José Andrés: Spanish-American celebrity chef behind restaurants like Bazaar Meat and é by José Andrés, and founder of World Central Kitchen, a disaster-relief food NGO. A two-Michelin-star chef turned humanitarian who has fed people in war zones and natural disasters worldwide.
What this episode covers
José Andrés and Joe Rogan have a warm, philosophical conversation that uses food as a lens on nearly everything. They cover the art and power of feeding people, the failures of traditional education, the loss of their mutual friend Anthony Bourdain, and the importance of checking on loved ones. The talk ranges across aliens and disclosure, ancient civilizations and cataclysms, global food security and the fragility of the food supply, and the politics of nutrition (SNAP, Michelle Obama's Let's Move, and RFK Jr.). Andrés shares stories of cooking paella over open fire with his father, sending paella to the space station, and his immigrant journey from the Spanish Navy to American citizenship. He closes describing World Central Kitchen's work in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, North Carolina, and the LA fires.
Recommended on this episode
No Reservations
Anthony Bourdain
“I didn't realize it was an art form until I started watching Anthony Bourdain's show. No Reservations, the original one on the Travel Channel.”— Joe Rogan
Craftsteak
Tom Colicchio
“Tom Kio the chef. Yeah that's the one we've been to at MG. Oh, that one's great. Yeah, that one's great.”— Joe Rogan
Cleaver
Cleaver
“Cleaver is great. That's not been I should go. Very good. Very good.”— José Andrés
Franklin Barbecue
Aaron Franklin
“one of the first places again was Franklin's. And Franklin's is incredible. And listen, all the time, the hours, the precise temperature.”— José Andrés
Terry Black's Barbecue
Terry Black's
“You ever seen the beef ribs at Terry Blacks. Terry Blacks have beef ribs that look like they came from a prehistoric animal. Big massive juicy beef ribs.”— Joe Rogan
The guest's own work
Change the Recipe
José Andrés
“I have this new book. This is another commercial, Change the Recipe, which I'm touring right now.”— José Andrés
Vegetables Unleashed
José Andrés
“the good thing is I have a vegetarian cookbook do you vegetables and leash okay I love vegetables”— José Andrés
Bazaar Meat by José Andrés
José Andrés
“you know Bazar I opened uh first one oh my god over 15 years ago in LA in in this hotel amazing hotel SLS by Philipe Stark”— José Andrés
Mercado Little Spain
José Andrés
“I opened Marcado Little Spain which was bringing a little a bigger piece of Spain to New York to Manhattan 200 meters away from the same place I arrived”— José Andrés
Chef's Table
Netflix
“I just had this documentary on the last season of Chef Table on Netflix where I am one of the four chefs”— José Andrés
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
The Physiology of Taste
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
“one guy called Briata 1826 ... I own a first edition of this book. I bought it when I was very young.”— José Andrés
Hannibal
NBC
“do you know I help to the script writers and the director of a series on NBC called Hannibal many years ago”— José Andrés
Independence Day
Roland Emmerich
“You remember what was the movie independence day. If they are the bad guys, you and I, you will be doing jujitsu against an alien species”— José Andrés
Big reveals from this episode
- José admits he was fired from his own restaurant roughly three times for being too creative and bad with numbers.
- Both Joe and José open up emotionally about losing Anthony Bourdain to suicide and the haunting feeling they could have helped.
- Joe relays physicist Hal Puthoff's claim the US holds 10 retrieved non-human craft and considered UFO disclosure under the Bush administration in 2004.
- José reveals he sent paella to the International Space Station via Axiom in 2016-2017 and nearly caused chaos with floating rice grains.
- Both discuss that humanity may only have roughly 90-120 days of global food supply, framing it as a national security issue.
- José says he 100% supports RFK Jr.'s push to make America healthier despite disagreeing with him on vaccines.
- José describes World Central Kitchen scaling to half a million meals a day in Ukraine and running bakeries in Gaza.
Worth remembering
- Bazaar opened in LA over 15 years ago in the SLS hotel designed by Philippe Starck.
- Anthony Bourdain didn't start jiu-jitsu until age 58 and got so obsessed he entered tournaments and trained twice a day.
- An engineer named Jim Sears designed a centrifuge kitchen using up to 14 G to cook food in space by forcing ingredients to the sides.
- Japan keeps national rice reserves and has released them to stabilize prices during shortages, similar to fuel reserves.
- China has only 7% of the world's farmland but 15% of its population, driving overseas land and port investments.
- José notes a modern gas station can stock 25,000 calories of snacks where his childhood gas station sold none.
- DC Central Kitchen, founded by Robert Egger, started by collecting untouched food from Bush's inauguration parties and now serves 15-20,000 meals a day.
- José jokes that ham is technically vegan because the pigs eat acorns, sparking a circular vegetarian-logic debate.
- José claims a 30-40 second microwave omelette made with one egg whisked with a spoon of mayo is the best omelette in history.
- Joe cites a claim that 70% of restaurants in Los Angeles went under during the pandemic.