chef

🩸 32:00 - The Indian cuisine battle — cutting his finger, blood won't stop, 45 minutes left

📈 36:00 - Scaling culture across 25 restaurants

🧘 40:00 - The wellness shift: meditation, sauna, yoga, and Nordic skiing