Human Touch

Though José Andrés has built a culinary empire and amassed Michelin stars, it's his humanitarian work that stirs the soul

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

“When I change the traditional recipe for paella in one of my restaurants it is big news in Spain," states José Andrés, holding court at a table over lunch at his newly opened restaurant at Dubai's Atlantis The Royal, Jaleo by José Andrés, and describing how he’d added lamb to the traditional rice-based dish in lieu of rabbit — sacrilege for Valencians, a city that takes its paella to heart. He’s not being egotistical (a more humble person you’d be hard pushed to meet, truth be told) but merely stating a fact. Of all the chefs that have left Spanish shores through the years, no one has been a bigger proponent of the country’s cuisine than José Andrés. In fact, you can credit him with orchestrating the tapas revolution in America, the country to which he emigrated aged 21 in 1991, first to New York, then to Washington D.C, where, thirty years ago, he opened the first Jaleo.

It’s now part of a global chain of myriad restaurant concepts food trucks through to vegetable-focussed that number over thirty, Dubai’s opening just the latest. Not bad for a man who left for America with only a reported $50 in his pocket. He is currently billed as the only chef globally that has both a twostar Michelin restaurant (Minibar in Washington D.C) and four Bib Gourmands, and is a New York Times bestselling author and television personality to boot. A portrait of him currently hangs in The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

Yet hugely impressive though his gastronomic journey has been thus far, more rewarding is his tireless humanitarian work. “It all began in 2010 after a huge earthquake devastated Haiti,” outlines Andrés in his mission statement for World Central Kitchen, the not-for-profit organisation he founded with his wife, Patricia, with the aim of helping to feed the world’s hungry during times of devastation, whether caused by war or natural catastrophe. “Cooking alongside displaced Haitians in a camp, I found myself getting schooled in how to cook black beans the way they wanted: mashed and sieved into a creamy sauce. You see, food relief is not just a meal that keeps hunger away. It’s a plate of hope. It tells you in your darkest hour that someone, somewhere, cares about you. We don’t just deliver raw ingredients and expect people to fend for themselves. And we don’t just dump free food into a disaster zone: we source and hire locally wherever we can, to jump-start economic recovery through food.

“After a disaster, food is the fastest way to rebuild our sense of community. We can put people back to work preparing it, and we can put lives back together by fighting hunger.”

A ndrés and his team served over 3.8 million meals in Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017, they helped in the aftermath of Beirut’s brutal blast, were there to support those who lost their homes when bushfires burned through Australia, and fed tens of millions of struggling people during the Covid-19 pandemic. Latterly, Andrés has been in Ukraine, where by last October World Central Kitchen estimates to have had already served over 165 million meals to Ukrainians. “We consider ourselves like the unofficial caterers of the event,” Andrés told The Wall Street Journal. “If it was a wedding, we would stay till the end of the wedding.”

I n recognition of his humanitarian efforts, Andrés was listed as one of TIME Magazine ’s 100 Most Influential People in 2012 and 2018, while former US President Barack Obama awarded Andrés the National Humanities Medal in 2015. Unlike several contemporaries you can care to mention, Andrés is a chef who has used his celebrity for selfless reasons.

B orn in Asturias, Spain, to parents who both worked as nurses, the family moved to Barcelona when Andrés was six years old. It would prove a pivotal decision. There, some years after enrolling in the city’s culinary school aged 15, he met the legendary Ferran Adrià, often cited as the world’s greatest chef, for whom Andrés then worked as an intern at the much eulogised and hugely influential El Bulli.

T he pair fell out when a scheduled meeting between the two to discuss a contract for Andrés didn’t take place both blame the other for not being at the agreed location on time, and the pair are now firm friends. Yet within one week of their argument Andrés was heading to New York.

T iming is everything in cooking.