Meet Chef De Cuisine Jonathan Garcia of Leoness Cellars, located in Temecula wine country. With Leoness being rated the #1 Winery Restaurant by USA Today’s 10 Best Reader’s Choice and Best Restaurant of the IE for 4 consecutive years you can imagine the level of responsibility Chef Garcia deals with on a day to day basis. Last week we got to sit down with chef and talk about his love for culinary arts, how important his team is, chef knives, and some new items he is working on for the holidays (like a translucent pie). Working at a french restaurant has taught him some key techniques that he has used to create unique dishes; for example the Demi-Glace they serve takes about 4 days to make from scratch and everything used is made in-house. Jonathan also talked about his love for traveling and how he always visits new restaurants whether it’s the taco shop on the corner or Michelin star fine dines you can always find inspiration in a dish. From there he takes the idea and recreates it in his own way, this can be looked at as artist inspiring artist. He explained his “style” as creative, never putting himself in a box he wants to create as much as possible even if it goes against tradition. We hope this story gives you a new perspective on culinary arts or inspires you to cook. Enjoy!
“At 12 I made my first 3 course meal from scratch for my mom on Mother’s Day and that’s where the love for cooking grew.”
What inspired you?
I’ve always had a love for food. Ever since I could talk I’ve always wanted to go to fine dining restaurants for my birthday when other kids would choose Chuck E. Cheese. I would play “restaurant” growing up where I would have my mom make the food and we would treat the house as if it were a restaurant. At 12 I made my first 3 course meal from scratch for my mom on Mother’s Day and that’s where the love for cooking grew. I grew up in a single parent household and in high school my mom was going to school to get her masters at night and working during the day. One day I decided I want to step up and help out so I told my mom I wanted to cook dinners during the week so that it was one less thing to worry about. On the weekends I would get recipes from the internet or food network and we would go to the grocery store on Sundays and get what I needed to make dinner for the week. When I think about my life I always tie some of my best moments throughout with food whether it were eating a certain person’s food or eating with certain people. When I cook I’m inspired by trying to either tap into my diners nostalgia by bringing back those special memories they might have through my food or create great new memories for them to remember through their life. Just as I have throughout my life so far.
What advice do you have for the youth aspiring to become chefs/artist ?
My advice would be to keep grinding and working hard. It sounds cliche but hard work does pay off and I’m a testament to that. Being an up and coming chef is not for the faint of heart and is a very stressful, tiring, and rigorous journey but if you love it it’s all worth it. Night in and night out you have to sacrifice yourself for your diners and put them before yourself. You have to be ok with making mistakes because that’s what makes you a better chef or artist as long as you learn and don’t repeat them. As an artist you have to really love what you do because that’s what drives you every day and nothing else. Everything has to be for the love of the art. I love what I do and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
