If the encyclopedia had to illustrate the concept of “a man of principles” surely that of the chef José Andrés would be one of the faces that would be shuffled to accompany the concept. This was demonstrated in 2014 when he withdrew from a gastronomic project at the Trump International Hotel of Donald Trump, then a candidate for the presidency of the United States, when he despised the Hispanic community and called Mexican immigrants “rapists and drug addicts”. The thing escalated and they ended up filing cross lawsuits, Trump demanding nine million dollars and José Andrés, now the first cook sued by a president of the United States, asked Trump eight million. The lawyers finally reached an agreement and here peace and then glory.
José Andrés, the last Princess of Asturias Award for Concord for his humanitarian work at the head of the NGO World Central Kitchen and his commitment during the coronavirus pandemic, amasses a personal fortune valued at around 50 million dollars, because apart from his work social and humanitarian, the Asturian chef has a true gastronomic empire in the United States that includes around 30 gastronomic projects such as Bazaar Meat, Somni, America Eats Tavern, Mercado Little Spain, China Poblano, The Bazaar, Jaleo, Fish, Pepe, and Ovations by America Eats.
Born in Mierés, Asturias, in 1969, he is the creator of Think Food Group, a gastronomic empire that began in 1993 with its first restaurant, Jaleo, in Washington DC, introducing a concept as Spanish as tapas in the United States. . The José Andrés label employs about 1,700 people and spans Washington, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Florida, Dorado, Puerto Rico, Frisco … And in 2018 it had a turnover of 130 million euros, the year Time magazine included it in his list of the 100 most influential people of the year. Likewise, the Wealthy Gorilla website ranks him as the twelfth richest chef in the world in 2021.
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Its success is not the product of chance, but of a long career of continuous training and commitment to innovative projects. When he left high school, his father enrolled him in the Barcelona School of Catering and Hospitality, combining his studies with working as a girl in a fish restaurant. At the end of his compulsory military service in the United States aboard the Juan Sebastián Elcano School ship, he went to work on the Bulli, training under the wing of Ferran Adrià. Finally, in 1991 he returned to New York as a chef at Paradis Barcelona.
José Andrés has anticipated that the second half of 2021 will be one of great growth for his company, opening, in Chicago alone, five restaurants, three of them in association with Gibsons Restaurant Group in the new Bank of America tower, plus the fifth location in Jaleo , which will have a clandestine air located in the basement. Openings at the newly opened Ritz-Carlton New York in NoMad and in Dubai will arrive later in the year.
Apart from his work in restaurants, José Andrés has had a long career as a television personality that began with his stage in the program Vamos a Cocinar de TVE, which lasted from 2005 to 2008. In the United States he has participated in programs related to the cook as The Taste, Iron Chef America, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, or more recently in the first chapter of the Netflix series Waffles + Mochi alongside former First Lady Michelle Obama. The chef also earns credits from the many cookery and culinary culture books he has signed. He can also boast of having brought cooking to Harvard and George Washington universities, with his courses on food and culture. And in 2019, together with the Adrià brothers, he opened the Little Spain market in New York, a 3,200-square-meter food hall with a multitude of proposals where, in addition to eating and drinking, you can buy products from other cultures, especially Spanish.
