A founding father of the festival, Val Filice continues to share
his love of all things garlic
A chosen few have been to his restaurant, though it has no regular hours and does not appear on any maps. You have to be invited to share a table with the “godfather of Gourmet Alley,” the man who created the recipes and food operation that have earned Gilroy international fame.
“Years ago, two ladies from Santa Barbara drove to Gilroy and started asking for directions to the Tank House Ristorante,” Val Filice recalled with a laugh, amazed at how far word has spread about his garden oasis and unofficial restaurant. Tucked out of site on a cul-de-sac in south Gilroy, it remains a cherished sanctuary for family and friends who congregate there weekly to share stories over his famous cooking.
“He makes the best damn tomato salad in the world,” said Ken Fry, co-chair of the festival committee that operates Gourmet Alley under Filice’s watchful eye. “It’s just fresh tomatoes right out of his garden. It’s got tomatoes and olive and garlic. It’s to die for.”
Though few have had the chance to dine just steps from Filice’s carefully planted rows of bell peppers, eggplants and tomatoes, hundreds of thousands of people have tasted his culinary creations. The man who friends note for his huge hands and larger-than-life personality is the mastermind behind recipes that, for nearly 30 years, have brought throngs of visitors to Gilroy each July. Thousands line up each day during the three-day Garlic Festival to taste his recipes: pepper steak, pasta con pesto, calamari, scampi – all of them packed with garlic.
The stinking bulb is a lifelong passion for Filice, 79, who said he fell in love with garlic during a winter many years ago.
“It was the only crop that I saw with nice green rows,” he explained. “I loved it and said, ‘Someday, I’m going to raise garlic.’ I tried to raise the best garlic I could and I raised some good garlic.”
When the festival began 28 years ago, Filice farmed more than 200 acres of garlic between his family’s land in Gilroy and land in the San Joaquin Valley. He inherited the farming business and his passion for cooking from his parents, who moved to America from southern Italy in 1920. Filice and his brother grew the farming operation over the years, but it was his mastery of the kitchen that secured his place as a founding father of the festival.
Filice admitted he was skeptical about the idea of a garlic festival in 1978, when a Los Angeles Times reporter encouraged him, garlic king Don Christopher and Rudy Melone, a former president of Gavilan Community College, to organize the event.
“I said, ‘Who the hell is going to come to a garlic festival?'” Filice recalled. “Garlic was in the closet back then. People didn’t talk about it much.”
But Melone called him a few days later and pushed the idea, insisting that he organize Gourmet Alley – the assembly-line operation that brings together hundreds of volunteers who cook and sell thousands of pounds of food. Thirty years later, the festival remains loyal to Filice’s organizational strategy and recipes.
“I like the scampi and calamari the best,” said Don Christopher, calling it a favorite from the first festival despite initial fears that they would not recoup the costs of the seafood.
“People thought we were crazy to make it,” Christopher said. “But Val fixed it so good that we had to send people back and forth to Monterey to buy more prawns.”
Filice said his passion for cooking was born in his mother’s kitchen.
“I used to watch mom,” he said. “She would make something out of nothing. She was a great cook. But mom wasn’t much of a garlic user. I was always after flavor.”
Filice’s culinary contributions over the years have not been limited to the garlic festival. He also organizes a crew of volunteer cooks to prepare dishes for homeless people at St. Joseph’s Family Center during St. Patrick’s Day and Thanksgiving. For 20 years, he and his crew still get invited to serve up garlic bread and other signature dishes at the AT&T golf tournament at Pebble Beach.
And of course, Filice lights the first flame at the Garlic Festival and occasionally jumps in to sear shrimp under 4-foot flames. Nowadays, he spends most of his time ensuring volunteers follow safety precautions and maintaining “quality control” on the food.
“These are his dishes,” said Alan Heinzen, another co-chair of the Gourmet Alley organizing committee. “He developed the recipes and he stays involved. He’s out there every day. I think if he could he’d inspect every pot of food that came off the line.”
Ernie Filice is not related to Val, but grew up in the house next door and has volunteered many years in Gourmet Alley.
“I think everyone’s perception of him being the godfather of Gourmet Alley is correct,” Filice said.
On Friday, the elder statesman of the festival will again stroll through the massive tent of volunteers known as Gourmet Alley, now a well-oiled machine that delights visitors with garlicky food and helps raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities.
But he’s not quite ready to take anything for granted.
“Me, in my cooking, I’m always trying to get better,” Filice said. “But I think it’s good – nobody’s walked away from my table yet.”
