What Now? with Trevor Noah - Meet José Andrés - My Favorite People

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Trevor sits down with famed chef and humanitarian José Andrés, who is also one of his favorite people, for a conversation that’s as human as it is hard-earned. Drawing on his experience leading rapid-response teams feeding thousands in disaster and war zones around the world, José shares how he approaches his work and his life with the precision of a field general and the heart of a chef.   Along the way, the two explore the deeper meaning of food, not just as nourishment but as dignity, and why even in the darkest moments, it’s still important to slow down and savor life. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Existing customers can view their variable APR in the wallet app or card.com. You land in the wrong place, in a football field in Jamaica. Here are people coming to the helicopter. You don't know their intentions. They don't know your intentions. And you trust that you can get them to sort of join your mission, even in the few moments that you've been with them. Where did you learn that?

And what do you think we should all be learning about how to trust people that we don't even know? It was 20. And Haiti, and I'm cooking there in a couple of places, you know, hundreds of thousands lost their homes. The poor of the poor lost their homes. And so was all these little villages that were being created, temporary housing. This is after the earthquake. After the earthquake. And I was cooking.

That day was beans, a lot of beans. They were in season. I would buy every day. this is the early days I was in the kitchen when it was me and two friends and I make these huge pots

with the help of local woman of beans and at the end with the help of the translator they speak beautiful Creole there

and they come to me and they say Jose they love that you are feeding them here every day but they want to tell you that they don't eat

the beans the way you prepared them and I'm like man they couldn't tell me before and then I say okay

how do you you won them. And there you had this two-star Michelin chef. And they began singing and we began smashing the beans until it became a puree. It took two more hours or three.

But at the end, used to see the joy when the beans were finished. They sang amazing traditional Haitian songs through the process and they were doing the Poca con go and these black bean stew

with the rice, the weight, they eat them which is not a soup, is no a cream, is no a sauce. It's something else, but that's the way they eat it. That is the way they eat the food. And this to me

obviously was a big lesson because that's also the dignity we give, no? Even that's the matter how poor people may be. Everybody has a way to eat. That's beautiful, man. This is What Now? With Trevor Noah. Let's do it.

Vamos. Andalé. Where do I find you coming from? I was as Austin. South by Southwest. Oh, yeah? What were you doing there? I went to, well, was the excuse to promote these. Quite frankly, I don't know why when I go sometimes, but I was doing something with Delta and Rivian.

With Delta and Rivian. You know, I was thinking on my way here, you have one of the most interesting lives in that, I don't know where you've, like, Were you ever a fan of Batman growing up? Yeah. You never knew if you were meeting Bruce Wayne or if you were meeting Batman. Because Bruce Wayne was coming back from like a gala dinner with the richest people in the world.

And then Batman was coming back from, you know, just having fought the Joker or Penguin in one of the worst parts of Gotham. I feel like that's your life. When I think of Chef Jose Andres, I go, this man could either be coming to my podcast from a disaster somewhere in the world or he's going there after the podcast or he's coming from like one of the most exciting luxurious experiences or he's going there afterwards. Do you ever think about how how extreme your life is in that regard? Yeah, it feels that way at times and it's no easy at times. It's enjoyable but I've been going in through the zone of like my wife always says when I come back from any missions. I'm yeah it takes me weeks to put my brain back to normal like I'm like I get absent or I'm on the phone all the time yeah yeah yeah I can imagine I keep checking what's going on with the people are left behind and but that's life itself right that's why that's why I enjoy every single second a glass of wine of the best wine in the world

or a wine from a small winery that the wine is under $5 and is delicious because it has great people with great pride. And I love my cooking. My way to feel holy is just get in the kitchen, go to the market, chop, making sure I have all the ingredients. I want to start cooking all day.

And the way for me to give love to people can be very fattening because it's in the world. in the form of food. But I have a hard time for getting, at least one part of my brain is always active in that sense. Yeah. Since the days I began, like so many other people around the world, volunteering in a soup kitchen in Washington, the sea.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that how it all began? Very much, 1993. This is a inner kitchen, a fascinating place. But then cooking is one thing, But then when you go on the shelters or on the streets and you even engage in conversations and even people you get to know.

But then I go back to my beautiful house in my apartment or my beautiful new home. And I know it's going to be people sleeping on the street that day. And sometimes you feel that moment that life is like a lottery that some of us we bought the winning ticket. Yeah. And other people don't even know there is. a lottery.

Damn. And life sometimes can be complicated like that. Because sometimes people are put through moments in their life and maybe they made a wrong decision and sometimes it's not even making the wrong decision. Yeah, it's not even a decision. You didn't even have an opportunity to make a decision. I had a lot of chances to make decisions and people that support me through those decisions. And this was in the sea, in the streets, but right now, you know, I have a hard time.

you're forgetting about what's going on in Ukraine, forgetting what is going on in Gaza, places I've seen. And your brain sometimes is kind of going through, you cannot suffer like the way those people are suffering. Right, yeah, yeah. But the part of your brain is almost trying to maybe understand what they're going through, and it's difficult to forget sometimes.

And that's why every time it's a moment to enjoy. also I like to enjoy it because life is too short not to enjoy every moment you have the opportunity to do so even the people in those areas you know in Gaza recently

we reached a million meals a day with more than 80 kitchens and it was like a celebration everybody was celebrating I know some people that were why are you celebrating the people of Gaza are going through like where I'm not celebrating

they are celebrating people forget that even in those moments of mayhem, people need celebrations because it's the only thing that carries them to live another day, thinking that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that there is hope, that things may be terrible today, but things can maybe one day go back to where they were before. Yeah, I think the biggest misconception people have about other people who are struggling is that they don't have the full access to their humanity.

Do you know what I mean? Like people don't think that like a homeless person has friends. People don't think that somebody in a disaster zone has emotions. They tell a joke. They laugh with their friends. And you literally see this on the ground. Like some of the conversations, you know, I've had with you have taken me on on the most beautiful, wild, you know, and then sometimes sad rides. Because I love the fact that you brought up the lottery tickets, all right?

because we don't even get a chance to buy it. Like, where are you born? Who are you born to? And then a bomb drops on where you live or a hurricane hits or an earthquake. And all of a sudden, your whole world is gone. You know? Like literally, your whole world has changed overnight.

And now you are the person that you never thought you would be and you don't have the most basic thing, which is a meal. And that's where like Jose Andres comes in. I genuinely am always fascinated by your world because of that. Well, obviously in the old days, it used to be me because the organization was only one person, but now the organization, I would say, you know, we are tens of thousands, if no, hundreds of thousands. Damn. I would say that Walsendragichen is the biggest organization in the history of mankind.

It's bigger than any government, bigger than the UN, bigger than any corporation. Yeah. And when people ask me, well, I think you're overdoing it. And I say, no, I'm not because every restaurant and every food track belongs to Old Central Kitchen. Every horse, boat, helicopter, plane belongs to a whole Central Kitchen. Every gas station belongs to a whole Central Kitchen. Every canoe belongs to Wall Central Kitchen. Every person that you see is part of the Central Kitchen.

What happened? they don't know it yet. But in the way we arrive, it's like in an emergency, it's like almost you have to take ownership of everything you see and put everything you see at the service of bringing aid to people. And when you think that way,

everything is much simpler because you come with the software, with the heart, with the brain, but it's all about software. What can we do with what we have? Not waiting for things to come, but what can we do with what we have on hand? And that way you start providing relief day one.

In Gaza, before even we had huge quantities of food, we realized that was fish farms, that they were not working anymore very well. And the fish was going to be dying in a few days. And we began buying from that fish farms. And we were giving grilled tilapia fish to everybody we were trying to help in Gaza. You see, we was in Tragutcheon adabs. The world is always going to be full of issues, of problems. But we have to start changing our mind and see every situation as a way for you to come with a new idea,

as a way for you to serve, to be creative enough, to don't follow the plan. Because very often life, even if everybody is trying to put us in a jacket, and this is the plan, and you have to follow the plan of life, Very often, life doesn't follow that plan. No, it doesn't. Because we've all been trained through that plan, what we do, we freeze in adversity. What we need to start doing is embracing the complexities that lives puts in front of us, seeing them like a test of life, and start getting ready and trained to adapt to the circumstances

where every chance is an opportunity for you to show the hidden side of yourself you didn't even knew existed. we all have that power. Yeah, yeah. We only need to believe in that power. So, so help me understand how you do it on day one. Like what's, what, I know there are some places in the world where you've, you've been with World Central Kitchen and you've been feeding people for a very long time because it's an ongoing disaster or, or a situation. But what's, what's the most recent where something happened acutely, like a, like an earthquake or a hurricane or something like that? And then just, just walk me through like the, because I realized I don't, I don't, I didn't.

I don't know this about your world. I understand that you're there. I understand that you set up kitchens. I understand that you help feed the people. You get locals to cook the food. And I want to talk more about the why around that. But what do you do, like from the very first moment that a disaster strike? So what was the most recent one that you had to jump into?

Well, Jamaica was the latest one. Yes. The hurricane hit the western part of the island, the area that probably everybody. knows away from Kingston, the capital, which is Montego Bay and Necriel, Bluefields. And it's a part that I kind of knew well because a couple of times they went on vacation invited by France in the southern part of Jamaica, bluefields. When that happens, it's kind of I was thinking to skip that hurricane because very much I've been in every single Hurricane category three or above in the last 15 years.

And it's like, okay, I'm going to take a vacation on this one, which is great news because it means we have great teams that know what to do. Yeah. But kind of my daughter, Inez, was like, I think I'm going to go. So this time I didn't go on my own. I kind of was following my daughter. That's amazing. Which, by the way, she stayed there over a month.

So I landed and I joined the teams. By the time I landed in Kingston, we were already feeding even without having boots on the ground because this is the wonderful thing of chefs and restaurants that you are only a phone call away from knowing somebody that knows every chef and every restaurant anywhere in the planet. Yeah, yeah, but this is what I don't understand. Like, help me on. You see, you said we were feeding, we were already feeding people, but this is what I don't get. We're watching the news, most of us.

We see this terrible news that a hurricane has struck Jamaica. we see that it's ravaging the country, it's destroying, you know, infrastructure. And then the number one thing that starts to happen is people don't have meals, people don't have food, right? You said by the time you land there, your organization's already feeding the people. At the small scale is the beginning.

No, but I'm still trying to understand. I know they're already doing hundreds, few thousands of meals, 24 hours after. Okay, but explain that process to me. I really want to understand on like a logistical level. Where does it even begin? Like, where does the food come from? Who cooks the food?

How does the food get to the people? In total destruction, obviously, is never total destruction. It's something that may be functioning. And we always now as more and more that people know, Walsandra kitchen, sometimes even it'll be a restaurant that the Sama has the sign of Walsendra Kitchen, but they are no even part of us. And that becomes your age.

But kind of almost there. But this happens in very, beautiful ways. It's like, oh my God. Jose, we're already there. Is somebody you know, or I call the teams, is somebody who is feeding there?

Because I already got a tweet that we are feeding there. We don't know who the people is. That's a beautiful fit. That's amazing. Everybody has a call to action. They don't need to do it with us. They can do it on their own.

But it's so, somehow, Central Kitchen is becoming this very unique thing Like, yeah, like the bandman, the badman call. It's an idea that takes over very quickly. But obviously, we are already near. And we start moving in.

We start moving in, in the case of Jamaica, the roads were very complicated. The traffic pattern makes everything very complicated between the trees down and the electric poles down. Jamaica, in that part, fairly complicated to move around, very narrow roads. and all of a sudden, everybody, between the people are trying to help, the people are trying to live, the people are trying to check their loved ones, is chaos.

And if you have to be doing anything, from supporting hospitals to food, to water, complicates the whole thing, and especially as you began increasing the number of meals, 1,000, 5,000, 20,000, 100,000. So we need helicopters. Why? Because with helicopters, in a very mountainous kind of area of Jamaica.

We are able to land in the middle of somewhere and from that helicopter already with locals that we find or cars of hours that they are sent six hours before waiting for the helicopter. You know, if we were waiting all day for the food to be ready, then it takes forever to get to the people. We can go in the middle of the night where it's not so much traffic. We are already waiting in place. The cooks already have time to,

start early in the morning, preparing the tens of thousands of meals, they fill up the helicopters. We already know where the helipats are. The cars are wearing there. The helicopter lands, we fill up the cars. We start going into the communities for first time, it's what we call first contact. But there we start meeting the local leaders. They can be a pastor, can be somebody that becomes the unlikely leader of his community. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And all of the sudden, with this first contact, we tell them, and tomorrow we'll come back. We already get an idea of what are the needs. And sometimes the helicopter takes a medical evacuation because we go back empty. Why not to use it to move people to safety? So that you don't have an empty leg going one way. Okay. And this begins happening hundreds of times a day.

Before you know, we understand the real need. We are able to increase the number of meals accordingly. And we will use every possibility and resource in Kingston, we were buying from every bakery that was making the Jamaican parties. Oh, yeah, the little patties. The patties who are like the best, became the best way to start delivering food quick and fast. Then we began moving. We saw which one are the restaurants closer to ground zero.

The your chicken place, the other place that specialize in this special rice. Okay, how many can you do? 5,000. Okay. When we see that they do 5,000 well, hey, can you increase 2,000? thousand. And we do the same with many other restaurants. We will open our own kitchens because we like to have also Wall Center kitchen, give us a lot of power to be able to deliver food 24-7. Right, right, right. But between the local partners, the local restaurants,

that is great because we began channeling money through the local economy, buying locally, not trying to bring food from overseas, but even if the food comes from overseas, because Jamaica imports food, but also they have a lot of farms, we make sure that also the guys, that do all the know-how of importing distribution. We began ordering from them because we are telling them, I know the country seems it's stopping, but actually we don't need you to stop. We need you to keep doing what you do.

With this helping us put in place all the systems of distribution, so things will look like normal, quicker and faster. So in a way, what we are not only people that cook, but people that we began, the redistribution, the logistics, of making sure. that things go back to normal, faster and quicker. This is the way that through one plate of food, we kind of ignite this kind of willingness of everybody to say,

oh, man, we're going to put this country up and running quicker than anybody. And then everybody joins in our very simple mission, which is food to everybody as quick as we can. In the present, something magic happens. We began helping the fishermen. We buy them boats. We buy them nets. We buy them whatever they lost.

The fishermen before you know, they are fishing quicker and faster that if we didn't help them. All of a sudden, we are buying fish from them. All of the sudden, we are putting that very poor fishing village already up and running in the middle of the emergency. This is very much

who Wall Center does. You know when you're speaking, I was thinking to myself, there's a conversation I had with Rutger Brickman. I don't know if you're familiar with him. He's a Dutch writer. Really, really fascinating thinker. And one of the things, he was the guy

who went to Davos and he said in the room, he said to all the billionaires there, why are we talking about solving the world's problems as if not paying taxes is not one of the problems? You know, and he talked to the room about that. And the conversation we had, and it's an organization that he started now, is he said,

one of the biggest issues we have in the world is you have some of the greatest thinkers who are being sucked into industries that are really meaningless. You know? He said, you've got great thinkers and they come out of the best schools, but all they do is go into a world where it's like

it's about making money but not making an impact and while you were speaking now I've never noticed this about you and I've known you for a long time my friend I really have I was like this man is a general it's just thank God you didn't go into like war but you went into like the war of feeding people instead of like bombing

does that make sense everything you said to me sounds like a general working trying to fight a war but it's like a good war you go I need these people on the ground I need to set up that kitchen there. I need the helicopters coming in and taking the people who are injured out.

I need helicopters bringing in supplies. I need to figure out a way to fix the roads. Let's get the locals involved. Let's move. It's amazing. Like, where did you get that from? I did service in the military of Spain. Oh, well, there you go.

Maybe this is it. I was in the Spanish Navy. For me, this was very important in my life. Yeah. I was cooking for the admiral, and I told him, I love to cook for you. He's an honor in his house. but my dream was going on a boat

and not on any boat I want to go in the Juan Sebastian Del Cano name after the first person that finished the circumnavigation of the earth after McGowan passed away was his second in command so the boat is a four-mast tall ship

that had 300 crew members and trains the midshipman of the Spanish Navy he put me on that boat after my request. First time I left Europe. First time I visited Abidjan,

Ivory Coast, and I had Cajun in the streets of Abidjan. First time I visited Rio Janero, and I remember visiting the favelas and the fascinating world that opened,

and my first Kaepirina and visiting Dominican Republic. That first Kaepirina is something. Oh, my God. Let me tell you something. Oh, my God. That first Kaeperina changes your life forever.

Let me tell you something. I don't think there's a person on this planet who doesn't remember their first Kaipariya's something. The sugar, the lime, the way it hits. There's something in a cappuccanea. So fresh.

There's something in that drink. Yeah, you got it. Kachasa. There's something in a cappuccane. Kachasa to rule the world. I'm telling you. So, Dominica, first time I came America, Pensacola, one of the five flags, they celebrate the five flags.

One of them, the Spanish-American flag, and it's like, okay, I belong here. New York, Ellis Island, and Lady Liberty that really marked me. But what it really had a big effect on me was this way of against currents and winds, 300 people working together, you could go through storms.

You could get anywhere you wanted if you kind of follow this common goal of working as one. So my time in the military service in the Spanish Navy was really, in this way, was life-changing, in more ways than one. And obviously my mom was a nurse, my father was a nurse that I always saw,

we started during the pandemic, but I grew up in watching all these people that to me were like superheroes even doing little things, like reading a little book to a child because his family, their family, didn't arrive to the hospital and he was alone,

and they will go extra duty on things that is not written, this is your job, but they will do it. And I think I grew up in that environment, you know, Clara Barton, the founder of the missing soldiers that she found what happened to over 2,000 soldiers during the Civil War and then created American Red Cross. Her house, her apartment just was found 30 meters across my restaurant in downtown D.C. And I got fascinated by this woman that she was a nurse during the Civil War, but then she created these two organizations with her same Nadelage, but she's a woman.

but she had such an input only putting her skills in more creative ways to help others. There tells you, man, we can all do that, you know. And then you tell me where I got it. I just got it watching and learning. I went Haiti because I watched Katrina, what happened, no in all Katrina, no in all New Orleans, no what happened to the poor people at the low nine

and we saw the images. But forget all New Orleans. Only the Superdome. We left over a week. 20,000 Americans almost forgotten with no foot and water. Wow. And an arena, my friend, it's not a place where we go to see a great comedian perform or where we go to see our basketball team win a ring

or where we go to see Taylor Swift. No, an arena, a stadium is a gigantic restaurant that entertains with comedians, musicians, and sports. It takes a second to fit everybody. That's why Waltz and Ruggicham we use. In many occasions, in a lot of places, a lot of big stadiums. In earthquakes, obviously, you need baseball because nobody wants to sleep in any place. You have a roof.

So we will use in earthquakes, baseball stadiums, because it's no-brainer. It's the best option. It's been designed for a lot of people to come in, a lot of people to go out. There's a lot of spaces for you to feed people. And to provide a lot of services that is beyond food and water. And we've done that. And then live, you keep learning. You keep going through.

through the punches and every situation is a moment that you leave every mission with more experience than before. Obviously for me in Jamaica, on the second day, because we began moving, it's a lot of moving pieces and we had the big Chinook, this huge helicopter. Almost you have six, seven people running the helicopter.

And we had like three, four thousand meals. And they were picking me up somewhere around the south of Jamaica. They picked me up in the middle of the mountain. near blue fields and then from there they were supposed to be taking me

to another town actually was Montego Bay but for some reason they sent the wrong coordinates and we're landing in these looked like a football stadium a football field in the open surrounded by palm trees

already was getting dark we had to drop the foot because we had to go back to base and all of the sudden I don't see any of the cars of Walsandrack Kitchen they were supposed to be a meeting point so people will help me download the 4,000, 5,000 meals

and then this with them. And we land there is nobody there. And people began coming around this helicopter, and the situation got a little bit tense. It's first arrival to the grill. And I don't know, man. I began like, hey, guys, why? I need you all to organize.

We're going to do the food. But please, don't come close to the helicopter. This is screaming to the air. And the only way I got everybody kind of work as one is we began singing, one love. No ways. One. And everybody kind of calmed down.

Let's get together. We got like 3040 of the strong man. They helped us download the helicopter. I didn't have to play. Even we already made contact for a hotel, but the helicopter didn't want to leave me there, but I couldn't leave all the food there without organizing the delivery of the food without creating chaos. The helicopter left, I stayed there. And the people living in a tense situation, some of them hungry.

And anyway, when it's eight coming, can be dramatic at times. But people were amazing. Some police arrived. Everybody was calm. We keep singing a couple more of times. We deliver all the meals without almost any chaos. You see, in these situations, you kind of try to learn from previous moments. I was in Haiti, I saw one time somebody with very goodwill

that dropped in a, began giving food without thinking that people will start running and sometimes you have children and then things happen. Now there's a stampede. And you don't know those things until you're not in the middle of them. Happened in Bahamas where people were trying to leave Habakkuk and even with the military there. Sometimes the situation stands when people, they've been three, four, five days without knowing food, yeah. Food and what is happening and they want to live.

and in those moments you realize that if you come with food every day, if you come with water every day, people know they can trust you, everybody becomes calm, everybody becomes part of the solution. Because when you are desperate, if I was desperate to feed my children, I would do whatever it takes to feed my children.

Because you don't know if there'll be another opportunity to get that food. But that's why it's so important to be fast, to be quick, to be there next to the people. because then they know you are with them, and then everything becomes so much easier. Everybody is helping each other, everybody is looking after each other,

nobody's pushing anybody anymore. This is the dignity we need to be given to the people. And that's why for me is always so important that we arrive quick, that we arrive first, and that from the first second we show that it's somebody there looking after them and that we will not live until, things go back to normal days, weeks, a month from now.

And this is what World Central Kitchen tries to do. And that's why for us, it's so important to be first. No, because we want to claim we're first. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, because if we are early, we understand better than anybody what happens. Yeah. And then every decision we make is a good decision on behalf

of the people. Don't go anywhere because we got more what now after this. I can't help but think people also feel like they matter when somebody shows up early. You know, you look at it in society. One of the worst things that can happen to any community is being over-policed and under-policed, having police that clamped down on people's civil liberties, but then also not having police show up when they actually need them

to show up. And the under-policed one is one that a lot of people don't understand because they go like, oh, I mean, is it annoying? It's like, no, it shows people that. they don't matter. And it's interesting hearing you say this, when you show up as soon as something has happened, even though you still have to scale up the meals, you still have to go to 100 meals, then 1,000 meals, then 100,000 meals, then a million meals. Just you being there as soon as the disaster has happened has showed the people that they matter. But then I guess the question that comes to my mind is, why do you need to exist? Like, I know this is maybe a naive question, but why are governments not able to do this, right?

Because you as Jose Andres have created this organization. You have many, many, many, many, hundreds of thousands of people helping you on different levels. So some are permanently in your organization. Others join the organization, you know, on the ground. And then some are auxiliary, like you said, the fishermen in Jamaica who now are part of it because you buy them nets, you buy them boats. They sell you fish, but they're part of the operation. But like, from your experience, why can't governments do this? The younger Jose, I will be much quicker to criticize.

But I began realizing the wonderful people that are in those positions. Yeah. In FEMA, in the United States, that, you know, they do much more than even people are aware. I will do certain changes that will make FEMA more efficient. And believe me, God knows I've been trying. I've been trying with few administrations now. And I've not been lucky enough. But I can tell you the people care.

USAID, which I think is one of the worst decisions America has done as a country because genuinely America is a country that cares and used to wipe out USAD that is one of the best ways for the United States of America show the power of self-power. I mean, next to the people. I think it's not been. a very smart decision, and I don't think President Trump has been well advised on that sense. But the issue is that we all have the government we deserve, but we all have to work towards to have the best government we can.

Walsentra Kitchen exists in a way because government agencies is true that sometimes we come too big. Sometimes we become too big that then move very slow. In emergencies, you have to move quick and fast. You cannot have all these manuals that by the time you finish the manual is like, okay, exactly what I'm able to do from who orders the water, who pays for the water, who orders the food, who, you know, in food and water, for example, I saw many examples. We deliver huge amounts of water to Puerto Rico. Yeah. I even remember doing a tweet thanking President Trump for activating that water.

But then we realized it was almost $10 million of water in a tarmac in an airport. No. Month later, that nobody delivered. Nobody had actually delivered the water. Nobody delivered. So things get lost in translations sometimes. I've seen how we do MREs, Mills Ready to Eat, which Mills Ready to Eat are a wonderful human invention, which are these meals that 100 years later, the meals will be okay and you can

eat them and nothing will happen to you. But they were created for soldiers in the battlefield going away from anywhere where they couldn't cook and they will have these packs and we'll be enough food for one, two, three, four, five days. We have this feeling like we bring the Emerys and we drop them and we claim we have a million meals, but sometimes we drop them in the fire stations. Well, the firemen, the firemen are people to take care of rescues, of stopping fires, of helping people in floodings.

They're not the people to distribute the food. They're going to be distributing the food, period. And they shouldn't. Why? Because when it's a fire, you send firefighters. When it's an earthquake, you send search and rescue teams with dogs. When it's food, you should be sending the people that know better the logistics of food from top to bottom. and those are people in the restaurant industry, period.

So that's why it was Entera Kitchen. So I come here, no, not so much to show the weaknesses of the system in countries around the world. Yeah. But we come to support those systems. Okay, I hear what you're saying. Yeah. That inside the government is not people thinking about that because it's not people thinking like that. I remember in Bahamas, we did almost 4.5 million meals.

16th islands north of NASA. We were landing in 16 islands every day, six helicopters, two hydroplanes. We went, because there was no airports north, we had a boat with two helipads because we had to refuel. We brought water filtration systems. But we were there before the hurricane.

Nobody invited us. We went because we know the people of Bahamas were going to need us. Yeah, right. And I remember going to, with the team we were there already. We were like 10. And we go to what is the,

logistics, the hurricane emergency of Obama's and happens. The president was there. Not like he has to know what Wilson Draghi Chen is or who Jose Andres was, but he was coming towards us and then he stopped, hey, how are you? How are you? And now you tell him, I'mos and dress. This is the team of Walsandra Kitchen. And I promise you, we're going to feed you people. Don't worry about food and water. It was nice. He shake hands. Thank you. Thank you. He left. You know, I think he left thinking, who are those naughty guys with a colorful logo? What was very beautiful, that we reached 80,000 meals a day fairly quickly. We did multiple medical evacuations.

Again, we were landing in 16 islands every single day. The only way was doing it through helicopter because the islands were covering water. A month later, five weeks later, he happened, came to visit the United Nations and was a gathering of all the people of Bahamas. It happens is the first time I leave Bahamas, and I'm here, and they invite us to go. And we are there in the back of room. I wanted to see what the president and how he will talk to his people. You want to become part of the story to what the people are going through, how they see what's happening.

And out of the blue, he arrives. He's about to say something, but then he begins walking away from the mic and comes to where the Walsandr Gitchin team and myself we were, he came, he puts his hands on my two shoulders, and he said, you know, you said that you were going to help feed my people. And I want to thank Walsandar Gitcham because you guys did it. And I told him, well, we didn't do it, Mr. President. The people of Bahamas help us feed the people of Obama.

So thank you to you and to all your people. And that's what we do. You see, we go to cover the blind. spots of governments. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand that. Because sometimes things are overwhelming. Happened in Acapulco. They were not even letting us go into Acapulco,

but it happens that we were already in because we had helicopters and we were landing in the golf course. And the military was doing an okay job, but the military don't have experience in feeding. Before you knew, we were doing, you know, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of meals a day in a town, a city,

that God wipe out, and especially in the water. That's what we do. We come to support the local governments. We come to support the countries. And hopefully in the process, one day, I think we're getting enough awareness that we are okay and good at what we do, that we will have rewrite what should be the emergency systems. That's another what it is, hurricanes or fires.

This is like best practices on how. be next to the people as quick as fast as we can. That's what we did in Ukraine. That's what we did in Lebanon, in Gaza. That's what we did in Israel. How do you think you built the trust? It seems effortless, but I'm sure it's lessons that you've learned. You know, when I think of governments trying to help, you know,

and I mean trying to, they're supposed to do it. But they'll often get bogged down. You know, when I think of that $10 million worth of water that was supposed to go to Puerto Rico and then never leave the tarmac, I can't help but think about people who then go, but where, where's the water going? And how do we know it's going to the right place? And you know, what if people are stealing this water? And what if, and you see this everywhere in the world.

Sometimes the argument against helping people is that the help won't necessarily get there. Or they'll be wasted or somebody will steal. But you seem to have this trust and a different type of attitude around like the people. Even in the story you're talking about with like the Jamaicans on the ground. you land in the wrong place, in a football field in Jamaica. Here are people coming to the helicopter. You don't know their intentions. They don't know your intentions.

And you trust that you can get them to sort of join your mission, even in the few moments that you've been with them. Where did you learn that? And what do you think we should all be learning about how to trust people that we don't even know? It was 20.10 Haiti, and I'm cooking there in a couple of places, you know. Hundreds of thousands lost their homes. The poor of the poor lost their homes. And so was all these little villages that were being created, temporary housing.

This is after the earthquake. After the earthquake. And I was cooking. That day was beans. A lot of beans. They were in season. I would buy every day. This is the early days.

I was in the kitchen when it was me and two friends. Yeah. I make these huge pots with the help of local women of beans. And at the end, with the help of the translator, They speak beautiful Creole there. And they come to me and they say, Jose, they love that you are feeding them here every day, but they want to tell you that they don't eat the beans

the way you prepared them. And I'm like, man, they couldn't tell me before. And then I say, okay, how do you want them? And there you have these two-star Michelin chef. And they began singing and we began smashing the beans until it became a puree. It took two more hours or three. But at the end, used to see the joy when the beans were finished.

They sang amazing traditional Haitian songs through the process. And they were doing that, the Poca congo and this black bean stew with the rice, the way they eat them, which is not a soup, is no a cream, is not a sauce. It's something else. But that's the way they eat it. That is the way they eat the food. And this to me, obviously, was a big lesson because that's also the dignity we give, no, even, that's a matter

how poor people may be. Everybody has a way to eat. You see it when I go out in the streets in the poorers. It's people that like it more spicy, people less spicy. It's people that, I don't know, peel this rim right to left or left to right.

And it's certain things that is fascinating. That's another who you are with money or no money. You can be as poor as poor you may be, but that you are poor doesn't mean you don't have the same dignity that anybody else you'll have. I used to think that, you know,

when I would watch, you know, growing up in South Africa, I would see all these videos of aid coming to Africa. And it would always be, you know, the military dropping giant, like, crates, those pallets of random... Is the parachute mentality?

Yeah, yeah, you drop the pellets and then the people... And I genuinely remember saying this, but I would like say this to my friends when we'd be watching the news or whatever. I'd go, who chose that food? And I didn't mean it in like a disparaging way. I was just like who chose that food?

Because it seemed like they were dropping the same food in every single African country. And I know that people needed it. And this is the next phase. Now what what Central Kitchen does is not fighting hunger. We are really pure emergency. Okay. Yeah, you're going for emergencies. Not like hunger is no emergency.

But when something gets totally upside down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That immediate events. That's what we come. That's what we are effective. World Food Program does. Can always get better. But there's an organization that does this.

this job for long-term hunger. Also, they do emergencies. But they're good in the long-term hunger, and that's what Joanne created, obviously, World Food Program. But take a look, no, the issues we face today. The military spending average 2025, now 2026, is going to be $2.5 trillion. Right. To take care of total hunger will be roughly $80 billion a year.

80 billion a year. No, Jose. To take care of the of the few hundred millions that they are going through many of them. Say those numbers again? So it's 2.5 trillion. And we only need 80 billion to take care. And 80 billion of the 2.5 trillion

roughly is under 2% of the military spending. That means that if every country in the world will only put no other total budget 2% in a bank, 2% of their military budgets, and we have the right system and organization, we can have the money to take care of the poor people. But then how we do that? I saw it in Haiti perfectly. I was very, very happy of the response of America and to Haiti in 2010.

But doing good is not enough. Doing good is what my friend Robert Eager, the founder of D.C. Central Kitchen, told me over 30 years ago, that charity seems is a lot. about the redemption of the giver, when charity must be about the liberation of the receiver. And here is where it gets complicated. And politics require, policy needs to be good, so it becomes good politics. We get so much rice and food for free to Haiti.

And really, we gave a lot. So I'm proud as an American Europe, France gave a lot. But we gave so much. Then nobody was buying from the local farmers in Haiti. We put them out of business. Wow. That's why a few years later, some of the Haitians, thousands of them that we saw under a bridge on Texas, which, by the way, Walsandra Kitchen was there also helping feeding them,

these were some of those farmers that left Haiti because they went through hunger times later when they ate the stop. And all of the sudden they began arriving to different parts in America and going to place to place and where they're going to go to the richest. possible place where they, why they leave their home? Because they won't only feed their children. Anybody listens to that, you see that, then we create problems. Instead of giving so much rice for free, we were supposed to do better investment in, can we buy the rice from the locals? Yeah. And can we give them maybe new equipment so they can't even produce more? And can we help them with better water management? Can we help them with better quality fertilizers? all of the sudden, you have entire population of Haitians in the rural areas that with very little investment,

we're making them get richer and better, helping Haiti as a country. Yeah. Versus creating mayhem and cow. So in the way we do international food aid dramatically has to change. I do believe that everybody is listening to us if we will say, my God, with two, three percent of the military spending, we can end total hunger in the world that then if we do it well can also help create riches in those countries.

It really is. Versus keep throwing money at the problem versus investing in long-term solutions. This is where the international organizations, UN governments dramatically will have to change the way we take care of the people, including wars. because obviously the money is going into wars instead of investing in education, in food, in health. And right now I'm very worried

that at the end of 2016, 2027, we may have a very big hunger increase. 50%, 40% to 50% of all the fertilizers that the world uses to produce food, they go through the straight-of-ormuz. That's that tiny little strip of water off the coast of Iran. So we're talking about gas.

And when we think gas is what moves our cars, and our planes, and our industry, but also is what moves, creates the energy that moves the humans, which is the food we eat. Right. I'm very worried that because that lack of fertilizers and not enough investment in fertilizers

produce more locally in every part of the world, now also we're going to be very dependent from what's going on, and this worry is going to be creating two things. probably a shortage in quantity of food, but also it's going to be an increase in the cost of food because also to transport the food is becoming more expensive. And at the end, who is going to suffer? You and I, even if the rice increases and our sushi increases, and our beautiful kinoa from Peru and our green tea from Japan increases, okay, we're going to

be able to pay it. But the vast majority of the people, starting by the America in many parts of the world, that increase of food that may be three, four, five, six percent for the people with a lot of money equals absolutely nothing. Right. Doesn't change much. But for people that live on dollar in two, three dollars a day at the most, like in Haiti and other parts of the world, that increase in the cost of food is exponential increases what they spend on food. Therefore, I'm very worried that these war in the Middle East, many people say unnecessary

with no very clear idea if Iran really developed that nuclear bomb they say they created it's going to make the world hungrier and it's going to make a lot of people putter that's why wars don't make any sense in any way of form

that's another how you want to explain it you know it's interesting when you when you talk about in particular let's say the story of the Haitians who were, you know, traveling over to the U.S. I'll often have this conversation with people who are anti-immigration. And I don't even have this conversation flippantly.

I don't have it in a mean way. I genuinely try and engage people, but I'll say to them, you're anti-immigration. They go, yes, I think there's too many people flocking across. And I go, I agree with you. I think there are too many people who are, trying to come into the United States. There are too many people who are trying to go into South Africa, too many people who are trying to go. But now let's ask ourselves the question,

why are there so many people trying to do that? Contrary to popular belief, most people want to live in their homes. Most people don't want to go to another country. Most people don't want to give up everything that has defined them, their language, their music, their food, their culture. They don't want to let it go, but they're forced to let it go. And then I often say them. I'm like, so why not invest in keeping everybody where they are? You know, we had Mia Motley on the show, on the podcast, and she really laid it out in one of the most beautiful ways possible. Here you have like the Prime Minister of Barbados, a tiny nation, but her voice has been outsized where she says. She's amazing. She's phenomenal. And she goes, you think that the small

nations do not matter in the world. And yet all the big nations are complaining about the people from the small nations, not understanding that they are part of the cause that the small nations have an exodus in the first place, you know? And I see you talking about the way you talk about it. She has one of the best food policies of any country. Yeah, she does. It's fascinating. Yeah. What about it do you think is fascinating? Like, why do you think? I'm interested from your perspective. Because everything is integral. Number one, you know, I always said that presidents of the world need a food, a national food security advisor. I like that. National food security advice.

And understand that food is much more than agriculture. In the United States right now, big percentage close to half of the corn is produced, is produced but not for food, for humans or cattle, which will be great because the corn will feed the cattle and then weed the meat. But it's to produce ethanol. So all of a sudden, the USDA, the secretary of agriculture, in a way, is also, secretary of energy. But this has a lot of consequences. As price of energy goes up.

The price of ethanol goes up. The price of corn goes up. The price of corn is going to go up. But then it's deeper than that, right? In America, we have what they call the food stamps, is where it's snaps, more technical. Which is a short-term help that the government gives to families that fall behind, lose their jobs, so they need extra money to cover the needs.

in the table. This is okay, but very often, I saw it during the pandemic in places like Oakland or Baltimore or in the Navajo Nation, that is not money they receive from the government where they live, which is a very poor area. In that poor area, they don't have a place. They can spend that money. They have to go to other neighborhoods. So the department,

of urban and housing development should also have to be working alongside the Department of Agriculture because we need to make sure that every poor neighborhood in America, in the richest country, in the world, has markets that if the private sector doesn't do it because they feel they lose money, okay, create a partnership with the government

supports the private business, which everybody will agree, private business is in the process of making money. Yeah. But if they get the right partnership with the government, Now we make almost mandatory by government standards to have markets in every poor neighborhood. All of the time, the people that receive aid from the government,

they have places in their own neighborhoods that they can buy fresh fruits and vegetables. But then you hire from people that live in that poor neighborhood, too, creating employment. And then why you don't let the food stamps be used in the local food trucks and their local diners? Happens that those poor areas don't have restaurants either. So if a mother is working two jobs

and it still doesn't make it because she's underpaid and even with the help of the government to cover the needs of food, if all of the sudden she's coming from work and she can use stamps, the food stamps to buy from the local food track because she's too tired to go now and do dinner. All of the sudden, you're helping the mother

to take care of the children, the mother, you help her be stronger, you need her a full help because a mother we know has multiple jobs. Yeah. When you are a working mother, you have more jobs than any man ever. And all the same money, it stays also in the poor neighborhood, helps a woman to take care of her family and take care of herself.

And you are also giving dignity to that neighborhood that all of a sudden has the store, that sells fresh fruits and vegetables and has the food track, and maybe a little diner that employs more people, all of a sudden that poor neighborhood with the same money that the government is throwing at the problem. The government is investing into the solution. Yeah. You see every single single. situation can be explained that way, but it requires very clear mentality, very clear understanding

of how food touches everything from the Department of Defense to immigration, and all of a sudden you make decisions that improves the system. You don't make decisions that make the system worse. If people eat better, they're going to be healthier. If they're healthier, you're going to be saving money from the huge bills that we are paying every year to keep America. Americans on the world healthier. Well, let's invest in the solution from the beginning. Let's not throw money at the problem at the end. So governments, starting by the United States,

but every other government in the world, they need to start seeing food at something much more important in the functions of a democracy. And we are not taking it seriously enough. That's why in emergencies, food seems is always an afterthought. And that's why then organizations like Western Drug Kitchen and others, we're the ones trying to solve that lack of thought in the food process. You know, when you say this, there's a few things that come to my mind.

One is, it's so much easier to sell fear than it is to sell love. Yeah. But one can sustain itself. One can keep growing in a beautiful way. And then the other one degrades what it's touching. If you tell people, we're going to spend more money on bombs. We're going to spend more money on missiles to protect our country. They go, I'm in.

I get it, I'm in. No one thinks about how much an actual missile costs. They also don't think about how many missiles just miss. They just hit nothing. You know what I mean? They just blow up dirt and nothing. But that money is gone. But they want to hate the school with children in it.

Yes, yeah. Which, you know, you've seen on some of the most harrowing levels. But then I go, why not invest in the defense of your people from the inside? governments are so willing to spend so much money to protect their people from this outside force but then I go why not defend them from an inside force which is starvation which is poverty which you know what I mean and the second thing I found myself thinking of when you when you were saying that is it feels like when you when you talk about investing in the community and the mom and the dad and this and that it feels like you have a belief that those people are you

people can create something. And I don't necessarily think that all governments or all people believe that every other community can create something. Does that make sense? Like I think a lot of people who will talk about, let's say, immigrants, they do not think that in America, they don't think that, like, Mexicans can do something. So they need America in that way. They don't think that Haitians can do something.

They don't think. But you seem to have this belief that if I can plant the right seeds in the right places, the people who are there will become the nurturers of the garden that it grows. Well, obviously we see that the unemployment rate in America is fairly low. Yeah, it's what we call. Close to total employment, as they call. Sometimes it's not very good because then they say the rates per hour goes up and then all these economics that sometimes we all get lost.

But the truth is that it's hard for a lot of industries to find workers. The undocumented, as some people call illegal, me I like to use the term undocumented, that can be anywhere between, who knows, 15 to 20 million people, including one million dreamers, dreamers being John children that arrive when there were very much babies and that they've been granted this temporary,

meaning they're always on the edge of being sent. And many, many years later, they are doctors, they are nurses, they are professors, they are business people, they are mothers and fathers with already American-born children, that they are on the edge of being thrown out of the country. You know the effort that the country puts into bringing up and educating a million people? America, we are not right now in the situation of just being getting read of such a good, talented people that they are probably anybody. Walking across America, you're going to find rumors one place or another, even if you are unaware. The 15 million undocumented. Who do you think is working on the farms? We saw it during the pandemic.

Who do you think is delivering your food? Who do you think is driving the tracks to get the food to the supermarkets? Who do you think very often is taking care of the elderly in many homes, hundreds of thousands of elderly, taking care of by maybe those undocumented immigrants? They're all across us. So, of sure, we have to protect the borders. Every country should. It's not true that anybody is against it.

I am pro. Let's every country make sure that we understand who comes and who goes. That's good. What cannot be is the big lie, that when you have the big harvest or you need a lot of people to take care of the cuddle, all of a sudden seems that those immigrants are coming through the border with no problem. And people hired them because the business needs them and seems everybody is looking to the other side.

But then when you don't want them, it's like, oh, now I don't want them. They're not mine. They're not mine. They only help me temporarily. Listen, Republicans and Democrats, going back to President Bush and Reagan, they wanted immigration reform. I think during the times of President Obama, he had a big opportunity to pass immigration reform.

reform. It's always a reason why we didn't pass immigration reform. But this is not a problem for us to solve. It's an opportunity for us to cease. Our golf courses will not work without them. Our wineries and farms will not work without them. Our restaurants and taxes will not work without them. They are part of the DNA of what America is. Their Lady Liberty themselves is about time that we stop now making them like the ones that create all the problems we face. Because when leaders don't have really solutions to solve certain problems, they're going to be looking for the pundits. And the immigrants are not those.

99.99% of the immigrants we may have in this country, there are people that want to work hard, that want to provide for the families, that are helping the American economy, that people believe it or not that they pay taxes because many of them have W-2s and 9-9s and this is something like functions very well in America. It functions so well that even undocumented are paying their taxes.

We should be celebrating that. But now we are wont to demonize them. We want to hand them like it was the planet of the apes. We want to be in front of the schools and waiting for the mother picking up their three American-born children. what we are doing is use dehumanizing the human race. And this dramatically has to change. This is now about Republicans or Democrats.

The border needs to be protected, yes. But also we need to improve the systems. So when you hire somebody, you know if they are documented or not? Because in that moment, we will know how many people really we need. That's actually true. And those undocumented, let me tell you, they are needed. Because right now, you ask around as many businesses across America that they all have one thing in common, that they need hands so they can keep moving their business forward. Our politicians need to be responding to that simple call.

We need to legalize once and for all document those people that they are part of us, that they are part of what America is, and where we need to stop doing what we're doing, which is quite frankly, not something America, five, ten years from now, we'll be very proud when we look. at the past. I also don't think it's smart. You know, like, on the one hand, it's definitely inhumane. But I think even if you were to strip away all emotion, I don't think it's smart. And I'll tell you why. I think, you know, oftentimes people will talk about borders as if they only exist like a moat around a castle. You know, the moat is what keeps the people out of the castle.

And then I look at Europe and I look at the European Union. I've always found it fascinating that once you're in Europe, you're in Europe. And then you just move between countries now. You just move between countries. And they've found a way to sort of understand that the mean average means that like everyone won't just end up in one country. Because if you think about it, the argument most people make about a border is we have to have borders.

Then I go fine. Okay, you have to have borders. But I think you can also redefine how a border operates. And Europe has showed me that. For how people argue about a border, you would think that once the European Union said there's no borders technically, like between us, everyone would end up in one country. We're all going to Barcelona. Barcelona. And I'm diamo. You know what I mean? It's like we're all there. But no, some English people moved to Spain. Some Spanish people moved to Italy. Some Italians

moved. People moved, but you know what happened? It sort of all stayed the same. And one of the most convincing things I've read about like how people think about the border is in the United States, it used to be a lot more acceptable for laborers to move from Mexico to the U.S. do work and then come back. And there was a more porous system on the border.

And it's actually the crackdown of the border. What creates the bigger problems? It created the bigger problems. Because we need revolving door visas. There you go. The people come, they cover the needs of the cotton farmers, the aqua farmers,

the tomato farmers, or anything else they may do. And then when it's time to go back home, they go back home. Yeah. They bring some of the savings that they made in America. They bring the know-how that they learn in America. These people who usually are very resolute and very creative,

they may open a business that may have something to do of what they learn here in America or in any other country. And all of a sudden, they're investing in their maybe poorer community that in the process is making their community better. And this guy will go back next year to work again or maybe he moves from the farm to the city because he wants to do that and he keeps going back

and makes that country and his town and his country better. This is the beautiful thing about immigration when you use it to solve problems. You cover the needs of America in this case, but in the process you are making the countries

around you better and richer. If the countries around you are richer, in the process you are richer too. So should be the notion that every country, of sure, should be investing in their own citizens, but if you invest in ways also in the other countries, in the process you are helping yourself. But you have to have a firm belief on that.

And that proves. The world has getting much better post-World War II. Of sure we have issues. When we open commerce, when the nations began, you know, sharing, wayhouse, ways to trade, okay, no, everybody can produce wheat,

no everybody can produce corn, no everybody can produce, okay, that's what trade achieved. And the world you would argue is better to the, that was 70, 80 years ago. But we need to keep believing in it. It's going to be problems.

It's going to be issues. It's going to be certain moments that, hey, this is not too far for me. Yeah. Okay, you sit in the table, you talk, you negotiate, and you keep moving forward. You don't begin bullying everybody else

because you think is your right to bull, to be a bull. No, you do it talking. You do it, negotiating. You do it what is good for me. Must be good for you too. Cannot be me, me, me, and only me. Well, when we go that way,

the world becomes not so safe anymore. Right. We need to, the only way I'm going to provide the wall where my daughters will be okay once I'm no longer here. If I work as hard to provide for others, in the same way I work hard to provide for my own. This should be the motto of everybody.

If I provide for my daughters, it's great. But if I provide for others at the same time, I know I'm living a world where my daughters will be better and safer and happier. I have no doubt about that. Don't press. anything. We've got more. What now? After this. How do you maintain your hope? Because it, I've been lucky to know you for many, many years. And every time I see you, it's like a,

it's like an emotional whirlwind for me, you know, because I, because I, one day you, you're, you're giving me like fresh haman that I don't know where you got it from, the most delicious, like, cured ham I've ever had in my life. And you're just like, Trevor, you go. And I'm like, no, I'm not eating that. You're like, today you're going to. eat it and you've just like put it in my face and then the next day you're telling me about the biggest challenge that you face in a small town in a small country that is devastated and the logistical things that are that are stopping you how do you how do you maintain your hope because it you move from disaster to disaster because i believe it's more goodness than than hate in the

world what happened goodness and goodwill yeah and the common good is very humble and it's very doesn't have a big voice it's very keeps doing keeps working. Beautiful acts of kindness happens without nobody very often realizing. But when you see the world, the world functions. It's things we need to do better. But we need more of those people that do goodness and work towards improving what's not good. But then it's other people that don't work to fix what is wrong, but they only thrive, use. bitching about what's wrong. Right.

And began blaming anybody away from what is wrong. And the world is almost divided in these two types of people. And seems the people of goodness with a sub-voice, with acts of greatness and goodness that nobody sees, maybe those people need to have a bigger voice. Those people need to be louder. because seems the hate is what has a big voice and screams

and with very short sentences is able to rally everybody or you are with me or you are against me no I went through this in the Middle East the first day after Israel was attacked

by Hamas on October 7th World Central Kitchen was there in all the kibbutz and all the little villages feeding the people yeah and I had people why are you there and help in Israel?

Because it's the right thing to do. And because the people of Israel in this moment needs our help the day after we were inside Gaza. And I had people telling me, and why are you in Gaza? Well, because the people of Gaza needs our help too. Not all Palestinians and all Arabs and Muslims were responsible for what happened on October 7th.

As I don't make every Israeli or every Jewish or what has happened in Gaza that I can understand how President Netanyahu allow to happen what has happened in Gaza. I wish that was a bad dream, but that has happened

and we destroy the future of almost two million people. But then they asked me, but are you pro-Israel or are you pro-Palestinian? I am pro-both. I am pro-both of the good people because in the same days

I will be crying with one person and telling me how much they suffer and how much they suffer also seeing the suffering of the others. And if I don't tell you who they are, I'll tell you, it's people on both sides. So it's more people of goodness that sometimes they don't speak up enough. And it's the people of hate that they are the ones that have the mic

and seems he's the only people that matter and count. I want people that don't make me take sides. I want people that believe like me that this is wrong, but this is wrong too. And what we need to be working is what is right. What is right is where people don't fight. other where people respect each other. You want to live in a place with dignity and freedom?

Okay, but the other people want to live in a place with dignity and freedom as well. Too. So I support your right to live in freedom and dignity and not fear attacks by anybody. Okay, I agree with you. But you have to agree with me that these people too deserve dignity, respect and don't live on fear of drones and bombs falling over their heads. What is good for you, my friend? must be good for me.

Cannot be me and fuck the rest. Has to be we the people. That's why those three words is something we cannot forget. One of the biggest gifts that probably the creation of America gave to the world are those three powerful words. We, the people, all the people, all the people, not the we that we like. We all the people. If we believe in that and we fight for that, the world is going to be in a good path.

But in the process, we're going to have hiccups. or things worse than hiccups, but we should not give up on this simple belief with the people. That even when the people that brought that, maybe they thought with the people us, this has taken this kind of fascinating moment in history, which a lot of people believe in what we the people meant. I still believe it today,

and I'm going to fight to make sure that with the people in the future has a true meaning. You know, when you speak about this as passionately as you do, I can't help but think to myself and wonder, how does Jose Andres the man find his solace and his stillness? Like, you know, because I've had the pleasure of meeting your one daughter. I've had the pleasure of meeting your wife. And the one thing I will say...

One of my three daughters. Oh, one of your three daughters, yeah. And one of the things I remember I picked up was... And you'll correct me if I'm wrong. your wife felt next to you like the most solid, peaceful, you know, celestial object a human can imagine.

Patricia, yeah, she is. It literally, and I remember thinking to myself, I was like, is this the only reason he can do what he does? Yeah, she's definitely my son, my rock, my, I'm like this comet that sometimes doesn't know in what direction is moving. But obviously she's, she's been dad and so much more, right? It's almost 33 years now. We married over 30 years ago, but we've been together 33.

And obviously, she's an amazing friend, an amazing mother, an amazing wife, friend of friends. We all need those people, right? We need to remember that we are only as good as the people we have around us. We all need good people that makes us better that also tell us, hey, this is another way. My wife is that person, but then I've been very lucky that I'm surrounded by friends, that they always invested in me probably more that I've ever invested in them. And for that, I'm always thankful. but we are all the product of all the people

even those teachers we don't remember their names that they had an influence on us and thanks to them we became who we became that's why we need to be thankful to those that whatever is the interaction we have

everybody is giving us something and we become who we become thanks to those moments and how do you think you've managed to find the balance of being a great contributor to the world, but then still maintaining your family and you being a father and a husband.

Because, you know, that's something you'll often see when you read people's biographies or when you hear from their families, they'll go, my father was a great man to the world, but wasn't the greatest man to me. And then, like, I see your daughter, and the way she laughs about you and the way she talks and she teases you,

and then she follows you. I remember when your daughter was telling me she was going, what country was she going to? Her first place was, I remember going, this is crazy. Yeah, she was in Chad, in the border with Sudan. And then she went to Yemen. Yeah, and I remember being like, what life is. 21.

The passion that she had in and around this and the way your wife dealt with. I'd love to know, like, how as a family you found this balance and how you as a human being have found the balance? Like, how are you still able to give to those around you and not only give to the outside world? It's not, obviously friends, family friends are everything. Obviously, I have a day work, which is my restaurants, which... Yeah, I mean, we didn't...

If I could, I will let you know. They can run probably without me, but they're better if I am around because everybody, obviously, my teams and my partners want me around. Yeah. And I have joy around in my restaurants and being the chef I am. But then sometimes you feel gets in the middle of the other passion I have, which is Well, Central Kitchen, but then gets in the middle of the other passion I have, which is making policy around food that will improve the world.

And then also, you know, I try to play golf, but I know I will never become a pro. Is your golf better than your pickleball? Your pickleball is good, man. Your pickleball is okay. Anything that has a kitchen and pickles, I mean, if I don't perform, obviously, forget about it. But, you know, obviously I tried to enjoy, as I told you, at the beginning, every single moment. And it's important. But then you go moments for me, for me, the last four years, they've been, the last four years, they've been very hard.

I mean, in Ukraine, I saw, you know, kitchens that they were feeding with Bolson's andra kitchen or not. And we were being hit by drones and people got injured or wars and they perish. and there you began seeing the realities of trying to be in the real world. Right. In Gaza, we got seven members of our World Central Kitchen in what technically was one of the, supposed to be a very safe mission. Yeah.

Even we were working in a very complicated space. Obviously, I take on my shoulders the moral responsibility in a way of what happened because maybe we were not there. nothing would ever happen. But then I think it was my daughter, obviously, who told me in a moment I was very sad about living, I need to leave Ukraine or we need to live here. It's like daddy, how we're going to be changing the world

without taking some risks? At the end of the day, you can be watching what people are going through through your TV and the comfort of your sofa. Or you can say, well, if we want to change the wall and improve the wall, we're not going to do it from the sofa or from New York UN building. We're going to do it with people of the world shows up

and is next to the people going through the mayhams of the world. And with woods on the ground, it's the only way you're going to be changing the world. So for me, very often, one of the reasons I keep going to missions that I don't think if I don't go ever again after I've been 15 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

A big percentage of my life dedicated to it. I don't think anybody will blame anymore. But I don't do it what others will think, or I do it in a very selfish way for myself, because every time I go to those missions only by being present there and watching around me, I see that in the worst moments of humanity, the best of humanity always shows up. Oh, that's beautiful. And that gives you hope. In moments that everything is mayhem and that you will think everybody is giving up,

because everybody should run, only take care of themselves. Yeah. You see that you have people there that they don't only take care of. care of themselves and their loved ones, but that they take their personal responsibility on the shoulders of taking care of entire communities, even when they have absolutely nothing. Yeah. You see those people that they are becoming something so powerful, so superhuman like that you only feel like you want to be there watching those people because I get a lot of energy from those moments. There's two things. I know I'm going to have to let you go soon.

two things that I wanted to talk to you. One is just a question. But can I just say, you brought me this. Can I, no, can I tell you something? I've thought about this for maybe like, I want to say 15 years of my life. Like, this is not this specific comic, but this is Spider-Man, like multiple Spider-Man comics, and it's you helping. Yeah, but it's you helping him. Yeah, different covers, but it's you helping him in a mission.

But it's you. it's a thought that I've had for such a long time. I've gone, why don't we make heroes of the people who are doing the most heroic things? I know we have to go, but just help me understand. How did this come to me?

Well, because the wonderful people of marble love food, they love Bolsonra Kitchen, I guess. They've been following us for a long time. It happened also with Easy Comics. So in one year, in one year, I've been cooking. came with Superman and Aquaman and Wonder Woman and Flash feeding lionfish and fishing with Aquaman and in a sea horse catching lionfish to feed the people of the Caribbean.

And now Marvel has put me next to Spider-Man when my restaurant in Hudson Yards, Mercado Little Spain is under attack by Electro and all of the sudden Spider-Man shifts up. and I'm there alongside the Spider-Man fighting fighting Electro, and then at the end... Were you a comic book fan as a kid? Oh, I have a big comic collection. Oh, this is. And I came by you from South by Southwest in Austin

and they used an ounce that Marvel is putting me in a number in the fall with Avengers. So when... I still still do this moment, I think they're doing a prank on me and that they're going to do a very big ad saying, this is the fool that thought he could be in a comic with the Spider-Man. You know, life sometimes is about these little moments and these little dreams. But as you said, this is an homage to all the people

that every single day, when nobody is watching, they wake up with a very simple idea of helping others. So even, yeah, I'm there with the Spider-Man. And I think what Marvel wanted to do is just to give a big round of applause to the millions around the world that they don't give up and that they are always there next to the people. Last question. I know you've got to go. I just wanted to know this about food. Food is such an interesting thing because it's what sustains us. It's one of the first things a child will compliment their parents on. If you say like, why does mommy or daddy love you? They'd be like, because they feed me and they give me food. But you have interacted with food on a spectrum that I think few of us have.

Your restaurants serve some of the most decadent, beautiful, delicious food that people will ever experience. And then you are cooking local food, which is often delicious as well, in places where someone would assume there is no joy. When you think of food, what does food mean to you? Yeah, I mean, you mentioned about our. our mommy and daddy feeding us, but the first gift we receive in the form of a tangible is when we come to the world and our mom brings us to her body

or our grandma or our father give us baby bottle. But the first gift is in the form of food. Mother's milk. And I think our fate and our relationship with food is still on that magical, beautiful moment, even if we were unaware. I mean, I have, I collect cookbooks too, and many of them are centuries old.

And one of them is from 1826 and he's a Frenchman. And I don't quote French people in public often, but they're good cooks, after all. We have to recognize. But this guy, Briad Saueran, in the first edition, he didn't sign the book because he was too afraid of what his friends in Paris would think about him. But this one guy that gave us an amazing, amazing quotes. and one of them was tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.

Oh, wow. Nothing gets more powerful than that very simple thought that at the end, the way we love to live life, that's the matter only if you eat hog dogs like Peter Parker in the streets of New York.

That's great. I love hot dogs. And you should be proud of it. Foot is something like really tells a story of who we are in powerful ways. And the same philosophy. philosopher said even a more powerful phrase that both together very much are like the commandments of food. He said that the future of the nations will depend in how they feed themselves.

So from culture to science, to who we will feed people in the moon, to food as art, food as a social gathering, food as Thanksgiving, food as history, food as health, food as immigration, food very much. touches everything. You realize that sometimes everything uses starts in a humble plate of food that you may have in a faraway place sitting next to a stranger.

That's some of the most fascinating moments you can experience in life. You know, you just made me realize this is one of my favorite conversations. You've always been one of my favorite people. The only mistake I made was not having food

for our conversation. I apologize. I just landed. I just landed. I came empty, but I have my book. No, no. I apologize.

My new book is Spain, my way. I'm actually, are you going to leave that for me? This is for you, but I don't think that's it. No, this is not even the arena yet, because we are waiting. It's arriving by boats. Okay, I want it. But Spain, my way.

I want it. I want it. One day I should go to Spain with it. I just want to go somewhere random with you. We talk every year. You too coming with me to Spain. Just somewhere. You'll invite me. You'll come back again.

Jose Andres. Much gas. Amigo, thank you. It's a pleasure to be in your presence. Thank you so much, man. Safe journey. Thank you. Apple Card is designed to support your financial well-being.

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The show is executive produced by Trevor Noah, Senaziamin and Jess Hackle. Rebecca Chain is our producer. Our development researcher is Marcia Robiou. Music, mixing and mastering by Hannes Brown. Random Other Stuff by Ryan Haduth. Thank you so much for listening. Join me next week for another episode of What Now?