The Spanish chef José Andrés (Mieres, 1969) has announced this Tuesday that he will donate his part of the 'Princess of Asturias Concord Award 2021' to those affected by the volcanic eruption in La Palma, with the amount doubled, both by him and his wife.
In addition, he commented at a press conference on the occasion of the award that the NGO World Central Kitchen is still operating on the island distributing meals and will return to the island in December and spend Christmas there.
"We are going to be with the people of La Palma until they no longer need us," said José Andrés, who hopes that these people can forget what happened next year and rebuild their lives.
Thus, he has expressed his pride in the work of the authorities, with mayors distributing meals at three in the morning, the people of the Canary Islands and all Spaniards for the work deployed all this time.
Before journalists at a press conference, he also expressed his weariness of "so many speeches" and "empty words" when facing the problem of hunger in the world. He said that what is needed are "real actions" and "on the ground."
The Princess of Asturias Foundation has decided to award him this year's prize to him and the World Central Kitchen organization, which he founded after traveling to Haiti in 2010 to provide humanitarian aid and with which he carries out various cooperation projects with cooking as a central element.
In his appearance, José Andrés referred to the painful situation that many people in the world are going through due to lack of food while food is wasted in rich countries.
"People who feed the world cannot sometimes feed their families and that shows how complex the problem is," he said. Although he considered that it is good that there is a "global thinking" when facing this problem, José Andrés is in favor of a "much more local execution."
He has spoken of "efficiency" and has said that by producing more locally, there is less waste than when food has to move between continents.
He recalled the 80s when it was already announced from international bodies that hunger in the world was going to end. But it has not been fulfilled. "How is it possible that large conferences are held where there is talk of ending hunger in the world but a person who is really hungry is never invited to them?" he asked.
"We have to give a voice to those who don't have one"
"We have to give a voice to those who don't have one," José Andrés claimed, lamenting that the people who make decisions about certain problems have never suffered them.
And at this point he also took the opportunity to confront the discourse of those who reject immigrants. He recalled that it is precisely those immigrants "that many do not want" who, in times of the pandemic, have allowed there to be food on the table, because they are the ones who work in the fields, load trucks or take food door to door to the elderly.
What rich countries should do, according to José Andrés, is to encourage wealth to be created in those countries from which these people come, so that they do not have to "knock on the door" in search of a future. "They don't want our alms, they want dignity," he insisted.
Asked about the perception of the United States, where he resides, about Spanish gastronomy, José Andrés said that more resources would be needed. "There is much to make known," he explained, pointing out that he will try to help do so and that these days he will take time to record a series of six chapters on Spanish gastronomy that will be seen in different countries.
CAREER
José Ramón Andrés Puerta, known as José Andrés, was a disciple of Ferran Adrià in the late eighties. Since his arrival in the USA in 1991, he has become a reference among the chefs of that country. Owner of more than twenty restaurants, he has participated in numerous publications and television programs related to cooking, thus contributing to spreading and popularizing Spanish gastronomy.
In 2020, 'Time' dedicated the cover of a special issue on the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to him. In it, the magazine praised his role as a leader in this crisis, particularly in the US, and his contribution to feeding those affected. Andrés turned six of his establishments, in Washington D.C. and New York, into community kitchens, and WCK coordinated the distribution of food with various partners.
He is an ambassador for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, led by the United Nations Foundation, and his work extends to other initiatives, such as the Diplomatic Culinary Association of the US Department of State or the DC Central Kitchen against hunger. He has designed courses for the universities of Harvard and George Washington. During Donald Trump's term, Andrés was very critical of the administration's immigration policy, an issue that gained international media attention.
Named an Outstanding American by former US President Barack Obama in 2014, he has received, among other awards, the McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award (USA, 2014), James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year (USA, 2018), Julia Child (USA, 2019), American Express Icon (Singapore, 2019), the Grand Prize for Gastronomic Culture from the International Academy of Gastronomy (France, 2020) and the Basque Culinary World Prize (Spain, 2020). He was included among the one hundred most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2018 by Time magazine.
World Central Kitchen (WCK) uses the power of food to nourish communities and strengthen economies in times of crisis. Since its founding in 2010 by chef José Andrés, WCK has created a new model for responding to disasters through its work helping devastated communities recover and establish resilient food systems.
WCK has served more than 50 million fresh meals to people affected by natural disasters and other crises around the world in countries such as the Bahamas, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mozambique, Venezuela or the United States.
WCK's resilience programs in the Caribbean and Central America have trained hundreds of chefs and school cooks, promoted clean cooking practices, and awarded grants to farms, fisheries, and small food businesses, while providing training and networking opportunities. World Central Kitchen is an immediate response team that prioritizes the supply of food (in English, food first responders), which mobilizes with the urgency of the moment to bring meals to those who need them most.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, WCK activated thousands of restaurants and kitchens to provide more than 40 million meals to marginalized and vulnerable communities and frontline healthcare professionals in more than 400 cities in the United States and Spain.
This year, the organization has also supported affected communities in places such as Mamuju, Indonesia after the earthquake, St. Vincent and the Grenadines after the eruption of the volcano, the borders between the United States and Mexico and between Venezuela and Colombia, Gaza after the air strikes and Miami in light of the collapse of the Surfside building.
