José Andrés

José Andrés (born July 13, 1969, Mieres, Spain) is a highly decorated Spanish chef, restaurateur, author, and humanitarian. He initially gained fame for popularizing the tapas style of dining; but Andrés’s later charity work through World Central Kitchen (WCK) put him in the middle of wars, natural disasters, and headlines.

Early life

Born in the Asturias region of Spain, Andrés was raised near Barcelona by his parents, Mariano Andrés and Marisa Puerta, both of whom were nurses. His parents enjoyed cooking, and their son quickly came to assist with the kitchen duties, including the making of paella. Andrés has told the story of becoming impatient and wanting to take on greater responsibilities, only for his father to tell him to tend the fire. Ultimately, his father gave him the advice that if he can control the fire, he can cook anything. His father’s message took hold. “I fell in love with making the fire,” he told the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2016.

Education and experience

At the age of 15 Andrés enrolled in the Escola de Restauració i Hostalatge in Barcelona to begin his culinary studies and later worked briefly at the famed El Bulli restaurant in Roses, Spain. These were interrupted when he was conscripted into the Spanish military, though he managed to keep his hand in cooking by serving as an admiral’s chef. In 1988 Andrés left the military and returned to El Bulli to learn from the legendary Spanish chef Ferran Adrià. Here Andrés had his first experience with avant-garde cuisine, experimenting with such gastronomical elements as culinary foam, which Adrià invented. After the two had a falling out, Andrés left Spain for the United States in 1991.

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Move to America

Upon arriving in the U.S., Andrés spoke little English and had only $50. His first job was as a cook in Eldorado Petit restaurant in Manhattan. In a 2012 interview with PBS, he recalled flipping through television channels only to discover a cooking show on PBS featuring “that woman with a very funny kind of tone of voice.” That woman was, of course, Julia Child, and Andrés added, “I guess, in part, I learned English watching that woman.”

From New York, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he would find fame. He assisted in the opening of the restaurant Jaleo, which featured traditional Spanish fare including paella and tapas, or small shared plates. He then took his talents to the Latin-inspired Café Atlántico. In 2002 the Mediterranean-centric Zaytinya premiered. The next year Andrés debuted minibar, an avant-garde restaurant that would earn him some of his highest honors. The Mexican restaurant Oyamel came next, in 2004. In 2015 Andrés made headlines for pulling out of a lease to open a new restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in Washington after presidential candidate Donald Trump made disparaging remarks about Mexican workers. The Trump Organization and Andrés representatives reached a settlement in 2017.

World Central Kitchen

Andrés began to feel the need to give back, and he started volunteering at DC Central Kitchen, an organization that takes food that otherwise would be thrown away and uses it to train food service workers and feed underserved people in Washington. In 2010 he founded World Central Kitchen (WCK) in response to the horrific earthquake in Haiti that year. WCK describes its mission as being “first to the frontlines, providing fresh meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.”

To that end, the charity provided food in the wake of the deadly 2020 explosion at the port in Beirut, Lebanon, and the 2021 condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida. WCK workers have also provided millions of meals to those affected by the Russia-Ukraine War.

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After the onset of the Israel-Hamas War and the growing threat of famine in the Gaza Strip, WCK arranged in March 2024 to have almost 200 tons of food delivered to Gaza via maritime routes. The food was then distributed by aid workers already in the region.

On April 1, 2024, seven WCK aid workers were killed when the armored vehicles they were riding in were hit during an Israeli airstrike. WCK leadership said that the vehicles were prominently marked with the group’s logo and that they had shared their planned movements with the Israeli military. Andrés described himself as “heartbroken and grieving” in the wake of the deaths. Israel subsequently took responsibility for the attack; a government spokesman described the incident as “a terrible chain of errors, and it should never have happened.”

WCK has come under scrutiny for its safety practices. Several 2023 investigations by Bloomberg News alleged that WCK staff and contractors were sent into unsafe situations and that the organization did not have adequate safety protocols. WCK responded to the reports by saying that it had made leadership changes and put new safety programs in place.

Accolades

Andres is the only chef to have a two-star Michelin restaurant (minibar) and four Bib Gourmands, a Michelin award for value restaurants (China Chilcano, Zaytinya, Jaleo, and Oyamel). He and his restaurants have been nominated for more than a dozen James Beard Awards, winning:

• Best Chef: 2003
• Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America: 2007
• Outstanding Chef: 2011
• Humanitarian of the Year: 2018

Bon Appétit magazine named him Chef of the Year in 2004. He was included as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2012 and 2018. In 2015 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal “for cultivating our palettes and shaping our culture.” In 2019 the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awarded Andrés its inaugural American Express Icon Award. Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos presented one of the two inaugural Courage and Civility Awards to Andrés in 2021 for his work with WCK; the honor included $100 million to be used by Andrés as he saw fit. That same year he and WCK received a Princess of Asturias Award in Spain. In 2024 Andrés and WCK were nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace. The following year U.S. Pres. Joe Biden awarded Andrés the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Celebrity chef

Andrés has appeared in numerous popular television shows. He was one of the judges on Iron Chef America in six episodes ( 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2013) and on Top Chef in three episodes (2008, 2010, and 2021). He hosted Made in Spain (2008) and José Andrés & Family in Spain (2022), which won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding culinary series. He also appeared in several episodes of his fellow celebrity chef friend Anthony Bourdain’s shows No Reservations (2009 and 2011) and Parts Unknown (2014 and 2018).

In May 2024 Andrés announced that he was stepping down as chief executive of the Jose Andrés Group, the company the operates nearly 40 restaurants worldwide. Andrés continued to be involved in the company, but day-to day operations passed to Sam Bakhshandehpour, the company’s global chief executive.