Chef José Andrés’ Fight to Feed the Hungry | Hear Me Out

foreign you don't need any shoes on no I like rain so you grow your own vegetables in order to try and understand what it means for Farmers what it means for people who provide your vegetables for there's I I enjoy doing it but also I gives me a sense of understanding I'm trying used to learn enough so in the next 30 years of my life I can see how we can connect the door for Solutions why in the biggest moment that we face in the 21st century the top leadership was not there [Music] King people to keep the restaurants open to feed people in need where are the meals going to who are they going to the goals to seniors it goes to uh all centers it goes to homeless shelters we have people consistently every day coming here for a place of food because they know that they're going to get fat our population is set to reach to 3.7 billion people by 2050. how are we going to have enough food to feed everyone the Barefoot storm will happen and one day we may wake up and don't have enough food to feed planet Earth we are food nation we are a Humanity of food without food we are nothing [Applause] Jose Andres is one of the most recognized chefs in the world originally from Spain he's been crowned The Godfather of Tapas and his avant-garde cooking can fetch up to 300 per meal he's a New York Times bestseller a TV celebrity chef and has a rampant social media following recently he's also been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his heroic efforts to feed the hungry I care about food a lot I grew up in a restaurant and like a lot of us I've spent much of this year finessing my cooking skills so I was Keen to sit down with Jose to talk everything from favorite foods to restaurants to how to solve world hunger you and your daughters must eat um okay we good we're rolling so I wanted to talk about you I mean obviously you have an insane amount of accolades what is it that you're most proud about doing over the last few years the thing I'm the prouder about what I've been doing probably is is trying to be a good husband trying to be a good friend trying to be a good father life I realize never comes with a manual before I even grew up I was married and before when I grew up I was a father and you are like where where are the instructions how how do you relate to all those questions of life right in an industry Infamous for its fast-paced toxic culture Jose sees himself as a family man with his wife Patricia and his three daughters frequently popping up on his Instagram stories so hard to teach a teenager it's so hard to be Jose andres's daughter Jose himself grew up in a tight-knit family in Northern Spain food played a central role how much of your childhood revolved around that food and and how much did you know that you wanted to work in food I'm 51 years old now and I'm still thinking if I want to be working on food what I know is that what you want to do when you grow up what I know is that food is what I love going to restaurants when I grew up wasn't an option my mom will make the most delicious things with whatever leftover was in the corner of the refrigerator which is the sign of a great chef right it's a sign of use to me it's almost enjoying life to the last second as a teenager Jose joined the Spanish Navy he cooked on board ships which took him around the world the Moment of Truth was coming to New York laying down on the deck of the ship I'm watching the beautiful sky with Manhattan in the Horizon with Lady Liberty understanding the meaning that this had to America to freedom to immigrants from around the world I have a feeling that that was a moment that still my fate at 21 Jose landed a job as a cook in New York City and moved across continents before his arrival the concept of sharing Tapas style food wasn't popular in the U.S now almost every restaurant you come across has a sharing menu I come from a Chinese family and I grew up exclusively eating you know shared Chinese food where you dip and dive into everything but when I take my American friends to Chinese restaurants you know there's a reluctance to share everyone wants their own dish so I'm wondering how you encouraged Americans to share the sharing is something that obviously has a lot to do with who I am where I come from with my father that always told me if more people show up it's very easy fix you throw a little bit more rice to the pan early on I remember with my partners that they were like when you do the more bigger dishes I'm like no we're gonna keep doing the Tapas thinking about that kind of stereotype of a head chef they're angry they're sweaty they're aggressive they're commanding and I'm wondering what it would be like working with you in a kitchen what do you like as a head chef me as a head chef I'm terrible I'm terrible because I don't have a big concentration Spectrum your mind is all over the place yeah a little bit it's not like I get bored with things it's like I only realize that I have so much time in life to do all the things I want to do and I want to learn it wasn't long before Jose's creativity in the kitchen was lauded opening more than 30 restaurants across the globe and earning four Michelin stars a little bit too much one of those restaurants he planned to open in DC was at a shiny new hotel the Trump International when Mexico sends its people they're not sending their best they're bringing drugs they're bringing crime they're rapists and some I assume are good people but after watching Trump on his campaign Trail Jose pulled out in disgust leading to a 10 million lawsuit from Trump a two-year legal battle and a feisty Twitter feud in 2017 they settled the case sometimes I ask myself if I had the restaurant inside Tran Tower and I will have the opportunity to every other week to be able to have the year of the president did I miss an opportunity to maybe guide him in certain issues that were important for the American people maybe but do they say I think that probably probably no Jose got famous from feeding rich people tiny plates of expensive food now though he wants to feed the masses American celebrity Jose Andres and his team from his charity World Central Kitchen swung into action he started his own non-profit World Central Kitchen in 2010 the organization's goal is to serve the hungry in times of Crisis whether it's a hurricane in Puerto Rico an earthquake in Haiti or a nitrate explosion in Beirut Jose's team are there you've seen these crises these situations the last few years as kind of opportunities to go in or maybe just holes that you feel need filling can you just talk us through you know how it works and and how you go about organize something on such a mass scale the idea was simple we are millions of restaurants across the world and we can be hid anytime with a distress scenario natural disaster or man-made disaster think about it we never say woman main disaster because the men were the ones always hey kidnap everything I'm in agreement with that no no and it's true it's true I realized that the only thing we had to do was activate in restaurants depending on connections to local restaurants and their employees Jose's team are able to organize quickly feeding millions of people across the world so I realized that the only thing we had to do was that Butch on the ground no plan no meeting and usually start feeding people in the process of feeding people the plan opens up take a look what happened during this pandemic in February when everybody was getting into their homes and the economy was shutting down all across America all across the world I was asking people to keep the restaurants open to feed people in need with Elderly Homes and needed food was hospitals are needed food you're clearly someone who thrives or is very capable of dealing with these situations like the time we're living through at the moment I'm wondering if being accustomed to those kind of kitchen scenarios makes you more capable of working effectively in these kind of Crisis moments like right now yeah I always say that kitchens are a little bit control kills I don't know about controlled in my dad's restaurant never have enough people yeah to this day the men and women of all Central Kitchen we've been in plenty of countries we've been in hundreds of cities we've been in more than 40 States we've been in hurricanes fires tornadoes explosions and nothing has happened to us why I wanted from the beginning and we failed miserably was the right leadership thank you fearful of what was to come with covid-19 spreading across the country Jose's organization again sprung into action earlier this year stepping into what Jose saw as a vacuum in effective leadership up till now they served 33 million meals in over 400 cities [Music] Oakland they teamed up with 12 restaurants to serve the city's vulnerable is very important in essence the beginning of everything so for me it's been amazing to see that Oakland has become of them hundreds of cities we've been in America one a special place in more ways than one we traveled to Oakland to see what this narration looks like [Music] Vietnamese spot that he runs with his mum hi t t Isabel pleasure pleasure oh yeah great um we're going we do if you don't mind do me a favor use some sanitizer real quick uh we're gonna do a uh temperature check and now get you some gloves 97.9 that sounds pretty damn good thank you this is good we're here we cook about two parts of 200 quarts a day we have one that is beef one is chicken oh my God so this stock is for tomorrow wow when the pandemic hit was there ever a period where you were like I don't know how we're going to be able to do this don't know how we're going to be able to continue in a month before the lockdown I told my staff that we can convert everything to to gold Bob sounds like you're a lot more prepared than some of uh the people in government so every meal team makes World Central Kitchen pays them a proportion of that the cash keeps struggling restaurants afloat and the meals are delivered to those in need when War Center kitchen came in the first week they gave us 100 orders and then they felt comfortable the next week they gave us 200 and then from there it became 500 800 a thousand and it came from me hiring half of my staff to getting all my staff back foreign runs a Caribbean soul food restaurant in downtown Oakland she's also partnered with World Central Kitchen during the pandemic but she worries that this setup is unsustainable for the industry [Music] as well yeah Sarah nice to meet you nice to meet you so hi Gerardo and Christian is that goat Curry sorry Hi to YouTube That's The Pumpkin Curry oh yeah [Music] hi Waylon's making a rum old-fashioned oh yeah um are you up for one yeah yeah you want should we make it now yeah why not yeah thank you Leyland you're welcome that looks so good voila thanks so much [Music] oh yeah whoa It's strong yeah this is perfect thank you thanks Ellen how's it been going we're in 2020 and it's a it's a hole and everything's gone to crap everything's gone to yes pretty much if my whole family work in the hospitality industry so I know I know how tough this year has been yeah being at the whim of the health department government agencies the law and what what you know whatever is happening for everybody but for us it's it's very afraid of because most restaurants don't have a stash of money to to to to to to ride this weather or to ride this storm at the beginning of the pandemic we started doing things to cut our costs down we went from a seven day operation to a four-day operation it's I mean how much of your taking's been cut 80 80 yeah and then you're making 20 of what you were making last year yeah oh my God yeah by December 110 000 restaurants Nationwide had permanently closed the beginning of 2021 Sarah will start a new endeavor portable outdoor experiences with food and art World Central Kitchen has been a Band-Aid to a lot of restaurants but when they go what replaces there brick and mortar is no longer flexible you know we have all the space and it's a place that has nourished and fed a lot of people but the model needs to change because the model is is old and it doesn't work anymore that's sad no I think every tables and empty outsides and just be putting food in a box and giving it to people and how it's affected the restaurant industry this is going to be very hard for the restaurant industry we have millions of people that are out of work directly we need to be looking after those restaurants and I hope the federal government will come in big if they don't do that 2021 2022 our cities the America we love we're gonna miss them I know how incredibly hard it has been for so many people just to keep going but at the same time you know the US economy is suffering so much the global economy is suffering so much because of this pandemic is it fair to ask the federal government for more money for restaurants specifically obviously I'm the restaurant guy and I'm going to be making my my my ass for my industry I don't want a handout from the government but we need leadership to make sure we do the best we can with this pandemic why in the biggest moment that we face in the 21st century the greens on paper the world together why the top leadership was not there during covert times you know you've been building these local these Partnerships with local restaurants have been going out and providing food for people in need obviously that is a temporary solution to you know a much bigger problem and I know you you say you don't like necessarily to plan because everything goes to its up but if is there a plan for returning back to normal and for these restaurants being independent and not having to rely on world Central Kitchen yeah listen sometimes I hear criticisms when they tell me about Jose you are you're not really fixing the problem I'm like I didn't say I'm fixing the problem but quite frankly I'm trying to still provide food to people that have known in the middle of Chaos in Oakland over 4 000 people are homeless a number that's doubled in the last two years many blame the Bay Area Tech bubble for Rising housing costs and gentrification of the area hunger is surging nearly 40 of Alameda County lack reliable access to food tough times very yeah and they're only it's only going to get tougher if you have gentrification you've got food insecurity you've got homelessness you've got food insecurity I can't leave here without stepping over somebody you know we have people consistently every day coming here for a place of food because they know that they're going to get Fair both Sarah and T are now figuring out how they can continue to feed their communities once World Central Kitchen has wound down their operations so this is your little garden you planted with yeah so um it started out with this on this side tomatoes and blueberries and onions and for the idea with the garden is for people to come in yes we get fresh produce um every morning so let's say for example the carrots the lime every time we get in the morning we split a portion of it for the neighborhood foreign because we have extra we want to figure out a way to try to give back um because I think it's a full circle because if we just take what we have and don't do nothing it just doesn't feel like my mom won't let me do stuff like that so you know she'll kill me it's also a good incentive it's not just Oakland that's going hungry the pandemic has exposed our Global Food Systems vulnerabilities and forced us to think about where things could go wrong I want to zoom out a little bit because um I mean just on a global scale this is something I've been thinking about a lot and even more so recently is you know our population is set to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050. how are we going to have enough food to feed everyone I sincerely believe that we can be producing enough to this day we are producing enough food we can keep going up with the needs of an ever-growing Planet but that's what I say that we need to be taking care of this seriously and this has to be something shared by all what I'm saying is we must take care of food more seriously people experts in food and food sourcing and food production and food distribution must be on the National Security Council next to the president I don't think the government in America takes food seriously or even more the governments of the world imagine that something major happens and we have the perfect storm hurricane after Hurricane fire after fire Locus plagues order unforeseen new sickness in crops that we cannot see coming but that day will happen no water The Perfect Storm will happen and one day we may wake up and don't have enough food to feed planet Earth we are food nation we are a Humanity of food without food we are nothing Jose's words have struck a chord on all levels he's now working to create national food initiatives with everyone from City mares to the incoming President Joe Biden as the pandemic wears on one in six Americans could go hungry this year that's 50 million people black and Latino families are disproportionately impacted obviously it's a very vulnerable and fragile time for a lot of people what do you think that food brings people more than just you know nourishment and feeding hunger it's I mean that's where the term comfort food comes from it's it's a place of feeling nurtured for me a plate of of goat Curry it reminds me of my grandmother it reminds me of home food had become an elitist game you know like million dollar burger or gold leaf this and that's all gone now and we're Back to Basics we don't give it the Thrills but we we cook it with love that is the greatest thing that we can give back to to people right now [Music] when the locals are the ones that are part of the solution this gives me a lot right we're trying as we move on on to the next phase to create resilience we live the know-how we live the spirit and we leave people that believe in what we believe I'm so amazed and so humbled to see their commitment to feed the many be those people that they are proud of who they are in their Community they live in and in the darkest hour in the darkest moment they became the light [Music] foreign foreign [Music]

Channel: VICE News

Views: 29,172

Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2023, jose andres, world central kitchen, chef jose andres, jose andres interview, world news, chef jose andres puerto rico, jose andres gazpacho, jose andres chef, jose andres stephen colbert, hear me out, hear me out jose andres, natural disaster, breaking news, world central kitchen documentary, chef jose andres interview, chef jose andres anthony bourdain

Id: 1Dzd6VRE1UU

Length: 22min 31sec (1351 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023