CHEF EDUARDO GARCIA: A BLEND OF CULINARY CURIOSITY, FORAGING, AND NOSTALGIA

Chef Eduardo Garcia, who forages and cooks off the land where he and his wife live in southern Montana, celebrates the day’s work over a meal of elk tenderloin with sautéed kale and polenta, topped with a redolent nettle chimichurri sauce. Garcia, who was deeply influenced by flavors of his father’s homeland, develops and sells Mexican-inspired spices and sauces through his company, Montana Mex.

Interview and Photographs by Becca Skinner

When I first met Eduardo Garcia in a small bakery in Bozeman, Montana, I knew a few standout things about him: Most of those things revolved around his love for food, fire and friends. Now I realize that our initial conversations were, in fact, all true. If he has the opportunity, he will gladly invite the whole neighborhood to a smoky fire in the backyard, passing around plates of stinging nettle chimichurri on top of elk tenderloin. 

Fast forward, and six years later Eduardo is now my husband, and our lives in southwest Montana revolve around two major seasons of life: Garden season and hunting season—both of which put food in the freezer from less than a 50 mile radius around our home. We go to the grocery store like everyone else, but the importance of the story behind the ingredients in our meals goes deeper and further than it would just by picking up a zucchini at the local food coop.

I sat down with Eduardo this spring amidst our hectic daily schedules, to discuss his life spent in Montana, his upbringing, and where the journey of food has taken him as a professional chef and public speaker.

—Becca Skinner

At home in his kitchen in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Chef Eduardo prepares a meal with fresh ingredients he and Becca Skinner largely foraged from their garden or close to home.

Becca Skinner: Can you tell us a little about yourself and what drives and inspires you?

Eduardo Garcia: By trade, I’m a professional chef, but over the past seven years I’ve also been working as a founder and chef for my national food brand, Montana Mex. I also do some public speaking, and am a voracious omnivore. I love nothing more than sharing my zest and love for food, and how food fuels every facet of our lives.

BS: You grew up in a small town in Montana—like, really small—not even 400 people. How did living so rurally affect your relationship with food?

EG: The community I grew up in involved a lot of agriculture, and so naturally friends in the community all seemed to be ranchers or farmers. That sort of involvement with food has a chain reaction for everyone, regardless of whether someone takes the baton on growing their own food or not.

Early evening sun illuminates the permaculture garden that surrounds Chef Garcia’s home in Montana, providing fresh ingredients for six months of the year. A variety of fruits and vegetables are also canned, dehydrated or frozen.

 Although our community grew small plots of annuals or veggies, there was mostly a lot of attention put into the meals and the healthiness of the food being cooked. I was aware of this focus as a kid.

My mom would cook these adventurous, fun meals. It was never anything commercial or processed. When I say adventurous, I mean things like teriyaki tofu over brown rice! It was before the time of organic grocery stores or food co-ops being popular, so she was ahead of her time.

When I was in my teens, my sister, brother and I started to cook, and when my dad came to live with us from Mexico is when I started to see food as a kind of celebratory, artistic expression. He would spend hours cooking traditional Mexican dishes, salsa and other things.

BS: Is there a standout dish from childhood that you remember?

EG: With my mom it would have been chicken soup—just throwing the whole bird in the pot. We would pick meat off the bones and put tortilla chips and sesame oil on top. Given an opportunity, it’s still the way I cook chicken soup. We had miso soup for breakfast, too, though it was less celebrated. But with the chicken soup, we would eat it for days in a row.

BS: I knew you’d say miso soup. You still love that for breakfast!

EG: That’s true!

In a way, curiosity around food and cooking almost completely rules out that it’s going to be perfect, so it takes some of the pressure off. If you’re following a strict recipe word for word, it’ll probably turn out great. But if you incorporate curiosity, it’s a fun and joyous act that allows you to come to a place of learning.

Eduardo Garcia amidst his permaculture food forest in Gallatin Gateway, Montana.

BS: Moving forward, what kind of experiences as a young adult led you to pursue the work of a chef?

EG: Cooking and flipping burgers at the age of 15 at the local hot springs, for sure. I’m still cooking for others, though it looks a little different now. With our food brand, Montana Mex, I see it as an opportunity to feed people on a much larger scale, and introduce them to the curiosity and fun in food with the spices and sauces. 

BS: I wanted to talk about curiosity, because I know firsthand that’s one of the initial qualities I’d list about you. You’ve always been interested in taking a closer look at the natural world and with the sights, sounds and smells of cooking. What role do you feel that curiosity plays in food?

EG: In a way, curiosity around food and cooking almost completely rules out that it’s going to be perfect, so it takes some of the pressure off. If you’re following a strict recipe word for word, it’ll probably turn out great. But if you incorporate curiosity, it’s a fun and joyous act that allows you to come to a place of learning. From the beginning of the intention, whether it’s foraging for thimbleberries or making dinner at home, it can be fun—all the way through to the first bite. Curiosity enriches everything!

BS: Foraging for ingredients in the woods is a focus for you—and something that seems to bring you a lot of joy. Where did you learn to forage?

EG: In a gentle way, foraging came about through boy scouts. Seeing the progression of a caught fish or a winged bird turn into a meal, is where I started to put two and two together. It was the first time that I thought about food not just coming from your kitchen.

BS: Do you have a favorite ingredient to forage? 

EG: Trying to choose a favorite is hard. I’m still very much at a novice level, too. Anything wild is always a treasure! [Editor's note: Stinging nettle, oyster mushrooms, morel mushrooms and huckleberries are only a handful of the things you can forage in Montana.]

BS: For someone who is interested in being a chef specializing in outdoor cooking, do you have some key suggestions?

EG: Stop cooking indoors. Once you stop doing that, you’ll have to start cooking somewhere.

BS: What suggestions do you have for people who live in urban areas?

EG: I suggest investing in a charcoal or wood grill and start to cook outside that way. Also, a lot of city parks are set up with grills that you can use. Just start sleuthing around for opportunities that might exist if you don’t have access to a backyard or patio with a grill.

BS: In the past few years you’ve been giving a lot of presentations as a motivational speaker, both about food and also about your injury. What are the most challenging and the most joyful parts of that job?

EG: The most challenging part is traveling frequently and being away from home, although that is on pause with the pandemic. Other than that, I’m trying really hard to bring 100 percent of myself in connecting with the audience. It’s so important for me to make a personal connection through the talks, so I can be next to everybody. It’s one of my main goals: To make sure the presentation is an intimate and honest conversation right from the heart. Keeping that human connection alive is the most important thing.

It can be so liberating to speak from the heart and to stand for something like living life to the fullest. It’s one thing to try and convince a group of people to buy something or to grasp an idea, but it’s another thing to share your passion for life—I love that part.

Grilling salmon on a cedar plank in the back country of Montana: Outdoor cooking is a key element of Eduardo’s culinary approach.

Of course, losing my left hand and becoming an amputee at 30 is the first thought that comes to mind regarding challenges, but it’s not the only life experience that changed my trajectory: I was on a backcountry elk hunt when I was electrocuted by 2400 volts from an unprotected power source. The injury derailed my life and career for two years through surgeries and medical treatments. But 10 years later, looking back at it, I was in the process of pitching a television show right before I was electrocuted. I was already on the path of sharing my love of food in a broad way.

My injury brought a dose of humility that we can all probably use coming out of our twenties. “Right reason, right motive, right cause,” became a motto for my life in making sure I was on the right track. The injury caused me to be far more intentional. There’s the cliché, “Live every day like it’s your last.” And then you have a life and death experience and you physically claw your way back to life, and, yet, the change of mindset is not something you come back from—it is born of the event. I feel the gratitude now. Working with all the nurses [during my recovery] makes me want to try my hardest, so I can always make them proud that I’m taking full advantage of the life they saved.

The other experience happened about six years ago, sitting on the banks of the Yellowstone River eating catfish tacos. Someone mentioned the word “permaculture,” and I didn’t know what it was. Fast forward, I’ve torn up three-quarters of an acre of our property to plant a permaculture food forest. The idea of permaculture is to mimic how things grow in the natural world by creating natural systems through companion planting and different layers (ground cover, shrubs and trees, as an example). After 15 years of cooking, I felt myself grabbing for straws and trying to remain passionately connected to food in ways I had felt before. But putting so many years into it, those receptors felt dull. It’s continued to bring love into my career as a chef and to embrace food as it is, and where it's found, instead of trying to make it perfect.

BS: What is the one thing you believe everyone should know how to cook?

EG: I’ve received so much joy from making tortillas after my dad passed, because it brings me back to my Latino roots—brings me back to my culture. It doesn't matter what the dish is, but learn something that is deeply steeped in your family’s story. Anything with a story makes food more interesting!

Garden to table is one of the core elements of Eduardo Garcia’s culinary philosophy. Here, his wife—photographer Becca Skinner—gathers the day’s harvest from their abundant garden. Photo: Eduardo Garcia

INTERESTED IN BOOKING EDUARDO GARCIA OR BECCA SKINNER TO PRESENT AT YOUR EVENT? PLEASE CONTACT US.

You can find out more about Eduardo’s love for cooking and food by following him on Instagram or try some of his spices and seasonings at www.MontanaMex.com.

Becca Skinner is a photographer (and wife of Eduardo) based in Gallatin Gateway, Montana. Connect with Becca on Instagram and Facebook, and check out her website.