José Ramón Andrés Puerta (born 13 July 1969) is a Spanish-American chef and restaurateur. Born in Spain, he moved to the United States in the early 1990s and since then, he has opened restaurants in several American cities. He has won a number of awards, both for his cooking (including several James Beard Awards), and his humanitarian work. He is a professor as well as the founder of the Global Food Institute at George Washington University. Andrés is the founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK), a non-profit devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters. He is often credited with bringing the small plates dining concept to America. He was awarded a 2015 National Humanities Medal at a 2016 White House ceremony for his work with World Central Kitchen. In addition, he has received honorary doctorates from Georgetown University, George Washington University, Harvard University, and Tufts University. In March, 2022, he was named as co-chair of the United States President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.

Early life and education

José Ramón Andrés Puerta was born in Mieres, Asturias, Spain, on 13 July 1969. Andrés family moved to Catalonia when he was 6. He enrolled in culinary school in Barcelona at the age of 15, and when he needed to complete his Spanish military service at age 18, he was assigned to cook for an admiral. He met Ferran Adrià in Barcelona, and he worked three years at El Bulli, from 1988 to 1990. In December 1990, he was fired by Adrià and decided to move to the United States.

Culinary career

Coming to the United States

At the age of 21, Andrés arrived in New York City to cook in midtown Manhattan at an outpost of a popular Spanish restaurant, Eldorado Petit. During his time in New York, he also staged servings at The Quilted Giraffe. In 1993, Andrés was hired to lead the kitchen at Jaleo, a new tapas restaurant in Washington, D.C. In subsequent years, he helped the owners of Jaleo to open more restaurants: Cafe Atlantico, Zaytinya and Oyamel, along with two more Jaleo outposts. In 2003, Andrés started minibar – a restaurant space within a larger restaurant – at a six-seat counter within Cafe Atlantico. Minibar eventually became a stand alone restaurant that has a twelve-seat counter. Seats are released on a monthly basis; according to the Washington Post they typically are reserved within 24 hours.

Chef and restaurateur

As he opened more restaurants in the US, Andrés became more well-known in his native Spain, starring in his own cooking show, Vamos a Cocinar, which debuted in 2005. He also published his first book, Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America, in 2005. In 2006, he partnered with Robert Wilder to form ThinkFoodGroup, making Andrés a co-owner in his restaurants. Together, they opened more restaurants in Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Puerto Rico. Beginning in the fall of 2010, Andrés taught a culinary physics course at Harvard University with Ferran Adrià. In May 2012, Andrés was named dean of Spanish Studies at The International Culinary Center, where he and Colman Andrews developed a curriculum in traditional and modern Spanish cuisine, which debuted in February 2013. On 29 October 2012, he announced he was heading back to the classroom, and would teach his first course on how food shapes civilization at George Washington University. He did so until 2023, when he started the Global Food Institute at George Washington University.

Trump Hotel restaurant and lawsuit

Andrés planned to open a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel (also known as Old Post Office) in Washington, D.C., in 2016. After Donald Trump made disparaging comments about illegal Mexican immigrants in June 2015, Andrés withdrew from the contract with the Trump Organization, which then sued him. Andrés counter-sued, and the parties reached a settlement in April 2017. The Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C., closed on 11 May 2022. It was sold to CGI Merchant Group, and later reopened as the Waldorf Astoria Washington, D.C., on 1 June 2022. On 13 June 2022, Andrés announced that he would return to the location to open the restaurant that he had planned in the original 2015 deal. The Bazaar by José Andrés opened on 8 February 2023. Andrés remains an outspoken critic of Trump.

World Central Kitchen

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) raised almost $30 million in 2019, then $250 million in 2020. In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Andrés provided locally cooked dishes specific to the region essential to comforting people touched by disasters. Since it was founded, the NGO has organized meals in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Zambia, Peru, Cuba, Uganda, Cambodia, and in Poland on the border of Ukraine. It has provided aid and meals in the United States and Puerto Rico and has helped during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Andrés runs WCK's operations with the help of ~200 devoted colleagues including Sam Bloch. In 2021, Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post and Amazon, handed Andrés $100 million through his Courage and Civility Award. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Andrés announced that he was going to donate a part of the $100 million to the organization to address the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. In 2022, WCK took in $519 million in grants and donations.

Israel–Hamas war

On 1 April 2024, seven WCK workers in Gaza were killed by multiple Israeli military airstrikes in the city of Deir al-Balah. Andrés rejected Israeli and U.S. assertions that the strike was not deliberate. Andrés stated the seven workers were "targeted deliberately" and killed "systematically, car by car". The war in Gaza, he said, is "not a war against terrorism anymore" but a "war against humanity itself."

Restaurants

Along with partner Rob Wilder, Andrés owns several restaurants: Signature restaurants: Other restaurants:

Awards and honors

Personal life

Andrés is married to Patricia "Tichi" Fernández de la Cruz and has three daughters; they live in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. He met his wife while they were both living in Washington, D.C.; she is originally from Cádiz, Andalusia, in the southwest of Spain. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in December 2013. Andrés is an avid golfer and loves cigars. He has a collection of rare cookbooks, totalling to 1500, including an 1825 first edition of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's The Physiology of Taste, a rents and receipts notepad from 1795 that belonged to Thomas Jefferson’s chef Honoré Julien, and an 1851 edition of The Virginia House-Wife by Mary Randolph. He has expressed a predilection for his early edition of Auguste Escoffier’s Ma Cuisine, his first edition of Irma S. Rombauer's Joy of Cooking, and Ángel Muro's El Practicón. On 5 November 2024, Andrés said he planned to challenge Rep. Andy Harris in the 2026 election. He called Harris, a Republican and chair of the House Freedom Caucus, a "disgrace making so many lies and hateful rhetoric."

Filmography