Entertainment, TV, Television - Army Times

Former Marine could be ‘The Next Food Network Star’

Food Network could be getting some “Semper Fry,” if former Marine Cpl. Josh A. Garcia has anything to say about it.

Garcia, 25, (he goes by “JAG”, a play on his initials and military background) is among 11 finalists selected to compete for the title of “The Next Food Network Star,” a prize that includes a six-episode series deal on the network. Now in its third season, the reality cooking competition kicks off Sunday, June 3 at 9 p.m.

After enlisting in the Corps in 1999, Garcia became a Marine cook, whipping up meals on Navy ships and deploying to Okinawa and Afghanistan. After leaving the service in 2003, he used the G.I. Bill to help pay his tuition at The New York Restaurant School.

Still living in Havelock, N.C. — not far from the main gates of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point — Garcia is currently the Chef de Cuisine at a French fusion restaurant in nearby New Bern, N.C.

“If you knew me before I was in the Marine Corps, I never would have made it on the show,” Garcia said in an interview, crediting the military lifestyle for giving him the skills to compete.

“The discipline was one of the biggest things that helped me,” Garcia said. “Being able to hold my poise under pressure.”

Viewers are introduced to Garcia early in the first episode, sporting close-cropped hair, earrings and an old woodland camouflage Marine utility blouse over a polo shirt and jeans. A few minutes into the premiere, Garcia and the rest of the group are taken to the Food Network kitchens, where “Iron Chef” Bobby Flay gives them given one hour to whip up a dish for a potluck dinner, and one minute to present it.

“I want to teach people about my cuisine, and bring out new dishes that the Food Network has never seen before,” Garcia says during the show. “My goal is to ‘JAG it up.’”

New episodes of the show air each Sunday night (with repeats throughout the week) through July 22, and a panel of guest judges decide who stays or goes. The voting is opened up to America when the field is down to the final two, and the viewers will decide on the winner.