José Andrés: The man who created an army of culinary first responders

Before chef José Andrés became famous for World Central Kitchen, he had already scaled the heights of his profession. His new cookbook celebrates the group's humanitarian impact.

"I this Spanish guy screaming," said chef-volunteer Karla Hoyos, describing the first time she met chef José Andrés. "He had just come from a meeting with FEMA [the US emergency management agency], and he was furious. And I thought, 'Oh, no, no, nooo…'." She shakes her head emphatically. "I am not going to deal with this person. I don't care who he is."

It was September 2017, shortly after Hoyos had arrived in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, the deadly storm that devastated the island, killing nearly 3,000 people, making most roads imable and knocking out 80% of the power grid. Several days earlier, Andrés had touched down with a team from his non-profit, World Central Kitchen (WCK), which he founded in 2010 after returning from Haiti where he fed survivors of a catastrophic earthquake. The organisation originally emphasised longer-term programmes – such as ing nutritional training for young mothers – but after Maria, its efforts now focus on deploying an army of culinary first responders to feed people during and after the world's worst disasters, natural or otherwise.

As Andrés absorbed the enormity of the challenge facing Puerto Rico, he began calling in the troops, asking chef friends and others to pitch in. At the time, Puerto Rico was still under curfew, so the WCK team was working from 04:00 until about 20:00, and each day ended with a debrief led by Andrés at a hotel, one of only two open properties on the island.

Hoyos recalls the questions he asked. "How can we do better? How can we feed more people? Are we feeding them fruit? Healthy food">window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'alternating-thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article', placement: 'Below Article', target_type: 'mix' });