‘Awards Chatter’ Podcast — Jose Andres (‘We Feed People’)
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Jose Andrés is one of the world’s greatest chefs and humanitarians. Spanish-born and American-naturalized, he opened his first restaurant in the United States, Jaleo, 29 years ago, and he now oversees the Think Food Group, an empire of dozens of restaurants including minibar and The Bazaar. The only chef in the world to have received two Michelin stars and four Bib Gourmand awards, he was named Bon Appetit’s Chef of the Year in 2004 and the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef of 2011, and in 2010 he became the first chef ever to receive Spain’s prestigious Order of Arts and Letters medallion in recognition of his efforts to showcase the Spanish culture abroad. As another celebrity chef, Emeril Lagasse, put it, “He is a brilliant restaurateur who has shaped America’s culinary history and course by introducing his distinctive taste on Spanish food and culture.”
But Andrés is today perhaps best known as the force behind World Central Kitchen, a not-for-profit non-governmental-organization that he founded in 2010, which quickly became the world’s preeminent provider of food relief after disasters struck anywhere in the world — earthquakes, hurricanes, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine — providing meals to help people through the immediate aftermath and teaming with locals to arrange longer-term solutions.
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In recognition of his tireless work with World Central Kitchen, which has now served millions of meals to people in need, he was honored by President Barack Obama with the National Humanities Medal in 2015; the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2018; and, in 2019, a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. As President Bill Clinton put it, “He’s a national treasure for us, and a world treasure now. He’s really one of the most special people I’ve ever known.”
The author of the New York Times bestselling book We Fed an Island, Andrés has been profiled on 60 Minutes; featured on the cover of TIME, which twice named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world; and is the subject of a National Geographic documentary directed by Ron Howard called We Feed People, which hit Disney+ on May 27 and is now nominated for an Emmy for best documentary or nonfiction special. Andrés discussed all of the above during a recent episode of THR’s Awards Chatter podcast, which you can listen to in its entirety or read excerpts of below.
Where were you born and raised? And what did your folks do for a living?
I was born in north part of Spain, Asturias, in a mining town called Mieres. My father was a nurse, my mom became one later on. I grew up in Catalonia, in Barcelona, because my mom and my father moved to Barcelona for the opening of a new hospital. And I guess that’s why I always say that I’ve been an immigrant all my life.
Was food a big part of your childhood?
My father would cook on the weekends, mainly Sundays. My mom would be more in charge Monday through Friday and Saturday. And so I grew up between the rice dishes of my father and the red peppers and croquetas of my mom. We didn’t go to restaurants because we couldn’t afford to.
What made you decide to leave home at 15 and pursue a career as a cook?
I was not doing very well at school. My father knew that I loved cooking because I always was helping him cook at home. And there was this opportunity to go to a cooking school, and I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t graduate from high school and I didn’t graduate from the cooking school — but recently they gave me an honorary degree! But for me, that school was important in the sense that it cemented that, yes, I wanted to be a cook.
Six years later, at 21, you moved to America — New York, specifically — and stayed there for two years before relocating to Washington, DC. Why did you settle there?
New York was great for a young cook and pure adventure and crazy nights, but I felt I needed to find a place to belong, to throw an anchor. I came to Washington, DC [to pursue one job opportunity], and here we are, almost 30 years later, with many restaurants in DC, almost 40 restaurants across America, in the Bahamas and about to open one in Dubai.
How do you think you have most influenced American cooking? One often hears about tapas taking off because of you.
I think I’ve been given more credit than I deserve — Spanish cooking was here already — but yes, tapas became very popular in Washington. Tapas are not food; tapas are a way of life. Usually you eat them on the bar, usually you share them, usually you eat many different dishes. My joy was that Spanish cooking was growing.
I know that in 1993 you became involved with an organization called DC Central Kitchen, which was ultimately sort of a model for your World Central Kitchen, which kicked into high gear after the earthquake in Haiti, during which you were on vacation nearby in the Cayman Islands and felt helpless…
When an emergency happens, when you need to take care of the health care of people, you send nurses and doctors. When you need to do rescue missions, you send firefighters and people that have experience in debris. When you need to do assessments of bridges or buildings so they don’t collapse, you send engineers or architects. So when you need to feed people, who do you think is the most prepared people to do that? With that very simple idea when Haiti happened, I decided, “I’m going to go and I’m going to learn. I’m going to start watching. I know how food empowers people in my city, but in an emergency, how can we do better?” I was there for a few weeks. And that’s how we began.
World Central Kitchen has since grown and done life-saving work in places including New York after Hurricane Sandy, Houston after Hurricane Harvey, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, everywhere after COVID hit and in DC between the insurrection attempt and the inauguration in 2021 and most recently has had a presence in Ukraine. I’m sure many filmmakers have wanted to make documentaries about you. Why did you say no to everyone until Ron Howard?
We had always had people following us with cameras, young cinematographers who were part of the family and were making sure that everything was documented, guys who very often would put the cameras down because they were also helping us deliver food. But nobody could tell this story better than Ron did. I told Ron very clearly that it is World Central Kitchen, not Jose Andrés Kitchen. Sometimes I feel I’m overpraised. There are many other men and women who wake up every day to cook for the people that are hungry.
What’s it like for you to watch the documentary?
It made me cry at the end, when I saw so many people on Twitter. I didn’t know my family was going to be as involved. I think Ron did a beautiful job of showing that “wherever there is a fight so hungry people will eat, we will be there,” paraphrasing The Grapes of Wrath.
How can the average person support World Central Kitchen?
Everybody can help. They can share their brains; they can share their heart; they can share their smile. You can do this helping somebody to put in their grocery bags in the back of their car, helping somebody crossing street, picking up a piece of paper from the floor and keeping your city clean, smiling at somebody that you may think is not going through a good moment. You can do much with so little. Obviously, volunteering, doing lemonade stands and raising money like many children are doing. Everybody can do these things, and not just to donate to us, just to donate to something that’s close to your heart. But what everybody can be doing is making sure that we build longer tables, not higher walls. And we will only solve the problems of the world if we have different people from different backgrounds with different ideas and different thinking sharing those longer tables. If we do that, we’ll be fine. Longer tables, not higher walls, will always win the day.
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