Mar 5, 2019
My guest is Eduardo Garcia. Eduardo is chef, entrepreneur, filmmaker, outdoorsman and philanthropist. I came across this story when I was checking out this amazing video series by Yeti called "The Hungry Life." I started to dig in and it took me down this amazing rabbit hole of inspiration and incredible stories. And great food too. Listen To The Podcast: Resources: www.montanamex.com www.chefeduardo.com www.chargedfilm.com Instagram: @chefeduardogarcia, @montanamex Mitch: The short version is that he grew up in Montana hunting, hiking, exploring and at about the age of 15 started to work at local restaurants. He uncovered this love for creating amazing food. He went on to culinary school, wound up becoming a chef for the uber wealthy on yachts and in private homes, pretty cool. But after about 11 years he decided to come back home and launch a natural foods company called “Montana Mex” with his friends. But around that same time tragedy struck and I want him to tell you the story himself. But needless to say he battled back from some incredible odds. And when you hear the story you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Incredible odds sells it short. But Ed not only survived but he's thrived. He's created this incredible life. He is truly living the epitome of the dream think do life. So I had to have him on. I can't wait for this episode. So let's get to this. Mitch: Eduardo, welcome to DTD. Eduardo: Hey Mitch, I'm excited to be here. I'm super ready. Mitch: Exactly I love it. And you are sitting outside beautiful Bozeman, Montana where I used to live. So once I found that out I'm like oh my gosh... He's got to be on dream think do. I just wanted to come to your house though and do the interview. So we'll do that next week. Eduardo: Next time. Mitch: Yeah, exactly right. I love it. So you grew up in Montana. Did you grow up with a love for the outdoors or was that something that came on later in life? Eduardo: Yeah. I think when we moved to Montana I was six years old and it's kind of one of those things I think there's nature and nurture and where I was living was mountains and four distinct seasons. Yellowstone River a stones throw away and it was my sandbox. So I had no other options nor did I know any better and then of course through programs like Boy Scouts of America and then your community and your friends and your peers, you grow up in the outdoors. You grow up skiing. You grow up hiking. You grow up fishing. You grow up. This is your hood. This is the peaks, the valleys, the streams, the meadows of the Rocky Mountain west. Mitch: Yeah. And then you just dive in and have at it, right? Eduardo: Yeah you have to. They always say to live in a place like Montana especially you know if you do not take advantage or engage with the outdoors in some way not only are you missing out on one of the greatest boons of being in a place like this geographically, but you're probably going bonkers. Because there's nothing to do here. Mitch: Exactly right. Eduardo: And I mean from an outdoors man's perspective, I have a calendar that I call my recreational calendar and it's every month of the year this is where my focus is from an outdoor perspective. Mitch: And doing activities outside different types of activities and that kind of thing. Eduardo: Yeah. You know snowboarding and snow sports, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, picking up antlers, mushroom foraging, fly fishing, floating the rivers to then hunting in the fall, putting the garden away, and then all of a sudden you're back into winter and snow sports. So it's like. Mitch: Yeah I'll never forget we lived out there for a number of years. We had a friend visit and he showed up on a Friday morning and that night my wife got home from work and I said, “What do you want to do?” and he's like, “Well what do you guys want to do?” I said,, “You want to go to the mountains. He's like yes.