Speaker 1: Jose Andres is one of the world's greatest chefs and
Speaker 1: also one of the world's greatest humanitarians. Jose Andre's owns
Speaker 1: and operates thirty restaurants around the country and started the
Speaker 1: World Central Kitchen, which helps feed people in times of crisis.
Speaker 1: On this episode, appear to Pear I sit down with
Speaker 1: Jose in my kitchen to discuss his transition from chef
Speaker 1: to humanitarian, how his organization is feeding people around the world,
Speaker 1: and policies he hopes the Biden administration will adopt to
Speaker 1: end the hunger crisis in America. Jose, thank you very
Speaker 1: much for coming to my house in Bethesda and to
Speaker 1: my kitchen. Thank you for having me. It's an or
Speaker 1: to be here, really, So let's talk about your background
Speaker 1: and what you're doing, which is quite extraordinary. But to
Speaker 1: give people a sense of it, you are Spanish by birth,
Speaker 1: and you came to the United States originally with the
Speaker 1: Spanish Navy, Is that right? Yeah? First time? Well in
Speaker 1: his Spain, the military, he's mandatory. Back in today's was
Speaker 1: a dream of mine to beyond the navy. Uh. They
Speaker 1: put me to cook for the Admiral of Spain. Why
Speaker 1: because I already was young cook with talent. I already
Speaker 1: was champion of Spain of young cooks. Really, you've already
Speaker 1: had a background. Yeah, I began working in kitchens when
Speaker 1: I was fourteen, very much fourteen fifteen. So in the military,
Speaker 1: all of the southern admiral. But I'm like, sir, I
Speaker 1: don't want to cook for you, with all the respect,
Speaker 1: But what are you saying, this is the best position
Speaker 1: in the navy. No, I want to go on a boat.
Speaker 1: This boat I came to America and I traveled around
Speaker 1: the wall was a tall ship, the Juce. He was
Speaker 1: ten velcano, the training ship for the misshipment Foremast. It
Speaker 1: changed my life because on that boat, six months on
Speaker 1: the ocean, I learned the meaning of teamwork. I arrived
Speaker 1: to Pensacola, Florida, and then I arrived to New York.
Speaker 1: Can't you believe that thirty years ago with that ship,
Speaker 1: I dock on the West Side in Manhattan on fairlieth Street.
Speaker 1: Thirty years later, I opened my biggest restaurant, Mercado, Little Spain,
Speaker 1: on thirty Street, hundred fifty meters away from the same
Speaker 1: place I arrived as a young sailor. American dreams. The
Speaker 1: American dream is real. So after you finish your tour
Speaker 1: of duty in the Spanish Navy, you went back to Spain.
Speaker 1: And when did you come to the United States as
Speaker 1: a non navy person. Yeah. I arrived like around. I
Speaker 1: came back like the beginning of to New York to
Speaker 1: be a young cook in a in a Catalan restaurant
Speaker 1: in New York in Manhattan. It was a lot of
Speaker 1: investment that was coming from Spain into the United States.
Speaker 1: Was the Olympic Games of Barcelon and two. It was
Speaker 1: a lot of kind of cultural and business collaboration. I
Speaker 1: was one of those guys that came to America to
Speaker 1: become almost like you know, a culinary ambassador to a degree.
Speaker 1: I came to America, I never looked back. So you
Speaker 1: set up your own restaurant eventually, and your first restaurant
Speaker 1: was at a Spanish restaurant. Yeah. I then I was
Speaker 1: in New York. I left New York, I traveled around.
Speaker 1: I went Puero Rico, I went to California, was in Lahoia. Um.
Speaker 1: I really got to know America, different parts of America.
Speaker 1: But then I got to school two businessmen that both
Speaker 1: had two restaurants. Robert to Albare's and Rob Wilder, and
Speaker 1: they say, we're opening a Spanish restaurant in Washington, and
Speaker 1: we would like for you to be our chef. I came,
Speaker 1: I joined another great chef who was a partner, and
Speaker 1: they excepted the chef and cushion. I was twenty three
Speaker 1: was January of nine. Washington has been my home. Science
Speaker 1: then now you have thirty restaurants more or less in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas and other parts of the Los Angeles, Miami.
Speaker 1: But they're not all the same in the words. You
Speaker 1: have restaurants that to Spanish food, different types of food.
Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah? In a way, what I do
Speaker 1: is I don't open businesses. I always say I tell
Speaker 1: his stories. I'm a cook. I expressed myself through my cooking,
Speaker 1: my plates, and what you see is a collection of
Speaker 1: his stories. I share with people, the stories I learned
Speaker 1: and the stories that other people tell me, one place
Speaker 1: at the time. Then they become restaurants. Now, the most
Speaker 1: famous restaurant you ever wanted to open was in the
Speaker 1: Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, and you had worked out
Speaker 1: in arrangement. I guess with Donald Trump before he was
Speaker 1: elected president, and then after he made his opening speech
Speaker 1: when he said he was going to run for president,
Speaker 1: you decided to back out, He sued you. What was
Speaker 1: that all about? And how that get resolved? Well, this
Speaker 1: was the restaurant where it became the building that used
Speaker 1: to be the old Posts post house office, the old
Speaker 1: post office that became the Trump Hotel. Uh. I had
Speaker 1: a dream of opening a restaurant on that building. But
Speaker 1: then when Mr Trump began opening, he's making opinions about immigrants.
Speaker 1: I thought that the way he was doing it was
Speaker 1: not aligned with my values. I understand everybody can have
Speaker 1: their opinion, but their opinion should be respectful. He began
Speaker 1: showing kind of a love disrespect in the way he
Speaker 1: was talking about my fellow citizens in this case, immigrants,
Speaker 1: undocumented or not, just good people. At the end, I
Speaker 1: guess between the lawyers they arrived to a friendly resolution
Speaker 1: which I cannot talk much more about it. But he
Speaker 1: opened his hotel and I got what I wanted. That
Speaker 1: was not opening my restaurant on that location. Okay, you
Speaker 1: have thirty restaurants, more or less not the one of
Speaker 1: the Trump Hotel. You're pretty successful, you're well known. You're
Speaker 1: also teaching at Harvard in food and other things. Pretty
Speaker 1: nice life. You're gonna build an even bigger business empire,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, there's an earth quake
Speaker 1: in Haiti. So why did you decide to kind of
Speaker 1: walk a little bit away from your restaurant business to
Speaker 1: go feed the people in Haiti. You're not Haitian, nobody
Speaker 1: asked you to do this. What propelled you all of
Speaker 1: a sudden say I'm going to feed the people in Haiti.
Speaker 1: They don't have any food. I almost have to go
Speaker 1: back twenty years ago when I arrived the sea. First,
Speaker 1: I was able to go to an organization called this
Speaker 1: c Central Kitchen, the best fighting hunger organization. I know.
Speaker 1: We don't only take care of people out of the
Speaker 1: streets and ex combats, UH put them in a place
Speaker 1: of of a possible success. We trend them to be cooked.
Speaker 1: In the process, we get food that is about to
Speaker 1: be thrown away. We put everything together. We gave opportunity
Speaker 1: to people. We feed people at the same time. Brilliant idea.
Speaker 1: I saw the power of food to change the lives
Speaker 1: of people, the life of our community. When Haiti happened,
Speaker 1: I was very close to Haiti. I was in the
Speaker 1: Cayman Islands, and it's almost like a connection. I'm enjoying
Speaker 1: a good time with my family on a beautiful island
Speaker 1: on navacation, and all of a sudden, I'm like, men,
Speaker 1: take a look at that disaster. I didn't go immediately,
Speaker 1: but very very much. A few weeks later, I landed
Speaker 1: in Dominican Republic. I drove to Havy with one simple intention.
Speaker 1: First to learn, because to help you must learn how
Speaker 1: help must be provided. But for me, it was the
Speaker 1: beginning of the creation of Wall Central Kitchen. That was
Speaker 1: very simple, to bring together the power of the food
Speaker 1: people of the Wall restaurants, chefs, food people, farmers to
Speaker 1: make sure that we will be able to answer to
Speaker 1: emergencies quickly and fast. Unlike sometimes when other relief organizations
Speaker 1: go in to help people who are in distress, you
Speaker 1: don't just say here's some food, go cook it. You
Speaker 1: actually provide meals themselves. You cook the meals. Is that
Speaker 1: right at the very beginning, when there is destruction, used
Speaker 1: to think that you can get people food is used
Speaker 1: very naive when its destruction means that the homes are destroyed,
Speaker 1: there is no clean water, there is probably no gas,
Speaker 1: people are probably in distress, looking for loved ones. When
Speaker 1: chaos and happens, just you cannot give people use dry
Speaker 1: beans and expect that that's all you can do. At
Speaker 1: the very beginning, it's very important that you move away
Speaker 1: the problem of where the food is coming from, where
Speaker 1: the water is coming from. This is one least less
Speaker 1: problem that they have to handle. So that's what we do.
Speaker 1: We arrive, we see the situation, We start feeling people
Speaker 1: using whatever whatever possibilities we have in the places we go.
Speaker 1: Every situation has a different response. Let's talk about COVID.
Speaker 1: When COVID came, people stopped going out the restaurants. You
Speaker 1: had thirty restaurants. I assume you had to close virtually
Speaker 1: all of them, is that right? For a while, we
Speaker 1: we had to close all of that, but you still
Speaker 1: paid your employees for a while because you were nice
Speaker 1: about it. But it wasn't that kind of expensive to
Speaker 1: paying people who weren't working. I mean, this is a
Speaker 1: decision I early will make again. My partners supported it,
Speaker 1: and then we were very lucky that then something called
Speaker 1: p P peeking. But when we made the decision, we
Speaker 1: kept everybody in peril for four or five six weeks
Speaker 1: and when you're talking about employees, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: But we had to do it because remember there were
Speaker 1: very cootic days. Nobody knew what was happening. We had
Speaker 1: to close because it's a virus. When we will be reopening.
Speaker 1: Everything was kind of very complex, and we thought that
Speaker 1: being there next to the people at the beginning was
Speaker 1: the right thing. I will do it ten times over.
Speaker 1: So in this period of COVID, you have been feeding
Speaker 1: people in the United States who have lost their jobs,
Speaker 1: who don't have food. Did you ever think in the
Speaker 1: United States should be in a situation where people are
Speaker 1: standing in food lines and quite the level that we've seen. Um,
Speaker 1: kind of we saw a glimpse when the federal government
Speaker 1: shut down. We don't realize that we had many Americans,
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of Americans, millions without a paycheck for
Speaker 1: six weeks. And some people could handle it, but was many,
Speaker 1: especially mothers, single mothers with few children, not pay checked
Speaker 1: from the federal government. Many of them suffered. So we
Speaker 1: already began kind of a system where we were fitting
Speaker 1: over thirty six states and we were doing thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands of mills. These somehow was the training for what happened.
Speaker 1: I never reminded that we will have something like this,
Speaker 1: but we knew that America, as great of a country
Speaker 1: we have, it's a lot of people that they are
Speaker 1: living under the poverty line. And when something like this happening,
Speaker 1: when people losing their jobs, an emergency situation like the
Speaker 1: one we were facing, that hunger was going to be
Speaker 1: open for everybody to see. Well, despite your efforts, which
Speaker 1: have been heroic, many Americans are going to sleep at
Speaker 1: night hungry. And I think there are large numbers of
Speaker 1: tens and tens of millions of Americans. So is that
Speaker 1: because the government isn't getting food to people in addition
Speaker 1: to what you're doing, or people just don't have the money,
Speaker 1: or what is the basic problem? Well, what's in the kitchen?
Speaker 1: We are used the tip of the iceberg is many
Speaker 1: great organizations doing good work. But what happens is we
Speaker 1: don't have anybody that really is trying to coordinate everything.
Speaker 1: We saw in these pandemic hospitals without food because everything
Speaker 1: was shut down. People were not going to work, cooks
Speaker 1: were not going to the kitchens. All of the sudden,
Speaker 1: you had hospitals that nobody was feeding. Organizations like World
Speaker 1: Center a kitchen. We had to activate that emergency. But
Speaker 1: then we saw millions of Americans losing their jobs, many
Speaker 1: of them are undocumented. We I'm not gonna get political
Speaker 1: if we should be taking care of them documented or not,
Speaker 1: but this is the reality that we had millions of
Speaker 1: America undocumented work in the fields, so you and I
Speaker 1: we could have festivals in the supermarket, working on delivery,
Speaker 1: so you and I we could beginning food deliver home.
Speaker 1: We hadn't documented that they've been moving America through this pandemics.
Speaker 1: So is very clear to me that we must be
Speaker 1: taking care of everybody. The federal government has possibilities to
Speaker 1: have a better way to keep everybody fed. The last
Speaker 1: big meaningful conversation about how to fit America happened in
Speaker 1: nineteen nine under the Nixon administration, which was the White
Speaker 1: House Summit of sixty nine, fifty years ago. Over fifty
Speaker 1: years ago is what overdue that we have another food
Speaker 1: Summit at the White House where we bring the ideas
Speaker 1: that have worked in the past, new ideas that they
Speaker 1: need to be coming forward and improving, others that need
Speaker 1: some tweaking. We have the power to do it. I
Speaker 1: hope that in Disney administration and Republicans and Democrats together
Speaker 1: will come to allow those new ideas to come and flourish.
Speaker 1: Now you've argued, I think that there should be a
Speaker 1: food ZAR and that Department of Agriculture should be maybe
Speaker 1: renamed Department of Food and Agriculture. Right now, who's in
Speaker 1: charge of food in the United States? Quite frankly, technically nobody,
Speaker 1: uh And I know some people would say, Jose, come on,
Speaker 1: I'm here, Jose, I'm here. We need the person next
Speaker 1: to the president that has the big political support and
Speaker 1: the office we need. After September eleven, the the National
Speaker 1: Director of Intelligence Office was created to make sure that
Speaker 1: all the agencies and all the intelligence people will come
Speaker 1: together so we can be good defending America from a
Speaker 1: possible terrorist attack. I do believe it's time that we
Speaker 1: will create also the Office of the National Director of
Speaker 1: Food and Nutrition at the White House, almost with a
Speaker 1: seat on the National Security Council next to the President,
Speaker 1: and making sure that we bring the resources of every
Speaker 1: single department. Foot is more than the U S. The
Speaker 1: A even is the obvious one, but food is also
Speaker 1: the Department of Housing. We can end food desserts in
Speaker 1: every houseing project that the US Housing Department have is
Speaker 1: transportation because food also needs to have good mechanemic sims
Speaker 1: to bring food to the poor rural areas all across America.
Speaker 1: Food is also homeland security, It's food, dis immigration reform, food.
Speaker 1: It's so many things at once that that's why we
Speaker 1: need to take food once and for all. Seriously, So
Speaker 1: you campaign for um Joe Biden President Biden, Um, would
Speaker 1: you've been interested in this job? Or you still got
Speaker 1: your restaurants in World Central Kitchen? So you're not gonna
Speaker 1: do something like that in the White House yourself? It
Speaker 1: was there nobody else. Maybe I could be a good
Speaker 1: a good leader on that front, only because I'm a
Speaker 1: hard worker. I'm creative enough, and I know who to
Speaker 1: bring people together. But me, quite frankly, I'm a guy
Speaker 1: that likes to be with wots on the ground. I
Speaker 1: like to see what's happening. So, uh it is me
Speaker 1: one day, who knows I'm fifty one. Now. What I
Speaker 1: want now is to make sure the number one we
Speaker 1: recognize that we need that person, that we recognize we
Speaker 1: need that position, and that Actually I'm very happy with
Speaker 1: Secretary Bill set because we need somebody with expertise. Obviously,
Speaker 1: having a governor of a rural uh estate, Having somebody
Speaker 1: that has done ideas as Secretary of Agriculture is going
Speaker 1: to help enormously to put the USDA forward. And I
Speaker 1: know he's coming to the position with both ideas. But
Speaker 1: I keep saying, we need the White White House Food Summit,
Speaker 1: and we need this new director National Director of Food
Speaker 1: the Nutrition. This is imperative. If we don't do this,
Speaker 1: we're gonna miss a lot of opportunities to maximize the
Speaker 1: potential of the many agencies coming working together. So when
Speaker 1: you're a chef, you're cooking elaborate me as for people.
Speaker 1: They then consume it in five or ten minutes. Uh.
Speaker 1: Do you get pleasure at making people happy? Or do
Speaker 1: you say I work so hard on this and now
Speaker 1: it's gone in five or ten minutes. Well, sometimes I
Speaker 1: create dishes that they are used experiencing one second. Sometimes
Speaker 1: a second is all it needs, you know. Sometimes one
Speaker 1: of the most amazing things if you get freshes now
Speaker 1: and you go out with a spoon and you grab
Speaker 1: the top of the snow fresh you get a little
Speaker 1: bit of honey on maple syrup and you put a
Speaker 1: touch on top, a little bit of salt, and you
Speaker 1: bring that snow that you came down and you put
Speaker 1: in your mouth. Your life is gonna change forever because
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the best or bad, the best that
Speaker 1: you've ever eaten. So it's very important to understand those moments.
Speaker 1: So when you go home after a hard day at work,
Speaker 1: world's central kitchen or your restaurants, do you say to
Speaker 1: your wife, could you cook a meal for me? Or
Speaker 1: do you do all the cooking at home as well? No?
Speaker 1: She my wife has a lot of cooking at home,
Speaker 1: and my daughter's obviously she has more the traditional recipes
Speaker 1: that we always cook, like lenty or cheek peace with spinish.
Speaker 1: Those are dishes that are always in my home and
Speaker 1: my daughter's love. But you don't say, honey, this isn't
Speaker 1: quite as good as I would have cooked it, or
Speaker 1: let me tell you how to cook this better. You
Speaker 1: never say that when my wife cooks is always the
Speaker 1: best meal. Okay. So if you were in a desert
Speaker 1: island and you can only have one meal, what would
Speaker 1: you want to eat? What is your favorite food eat?
Speaker 1: If I was in an one meal these uh, probably,
Speaker 1: without doubt, without doubt, I will say, give me an egg,
Speaker 1: an egg I love ex okay, I love fry egg.
Speaker 1: Is the most complex thing in the history of mankind
Speaker 1: to fry an egg properly. Those people that will control
Speaker 1: the power to fry an egg, it's just people that
Speaker 1: they can't retire from anything else on life because it's
Speaker 1: the ultimate thing in life to now how to properly
Speaker 1: fry an egg. So around the world there is a
Speaker 1: rating system of great restaurants, a Michelin Guide. Do you
Speaker 1: pay attention to that kind of thing? Is that important
Speaker 1: to you Mischiling Guide stars? Or is that not that
Speaker 1: big of deal. When I was fourteen fifteen years old
Speaker 1: in Barcelona, I will walk outside one to three Michelling
Speaker 1: Star restaurants only so I could have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: have a glimpse inside, because my family will not take
Speaker 1: them me. There were expensive restaurants. I still remember that
Speaker 1: my heart was kind of bumping the first time I
Speaker 1: came into a Michelling and Star restaurant in the kitchen
Speaker 1: no even to eat, so in my myself. Thirty five
Speaker 1: plast years later, obviously I have two restaurants with two
Speaker 1: two Michelling Stars. Uh in l A and Miami, even
Speaker 1: De l A one is already closed. And the biggest
Speaker 1: joy of my life was the day we got those
Speaker 1: two star. Michelling Whill I wore hard to try to
Speaker 1: get in the future a third star. Sure, it's what
Speaker 1: you live in life for right it's Michelin has been
Speaker 1: here forever, is one of the big guys. I don't
Speaker 1: do it so much for Michelin. I do it for
Speaker 1: my team. I do it for me. I do it
Speaker 1: for the people. I do it for the pride. But
Speaker 1: do I would work in the future to try to
Speaker 1: achieve through star Michelin? You bet I will for your
Speaker 1: humanitarian efforts. You've been nominated for the Nobel Peace Price,
Speaker 1: So I don't know, they said. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: But is that something you care about or you're more
Speaker 1: focused a lot of stuff? I mean quite frankly, all
Speaker 1: those things are are good for the forrest gum movies
Speaker 1: of my life. But at the end, what I care.
Speaker 1: I have hard time now knowing when there is an
Speaker 1: emergency and I'm not there right now next to be
Speaker 1: with my family. My heart really is at his best,
Speaker 1: and I feel good with myself when I'm in a
Speaker 1: Maria in an emergency, knowing that we are bringing relief
Speaker 1: to others as I thank you very much for coming
Speaker 1: to my kitchen. I've been your kitchen many times. Mine
Speaker 1: is not quite as good as yours, but it's the
Speaker 1: best I have. Thank you very much. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to hear more of my interviews. You can subscribe and
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