The Chef Who Turned Food Into a Foreign Policy (José Andrés, global)

Quick answer: How does José Andrés's World Central Kitchen respond to disasters?

World Central Kitchen, founded by chef José Andrés, sends professional cooks, uses local kitchens, suppliers, and volunteers, and starts feeding people immediately. After Hurricane Maria, from September 2017 to June 2018, it served over 3.7 million meals in Puerto Rico from 25 kitchens with over 20,000 volunteers.

World Central Kitchen's origin story isn't a board meeting. It's a pot of beans after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. José Andrés was cooking in a camp when Haitians told him, through a translator, that they didn't eat beans like that. “I'm a star Michelin chef,” he remembered thinking, “and they don't like my beans.” They showed him: mashed and sieved into a creamy sauce. You can arrive with skill, John writes, and still be the one who needs to learn first. Andrés runs disaster feeding like a trade: if you need medical care, you bring doctors; if you need to feed people, you bring professional chefs. That means speed, local kitchens and cooks, food people want, and paperwork later. After Hurricane Maria, WCK served over 3.7 million meals in Puerto Rico. A hot meal in a blackout is stability. In Gaza, on April 2, 2024, seven WCK team members were killed in an Israeli strike. Speed, John says, is a moral choice where delay has a body count.

Why it matters for leaders: Build a “first kitchen” plan: know where you'll go, who you'll call, and what you can do before any committee meets.

Q: What happened with the beans in Haiti?

A: After the 2010 earthquake, Haitians told Andrés they didn't eat beans his way and showed him how: mashed and sieved into a creamy sauce.

Q: What happened to WCK in Gaza?

A: On April 2, 2024, seven WCK team members were killed in an Israeli strike while traveling in marked vehicles in a deconflicted zone.

Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/the-chef-who-turned-food-into-a-foreign

By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation