Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - José Andrés

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

Despite his encounters with human suffering, world-renowned chef José Andrés exudes joy and hope—what’s his secret? The World Central Kitchen founder talks to Ted Danson about his pivot from fine dining to feeding those in crisis zones like Haiti and Ukraine, why plans are overrated, how changing the world is like rewriting a bad Thanksgiving turkey recipe, and much more.  Consider making a generous donation to World Central Kitchen. Like watching your podcasts? Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes. 

But I have a feeling like we keep repeating sometimes the same recipes that the outcome is always very dry turkey. Welcome back to Where Everybody Knows Your Name. Today I'm joined by José Andrés. Not only is he one of the world's greatest chefs, he redefines service and hospitality through his humanitarian work. Jose is the founder of World Central Kitchen, a non-profit bringing sustenance to people affected by natural disasters.

Please, do yourself a favor and look up their work in places like Puerto Rico and Ukraine. Jose is one of those people who walks in a room and lights it up. He exudes joy, humor, and life. We recorded this conversation last year, and he was such an inspiration to talk to. For that reason, I'm honored to share him with you today. Please meet my new friend, Jose Andres. And why you don't have your own cab? Why it has to be everything Conan? day. Please meet my new friend Jose Andres. And why you don't have your own cup? Why has to be everything Conan? I don't want to create some disturbance here, but you should have your own cup. I should. I mean, what the heck is Conan?

I'm not 100% sure. Like, Yeah, thank you. We're gonna start this. Who the hell is Conan? Yeah, between orange hair and white hair. I prefer white hair, obviously. No. I mean, no. Here's what I want to talk about with you is your face. Let's do it. You have a beautiful face because you've got empathy in it, you've got joy, you've got

hope, and you've earned it because you are not just sitting around doing the easy things in life. You're surrounded by humanity at its saddest all over the world and getting things done that are desperately needed. And that still is your face. And I know that you talk a lot about hope and empathy and joy. And I would like to start with that.

How did you, how did you get that? Were you born into that? Or did you have family that inspired you? Because you are, you're relentlessly hopeful, which is brilliant, I think. Well, I was not ready for such a deep question. I know. I know.

But I know you're a deep guy. Listen, you know, life is wonderful. You wake up every day and you think what I'm doing today. And then one day after the other, you began meeting people that you don't realize but they become very important in your life. Sometimes you need to go back 40 years to remember that teacher that you don't even remember her name but was always the the great teacher that was there when you were alone in the classroom opening a mathematics book and not understanding anything. But there she was

over your shoulder trying to to guide you. And we all have those people in our life. And we become who we become thanks to those people. And we are as good as the people we have around us. And I realized that myself, I mean been all my life for some reason surrounded by people that they always had the bested interest in me, in my success, whatever success. And so with all that I guess my my luggage has been getting bigger and bigger of good things and learning. And that's why life has taken me to this path of I cook for the few. For me, cooking is not my profession. It's something I'll do anytime.

I'm around a kitchen. I don't even need a kitchen to cook. Just anywhere I can cook and I'm happy. And give happiness and go into the market and I love that. But that same, I would say, power of feeding the few, my family or through my restaurants, it's an opportunity to feed the many. And that's where I am. My mom, my dad, they were nurses. And I guess, you know, we didn't have a nanny at home. And my father worked the night shift, my mom the day shift, and sometimes the hospital

was the place they will exchange my brothers and I from school before going home, whatever. So I saw very early on how a hospital functioned. And I always saw those people always caring, even beyond their duty. When the day their shift was over, they would do something else because somebody needed help. Reading a book to a young boy or taking an elderly person around the block

so it could move the body a little bit. I saw those kind of moments of empathy that nobody sees, but it's all around us. And this is what really keeps the world together in a crazy way. And so I saw that and my mom, my dad, they were, never had a super good relationship with my mom for different reasons of life. But my mom was the most loving, caring person for everybody. Even sometimes she'll go to the streams of life, whatever that means. And she'll always cook. Monday through Friday was my mom. Weekends was my dad. And my mom will always be cooking whatever, especially at the end of the month.

Was there almost nothing in the fridge before the next paycheck will come? I mean, we were middle-class, no problem. But in my house at the end of the month, the fridge was very empty. But my mom will open that fridge that looks like a Best Buy commercial. Uh, when you go to buy and they're always empty, which is terrible. I mean, if Best Buy wants to sell fridges, they should fill them up with food shit. That will be a better selling point. I bet they do tomorrow after hearing this. But my mom will get these half-egg, dry, forgotten, that the egg almost will talk to you, hey,

I'm here. Don't forget me. Before we were talking about food waste, those eggs, they've always been telling us, don't forget me. I'm here alone. I'm freezing cold in the fridge. Do something with me. And my mom will listen to the egg, I guess,

and we'll get the egg and we'll chop the egg and we'll make a bechamel flour and milk and then she'll make croquetas. Croquetas. Croquettes. Croquetas will grow up with croquetas. Okay, I'm not describing that for the croquetas. That was an amazing dish. But was the love that my mom will put in making that croqueta with almost nothing. There is a lesson to be learned. you don't need a lot, a lot of riches to show love, to give love. And I think this croquetas is the way my mom was always showing that really she loved us,

beyond that the mother loved their children, no matter what. Will, I wanna go back later and get you from that childhood to being successful and creating restaurants and all of that. And I know everybody knows that you're one of the best chefs in the world and you've created all these amazing dishes in restaurants all over the world. But World Central Kitchen just moves me beyond belief.

And I would love to talk about that. So how did you go? What was the first moment for you that you went from, oh, let me make another restaurant or another this to World Central Kitchen? Yeah. World Central Kitchen just happened through many moments before in my life

that I saw the power of food to improve communities. And this happened when I was 23. So it happened close to 15 years before World Central Kitchen was created. I began being a volunteer in Washington, D.C. in an organization called D.C. Central Kitchen. This was founded by a great man, a bartender, called Robert Egger. And he saw that food was being wasted in hotels,

produce companies, fish companies, good food that for some reason was about to be thrown out because it didn't look perfect. But he said something more important, that actually what we were doing is wasting people's life. And with the homeless population in DC, people coming out of jail without any chance to get in a job because we don't hire those people. Right. Well, he began bringing those people into this kitchen and started training them to be cooks and bringing that food that was about to be wasted and putting them together and then bringing volunteers and then with the foods they were producing, feeding the homeless

population of Washington, D.C. All across. But in the process, those men and women coming from the streets, just coming out of Yale, they will learn to be cooks, they will graduate. And then restaurants like us, we could hire them. One dollar not thrown at the problem to feed the people in need, a good thing but doesn't solve the problem.

But one dollar to solve the waste food issue, to give an opportunity to people that never had the chance to feed the homeless of Washington, D.C. To train all those men and women coming to the kitchen, and then to do human resources and finding them jobs so the city could keep thriving. Fascinating the power of food to really have a meaningful impact in the community in a smart, almost like a for-profit company way.

The new type of NGO. This for me was very special. I arrived there like a 24-year-old boy, and for me, this gave me this amazing... And this kitchen was already up and running when you... All running. Probably six, seven years before I arrived to D.C. And then I became one more volunteer. I loved that I was able to show my lessons of life,

but in the process, I was learning from those people, too. Right. Coming out of the street. It was a two-way teaching here. Exchanging of what you knew and everybody becoming better in the process. And probably people I will never mix with because they live in different parts of the city than I live. So a fascinating place of bringing people together. I became the chairman of that organization over the years. I'm still very involved.

But that organization put in me kind of the seed in very deep ways. Robert Egger, when I met him first time, he told me something that has really been important in the way I try to live my life. That seems that philanthropy is always about the redemption of the giver. Yes. When philanthropy must be about the liberation of the receiver. It's okay to give, but just to give without real impact

is not good enough. You must give in an intelligent way asking, what is the return on investment of my hours volunteering or the money I sent to an NGO? And that return on investment is very important because if not, we keep throwing money at the problem. With that lesson, I began seeing that in emergencies, especially Katrina, had a huge effect on me.

I didn't go, I watched from the comfort of my home. But I remember seeing those devastating images of people leaving every part, especially from the low income neighborhoods, the low nine and other neighborhoods in New Orleans. How we had thousands of Americans at the Superdome, at the arena, and nobody was feeding them for days. And I thought, this is crazy

because you know what an arena is? Everybody is wrong. An arena is not a place for sports or musicians and concerts. An arena is a gigantic restaurant that entertains with the sports. What I mean is arenas are literally restaurant. I mean, go to a baseball game, everybody's eating a hot dog. I mean, go to a baseball game. Everybody's eating a hot dog.

I don't see anybody watching the game. It's a gigantic restaurant. So use that to your benefit. We were supposed to arrive there and start feeding people in the first hour, but didn't happen and we left them hungry and thirsty. I began seeing that food was an afterthought in emergencies. And when it's a fire, who do you send? Firefighters. Trained, prepared, ready to serve. Earthquake, you send search and rescue teams with dogs. Another thing happens and people are injured, you

send doctors and nurses. Okay, if you have an emergency and you have to feed people, who do you think will be the best people? That knows where the kitchens are, that knows where the food warehouses are, that knows how the system of feeding a city works. Food people, cooks like me. That's when Haiti happened. 2010, hundreds of thousands of people dead in the streets of Port-au-Prince.

And I was in Cayman Islands at the time. And I felt like, oh my God, this is so close. I'm not too far away from this island with all this horror we were watching on TV. I went back Washington DC. I was able to talk with my partners. Hey, I'm going to disappear for a few days. And I got on a plane and I went to Haiti. Just you, nothing, no supplies.

Me and a couple of, a couple of friends, but I'm going to go with what intention. Really to learn more than to help. If I was going to be coming up with ways to do things in emergencies and bring the power of the restaurants and cooks of the world to solve that short term problem of lack of food and water, I had to learn. And this to me became a fascinating place of learning.

I arrived to a camp run by an NGO. There were a few thousand people in the tents. And the NGO was from Spain, so I knew some of them indirectly. So it was the perfect place for me to start learning how people like me, cooks like me, we could be joining the humanitarian relief efforts. Out of that trip is when the idea of, yes, we need to do and create organization,

World Central Kitchen. ["Wall Central Kitchen"] Did you stay in that moment and cook and find ways to feed or was it more research? No, no, I was cooking. Me, I like to cook. And obviously when you are in a place that everybody around you will appreciate the plate of food, it's kind of a gift because you need to have the people that need the food to really cook.

And for me it was a gift because it's very simple. I got whatever money I brought with me and my partners pitch in. I arrived there, I will go to the local markets, which is a very smart way because you are putting the money in the economy. The same woman that were living in the camp, you'll give them some money. It's not like they will not do it even if you didn't pay them. It was the right thing to do.

We bought some pots and pans and we had fire here, fire there, and we began cooking. So there was food, produce, to find somewhere in the devastation. It's always food somewhere. Food is always food somewhere. It's, it's, food is always around somewhere. You can find food in the most difficult places on earth. In Gaza over the last weeks, we've been serving fish when we run out of everything else. We are working in Gaza with a local NGO called Anera.

We've been working with them three years. They are more medical. We are the food organization, kind of with partner, who was going to tell us that this partnership over the last three years was going to serve us so well right now. We've been buying fish from the local fishermen. That's why we are able to serve these trays with one big fish for a family of four and

some rice until we run out of it. But the ocean keeps giving us the fish. You see there we are creative. It's always food somewhere. What you have to have is the willingness to embrace the complexity of the moment and never over plan. I think we plan too much. Life is moment and never over plan. I think we plan too much. Life is like a very big plan.

Even before you're born, already somebody has a plan for you. We need to put plans aside and start embracing the complexity and start believing in adaptation. Why? Because if you follow a plan and you write 100 plans and you put them in the wall, when something happens, what happens is something you didn't

plan for. Because you live in the comfort of thinking I plan for everything. Impossible. Yeah. You freeze under adversity. Why? Because you've been trying to follow the plan that doesn't exist. And you keep looking on the wall, under the table. Where is this plan? We never wrote that plan for what has happened. But if you don't have a plan, but you adapt, every circumstance is an opportunity for you to overcome the problem. You are ready. Instead of hitting the wall, you are ready to jump over the wall.

It's a much better outcome. Why? Because you will always find a solution. I love that. I wish my wife, Mary Steenburgen were here. She's a huge appreciator of what you do. But she also like, I'll sit there. There'll be a huge project in our home,

whatever it is. And I'll go, well, wait a minute, let me get this, my linear thinking, let's see what we should do first, and that would make sense for the second. And she just, her eyes roll, and she turns around and starts grabbing whatever needs to be done and in this kind of whirlwind of energy.

And I'd still be in the corner trying to figure out. And a lot of times I think in life for everybody, it's a way also to keep yourself distanced from the problem, the sadness of the humanity. Let's keep planning. Let's not jump in because this is going to be, you know. All the recipes we keep writing to how we run the world, I have a feeling that we never

update them. Like the old recipes sometimes don't work for today. Maybe they were good when they were created, but they're no good any longer. So recipes they need to be of thrown garbage, and new ones must be written. Or you improve the old ones. Right. But I have a feeling like we keep repeating sometimes the same recipes that the outcome is always very dry turkey. Okay, can we improve the turkey?

Improving the turkey means improving the world. If every year the turkey is dry means that you're putting too much heat and if you're putting too much heat the turkey is going to be dry. That means it's a terrible Thanksgiving. You can lie because that's what happened everybody. Who was the turkey is going to be dry. That means it's a terrible Thanksgiving. You can lie, eh? Because that's what happened. Everybody, how was the turkey? Oh, the best turkey I ever had. You know it's not true. The turkey is way overcooked. Why? Because you put too much temperature.

What you need to do, control the temperature. And then the turkey will be juicy. That means a perfect metaphor to say the world will be a slightly better place. We keep giving too much heat to every issue, to every problem. It's all heat. Everybody heats up. Everything is a mess because everybody is eating dry turkey. My God, we can create a world where the turkey is perfectly cooked and is juicy. And you eat it and you say, oh my God, this is the turkey I want to live in. That's the wall I want to belong to. Life is about dry turkey or well, perfectly cooked turkey.

Yeah, we can survive with a dry turkey, but when the metaphor is about life, it's not good enough. Let me stay just with the organization for a second. How many people now work on a steady basis for World Central Kitchen? Okay. I want to make sure that obviously I'm the founder of World Central Kitchen. I am volunteer number one, and by that I don't mean I'm the best volunteer. It's only I was the first one. And I don't run the organization in the day to day.

What happens is that when big ones happen, for me it's my perfect medium to go and keep bringing my experience when it's needed. And when it's not needed, I just go like one more guy. I think they gave me a title, Chief Feeding Officer. But at the most what I do is whisper. I whisper what I see. But the teams, every day with experience, become better and better. And I feel I'm in a good situation

because I don't have even to whisper so much. I love to watch from the outside and follow the teams on WhatsApp and seeing the decisions they make in the multiple events we may be at times. But the organization right now I don't think has more than 100 people, which probably is way too low for the amount of work they are doing. But at the same time, I believe that Wall Central Kitchen probably is way too low for the amount of work they are doing. But at the same time, I believe that Wall Central Kitchen cannot grow too quickly in number of people

because I've seen other organizations growing way too big and then forgetting what they were there for in the first place. What is fascinating, like Ukraine, technically only two people of Wall Central Kitchen went into Ukraine. And with two people inside Ukraine, we went from two people of World Central Kitchen to more than 5,000 team members in Ukraine. All Ukrainians. All Ukrainians. That's the power of World Central Kitchen.

It's not like what we do coming from the outside. Right. It's the motivation we can create to make people come together and join us. We're gonna make them better, but they are the ones making us succeed. I love this story also, sorry. I love this story also where it's not you, as you just said, you're not coming in from the Western world or wherever

and telling people what they need to do. And even to the point where you don't tell them what they should eat, there was that great story of some woman coming up to you. The black beans in Haiti. I'm making the best beans in my life. I'm so proud, the beans were in season and I'm like, yeah, I'm going to make this bean stew.

We make black beans, we make them in Basque Country, North Spain. I was cooking with them a few days and then they come to me and, hey, we want to tell you something. Okay. Thank you for helping us and being here with us in this very difficult moment, but we don't eat the beans like the way you cook them. And I'm like, really? I thought this only happened to me in my house with my three daughters complaining about

my cooking all the time. So here I am, two-star Michelin chef in the cover of magazines and and they're telling me that they it's not like they didn't like my beans it's just we don't need them this way over here okay you boy and I'm like okay what what do you want and we did what they wanted because that's the way it should be yeah and that's the story that keeps giving I mean listen sometimes we have people that they praise us for. Wow. You're so amazing with Sandra Kitchen.

You go to the countries and you cook what the locals like to eat. You are geniuses. And I laugh hard because the truth is that we are not genius. We are very simple. The truth is that we are not genius. We are very simple. If you go to Mexico, what do you think is the dishes that anyone is going to help you cook? No.

They're going to know about how to make the best tacos in the world and the best mall in the world. Now I go to Mexico and I'm going to tell them, can you make me a Ukrainian borscht? They're going to look at me like, what? So we cook local dishes, not because it's what the locals like, which is important, but it's because the people that help us know how to cook. And by the way, what ingredients do you think you're going to find in the markets in Mexico? Mexican ingredients. No Indian ingredients. If you go to no, no, no Indian ingredients.

If you go to Indonesia, what ingredients you think we find? Indonesian ingredients. So me, I'm fascinated when people just tell me, Jose, the organization is brilliant. You are able to cook what the locals like. I'm like, well, it's the only option we have because it's the only thing we have around. It's the same thing when people ask me, and where do you find the food? And I say, Oh my God, it was in the food warehouses in the same places that people buy when things are okay.

It's kind of fascinating to me that things, when there is an emergency, there is nothing. It's like darkness, like everything disappears, evaporates. No, what we do is be smart. We are not an organization that cook. Cooking is used, what obviously we do. What we are is an organization of distribution. We create systems of distribution.

We start creating again the system that has been broken. If people go hungry, it's because the restaurants are not open. If people go hungry, it's because the warehouses that send food to the restaurants are not doing it. Why? Because it's a hurricane. It's an earthquake. People have to take care of their families, of their homes. The roads are broken. The electricity doesn't function. The gas stations are not able to refill your tank. The entire system breaks down.

In Ukraine, which is a country that exports enough grain to feed 500 million people around the world every year, you will say, why we had to feed the people of Ukraine? They have food. The issue is that we had 10 million people on the move. The shops were closing, the restaurants were closing, they were under attack, the factories were closing, everybody was on the move. What we did is create this emergency infrastructure distribution system to restart what was normal before. And then we are there until things open up again. The systems open up again.

This is what World Central Kitchen really does. And the imprint of that was in Washington, DC. Wasn't that kind of what he was doing in a way? Distribution? At the end, yeah. Obviously no under emergency. Right, right. But you could argue that there were, there is homeless and hungry people, we take it for granted because just happens for years and years and years, but in a way

it's an emergency. Right. The richest country in the world, any rich country in the world should not be having a food issue, should not be having a true poverty issue, shouldn't be having a true homeless issue. There are ways to fix it. But we don't put the right resources or the right people to fix those problems. Everything becomes politics. What happens with politics is that politics is almost like a boxing match. It's not about leaving the boxing ring as friends, but it's I'm gonna beat you down to death. It's not about building longer tables, it's about

breaking the table in half and making a fire with the wood. Politics is used a big match, a big boxing match, when it shouldn't. Politics should be about building, responding to the problems and the solutions. That's why everybody finger points at each other, because it's easier to finger points of the problems we face to the other versus you taking responsibility for them.

At Wolves and Dragicheng, what we do is we take responsibility. Even when we are the smaller organization in some big events, like we are, obviously we are not World Food Program and we are not UN, but sometimes when we are the smaller organization in some big events, like we are, obviously we are not World Food Program and we are not UN, but sometimes when we go to some missions, seems we are the bigger organization. Why?

Because we take ownership of the situation on behalf of the people. So this in a way, yes, Washington DC, this is Central Kitchen, was the early lesson. And you know the thing happened to me because I think my life has been like, I feel like a Forrest Gump in a way, fascinating things happened to me that

when I keep putting them across the street, across the street from where I opened my first restaurant, Jaleo. Jaleo means merry-making, Spanish tapas, tapas, not topless, tapas. Jaleo means merry-making. Spanish tapas. Tapas, not topless. Tapas. They, Jaleo, that the first person I almost met was Senator Patrick Moynihan. And Liz Moynihan, who by the way just passed away.

Who was going to tell me some of the first people I met was a legendary senator. Who he told me, if you love America, America will love you back. So don't worry, Jose. You will find your space. But across the street from LA was this red brick building. And there was construction behind it because they were doing a bigger building. And when they went into this red brick building that was closed for I don't know how many years, they found

the belongings of a person. And Sims was the office and her living quarters. And she had another apartment, Sims in Baltimore. This is the woman that very much was very important in the flying hospitals, the flying hospitals during the Civil War. Flying because they were flying behind the front lines, taking care of the wounded soldiers, at times of both sides. This is the woman when the Civil War ended, created the missing soldiers' office,

trying to bring clothing to the families that never knew what happened to their loved ones. And this is the woman that created the American Red Cross, a woman that herself brought food to the Capitol when seems was under siege. The woman was Clara Barton. A nurse, do you understand nurse by now? By now I'm with you, yes. A nurse like my mom.

A woman that was the one who's healing the few, but that she created systems with her own knowledge to help the many. For me, this was also very important early lesson. And I became very fascinated of her story in a way that she was able to do all those things that had such a big input for years to come. So in a way, this is one of those other little things that were very important for me and keep shaping my mind as a young boy of how you could be smarter in the way we do things. Ball Central Kitchen at the end was the result of many other stories. This is one more of those stories that gave me the courage, if anything, to do.

Let's do Wall Central Kitchen. I don't know if everyone has seen video of you in these different parts of the world. But what strikes me is the number of people who, yes, are getting plates of food, but are coming and you're giving them a hug in that moment. Are they want to hug you or you hug them, whatever. But there's so much love. I mean, feeding somebody is kind of the ultimate loving example, but you-

You know what? You know what? What is the first moment we receive love in the form of a tangible? Why we are also attached to food. I only realized when I got my first daughter in my arms and I was crying in the moment I saw her coming out with no instructions.

She's like, shit, where are the instructions about how to take care of this little thing? And you are there, right? And then I passed it to my wife and I see, feeding the baby for first time. And I began having this kind of, for me the first time I gave baby bottle, was like, oh my God, so I almost had like a flashback, like, oh my God, I think we are

in love with food because the first moment is when our mother brings us to the body and we are receiving love in the form of food. A message of saying, I'm going to care for you. I love you. Don't worry. Even if you feel alone in this world, I'm here with you. And food is that connector. That's why I believe we all have so much love for food, for cooking or inviting people to our table if we don't have a clue about who's cooking.

That's a faith that is sealed in all of us. It's inside our DNA. And we cannot escape that. So yeah, when we go and we show up in a community and we tell them we're coming back tomorrow, and you show up tomorrow, and we are coming back the day after, all of a sudden people can go to do other things,

which they have plenty of things to do. I mean, again, Acapulco is being, I mean, there's one million people living in that city and the hurricane has gone through the middle of a city. It's not many times that a hurricane five goes through a major city. The chaos is beyond imagination. And food and water is what sends the message of we're here for you. I know things are not good, but this is the beginning of a better tomorrow. That's why food is so important. And obviously it's not me. I mean, obviously this organization wouldn't function without hundreds, thousands that believe in the idea.

You know that sometimes in some places that we see something happens and we see some tweet and says, World Central Kitchen, this has happened a few times already. And it's like, are we there? I say, no. Who put the logo? I don't know, it's a local chef that just put the logo and began out of his restaurant feeding. It's almost like the postman. you know that Kevin Costner movie? Yes. Post-apocalyptic, delivering mail is what gave hope to people that maybe things were going to be back to normal and ruling and democracy was going to start again.

Like a letter was hope of a better tomorrow. Well, this is exactly the same. We are becoming an idea that many people endorse, that we can come together and food and water is not going to be a problem because we have plenty of people around the world that they are very good in that. And empathy is there. And the way to show that empathy and the caring

is just to activate anywhere in the world. This is what World Central Kitchenian I hope is becoming that we can I say that we are the biggest Company and NGO in the world. We are bigger than UN We're bigger than all the top companies in the world. We are Why? Because when I go to a city every restaurant Belongs to us Every person in a way is with us.

Every food warehouse, every food truck, every helicopter we may need to see plane is ours. That's how we behave. What happened? They don't know it. But when we go to a place, it's like, what do we have that we can use to bring hope to people? So that's why I say we are the bigger organization. We have barely assets. We don't have tangibles.

But in the way we see it, it's like everything is at our disposal to help the people. With that mentality, it's very difficult that we will ever fail, because we will always find a way. Do you need more coffee, or is that like a bad thing to ask you? I'm gonna move into water. Oh my god the fight I had with the coffee machine out there. Yeah it was it was scary. Sure I mean yeah I'm not gonna mention the brand because then looks like a bad commercial

but but she's so opinionated on coffee machine and she has sisters all over. All over. And they communicate they communicate they've been communicating for so long. And everywhere I am with one of them, I mean, that's whatever it was. I want cappuccino and puts me a regular coffee. I want espresso and makes me a latte. I'm like, what's wrong with, I mean,

I am a man that they have my own opinions about my coffee. No, the machine always gives me whatever she wants. And my, I don't know why she's so mean to me. If you need a face for what happened to you today, it's Conan O'Brien. He bought that machine. It's his fault and I apologize for him. Yeah, I mean, Conan, I mean,

it's the fault of so many things. Yeah, I mean, come on. Yeah, terrible. Give me a break. I mean, yeah. I mean, why he has the color of hair he has. I mean, why he cannot have white hair like you and me? To draw attention.

I know. And why this cop says Conan O'Brien needs a friend? Why here is not your name in the cap? Thank you. Why is everything Conan? He's the face of Conan everywhere. I mean, Conan, come on, man. This is not what I...

Is he here right now to greet you? Where are you, Conan? Yeah. My God. I've done so many shows with him. I love him. He's a good guy. I don't care what they say about him. He's a good Conan? Yeah. My God, I've done so many shows with him. I love him. He's a good guy. I don't care what they say about him.

He's a good guy. Yeah, and a lot of people say terrible things about him. Let me go to, I do a lot of work in the environmental ocean advocacy and I have for about 30 years. It's what I do when I'm not acting. And the thing that you said about, I think, I don't know if you said this,

but you are saying it in your work, that you have a huge problem. If you approach it with fear in your attempt to fix it, more than likely, it's not gonna work. And even if it does, you're gonna burn out, because you can't live in that state of fear. You have to approach it with love, out of a place of love, out of a place of joy, no matter how hard it is the thing you're dealing with.

And also, don't think that you have to be Jose immediately. You can start making the world a better place wherever you are, no matter how small your effort may be, as long as you're doing something every day to make the place a little bit better. Am I putting words in your mouth, but it feels like it was one of the things I read. My daughter Ines graduated, and she's right now in Chad. And she's in Chad because she wanted to maximize her French,

just put French aside for the rest of her life. And I thought, okay, go to Paris and study French cooking at the same time. And daddy, I'm not going Paris. And she found this job in Chad where she can learn French, but it happens that the main reason is because Chad has one of the biggest hunger issues right now in the world. And that's where she applied for a job and she got it.

My daughter came with me to Ukraine in the first two weeks of the war. We came to Lviv a few days because she was in university and I didn't want to bring her in. I said, no, you stay in Poland because we already had operations in the border. And my daughter comes to me and tells me, daddy, how young people like me we're going to be helping improve the world without taking some risks. And you know, it was like, well, yeah. You know, it's not about my daughter.

It's a lot of young people there that they're willing to take the risk because nothing is going to change without risking something. We can decide to live in the comfort of our homes or we can understand that life really starts at the end of your comfort zone. That's a great phrase. And I don't think it was mine. I have people that speak of me at night. It's always meant that. It's time back is one of them.

Yeah, it's time back. But you know, you mentioned the environment, right? And I'm a guy that believes in the oceans. I love the oceans. I became a scuba diver because I was afraid of the ocean. You see, if you're afraid of something, you just confront it. I know it's easier to say than to do, but now I scuba dive anytime.

I am able to be somewhere beautiful. And on the cooking front, the ocean and the way we feed, they are so interconnected. Because you know we have three billion people in the planet Earth that still cook with charcoal. So we are about to go back to the moon. Maybe we'll see some people in Jupiter and still 3 billion people keep cooking like we began cooking hundreds of thousands of years ago with three rocks and some wood underneath. Or in the best situation, charcoal.

So the people that are poor keep being poor and hungry because the way they feed themselves. And what's the connection with the ocean? Because they cut trees to make the charcoal. When rain comes in tropical areas, that water, instead of penetrating the goodness with the ocean? Because they cut trees to make the charcoal. When rain comes in tropical areas, that water instead of penetrating the goodness of the earth, comes down, takes out all the topsoil in the farming area, so it's no farming output.

All that topsoil ends in the ocean, and in the areas where it's supposed to have a good coral and good reefs, all of a sudden where life is created, where the babies keep multiplying, well, it's not possible, because the way we're cooking is creating all these other harms. And therefore, there is no fishing industry, and usually there is no fishing industry or scuba diving industry, because there's no good coral to go to, means it's not tourism. So take a look, everything starts in a cooking pot.

You know, to be poor is expensive. It's more expensive to buy rice in the poorest parts of Haiti, in the mountains, than in the most expensive supermarket in Peshonville in the heart of Pearl Prince where the richer families live. How is that possible that rice is more expensive where the people are poor than where the people are rich? This is the conundrums we are creating and the problems are big problems have very simple solutions. What happened? We are coming to this situation in the world

where everybody keeps giving the speeches After the speech, everybody claps. The UN has announced 17 goals for the 2030 that have no option, no option on getting even close to anything we can claim success, but they all keep talking. Why they don't have an option? We barely put any money. If I open a restaurant, I have to invest the money to open the restaurant.

I cannot say I'm gonna open a restaurant, but then there's no money. A year later, I'm talking about opening the restaurant, but it's never going to happen. Why? Because I don't have a lease. I didn't bought the equipment. Well, this is what happens, that we have all these organizations, all these big dreams. How many times UNIFEF has announced that they will eradicate childhood hunger in the world. How many more times I'm going to keep listening to it? Yeah, we can clap to the people that do amazing work on Boots on the Ground of UNICEF. I know many of them and they give their lives.

But the organization as a whole, it needs to change. Because I would like to see in my real time that UNICEF delivers the message that childhood hunger will end once and for all. And they will say, oh, say you're highly critical now, this organization. Well, what, why do we have it in the first place? If UNICEF will be a for-profit company, we'll be already out of business. Why? Because they didn't achieve what they promised.

And I want to be their best friend. But I think we need to start calling things by their names. If we keep having organizations that they never deliver on behalf of the people what they promise us, we keep failing humanity, especially the ones don't even know UN exists. And this is what needs radically fundamentally to change. And I don't know if these new generation of young people

will be the ones. I think they are highly prepared. They have more knowledge than we ever had in previous generations, but we need to start delivering on the promises of, if not the wall is just a room full of speeches followed by claps. And I don't wanna live in that world.

That's why I love to go. To boots of the ground, where we are not perfect, we are not solving every problem, but at the very least you are understanding the root causes. We talk about Haiti. America did very well helping Haiti after the earthquake in 2010. USID put a lot of resources.

Other countries, Canada. But we gave so much food for free for over a year that we put every farmer out of business. When now 14 years later we have thousands of Haitians in the southern border, and then we have politicians in the Senate saying, we don't want immigrants and we don't want refugees. Well, those are the same senators and congressmen that pass a bill that then we buy overproduction

from our farmers, which is smart to a way. So to give to the poor countries. If we keep doing this, the poor countries will be poorer. Our farmers in a way sometimes are not doing better because the way they produce is not making a better product is use a crazy system that doesn't work so we make the poor countries poorer because we keep giving them our crumbs and Then we generate other problems that then we complain we have refugees in the southern border

You see like I explained about cooking and all the connection between forests and the cook stoves Cooking and all the connection between forests and the cookstores. Policy. We need leaders that understand that life is about 360. And that when you try to solve one problem, you need to make sure you are not multiplying that problem in other areas. If not, we're always fixing the same problems we create on our own. And life should not be about all day fixing problems. Should be about enjoying the world we live.

That's the type of leaders we need to do. Wow. I'm part of a group called Oceana. It's all over the world. And if you could simplify what it is we do, it's save the oceans, feed the world, make sure the world's fisheries are healthy and live and sustainable.

That means you have to do a bunch of things to make that happen. But we go country to country. We don't come in with our staff of people. We go country to country. So the people who are working there know the issue, know the waters, know the fisheries and, um, yeah, I, uh, it's very, I don't know where I was going with that. I guess I wanted to say.

But I love Oceania and what you guys do. I'm very involved with pre-stein seas, but let me tell you what, what we are not able to do yet when poor fishermen in any area that has mangroves, because they don't have the right tools or equipment or boats or fishing techniques, and they go to where the mangroves are and they put nets and the baby sharks and the baby fish that began their life in those mangroves. And they do it because they're hungry and they are trying to catch anything that is in those mangroves. But multiply that by thousands and thousands of little fishing villages that by catching

those baby fish in a way what they're doing is use cutting short a better future. And nobody's next to them. Sometimes training them and saying, listen, don't catch it. Even we'll pay you some if you don't catch it. So you can eat something else. But wait, and you're gonna see that across you, all in the ocean you see across you,

those baby fish are going to become so big. It's little things like this. But you know the low hanging fruit that still we need to talk and this has a lot to do with 20,000 licks under the sea? That Jules Verne was really visionary in the way this is going with the issue with water that is going to be worse by the day. We're going to have to be very creative,

obviously not only in systems to make sweet water out of the ocean. With Wall Central Kitchen, we do that in some emergencies in islands. But we're gonna have to start seeing, can we grow wheat with seawater? We have the technology. Can we grow rice with seawater?

It's deeper. Are there some grains like that actually grow in the ocean and that indigenous tribes have been eating now for centuries? That we can follow what they've been doing for centuries and make sure that we can be producing wheat-like rice-like grains that one day can feed the world in the process, creating a lot of life, oxygenizing the ocean, protecting against erosion. This is there. This is possible. Is this soy-like pod that grows near the beaches? That is fascinating. It has more protein than soybeans themselves. And uses sea water to live.

We're gonna have to be using the amazing human creativity to look deeper because the ocean beyond that we need to make sure that it's more sustainable and we don't over fish and that we use it as the farm for fish. The seaweed is more things that we don't see. And the ocean is talking to us, but we are not listening.

We're going to have to be creative if we want to feed one day nine billion, maybe 10 billion people by the time we look again. And the ocean is going to have to be playing an important role, but cannot be used the ocean given to us. It's what Oceana does and pre-Cities and others, is we need to give also to the ocean the respect it deserves. Right, climate change.

Climate change, because I mean, all the work, I'll just speak of Oceana, all the work that Oceana does to make our fisheries abundant and sustainable and all of that, can get undone completely if we don't address climate change. 100 degrees temperature water off of Florida. Well fish go away or die. Corals die.

Nurseries are decimated because of that. I'm tired of talking to people and trying to convince people that climate change is real. If they don't believe that, then I feel like, well, Ted, change the conversation. Make the conversation about food security or floods or drought. And if you think immigration is a problem now,

wait till whole countries leave and come to our borders because they can't grow anything where they are. But anyway, I would love to have you talk about that. I think you're wasting your time doing this podcast between you and me. Well, I think Conan feels the same way, but go on. No, but you are wasting your time because I remember that movie, The Day After.

That was what happened to the world, The Day After, after nuclear confrontation. Right. And that was a movie that had a huge impact on everybody, including presidents. That some people give credit to that movie for this kind of nuclear deal of bringing down the number of bombs and missiles, if I remember right, in the time of Reagan and Gorbachev. We need that movie. We need that big movie that becomes big splash that in a real way shows the

consequences of what may be happening tomorrow or in a way what's already happening today, mass migration. You know, we talk about, we have enough food to feed the world, but what happened we wasted? Imagine if one day in the cover of all the newspapers of the world is humanity this year has not produced enough food to feed everybody. There is no use hunger issue because distribution. Now it's hunger because it's not enough food. Chances are you and I will eat. And me, I'll survive more because I have a few more pounds than you, therefore I have more fat, I'll last a few weeks longer than you.

No problem. But the mind one day will wake up and it's not enough food on planet Earth to feed everybody. This may be happening before we know. I've been there. I've seen hurricanes decimating on the entire countries in Central America, at the same time pests in Africa, at the same time droughts in Asia. All at once. All at once.

Entire countries with no more rice, no more cereal, no more fruits, no more vegetables, all at once. The perfect storm can be happening. And our leaders are not even realizing because they are not giving enough importance to food. Briad-Sebaran, 1826, I own a first edition. A food philosopher. The guy that said- Tell me his name again.

It wasn't- Briad-Sebaran, 1826. And believe me, I don't speak about the French people in the open, you know. A food philosopher. The guy that said... Tell me his name again. It wasn't... Briat Sabran, 1896. And believe me, I don't speak about the French people in the open, you know. It's a lot of competition between Spain and France cooking-wise. But yeah, you can eat good food sometimes in France. He said, tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are. But he had a more powerful phrase.

We're like commandments. He said, the future of the nations will depend in how they feed themselves. And that's what's happening with our oceans. That right now is almost a war about who takes the most quantity out of fish out of the ocean. Why?

Because we have so many parts of the ocean and nobody owns it. That means everybody owns it. And I'm very worried that one day we may wake up and there will be food Armageddon that we will not have enough. And this is a problem because politicians are not taking food seriously enough

and it's an afterthought. That's what I'm asking for national food security advisors next to the president of the United States, where we will have food policies that is beyond subsidies and agriculture. This is important. And it's food stamps. All this is important. But it's deeper than that. Governments must take food once and for all seriously,

because everything is about oil, oil, oil, oil, oil, oil. I'm tired of oil. Do you eat oil? I don't eat oil. If I don't have a car, I walk. The most important energy is not really oil. The most important energy is food. We are food.

If we don't take food seriously, we're gonna be in a big problem. God bless you, man. Thank you. Thank you for this. Let me just tell you tell, we can't show a picture of this, but Feeding Dangerously is a,

what do you call it when it's a novel that's pictures? A graphic novel. A graphic novel, sorry. Yeah, I never knew what a graphic novel was. But tell us about it, because it's basically the story of... Listen. Yes? I've done a few things the last few years, and I think it was, if tomorrow I disappear, it's almost like to leave the

the DNA of who we are. It's funny that Clara Barton did this and I read about how important was for her after she retired from the Red Cross that, not what she created, but what the Red Cross created, that everybody understood the path. And thanks to Ron Howard, we had this amazing documentary, We Feed People. It tells my story a little bit, but tells the story of the many people that made World Central Kitchen possible. Then we did this cookbook, which is not really a cookbook, which became New York Times bestseller,

which is the stories of the people that made the recipes happen in very difficult circumstances all around the world. Then is this graphic novel by Steve Orlando and Alberto Ponticelli, which tells the story, graphic novel like a manga book, like a comic book, which I love. And it's a very powerful book and the guys put my name there. I don't know why, but I'm very proud that I've been able to work with them. I told you my life is like Forrest Gump. I've done also, I've done a comic book. Check next. And the book is great

because it tells the story of many missions. When will it come out? Um, by the time people are listening to our podcast is out. Fantastic. It's like out. I wish we could do this longer. I, uh, so appreciate sitting next to you and listening to your story, your life and what you do in life.

And... I don't want to correct your English, but you're not next to me, you're in front of me. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be picky with English. It's a language thing. I'm trying to learn. I mean, is this next or is this in front of?

It's next. I will sit next to you anytime you invite me to your table, my man. Much love to you. Travel safely. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. That was José Andrés. It was such an honor to spend time with him.

I highly recommend that you check out a documentary about Jose called We Feed People, directed by Ron Howard. It's a great intro to Jose and his work with World Central Kitchen. And since this happens to be Thanksgiving, if you're feeling grateful, please visit them at WCK.org and consider giving them a generous donation. Again, that is WCK.org. That's it for this episode. Hello to Woody.

I miss you. And special thanks to our friends at Team Coco. If you've enjoyed this episode, please send it to someone you love. If you like watching your podcast, just a reminder that full episodes are available on Team Coco's YouTube channel. Subscribe, rate, and review. Please, we'll have more for you next week where everybody knows your name.

-♪ Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum We've been listening to Where Everybody Kn Your Name with Ted Dans and Woody Harle. The show is produced by me, Nick Leal. Executive producers are Adam Sachs, Colin Anderson, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer. Our senior producer is Matt Apodaca. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grawald. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Bautista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Antony Genn, Mary Steenburgen, and John Osborne. Special thanks to Willie Navarrete.

We'll have more for you next time where everybody knows your name.