When José Andrés was just a small child in Spain, he fell in love with the magic of preparing food. Cooking at his father’s side, he was mesmerized by the fire he was in charge of tending and the way it affected the results of his father’s delicious dishes.

It was this love for cooking that led José to culinary school in Barcelona when he was just 15 years old. A few years later, he jump-started his rise to culinary stardom at the trendy, Spanish restaurant El Bulli. It was there that Andrés discovered how important and exciting the science of food was for him.

Chef José Andrés worked at El Bulli from 1988 until 1990, when the owner, Ferran Adrià fired him because of a misunderstanding. On a whim, Andrés left Spain for New York City with only $50.00 in his pocket. Chef José later describes this life-changing event as his destiny because it was in America that he found the opportunities he wouldn’t have had if he had stayed in Spain.

In the United States, Chef Andrés opened many successful restaurants across the country – in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Las Vegas, South Beach and Orlando, Florida, and in New York City. He formed a company he called ThinkFoodGroup which continues to oversee all his award-winning restaurants. In 2011, he launched a TV series called “Made in Spain”. The series ran on PBS and featured traditional Spanish cooking highlighted by interesting places in Andrés’ native country.

José Andrés quickly became a world-renowned chef because of his exceptional restaurants, but at the same time he also became famous for his humanitarian efforts. In 2011 he won the James Beard Award for “Outstanding Chef” and was later named “Humanitarian of the Year” by the same foundation. In 2012 and 2018 Time Magazine included José Andrés among the “100 Most Influential People”. In 2015 he received the National Humanities Medal and the National Endowment for the Humanities. And topping off his culinary achievements, Andrés is the only chef in the world who has a restaurant with two Michelin stars and four Bib Gourmands.

In 2010, José Andrés and his wife Patricia founded the World Central Kitchen, a relief organization whose goal is to use the power of food to empower communities and strengthen economies. They began the organization after the devastating earthquake in Haiti when people had no way to get food or to cook meals. Andrés was there cooking and distributing meals together with the hundreds of volunteers he had convinced to join his effort.

In 2017 when Puerto Rico was destroyed by hurricane Maria, World Central Kitchen was there helping. There they served over 3.5 million meals to the Puerto Rican people who had been devastated by the storm.

Since hurricane Maria, World Central Kitchen has continued to go to areas where natural disasters like wildfires, volcanoes, and more hurricanes have created a need for outside emergency assistance. Volunteers work together to set up makeshift kitchens, gather ingredients, find chefs, and kitchen workers who cook and distribute meals to hungry people. As of today, World Central Kitchen has provided over 35 million meals to people in more than 400 cities.

In early 2020, when COVID-19 forced life-changing economic shutdowns in the United States, Andrés and World Central Kitchen began an initiative they named Restaurants for the People. The goal of the initiative was to provide fresh meals to communities who needed them while at the same time help small restaurants and food businesses stay open.

In 400 cities across 35 states, 2500 restaurants, caterers, and food trucks joined the group and began preparing and serving over 200,000 meals a day to those who didn’t have enough to eat. As Restaurants for the People and World Central Kitchen worked to relieve hunger, they also created a way to keep the money spent on food aid within the communities and the small businesses that may have failed without these organizations.

Most recently, in January of 2021, Chef José Andrés further showed his support for America by feeding National Guard troops who were called to service in Washington D.C. before the presidential inauguration. Together with World Central Kitchen, Andrés cooked and served 4,000 meals every day for the members of the National Guard who didn’t have the means to care for themselves while on duty.

And if you’re wondering what a Michelin-starred chef cooked up for the troops, here’s what they had on the menu one day: roast beef, sun-dried tomato with basil aioli on ciabatta together with a tomato and braised vegetable stew with cannelloni beans. Needless to say, the troops were happy when Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen were there cooking for them.

Thank you, Chef Andrés !  We are are so thankful for all you do!