Chef José Andrés on cooking in war zones
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2024
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
In the last week, celebrity chef José Andrés has been at the forefront of efforts to feed people in Gaza on the brink of famine. Today on “Post Reports,” he talks to Martine Powers about how food can meet immediate needs – and be a bridge for healing.
Read more:
A ship organized by José Andrés’s nonprofit World Central Kitchen delivered hundreds of tons of food and water to the blockaded Gaza Strip, becoming the first to test a new maritime corridor for ramping up aid to a region on the brink of famine.
Andrés is no stranger to conflict – or controversy. There was the high-profile legal battle with former president Donald Trump after Andrés pulled out of his planned restaurant in the Trump International Hotel, and more recently World Central Kitchen has come under criticism for what some workers say are dangerous practices. But Andrés is adamant about the power of food to heal regions in conflict.
Today on “Post Reports,” Andrés talks about the power of food and his new cookbook, “Zaytinya,” based on his Mediterranean restaurant in D.C.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The first ship delivering aid to Gaza since the start of the war arrived last Friday. |
| 0:08.0 | It didn't come from the US or the UN. |
| 0:10.8 | It came from a celebrity chef Jose Andreas. |
| 0:14.0 | The situation is as bad as you see on the news. |
| 0:18.0 | What I'm always telling everybody, I cannot stop the war, |
| 0:22.0 | but we can try to do as much as we can to make sure that everybody has access to water and everybody has access to food. |
| 0:31.0 | My co-host Martine Powers got the chance to speak with Andreas recently, and they talked |
| 0:36.9 | about this nonprofit he founded, World Central Kitchen. |
| 0:40.5 | It feeds people in desperate situations after earthquakes and hurricanes and in more zones |
| 0:46.1 | Andreas went to Gaza late last year and he said it's one of the most dire situations |
| 0:50.9 | He has personally ever witnessed. |
| 0:53.0 | Hopefully sooner rather than later, we'll have these ceasefire that everybody is looking for. |
| 0:58.0 | Peace will be achieved and no one more person will suffer the consequences of of these confrontation. |
| 1:05.0 | Andreas has been cooking since he was a teenager. He came to the US from Spain and |
| 1:10.6 | he went on to open restaurants in New York and DC. He's also |
| 1:14.8 | developed a pretty high profile outside of the kitchen. During the Trump years, he |
| 1:19.8 | was outspoken about the rights of immigrants and more and more he's been feeding people |
| 1:25.3 | in war zones and that's been tricky at times. Lately he's gotten criticism both for |
| 1:30.8 | his actions to help Israelis in the wake of the October 7th Hamas attack |
| 1:35.1 | and for his work in Gaza. We've done almost 34 million |
| 1:50.7 | meals already and still I had pro-Palestinian or whatever, |
| 1:55.2 | striking in front of my restaurant |
... |
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