An ecumenical cook, Jose Andres (JA), who this year received, at the renovated Campoamor Theater, the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord, faced his speech, joking: “With a culin of cider this would be easier & rdquor ;.
It was a useful intervention, bluntly: “I believe that there is a better way for the world if we understand the power of food. This award is not just for me, but I share it with people who feed the hungry and uplift communities through the power of food & rdquor ;.
Escorted with a personal reflection: “As a volunteer, I realized that voiceless and faceless people don’t want our alms, they want our respect and their dignity. And that’s the power of a plate of food. “
Prophet in his land (Mieres, 1969), the philanthropic chef shared the award with an NGO, World Central Kitchen (WCK), which he founded in 2010 and has since providing food to victims in food and social emergencies – volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires – that are happening without pause in the world.
Using an attentive heiress as a witness, he made a deliberate declaration of principles: “I am proud to be Asturian, Catalan, Spanish and American at the same time. I feel like an immigrant from the world, building bridges and understanding that the world needs Longer tables where food can serve to unite us and no higher walls that separate us. “
During the pandemic, JA organized the distribution of food in Madrid, Barcelona, Soria, Segovia, Seville and Bilbao. And he recalled that those immigrants, “whom many do not want & rdquor ;, have made it possible to have food on the table, because they are the ones who, working in the fields, loaded trucks or brought snacks to residences.
Fed up with ‘speeches and empty words’, the cook unloaded evidence: “You cannot make lectures on hunger without inviting anyone who is hungry. Getting to the point: “We have to stop wasting 40% of the food we produce & rdquor ;. And specifying the profits: “If we provide healthy meals to our children and adults on a daily basis, it will improve health and save money. We can bring stability and peace to different parts of the world, but only if we make sure that families have food on the table. “
The son of nurses, he proudly recounted that he saw how his parents went beyond the limits of duty to care for others. “Voiceless and faceless people, those people who look like shadows in the mist, need people to take care of them.”
And continuing with the things to live and eat, he announced that his part of the prize (50,000 euros) will be donated for the victims of the volcanic eruption on the Canary Island, where he feeds between 1,500 and 2,500 people daily: “My heart, as I know that of all of you is there, it is with the people of La Palma, who should not be forgotten at this time. We will continue to be there next to the people, until they do not need us & rdquor ;.
Committed to doubling the amount of the award, both for his part and for his wife, to whom he dedicated the award: “I was not going to do it, but I have to do it (…) I love you very much, Patricia. This is so much yours as mine “.
He came to the United States thirty years ago, aboard the Juan Sebastián Elcano where he was doing ‘the military’, as a kitchen assistant, and decided to settle there. Before becoming an entrepreneur (now the owner of more than twenty restaurants), at the end of the eighties he was a disciple, at El Bulli, of Ferran Adrià, “who was not satisfied with anything, he was a transgressor and he wondered why everything & rdquor; . Together they have opened in New York: ‘Mercado Little Spain’, 3,200 square meters of the Spain brand.
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A fervent reader of Steinbeck, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ marked his life: “Wherever there is a struggle to feed the hungry, there I will be”; He ended his insightful argument by paraphrasing the French jurist and philosopher Brillat-Savarin, writer of the first treatise on gastronomy, ‘Physiology of Taste’ (1825), who was already conditioning the future for the world to eat better, dWhere food is the solution and not the problem. “The fate of our nation depends on how we feed our most vulnerable citizens during crises.”
While the ‘orbayu’ rose without temperance, already inside the winch, he sighed: “Oricios y cidra & mldr; Long live Asturias! & Rdquor ;.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com