Meet José Andrés - My Favorite People

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And then and and what do you think we should all be learning about how to trust players that we don't even know? It was playing. Thank heavy and I'm cooking there in a couple of places, you know, hundreds of thousands lost their homes. They're poor of the poor lost their homes. And so was all these little villages that were being created temporary housing. This is after that quick. After that quick. Yeah. And I was cooking. I was that day was beans. A lot of beans. They were in season. I bought I will buy every day. This is the early days I was under a kitchen when it was me and two friends. Yeah. 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 need the beans the way you could burn 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 this two star Michelin chef. And they began singing and we began smashing the beans until we became a puree. It took two more hours or three. But at the end, you used to see the joy when the beans were finished, they sang a main central Haitian song. So the process and they were doing that. The poicon go on this black bean stew with the rice. The way they eat them, which is not soup is not cream is not sauce. It's something else. But that's the way they eat the fun. And this to me, obviously, we were. Was a big lesson because that's also the dignity we gave now. Even that's my hope for people maybe everybody has a way to eat. That's beautiful. This is what now with Trevinoa. Let's do it. Vamos and the lay, where do I find you coming from? I was at Austin, South by Southwest. Oh, yeah. What were you doing there? I went to well, was this cues to promote these? Quaya, frankly, I don't know why you and I go sometimes, but I was doing something with Delta and Rivian. So with Delta and Rivian, you know, as us thinking on my way here, you have one of the most interesting lives in that. I don't know where you've like like, like, like, where 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, 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, 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 this 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. Yeah, it feels that way at times. And there's no easy times. It's enjoyable, but I've been going through the zone of like my wife always says when I come back from any, 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 glass of wine of the best wine in the world. Yeah. Or a wine from a small winery that the wine is under five dollars and is the issues because has a great people with great pride. But and I love my, my, my, my cooking, my way to, to, to fill Holly is you get in the kitchen, go to the market, chop, making sure I have all the ingredients I want and I start cooking all day. And the way for me to give love to people can be very fattening because it's in the, it's in the word in the form of, of food. But I have, I have a hard time forgetting at least one part of my brain is always active on that sense. Yeah. So in the days I began like so many other people around the world volunteering in a soup kitchen in Washington. Yeah. Yeah. Is that how it all began? Very much. Ninety, ninety three. This is a drug kitchen of a city in place. But then, 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. And, 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 the moment that life is like a lottery that some of us we bought the winning ticket. Yeah. And other people, other people don't even know there is a lottery. Yeah. And life sometimes can be complicated like that. Because sometimes people are put through moments in their life and maybe, maybe they made a brand decision and sometimes it's not even making the brand 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. Yeah. And this was in the scene, the street right now, you know, I have a hard time. You're forgetting what was going on in Ukraine. Forget what is going on in Gaza places I've seen. And you're brain sometimes is kind of going through. You cannot suffer like the way those people are suffering. Right. 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. 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 was like a celebration. Right. Everybody was celebrating. I know is some people that were, why are you celebrating? The people of Gaza are going through like, well, we, I'm not celebrating. They are celebrating. Yeah. Yeah. People forget that even in those moments of mayhem, people need celebrations. Because it's the only thing that carries them. Yes. To live another day. Yeah. Thinking that there is light at the other 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. They, they, and you, you literally see this on the ground. Like some of the conversations you know, I've had with you have taken me on, 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 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, 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 maybe because the organization was only one person, but now the organization, I will say, you know, we are tens of thousands. It's no hundreds of thousands. Damn. I will say that the Wolls-Antarietan is the biggest organization in the history of mankind. Is bigger than any government, bigger than any, bigger than the UN, bigger than any. corporation 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 truck belongs to Walls and Dragitian. Every horse, boat, helicopter, plane belongs to Walls and Dragitian. Every association belongs to Walls and Dragitian. Every canoe belongs to Walls and Dragitian. Every person that you see is parables and Dragitian. What happened, they don't know it yet. But in the way we arrive is like in an emergency, like almost you have to take ownership of everything you see and put everything you see at the service of bringing eight 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? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No waiting for things to come. But what can we do with what we have on hand? And that way you start providing relief, they won. In Gaza before even we had the 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 grill, tilapia fish to everybody we were trying to help in Gaza. You see, we was in Dragitian adab's. The wall is always going to be full of issues of problems. But we have to start changing our mind and seeing 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 live, 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. Because we've all been trained through that plan, what we do with freezing adversity. What we need to start doing is embracing the complexities that lives put 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. We only need to believe in that power. So help me understand how you do it on day one. I know there are some places in the world where you've been with world-centric kitchen and you've been feeding people for a very long time because it's an ongoing disaster or a situation. But what's the most recent where something happened acutely, like an earthquake or a hurricane or something like that? And then just walk me through like the, because I realize that 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 wire around that. But what do you do? Like from the very first moment that it disaster strikes. 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, Nicarail, Bluefields. And it's a part I kind of knew well because a couple of times I went to on vacation in by the way, friends in the southern part of Jamaica, Bluefields. And 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 we have great teams that know what to do. Yeah. But kind of my daughter in a, I think I'm going to go. So this time I then go on my own. I kind of was following my daughter, 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 funcola way from knowing somebody that knows every chef and every restaurant anywhere in the place. Yeah, but this is what I don't understand. Like help me out. 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. But really, 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. Yeah, what I'm at this moment, let's get back in. No, but still, no, but I'm still trying to understand what they're already doing hundreds few thousands of meals 24 hours. 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, it's never total destruction. Yeah, okay. Something that may be functioning. And we always, and now, as more and more, that people know Wollsendra Kitchen sometimes, even it'll be a restaurant that the other the summer has the sign of Wollsendra Kitchen, but they are not even part of us. And that becomes you. But it's kind of famous there, but this happens in very beautiful ways. Yeah. Like, oh my god. Who said, we are already there. Is somebody, you know, or why call the team? 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 the beautiful. That's a maze. 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 Wollsendra Kitchen is becoming this very unique thing. Like, it's becoming 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 Yameka, the roads were very complicated. The traffic pattern makes everything very complicated between the trees down and the electric poles down. Yameka in that part, fully complicated to move around. Very narrow roads and all of the sudden, everybody between the people are trying to help. The people are trying to leave. 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 area of Yameka, 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 sending six hours before waiting for the helicopter. 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 helicopters are. The cars are waiting there. The helicopter lands. We fill up the cars. We start going into the communities. For first time is what we call first contact. But there we start meeting the local leaders. There can be a pastor, can be somebody that becomes an unlikely leader of his community. Yeah, yeah. And although the sun 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 so that you don't have an entity going one way? Okay. And these began happening hundreds of times a day. Before you know, we understand the real need. We are able to increase the number of meals. Yeah. Accordingly, and we will use every every possibility and resource in Kingston. We were buying from every bakery that was making the Yamek and Paris. Oh, yeah, the little Paris. The Paris, who are like the best, became the best way to start delivering food quick and fast. Yeah. Then we began moving. We saw which one are the restaurants closer to Grame Zero. The your chicken place, the other place that they 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 to 10,000? And we do the same with many other restaurants. We will open our own kitchens because we like to have also walls and drawings. Yeah. 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 Yameka imports food, but also they have a lot of arms. We make sure that also the guys that do all all the know how of importing distribution. We began ordering from them because we are telling them I know the country seems as 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 might happen. 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 a sudden, we are putting that very poor fishing village already up and running in the middle of the emergency. This is very much a wall center kitchen. You know when you're speaking, I was thinking to myself, there's a conversation I had with Rutka Bergman. 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 talks 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." 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 are 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 mean he said, "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. Oh, well there you go. Maybe this is it. I served in the. This is a person that 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'd 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 Sebastián del Cano, name after the first person that finished the circumnavigation of the Earth after Miguel and right away was his second incumbent." So the boat is a foremost tool ship that had 300 crew members and trains a midshipman of the Spanish Navy. He put me on the boat after my request. First time I left Europe, first time I visited Abidjan, Iberic coast and I had cajinó in the streets of Abidjan. First time I visited Rio de Janeiro and I remember visiting the favelas and the fascinating wall that opened on my first caipirinha and visit in Dominican Republic. That first caipirinha is something. Oh my god. Let me tell you something. Oh my god. That first caipirinha, it changes your life forever. I don't think there's a person on this planet who doesn't remember their first caipirinha. The sugar, the lime, the way it hits. There's something in a caipirinha. So fresh. There's something in that drink. Yeah, you're going to tell me. Cajasa. Cajasa to rule the world. I'm telling you. So Dominica, first time I came America and said, "Cola, one of the five flags, they celebrate the five flags." One of them, the Spanish, American flag, is like, "Okay, I belong here." New York, Ellis Island, Lady Liberty, that really marked me. But it really had a big effect on me. It 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, it was life changing in more ways than one. And obviously my mom was a nurse, my father was a nurse. I always saw we started during the pandemic. But I grew up in watching all these people that to me were like super heroes 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 then grew up in that environment, you know, Clara Barton, the founder of the Missing Soldiers that she found what happened to over 2000 soldiers during the Civil War and then created the American Red Cross. Her house, her apartment, used to be 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 knowledge. But she had such an impact 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, "Well, what 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 super dome. We left over a week, 20,000 Americans almost forgot them with no foot and water. And then Arena, my friend, is not a place where we go to see a great comedian perform or where we go to see our basketball team, when in a ring or where we go to see Taylor Swift. Now, on Arena, I said, "Yeah, I got to go to a restaurant that entertains with comedians, musicians and sports. It takes a second to fit everybody." That's why we're in Drogic and we use in many occasions in a lot of central places. A lot of big stadiums. Okay. Earthquakes, obviously, you need baseball because nobody wants to sleep in any place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we will use in earthquakes, baseball stadiums because it's not Rainer. It's the best. 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 provide the love services that is being on the floor and water. And we've done that. And then live you keep learning. You keep going through the punches and every situation in some moment that you live a remission with more experience than before. Obviously, for me, you know, in Jamaica on the second day because we began moving. It's a lot of moving pieces. And we had the big Chino, this huge helicopter. Yeah. And once you have six or 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 Bluefields. And then from there, they were supposed to be taking me to another town. Actually, was Montego Bay. But for some reason, they send the wrong coordinates. And we're landing in these. Look like a football stadium, a football field in the open, so run it by palm trees. Already was getting dark. We had to drop the food because we had to go back to base. Another reason I don't see any of the cars of Wilson-Dreccichen, they were supposed to be a meeting point. So people will help me download the four, five thousand meals and then this would 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. I need you all to organize. We're going to do the food. But please don't, don't come close to the helicopter. This is screaming in to the air. And the only way I got everybody kind of work as one is we began singing. One love. One. And everybody kind of come down. Let's get together. We got like 40 of the strong man. They help us download the helicopters. No, the helicopters. 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 crane chaos. The helicopter left, I stay there. And the people living in a tense situation, some of them hungry. And anyway, when it's eight coming, it 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 good will that drop in a big hand, giving food without thinking that people will start running and sometimes you have children. And then things happen. And you don't know those things until you're or knowing the middle of them, happening Bahamas where people were trying to live ava koan even more. with the military there. Sometimes the situation is tense when people they've been three, four, five days without knowing food, yeah. Food and what is happening and they want to live and 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 when 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's helping each other. Everybody's looking after each other. Nobody's pushing anybody anymore. Yeah. This is the dignity we need to be given to the people. And that's why for me, so it's so important that we arrive quick that we arrive first and that from the first second we show that it's somebody that are looking after them and that we will not live until things go back to normal days, weeks, or months from now. And this is what Walsh and Trogicin tries to do. And that's why for us, it's so important to be first now because we want to claim we're first. Yeah. Yeah. No. Because if we are if we are early, we understand better than anybody what happens. Yeah. And then every decision we make is a good decision and be helpful to the people. Don't go anyway 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 overpoliced and underpoliced, having police that clamp down on people's civil liberties, but then also not having police show up when they actually need them to show up. And the underpoliced 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 a thousand meals, then a hundred thousand meals, then a million meals, just you being there as soon as the disaster has happened has showed the people that they matter. But 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 you as Jose Andres have created this organization, you have many, 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 fisherman 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, and 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 the only administrations now. And I've not been lucky enough, but I can tell you the people care, USID, 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 USID that is one of the best ways for the United States of America, show the power of self, 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 about the sense. But the issue is that we all have the government we we deserve, but we all have to work towards to have the best government we can. What's in Turkish in X season away because government agencies is true that sometimes we come too big. Sometimes we come too big that then move very slow. In the 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 what I'm able to do. Yeah. From whore there's the water who pays for the water. Whore there's 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 thinking President Trump for activating that water. But then we realized that was almost 10 million dollar of water in a tarmac in an airport. No. Month later, then nobody, then nobody, the liberty had actually delivered that nobody delivered. So things get lost in translations sometimes. I've seen how we do MRAs, Mills Ray to it, which Mills Ray to it are a wonderful human invention, which are these mills that 100 years later the mills will be okay and you can eat them and nothing will happen to you. But they were great for soldiers in the battlefield going in away from anywhere they couldn't cook and they will have these packs and will be enough food for one, two, three, four, five days. We have these filling like we bring the the the the memories and we drop them and we claim we we have a million mills. But sometimes we drop them in the fire stations. Well, the the fire the the firemen the firemen are people to take care of rescues of stopping fires of of happy people in floodings. They're not the people to distribute to the be these two in the vote period and they shouldn't. Why? Because when he's a fire you say fire fires. When he's an earthquake you say you send certain rescue teams with dogs. When his 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 we're sentra kitchen. So I come here no, not so much to to show the weaknesses of the system in countries around the world. Yeah. But we come to support those systems. Because I know that inside the government is not people thinking about that because it's not people thinking like that. I remember in in in in in in Bahamas we did almost four and a half million mills. Sixteenth islands north of Nassau. We were landing in sixteen islands every day. Six helicopters, two hydroplanes. We even because there was no airport north we had a boat with two helipads because we had to refuel. We brought waters 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 of Bahamas and happens the president was there not like he has to know what Wilson Dr. Gitchin is or who was on the rest was but he was coming towards us and then he stopped. Hey, how are you? How are you? And I used to tell him I'm on the dress. This is the team of Wilson Dr. Gitchin and I promise you we're going to feed you people. Don't worry about food don't worry. 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 the 80,000 meals a day fairly quickly within multiple medical evocations. 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, she happens came to visit the United Nations and was a gathering of all the people of Bahamas and happens is the first time I live Bahamas and I'm here and they invite us to go and we are there in the back of Rome. I wanted to see what the president hope he will talk to his people. You become you want to become part of the story to when 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 becomes walking away from the mic and comes to where the Walsh and Dra. Gichin 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 Walsh and Dra. Gichin 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 Bahamas. 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, yeah, understand that. Because sometimes things are overwhelming happening in Acapulco. They were not even letting us go into Acapulco. It happens that we were already in because we had helicopter and we were landing in the golf course and was the military was doing okay job but the military don't have a 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 got wiped out and especially on 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 gaining enough awareness that we are okay and good at what we do, that we will have re-bright. What should be the emergency systems? That's a matter of what it is who regains the fires on the next practices on how to 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 and 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. When I think of governments trying to help, they're supposed to do it, but they'll often get bogged down. When I think of that $10 million worth of water that was supposed to go to Puerto Rico and they never leave the tarmac. I can't help but think about people who then go, but where's the water going? How do we know it's going to the right place? What if people are stealing this water? You see this everywhere in the world. Sometimes the argument against helping people is that the help won't necessarily get, or they'll be wastage, or somebody will steal. You seem to have this trust and a different type of attitude around the people, even in the story you talk about with the Jamaicans on the ground. You land in the wrong place, in a football field in Jamaica. You trust that you can get them to join your mission, even in the few moments that you've been with them. What do you think we should all be learning about how to trust people that we don't even know? It was 20, thank you, Hayby. I'm cooking there in a couple of places. Hundreds of thousands lost their homes. They're poor of the poor, lost their homes. And so was all these little villages that were being created, temporary housing. After that quick. 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. I make these huge pots with the help of local women of beans. At the end, with the help of the translator, they speak beautiful Creole there. 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 could burn them. I'm like, man, they couldn't tell me before. And there you have these two star Michelinchev. And they began singing and we began as much in the beans until we became a puree. But at the end, used to see the joy when the beans were finished. They sang a major traditional Haitian song, the process. And they were doing the poicon go on this black bean stew with the rice, the way they eat them, which is not soup, is not cream, is not sauce, is something else. But that's the way they eat the food. And this to me, obviously, we are was a big lesson because that's also the dignity we gave. That's a my hope for people. Maybe everybody has a way to eat. You see it when I go out and that's beautiful. It's people that like it more spicy people. This is spicy. It's people that I don't know, peel this rain right to level, left to right. And it's certain things that is used fast in heading. That's a mother who you are with money or no money. You can be a spora, a spore you may be. But that your poor doesn't mean you don't have the same dignity that anybody else you have. I used to think that you know, and I would watch growing up in South Africa. I would see all these videos of aid coming to Africa. And it would always be the military dropping giant crates, those pallets of random. Is it better shouldment? Yeah, you drop the pellets and then the people. And I genuinely remember saying this, but I would 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 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 the people needed it. And this is the next phase now. What's Andra Gichandas is not finding hunger. We are really pure emergency. Okay. When you're going for emergencies. No, like hunger is the emergency. But when something gets totally upside down, yeah, yeah, that immediately that's what we come. That's what we are effective. Warfoot program does can always get better, but does a is organization that does this job for long term hunger. Also, they do emergencies. But but but but they're good in the long term hunger. And that's what you and create it. Obviously for Warfoot program, but take a look. No, the issues we face today. The military spending average 2025 now 2226 is going to be to point five trillion dollars. 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 to many of the South. So it's to point to point five trillion. And we only need 80 billion to take care. And 80 billion of the two point five trillion roughly is under two percent of the military spending. That means that if every country in the world will only put no of their total budget to percent in a bank to percent 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 said in Haiti perfectly. I was very, very happy of the response of American to Haiti in 2010. But doing good is not enough. Doing good is what my friend Robert Egger, the founder of this is Central Kitchen told me over 30 years ago that charity seems is 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. If we have so much rice and food for free to Haiti. And really we gave a lot. So I'm proud as an American Europe. Friends gave a lot. But we have 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, what's in the kitchen was there also helping feeding them. These were some of those farmers that left Haiti because they went. 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. Yeah. Where they why they leave their home because they won't only feed their children. Anybody listens to that, you see that and 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 Haitians? Yeah. And can we give them maybe new equipment so they can 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 cows. So in the way we do international food aid dramatically has to change. I do believe that everybody 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 education in food, in health. And right now I'm very worried that at the end of 2020, '26, 2020, '27 we may have a very big hunger increase. 50 percent, 40 to 50 percent of all the fertilizers that the world uses to produce food, they go through the straight up for moves. That's that tiny little strip of water. There are a bite of the coast of Iran. So we're talking about gas. And when we think gas is what moves our cars, our planes, and our industry. But also is what moves creates the energy that moves the humans, which is the food we eat. 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 war is going to be creating two things. Probably a shortage in quantity of food, but also is going to be an increase in the cost of food because also to transport the food is coming more expensive. And at the end, who is going to suffer? You and I, even if the rise increases, and our sushi increases, and our beautiful quinoa 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 America, in many parts of the world, that increase of food that maybe 3, 4, 5, 6 percent, for the people with a lot of money equals absolutely nothing. Right, in the change, in the earn. 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 that created, "It's going to make the world hungrier, and it's going to make a lot of people poorer." That's why wars don't make any sense in any way of form, that's a mother, how you want to explain it. You know, it's interesting when you talk about, in particular, let's say the story of the Haitians, who were traveling over to the US, 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 to them, I'm like, "So why not invest in keeping everybody where they are?" 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 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." And I see you talking about the way you talk about it. So you guys are 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? Because everything interested from your perspective is thinking it's interior. Wait, number one, I always said that the precedents of the world meet a food, a national food security advisor. Oh, I like that. National food security advisor. And understand the food is much more than agriculture. In the United States, right now, big percentage close to half of the corn is produced. It's produced by no-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 a lot of the sudden, the USDA, the Secretary of Agriculture, in a way, it's also secretary of energy, but this has a lot of consequences. Surprise of energy goes up. I thought it was going to go up. The price of corn goes up. The price of meat is going to go up. But then it's deeper than that, right? In America, we have what they call the food stamps, is what it's called. 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 Oclano, 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. The Department of Urban and House in the Bulman 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. Yes. Okay, create a partnership with the government, support the private business, which everybody will agree, private businesses 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, and all of the standards that people 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 to create an employment, and then why you don't let the food stamps be used in the local food trucks and the local diners. Happens at those poor areas, don't have restaurants either. So if a mother is working two jobs, and 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 signs she's coming from work and she can use the food stamps to buy from the local food truck because she's too tired to go now on the dinner. All of the sudden, you're helping the mother to take care of the children. The mother, you have her be stronger, you need her full help because a mother we know has multiple jobs. When you are a working mother, you have more jobs than any man, Eva. And only seeing that money 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 always has the store, the self-fresh fruits and vegetables and has the food truck, and maybe a little diner that employs more people, all of the sudden that poor neighborhood with the same money that the government is throwing at the problem, the government is investing into the solution. You see, every 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 the 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 health costs. That we are paying every year to keep Americans on the wall healthier. Well, let's invest in the solution from the beginning. Let's not throw money at the problem at the end. So, governments are starting by United States, but every other government in the world, they need to start seeing food, until 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 in organizations like Worson Drugation and others, we are 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 self-fear than it is to self-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 hit this core 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 were saying that is, it feels like when you, 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 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 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 that, 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, it's what we put into whatever it is to, to, to, to, total employment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Basically sometimes it's not very good because then they say the rights per hour goes up and then all the economics. Yeah, the economists we all get lost. But the truth is that it's hard for a lot of industries to find workers. The unemployed, the undocumented, some people call it 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, John children that arrive when they 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're doctors, they're nurses, they're professors, they are business people, they are mothers and fathers, with already American born children, that they're 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 you being very red of such a good talented people that they are probably anybody walking across America, you're going to find dreamers 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 and 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 is 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 cattle, all of the sudden seems that those immigrants are coming through the border with no problem and people hire them because the business needs them and seems everybody is looking to the 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. 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 the part of the DNA of what America is. They're lady liberty themselves. It's 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. They want to provide for the families that are helping the American economy. People believe it or not. They pay taxes because many of them have W2s and I9s. 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 want 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 the humanizing that's human race. And these 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 we need. That's actually. And those undocumented, let me tell you, they are needed because right now you ask around is 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 quite frankly, not something America. Five, ten years from now will 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 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, I'm like between us, everyone would end up in one country. We're all going to Barcelona. Barcelona and the Amos, you know what I mean? It's like we're all there, we're almost. But no, some English people move to Spain, some Spanish people move to Italy, some Italians move, 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 US, 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 problem. We need revolving door visas. The people come, they cover the needs of the cotton farmers. Exactly. The farmers that they made the farmers or anything else they may do. And then when it's time to talk about home, they go about home. Yeah. They bring some of the savings that they made in America. They bring the know how that they learn in America. Yeah. 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 poor 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. Yeah. He wants to do that. And he keeps going back and makes that country and his down and his country better. This is the beautiful thing about immigration when you use it to solve problems. Right. 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 are around you are richer. In the process you are richer. Yeah. Two. Yeah. 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 wall has getting much better post wall work too. Of sure we have issues. Yeah. When we open commerce, when the nations began, you know, trading, wayhouse, ways to trade to, okay, no everybody can produce. Wait, no everybody can produce corn, everybody can produce. Okay, that's what tried to achieve. And the wall you want to target is better today. I was 70. Yeah. 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 to for me. Yeah. Okay, you sit in the table, you talk, you negotiate and you can move in forward. You don't become bullying everybody else because you think it's your right to bull. To be a bull. No, you do it talking. You do it, never shitting. You do it. What is good for me? Must be good for you too. Can not be me, me, me and only me. Well, when we go that way, the wall becomes not so safe anymore. Right. We need to, the only way I'm going to provide the wall where my daughter's will be okay once I'm no longer here. If he, if, if, 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 model of everybody. If I provide for my daughters is great, but if I provide for others at the same time, I know I'm living a wall 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. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) 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 an emotional whirlwind for me, because one day you're giving me fresh ham on that I don't know where you got it from, the most delicious, cured ham I've ever had in my life. And you're just like, "Drummer, you're gonna, "I'm not eating that, you're like, "today you're gonna eat it." 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 stopping you, how do you maintain your hope? Because you move from disaster to disaster. Because I believe he's more goodness than hating the world. What happened, goodness and goodwill, and the common good is very humble, and he doesn't have a big voice. He's very keeps doing, keeps working. Beautiful acts of kindness happens without nobody very often realizing. But when you see the wall, the wall 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 where it's wrong. But they only thrive, use bitching about what's wrong. And began blaming anybody away from what is wrong. And the wall is almost divided in these two types of people and seems the people of goodness with a self-boys, 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 he hates what has a big voice and screams. And with very short sentences, it's 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 7, Walson Dra. Kitchin was there in all the kibbutz and all the little villages feeding the people. And I had people, why are you there and helping Israel? Because it's the right thing to do. And because the people of Israel in this moment needs our help that day after we were inside Gaza. And I had people telling me, "And why are you in Gaza?" Why? Because the people of Gaza needs our help too. Not all Palestinians and all Arabs and Muslims were responsible for what happened on October 7. As I don't make every Israeli or every Jewish or what has happened in Gaza, that they cannot understand, hope, or say in Netayahu, 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 ask me, "But are you pro-Israel or 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, "Homaz, they suffer." And "Homaz, they suffer also, see in the suffering of the others." And if I don't tell you who they are, I'll tell you, "Is 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 I have the mic and seems to be 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 each 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 too. So I support you 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 who 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 with 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 wall are those three powerful words with the people, all the people, all the people. Not the way that we like, we, all the people. If we believe in that and we fight for that, the wall 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. But 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 we the people in the future has a trombin. You know, when you speak about this as passionately as you do, I can't help but think to myself in wonder, how does Jose undress the man find his solace and his stillness? 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. One of your three daughters, yeah. And one of the things I remember, I picked up was, and you correct me if I'm wrong, your wife felt next to you like the most solid, peaceful, celestial object a human can imagine. Patricia, yeah, jeez. 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 he's moving. But obviously she's been dead and so much more, right? Almost 33 years now. We married over 30 years ago, but we've been together 33. And obviously she's an amazing friend, amazing mother, an amazing wife, a 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 not a 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, 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 it 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 she went to Yemen. Yeah, and I remember being like, what life is it? 21. The passion that she had in and around this and the way your wife dealt with. I'd love to know like, how is 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 a friend's family friends are everything. Obviously I have a day work which is my restaurant which, yeah, yeah. I mean, we didn't, you see, if I could, I would, you know, they can't run properly without me, but they're better if I am around because everybody obviously with my teams and my parents want me around and I have joy running my restaurants and I'm in the chef I am, but then sometimes you feel gets in the middle of the other passion I have which is Wilson Tragicchen, 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 player than your football? Your football is good man. Your football is okay. I mean, anything that has a kitchen and pickles, I mean, I mean, if I don't perform, I'll really forget about it. But, you know, obviously I try to enjoy as I told you, beginning every single moment and it's important, but then you go moments of, for me, last two 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 Wilson Tragicchen or not and we were being hit by drones and People got injured or worse and they perished and there you began to see the realities of trying to be in the real world. In Gaza we got seven members of the World's Unrequited Nation. But then it was one of the, supposed to be a very safe mission. 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 who told me in a moment I was very sad about living, I need to live Ukraine. We need to live here. It's like that is how we are 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 you, Sofa. Or you can say well we want to change the world and improve the world. We are not going to do it from the Sofa or from New York, UN building. We are going to do it with people of the world, shows up and next to the people going through the mayhem of the world. And with boots on the ground is the only way you are going to be changing the world. So for me very often and 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, right. A big percentage of my life dedicated to it, I don't think anybody will blame anymore. But I don't do 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, I'm watching around me. I see that in the worst moments of humanity, the best of humanity always shows up. 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. You see that you have people there that they don't only take care of themselves and their loved ones, but that they take their personal responsibility and the shoulders of taking care of entire communities. Even when they have absolutely nothing, 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? 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 him. Yeah, but it's you helping him. Yeah, different covers, but it's you helping him in a mission and it's, but it's you. And 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'd like, I know we have to go, but just help me understand how did this come to me. I don't know, well, because they're wonderful people of marble, love food. They love walls and drag kitchen, I guess. They've been following us for a long time. It happened also with these comics. So in one year, in one year, I've been cooking with Superman and Aquaman and Wonder Woman and Flash, feeding Lionfish and fishing with Aquaman in a sea horse catching Lionfish to feed the people of the Caribbean. And now marble has put me next to a Spider-Man when my restaurant in Hudson Yards, Mercado Little Spain is under attack by Electro and all of the sudden Spider-Man shows up and I'm there alongside the Spider-Man 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 used from South by Southwest in Austin and they use the nouns and marble is putting me in a number in the fall with Avengers. So the one, I still to the moment I think they're doing a prank on me and they're going to do a very big ad-scene. This is the full that thought he could be in a comic with a Spider-Man. You know, life sometimes is about these little moments and these little dreams. But as you said, this is not, this is an homage to all the people that every single day when nobody's watching they wake up with the very simple idea of helping others. So even, yeah, I'm there with this Spider-Man. I think what marble wanted to do is 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'll be like, "cause 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 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 mommy and daddy feeding us. The first gift we receive in the form of a tangible is when we come to the vault and our mom brings us to her body or grandma or our father gives us baby bowl. The first gift is in the form of food. Mothers milk. I think our faith and our relationship with food is still on that magical, beautiful moment. And I have, I call it cookbooks too, and many of them are a center result. And one of them is from 1826 and is 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, Briette Sauron, in the first edition he then signed 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, nothing gets more powerful than that very simple thought that at the end, the way we, we love to live life. That's a matter of only if you eat hog, hog dogs like Peter Parker in the streets of New York. That's great. I love dog. And you should be proud of it. Food is something like really tells a story of who we are in powerful ways. And the same 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 on 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. And you realize that sometimes everything uses stars in a humble plate of food that you may have in a far away 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 conversations. I apologize. I just landed. I just landed. I get my point. But I have my own. No, no. I apologize. My new book is spain my way. I'm actually going to leave that for me. This is for you, but I don't think that's it. No, this is not even the reason. Yeah, because we are waiting. It's arriving by boat. Okay, I want it. But spain my way. I want it. I want it. One day I should go to Spain with that. I just want to go somewhere every year. Just somewhere. You'll invite me. You'll come back again. Jose Andres. Which has got to say, 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 with unlimited daily cash back on every purchase. And the ability to track your spending on your iPhone. Apple card helps you lead a healthier financial life. So you can stress less about money and focus more on enjoying life. And you know, that makes me think about something that I learned pretty early on in life. When I first started earning money, and I mean real money, not just the kind where you're doing like an odd job or hustling, I remember feeling the strange mix of excitement and pressure. Right? Because on the one hand, you're like, wow, I can finally buy things. And on the other hand, you realize, ooh, I can also mess this up. What do you do? It's your salary. It's your life. And then I remember someone once told me something and it's stuck. They said, money is not just about what you earn. It's about what you understand about what you earn. And at the time, I didn't fully get it. Because when you're younger, you think financial success is just more money. But then you start noticing something interesting. You meet people who earn a lot, but are constantly stressed. And then you meet people who earn less. But seem calm and in control like they understand where their money is going and That's when it clicked for me financial health isn't just about having money. It's about having clarity It's knowing what's coming in what's going out and not being surprised by your own life I remember the first time I could make a purchase that actually meant something to me and It's not just because of what it was but because I knew I could afford it without worrying about it afterwards That feeling that's different. It's not excitement. It's peace And I think that's what most people are chasing when it comes to money Not the biggest purchase not the flashiest thing Just the ability to make a decision and not carry stress with it because money stress is sneaky Doesn't show up when you when you're broke only no it shows up when things are unclear And once you start removing that uncertainty that's when everything changes you think differently You spend differently and you live differently and suddenly Money becomes something that supports your life Instead of something that sits in the background Worrying you so remember Apple card is good for your wallet. It's designed to support your financial well-being It's a no fee credit card that lets you track your spending on your iPhone Plus you can get unlimited daily cash back on every purchase stress less about money and focus more on enjoying life Apply for Apple card in the wallet app on your iPhone today subject to credit approval Apple card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City branch Variable APRs for Apple card range from 17.49% to 27.74% Based on credit worthiness rates as of January 1, 2026 Existing customers can view their variable APR in the wallet app or card apple dot com What now with Trevano is produced by day zero productions in partnership with Sirius XM The show is executive produced by Trevano Sanasi Amin and Jess Hackel Rebecca chain is our producer our development researcher is Mossea Robiou music mixing and mastering by Hanna's brown random other stuff by Ryan Hardwood. Thank you so much for listening join me next week for another episode of what now