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He’s the celebrity chef known for his tapas and his beef…with the President, this week on ‘Firing Line.’
He has a two-star Michelin restaurant, and his charity has delivered millions of meals after natural disasters.
José Andrés is also famous for saying things like this.
Someone talks about making America great again.
What?
Who are you?
Where you come from?
And this.
More than 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico, and, actually, President Trump, as the leader of America, has, let’s say, a lot of blame to take.
And this.
We should be showing the empathy he doesn’t have.
I think it’s lost somewhere between his hair and somewhere else.
He says food brings people together.
But is he sowing discord with his attacks?
What does José Andrés say now?
MARGARET HOOVER: Chef Jose Andres, welcome to Firing Line.
JOSE ANDRES: Thank you for having me.
MARGARET HOOVER: You are the famous chef who is heralded for bringing tapas to America. But you are also nominated for, a Nobel Peace Prize, for your work administering food relief to the victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017. you were born in Spain, raised by two nurses. Did you have any sense when you first came to the United States with $50 in your pocket that you would become a crisis relief administrator and be a chef of a two star Michelin restaurant?
JOSE ANDRES: coming to America for me was– was a blessing. I came first time on the Spanish Navy. And actually, I arrive Manhattan not too far away from where we are filming this right now. I think the moment I came under the Verrazano Bridge– Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, understanding the meaning of that powerful– Uhhh, symbols. I think in that moment, I say– “I wanna belong to America. I wanna be an American I came back, like, a year and a half later– to work as a cook in a restaurant here in New York. And I never looked back. I always– I know where I come from, I love– Spain. And I am a proud Spaniard. But I also know where I belong. I love America–
MARGARET HOOVER:And you are–
JOSE ANDRES: –and everything that it symbolizes–
MARGARET HOOVER: –an American citizen now?
JOSE ANDRES: I am an American citizen with my wife– three American born daughters in Washington, DC. And for us– again, it’s a blessing. I guess being an immigrant– uhh, gives you this kind of very amazing perspective. I believe immigrants like me, we are bridges. We’re not problems. I do believe immigration, especially for America, that is the country that symbolizes immigration like no other nation in the history of mankind. Immigration is not a problem for America to solve. It’s an opportunity for America to seize. And if we see it that way, immigration is something always to be celebrated. everything America is today has been an amazing melting pot of centuries, of cultures, of people from different parts of the world that made the America we know today.
MARGARET HOOVER: Are you proud to be an American?
JOSE ANDRES: I’m super proud to be an American. Especially because I think America is —
a not so young country anymore. Many other countries around the world look for leadership in
America. And what we know, that America has not been a perfect country. Like every other
country. But then America is a country that keeps getting better and learns from its mistakes.
And that’s what I love about America.
MARGARET HOOVER: I’d like to talk about your disaster relief work. You first
became compelled to become involved in disaster relief work after the tragic 7.0 earthquake in
Haiti in 2010. What was it about seeing that event unfold on television that compelled you to
dedicate your efforts to disaster relief?
JOSE ANDRES: In that moment, I was in the Cayman Islands on vacation, scuba diving with my
family. And quite frankly, to watch that earthquake doing so much damage to homes and the
lives of so many Haitians in Port-au-Prince was this moment that I was, like, “Man, I’m so
Close.” uhh, it took me a few weeks longer than I wanted, but few weeks later I landed in– in–
in Dominican Republic. I took– a car and I arrived to Port-au-Prince. And what I did was very
Simple. I began cooking..I am a cook, I have a talent for cooking. I can feed a few, but I can feed
many. That’s a very simple way to solve a very big problem.
MARGARET HOOVER: I’ve heard you say that– something about being a chef makes you
uniquely qualified for disaster relief.
JOSE ANDRES: Well, chefs like me, we work in chaos situations. Overall, kitchens run very smoothly. But, uhh, if everybody’s changing because dietary restrictions, because a machine breaks, a fryer seems to blow away in the middle of the night, we always adapt. We manage chaos with good smile and try to bring the best of the situation.
MARGARET HOOVER: you’re a cook with empathy and I wonder if that doesn’t have something to do with the fact that your parents were nurses?
JOSE ANDRES: I think has a lot to do. I always saw my mom and my dad and the people working with them just going the extra mile. They didn’t have to smile. They didn’t have to listen.But seems to me I always saw nurses going the extra mile. Making everybody happy even in a hard circumstance.
MARGARET HOOVER: After the Haiti earthquake, you received a $50,000 grant which you
used to establish World Central Kitchen. And World Central Kitchen operated for a good seven
years before Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. But it was up and running and you had established
yourself as a humanitarian relief organization in crisis. you were on one of the first commercial
flights to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit. And so you went and you started cooking. Now,
did– did you have a sense when you got to Puerto Rico that it would become your largest effort
yet?
JOSE ANDRES: When I landed in Puerto Rico I was thinkin’ I was coming for seven, eight, nine
Days to try to help, feed some people, establish a kitchen– and then go. I never imagined that
almost three month later– I will be there. Not anymore the 20 people we began cooking the first
day. We ended being more than 25,000 volunteers. We began with one kitchen. We ended with
- At the end, we were almost delivering food in more than 700 distribution points across the
island. At the end, we did almost four million meals. We never thought that we were going to be
doing so many things. What we did? We broke the big problem into a smaller one. In the process
of thinkin’– small but makin’ it happen, we became a very big relief organization.
MARGARET HOOVER: Do you believe that FEMA and the federal government do a good job
in crisis moments like in Puerto Rico?
JOSE ANDRES: Puerto Rico was– the last hurricane in– a season that was full of hurricanes.
FEMA was at one moment probably overextended. And Puerto Rico, Maria was used just… the
nail. I think they arrive late. And the preparation was not as was supposed to be. Not only
FEMA, but I will say the local government– the military, it’s many people that participate in this.
my criticism was not being unprepared, as much as adapting to the new situation. Don’t misunderstand me. The men and women of FEMA are amazing. Their work is beyond duty.
Many of them worked 24/7. Many of them were with tears in their eyes. But FEMA one day is gonna have to realize that they need to change to the new ways. FEMA should be broke into two. Should be the FEMA that the word “emergency” means now, today. If people are hungry and thirsty, anything that is not about today is not good enough for the American people. And then should be the other FEMA, which is the one that negotiates contracts. The ones that does reconstruction, the one that looks at the meet long term– rebuilding of the areas they’re trying to help. FEMA needs to be totally br– broke–
MARGARET HOOVER: So what–
JOSE ANDRES: –into two.
MARGARET HOOVER: –I think what I hear you say is in the crisis relief in the moment, that
FEMA fell short?
JOSE ANDRES: In Maria, totally. Other situations, it still is learning curves. For example, for
me, if you have communities that during the first week, two weeks are going hungry because
nobody’s delivering food to them because the electric grid is down, the ATMs are not working–
the buses, all the– the– the roads are broken. And all of a sudden, you have communities that
they are totally forgotten. We should be doing in the 21st century in America a much better job.
MARGARET HOOVER: having been on the ground, having seen what worked and what didn’t
work and having been part of one of the most successful efforts to directly alleviate hunger, if
you had to do it again, right, if you could start from– a blank slate, how would you organize
emergency relief?
JOSE ANDRES:
You’re gonna believe it or not, but this is a question actually I’ve not been ask by the people of FEMA.
You activate in key locations the kitchens in the schools. They already have the cooks and they already know– the local– the local markets.
And they know how to get the food to make rice and beans. And next, private sector. America is a gigantic restaurant. (LAUGH) Activate the private sector which actually they did a very good job. Let’s find another 50 kitchens from one chain alone that you sign a contract with them saying, “Can you do during two, three weeks X amount of meals in every location?”You coordinate those kitchens with the local mayors, all of the sudden, the local mayors know where the need is. All of the sudden, we’re doing a million meals a day, right in the island, within a week. We fell short on that. in terms of food and water, very simple. Tomorrow’s too late. We need to be feeding Americans right now.
MARGARET HOOVER:
But do you have a view about who can do that best? The government, versus the private sector, versus nonprofits?
JOSE ANDRES:
We need everybody. But everybody needs to be coordinated. But then you are gonna have certain organizations in th–
MARGARET HOOVER:
The government has failed at coordinating that then, haven’t they?
JOSE ANDRES:
Has failed at times, or– what I would say, they over-meet. If you go to FEMA headquarters, it’s like a beehive. Full of people, full of phones,
Between you and me, I think I will put less people in the headquarters and more boots on the ground.
MARGARET HOOVER:
Is it possible that– through all of your efforts, you actually helped the Trump presidency because you were able to actually catalyze emergency relief
JOSE ANDRES:
President Trump– if I voted or not for him, is my president. We all need to be rallying behind– the president. The truth is that the government, yes, let– Puerto Rico in this, hands down.
I don’t know if I’m helping the Trump administration, but I don’t think about that. I only think about how can I help the American flag and every man and woman under it? If we can be be– bringin’ food, we always be there to feed people.
MARGARET HOOVER:
what speaks to me personally most about your story is that you are marrying individual initiatives with your own resourcefulness, regardless of what the government is doing. And what many people may not know is that that fits in a long tradition of American charitable voluntary spirit. There is– a man who was referenced on one of these earlier programs who was my great grandfather, if you’ll allow me the point of privilege, Herbert Hoover. Who, before he was elected president, long before– was an individual, a private citizen. And organized humanitarian food relief in Europe because nobody else was going to bother to feed an entire nation after the Germans occupied it. This is Belgium in World War I. I’d like us to take a listen to William F. Buckley reference
Hoover’s food relief efforts–
JOSE ANDRES:
Wow.
MARGARET HOOVER:
–on this program in 1982. Here’s a look at that clip.
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY (RECORDED):
I would accede in the proposition– that– a government ought, at the margin, to use all of its powers to prevent people from starving to death. I’m sure that Herbert Hoover, who– who– who was prepared to feed all of Europe before many of them starved to death– 30 years before Roosevelt was a fact of American politics, would– would not have disagreed with me.
MARGARET HOOVER:
so my point in raising this is very simple, what Hoover did is very much like what you did in Haiti and in Guatemala and in Puerto Rico, in the sense that you saw a void that needed to be filled and you had a specific expertise that could fill it. And you just took the initiative and did it. And what’s quite interesting to me about that tradition is that you are renewing that spirit of volunteerism for a new generation of people who genuinely care and want to help, but don’t know how. It’s my observation that in times of great crisis, often the government can be hampered by red tape. And it’s individuals like yourself who are able to actually prevent human calamity even better than government.
JOSE ANDRES:
At the end, we’re one, if you think about it. We all are responsible for making sure our neighborhoods, our little towns, our cities, our state, our country works. We can’t always be finger pointing to the problems far away. But sometimes, the easy solution is lookin’ at yourself. “What can I do to make sure this doesn’t happen anymore?” we can criticize government. We can criticize– all the Republicans, all the Democrats. All of the sudden, you take these we the people and the American flag and you say, “What the heck? We’re all one.” I know that, at the end of the day, When we all sit down for– in a table and we break bread together after a long day of feeding people, wow. We become the best of ourselves. We break bread and the best of America in this case shows up. the best of humanity shows up.
MARGARET HOOVER:
And yet, you’ve been pretty critical of President Trump. Some of the tweets are really colorful. You have said, “You are the face of no shame. That actually people died in the days and weeks after Maria only shows how little you care. Those deaths happened on your watch.” And another one was, “Leadership at the top, meaning you, two thumbs down.”
How are– are your tweets different from President Trump’s?
JOSE ANDRES:
we have a president that Twitter is his universe.
I– I do believe that I try to– to have a message of inclusion, not of exclusion. My main issue with President Trump is h– I am an immigrant. immigrants– work in the kitchens and in the farms. Plenty of many generations, all Americans too. But what is very unfair is that somehow, we are demonizing the meaning of immigrants right now. And we don’t see that mothers and fathers, they– they are right now in the south trying to look to America as a better place, it’s because their children are hungry. we have undocumented working in our farms. We have undocumented working in our fisheries, in our restaurants, in our golf courses, in our– in many restaurants, in many fast food places. We have undocumented more than 11 million making America run. The big lie is not recognizin’ that. President Trump, in his own properties, have undocumented working. I understand what the president is trying to do. I have three daughters. I don’t want anybody crossing into my home or undocumented of people who shouldn’t be here. At the same time, our society functions because those 11 million undocumented plus dreamers. We need to solve the immigration situation. And what we cannot be is criticizin’ immigration as a problem, when it’s actually a great solution and a great opportunity for America to keep moving forward.
MARGARET HOOVER:
Let’s play a clip from that famous moment when President Trump came down the escalator and then he made his announcement speech as a candidate.
PRESIDENT TRUMP (RECORDED):
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. And they’re bringin’ those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
MARGARET HOOVER:
At that time, you were planning to build a restaurant in the Trump Hotel in Washington DC. And that speech precipitated your pulling out. Why?
JOSE ANDRES:
Again– I am an immigrant. I have many Mexicans working–
MARGARET HOOVER:
You took it personally?
JOSE ANDRES: Personally is one part. But I’m also– he’s a businessman, I’m a businessman. He’s a bigger businessman. Businessmen are usually pragmatic. I didn’t see a speech of pragmatism there. I didn’t see a speech of inclusion there. And yes, I was– personally m– thinking like I cannot be doing something under those terms. After all, I was opening a Spanish restaurant in the Trump hotel uh, I spoke to Mr. Trump. he called me after I let them know that I was a little bit taken aback by those comments. And after he told me that, you know, everything will be fine and that we were winning, which I responded, “Well, I’m not running on your ticket, so thank you for including me, but I’m calling you specifically about your talk– about immigrants.” Then when he began with the same rhetoric– a few days later, that was a moment that I thought that that probably was not the right place for me– to be because very much– put somehow– in danger all my beliefs of what America stands for. When p– Puerto Rico happened, one night I was cryin’ because I was kind of hopeless.
I thought, “Man, if I had a restaurant here in the Trump hotel would I have a more direct– conversation with him into his ear? And maybe I was never supposed to do– what I did.”
MARGARET HOOVER:
–what I hear you saying though is that maybe if you had kept the restaurant, maybe you would have a relationship with him. And maybe if you hadn’t been as critical, you would have a way of communicating with him.
There’s a counter example I– I’m sure you’re familiar with-– the band U2 and its lead singer Bono, who has his own political views about things, but care deeply about the problem of AIDS in Africa so he worked with President Bush, to pass the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Africa, . do you ever wonder whether the criticism of Trump maybe impairs your ability to– to be a humanitarian at the even larger scale?
JOSE ANDRES:
I don’t– I don’t think so. I think it’s no– criticism of– President Trump– m– but more like constructive– feedback. We– you know, I’ve– all my life, I’ve– work– with Democrats and Republicans alike. I have friends in both sides.
I exchange views– often. And I always believe that the best ones is when you do it with respect to each other. even when you disagree. We’re living this kind of moment that respect is somehow sometimes forgotten–
MARGARET HOOVER:
Is it easier to–
JOSE ANDRES:
–in the way we approach to each other.
MARGARET HOOVER:
Is it easier to forget respect on Twitter? I mean, w– like, when you say, “You’re full of blank” (LAUGH) about–
JOSE ANDRES:
I–
MARGARET HOOVER:
–the president?
JOSE ANDRES:
–I do believe that the best– tweets is the ones that you write and that you put on the draft. (LAUGH) And then you show your daughters and you ask permission.
MARGARET:
so you think that there are a couple of tweets you might regret?
ANDRES:
yeah probably a couple one or two more, but Twitter makes us sometimes behave like– we’re– we’re youngsters. But the truth is that, it seems especially the last few years, when you see the President somehow degrading veterans, insulting women, minorities, African Americans, Hispanics, calling names to Senators and Congressmen that don’t think like him, quite frankly, I do believe that I got caught we all get caught into this hurricane putting what we think first. Our president, should be a true unifier in chief, a person that brings everybody together no a person that tries to reign the words of everyone else. and unfortunately, with this president, this is what i feel.
MARGARET: do you think he’s capable of it?
ANDRES: i hope he proves me wrong- he has a beautiful family that loves him, that embraces him, i see how my family embrace me and make me the man I am. UH so i think he has a good starting point but it’s never too late to be the first one saying “wow now he’s my role model.” But I think he’s going to have to start working quick, hard and fast.
MARGARET HOOVER: You of course are not the only person criticize President Trump. And there have been a series of incidents in Washington DC restaurants where members of the President’s cabinet and Republican Senators- Secretary Kirsten Nielsen, Seanator Ted Cruz were heckled and surrounded at local restaurants Let’s take a look at those incidents. CROWD VOICES (RECORDED):
If kids don’t eat in peace, (BACKGROUND VOICE) you don’t eat in peace. If kids don’t eat in peace, you don’t eat in peace–
CROWD VOICES (RECORDED):
We believe survivors. We believe survivors.
MALE VOICE (RECORDED):
God bless you.
CROWD VOICES (RECORDED):
We believe survivors.
FEMALE VOICE (RECORDED):
God bless you (UNINTEL PHRASE)–
CROWD VOICES (RECORDED):
We believe survivors–
MALE VOICE (RECORDED):
Let my wife through.
CROWD VOICES (RECORDED):
(UNINTEL) survivors.
MARGARET HOOVER:
would you permit that kind of behavior?
JOSE ANDRES:
Me personally, I wish that things like this doesn’t happen. Obviously, if you have 50 or 100 people that they arrive to a small restaurant– quite frankly, the restaurant is without power to control– so many individuals. And you asked me what I will do if I will be– in that situation. Quite frankly, you can never say until you you in that situation. But I can tell you that– Ivanka Trump came to the kitchen– we opened to feed federal employees
MARGARET HOOVER: This is during the federal shutdown, where you fed furloughed federal workers?
JOSE ANDRES:
And Ivanka came and was treated with the respect she deserves as– as a woman, as a person, as– w– a family of President Trump, and as an important advisor to the president in the White House, on all the different hats she wears. And I know that we were very happy she came. So something like this I hope will never happen in my restaurants. I hope I don’t have to be in this situation. In the case of Secretary Nielsen, I want her to go to a restaurant and just enjoy– her private life as she deserves and she should. The truth is that there’s many people that they disagree with certain things Secretary Nielsen is in charge, like detention of children. if you are a person that believe in treating other people with respect, what we are seeing in the way we’ve been treating children, I believe, has no space in America.
So now you ask me, it’s fair that she in this case is treated that way in a restaurant?
MARGARET HOOVER: Well, would you serve her in your restaurant?
JOSE ANDRES: I hope will never happen in any of mine because I’d rather prefer have a more easier conversation. Probably myself, I would tell her in person, “Secretary Nielsen, I understand you are in a very hard situation because leaders are always in a hard situation. But I wish America will not be embracing what we see right now with children.” I saw many parts of politics that we all agree and we all disagree. That’s why we all go back to respect.
JOSE ANDRES: Listen, I had– Senator Lamar Alexander bringing me tomatoes from his home state of Tennessee and he was so proud to– to show off– amazing tomatoes. You know, there’s plenty of things I disagree with him–
MARGARET HOOVER: Were they good?
JOSE ANDRES: But they were amazing. (LAUGH) But the things I agree with him it’s, like, if you like the tomatoes, make sure that you support th– the farm bill, includes things that supports those tomatoes in your home– state from bein’ successful. (LAUGH) So this is a way– food, for me, is a way to be enjoying–
MARGARET HOOVER: To enjoy the politics–
JOSE ANDRES: –others and also to be able to connect politicians for the– with the real world, sometimes through the power of food. Food connects us in ways that we don’t imagine at every single level of who we are. It’s the DNA of who you and I are. It’s the– the DNA of our society. So yes, food can be a great uniter. And– and– and when you’re in a table, chances are that even if you put people with different points of view, even sometimes to a degree extreme, somehow a table and a meal brings people closer always together. That’s why I believe a table is a very important place to break bread.
MARGARET HOOVER:
Chef Jose Andres, thank you for coming to Firing Line.
JOSE ANDRES:
Thank you very much for having me.
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