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Need to know ~ People
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Why current?
2020-11-15
José Andrés gained fame in the early 2000s as a ground-breaking chef. He was opening lots of restaurants and winning awards for his inventive creations in the kitchen. In addition, his charismatic personality attracted large audiences to his many TV appearances. His cookbooks were flying off the shelves. Andrés was becoming one of the most recognized chefs in the world.
Along the way, the busy chef found time to help out the less fortunate. In his home city of Washington D.C., he worked with a local organization called D.C. Central Kitchen that was helping to feed impoverished people. Then, in 2010, an earthquake devastated Haiti, and Andrés went to help provide emergency aid to survivors. Shortly thereafter, he started World Central Kitchen, a now sprawling, boots-on-the-ground organization, that aims to get food relief to people in disaster areas, fast.
Now, during this time of unprecedented natural disaster, as well as a global pandemic, this visionary chef is continuing to harness his passion for food to help those in need.
“A hot meal is comfort, dignity, hope – a sign that someone cares and that tomorrow will be better.”
- Born on July 13, 1969, in Mieres, Asturias, Spain.
- Developed a love for food and cooking at an early age.
- Attended Escola de Restauració i Hostalatge (culinary school) in Barcelona, Spain.
- Arrived in New York City in 1991, at the age of 21, with just $50.00.
- Worked as a chef in NYC for a few years before moving to Washington D.C., where he helped open a restaurant that served inventive Spanish cuisine.
- Met and married Patricia Fernández de la Cruz in Washington D.C. They live in Bethesda, Maryland, with their three daughters.
- Became a U.S. citizen in 2013.
- Currently has more than 30 restaurants.
- Since starting World Central Kitchen, Andrés has become known as much for his pioneering humanitarian work as for his success in the restaurant world. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in the fall of 2017, World Central Kitchen was there, feeding people. Andrés figured out how to bypass many of the barriers that stopped others from taking action. He saw a need, and thought outside of the box to put local people and resources to work, quickly and effectively. World Central Kitchen managed to get meals to almost 4 million people in Puerto Rico.
- In 2019, when Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas, Andrés and his organization were there from the beginning and stayed on for months after the disaster, in order to help support people as they began to rebuild their lives.
- Other locations where World Central Kitchen’s tens of thousands of volunteers and field workers have provided food relief are the U.S. West Coast (during the wildfires), Albania (after an earthquake), Guatemala (after a volcanic eruption), and Australia (during the bushfires), to name just a few.
- During the coronavirus pandemic, World Central Kitchen has been working with restaurants that were being crippled economically. to get food out to communities in need. The restaurants made their kitchens, resources, local supply chains, and staff members available to the organization. In return, World Central Kitchen paid the restaurants. The benefit of this partnership was twofold: needy people could be fed more efficiently using resources on the ground, and restaurant businesses could stay afloat.
- Another focus of Andrés’s efforts over the years has been food waste. He encourages restaurant food suppliers to donate imperfect fruits and vegetables that would normally be trashed, to organizations that help to feed the hungry. (In the U.S., billions of pounds of edible food are discarded each year by the restaurant industry alone.)
- For his humanitarian work, José Andrés was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.
Sources: Gregory, Sean, Time, “How José Andrés Plans to Feed he World Amid The COVID-19 Crisis,” https://time.com/collection/apart-not-alone/5809169/jose-andres-coronavirus-food/, March 26, 2020; Furdyk, Brent, mashed.com, “The Untold Truth of José Andrés,” https://www.mashed.com/210675/the-untold-truth-of-jose-andres/, May 19, 2020; Wikepedia, “José Andrés,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Andr%C3%A9s.