Bob Filice
Life in his father’s shadow…
the garlic festival, farming, retirement
B
ob Filice still has the frying pan
that his dad, Gilroy Garlic Festival
“Godfather” Val Filice, used to cook
all of the scampi and calamari at the first
Garlic Festival 37 years ago.
“I can remember 10,000 people showed
up. It was amazing,” Bob, 63, said with a
chuckle. “It was the start of the beginning.
We ran out of calamari on Saturday. We had
to buy more to open up on Sunday.”
That was in 1979. A little over a year
earlier, Bob’s dad, Rudy Melone and Don
Christopher had gotten together and discussed
having a Gilroy food festival in celebration
of garlic.
“My dad said it would never work,” Bob
said. But it more than worked. With only
5,000 tickets printed, festival volunteers
quickly recycled tickets and cooked overtime,
serving up scampi, calamari, pepper steak
sandwiches, pesto pasta, and strawberry waffles
to the masses.
For many years, Val Filice was the Head
Chef of the Garlic Festival, contributing family
recipes and his passion for cooking with garlic.
“Gourmet Alley made the Garlic Festival. It
trademarked the festival,” Bob said. The people
I talk to go there to eat the food in Gourmet
Alley. There’s a lot of great vendors there, but
the main attraction is Gourmet Alley.”
Born and raised in Gilroy, Bob cooked
alongside his dad, and was in charge of the
famed Gourmet Alley “pyro chefs” who cook
up all of the garlicky dishes. He went on to
step into his Dad’s role as Festival Head Chef.
Val Filice died in 2007 at the age of 80.
Bob’s sons, who are fourth generation
Gilroyans, also grew up with the festival. His
youngest son Robby still cooks in Gourmet
Alley every year.
Over the years, Filice recalls helping
out at the Cook-Off Stage, Gourmet Alley
Demonstration Stage and the Volunteer Tent.
“I’ve always been involved with cooking
in some aspect of the festival,” he said. “I
love cooking. I really do. Cooking was always
primary in my family. It goes all the way back
to my grandparents. I call them chefs.”
His grandparents were farmers and loved
to cook. Bob remembers that during the
first five years of the Garlic Festival, his
grandfather sliced every single French bread
loaf in half with his band saw.
In 1976, Bob abandoned his college math
studies and plans to be a teacher in favor of
farming. Like Val, who had studied at San
Jose Sate but decided to farm the family
land after his father died, Bob carried on
the tradition.
“I didn’t graduate from college because
I had dirt under my finger (nails). God has
been good to me and has put me on the
correct path. Farming has been very good
to me.”
I have pretty much grown everything you
can think of over the years,” Bob said. That
includes tomatoes, bell peppers and garlic.
Today, he is “semi-retired” and just farms
his cherry orchards located on Frazier Lake
Road and Luchessa Lane in Gilroy.
“I’m proud and thankful. I’ve had a lot
of opportunities in life and it’s been great,”
Bob said.
Today, he still lives in the same house his
dad designed and built in 1964 — the one he
grew up in.
Bob continues to cook at an Italian festival
in San Jose and Reno. At one time, he had
his own catering company and served as the
head chef at the annual St. Mary School’s
Spaghetti Dinner during the years his boys
attended school there. Bob is also a member
of the Gilroy Sportsman Chefs and enjoys golf
and outdoor sports. He also has a love of the
ocean, likening it to therapy.
“The expression people say, ‘Stop and
smell the roses.’ I get to the ocean and I smell
everything. I smell the sea breeze, I smell
the food. I become a different person on the
coast.”
And this year, for the first time, Bob
finds himself in an unusual position the last
weekend in July - he’s not in charge of any-
thing at the Garlic Festival. “I have no duties
that weekend. I’m free to roam,” said Bob,
laughing. He is glad to see a new genera-
tion of Garlic Festival chefs and volunteers
stepping in.
“The old fogeys of the Garlic Festival,
we’re in the dust now. It’s done so well there’s
no reason it can’t continue. You just have to
keep the wheels oiled.”
But Bob said there is still the same core
group of pyro chefs who have been a fixture
at the Festival for the past 15 years.
“It takes a special kind of person to stand
in front of that flame for six to eight hours.
Especially on the days that are hot,” he said.
And another ingredient remains that Bob
said his dad taught him – take care of your
volunteers.
“Without the volunteers you will have
no Festival,” he said. “That’s one very special
thing about Gilroy is that people step up.
They always have and I hope they
always will.”
Bob marvels at how much the Festival –
and Gilroy – have grown and how quickly
time has flown by. He said that out of all of
his memories of the Garlic Festival, the first
one will always be the most memorable —
when it was just he and his dad did
the cooking.
“Every year was great because of Dad.
He was the Godfather of the Festival. I felt really special. It was very unique.”
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GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
JULY / AUGUST 2015
gmhtoday.com