How an Upscale Chef Came to Serve Those in Need

On the podcast: José Andrés on food insecurity, Puerto Rico, and battling hunger.

By , the executive editor for podcasts at Foreign Policy.
The chef José Andrés stirs paella in a giant pan during the #ChefsForPuertoRico relief operation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in October 2017.
The chef José Andrés stirs paella in a giant pan during the #ChefsForPuertoRico relief operation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in October 2017.
The chef José Andrés stirs paella in a giant pan during the #ChefsForPuertoRico relief operation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in October 2017. World Central Kitchen

The Spanish American chef José Andrés is mostly known for his high-end restaurants, including one in Washington, D.C., that serves just 12 diners at a time and his newest venture, Mercado Little Spain, in Manhattan.

The Spanish American chef José Andrés is mostly known for his high-end restaurants, including one in Washington, D.C., that serves just 12 diners at a time and his newest venture, Mercado Little Spain, in Manhattan.

But Andrés is also the founder of World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that distributes food to the needy around the world. While the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency was bungling the recovery effort in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, Andrés’s team of chefs and locals served millions of meals. He later got into a Twitter spat with U.S. President Donald Trump over the casualty toll in Puerto Rico.

Andrés joined us on First Person back in January. Since then, World Central Kitchen has popped up in Tijuana to feed refugees, as well as on the Venezuelan border, in Mozambique, and in Los Angeles after the earthquakes. 

More from Foreign Policy

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.

At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment

Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.

How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China

As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.

What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal

Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.

A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.
A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.

Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust

Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.