My Conversation With Chef José Andrés!
Over cocktails and jamón Ibérico, Andrés discusses his work, how he relaxes, paella, and the wine everyone needs to drink more of.
As someone who has written about music, wine, food, business, and more over the last 25 years, I have had the pleasure of interviewing some incredibly smart, interesting people. From musicians like Brandi Carlile, Billy Corgan, and Nick Jonas to food and wine folks like Anthony Bourdain and Alex and Alison Sokol Blosser, and media personalities like Kara Swisher, these are just a few.
So when I got an invitation to a party at Pigtail, the intimate cocktail bar below Spanish restaurant Jaleo in Chicago’s River North, and was told the owner would be in town, I of course said yes. I hoped to meet him, shake his hand, and tell him how much I admire his work.
When the opportunity to sit down with the owner arose, I jumped at it. You may have heard his name over the last few years. Yes, he’s one of the world’s most-acclaimed chefs, with 30-plus restaurants in D.C., Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and The Bahamas. He has James Beard awards. Michelin stars. And was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People.” His organization, World Central Kitchen, has served millions of meals to people in humanitarian-crisis zones from Haiti to Ukraine to Turkey.
I am, of course, talking about José Andrés. And during a conversation over cocktails and jamón Ibérico an hour before the party, we discussed how he continues to stay creative, what he does to relax (it doesn’t sound very relaxing, if I’m being honest), his favorite meal to prepare for friends and family, the Spanish wine he thinks more people need to be drinking, and more.
In conversation with José Andrés
José, it's a pleasure to meet you. Your work is incredible from your restaurants to your humanitarian work, so thank you for all that you do. We're sitting downstairs at Pigtail, underneath Jaleo. You're launching a new spring cocktail menu or more of a refresh. What's on it that really excites you?
JA: Probably right now, we have the Nantucket bay scallops, which they're in season now. I love those and we make them in different ways. We love these in Spain and they are delicacies. So you'll see them in different ways: with the sofrito, raw, usually with garlic and parsley. But that's one of the ingredients, that sometimes an ingredient to me is more important than the dish. A dish can cover up all the ingredients that sometimes they are so-so, but the ingredient cannot cover up for himself.
And what about the cocktails? A lot of the cocktails here are done with some sort of a pork fat wash. So whether it's consommé or Ibérico ham fat, what does adding the pork fat do for a cocktail?
JA: In the old days I would have a consommé in Spain and we would put in a little bit of sherry. I love sherry. And that alcohol came when it was warm, that was a consomme, that was a cocktail.
And you put that together?
JA: It's all proportions, right? It's not precisely what we're doing now, but the question is what if we do more of this type of oxtails or chicken or beef or pork consommés that then they have a liquid? That the alcohol, without evaporating completely, you are getting all the amazing smells, but with less you do more.
So it adds warmth, it adds heft. How do you continue to innovate with new dishes and drinks like this? Where do you find your inspiration?
JA: At my company and this restaurant group, we have a lot of people that take the time to come up with new things. Sometimes people don't want new things. They just want consistency and what they like. In the old days at Jaleo, every time I changed a restaurant, a recipe or I took a recipe out because I didn't like it or because I thought we could do better, I would get letters to the editor of the Washington Post, at that level.
It's anarchy.
JA: That’s great, but at the same time, it's like, hey, if you want that dish, open your own restaurant [laughs]. But it feels good that people get attached to some flavors and some dishes and that they're not very happy if you move them out of the menu. So change is great, but some people would argue with me that change is no good.
[A server comes to the table with two vibrant cocktails with a lemon twist.]
What's in this one?
Server: This one is Ford's gin, it's a dry London gin, and amontillado sherry, honey, sesame, and ginger.
Beautiful.
JA: I thought you didn't want any cocktails.
I changed my mind. I mean, somebody put it in front of me [laughs]. I'm not going to pass up drinking a cocktail with you!
JA: Yeah, that's why I'm here for.
I appreciate that! So obviously, you travel all the time. You're all over the place. How do you relax when you're not feeding the world and working in your restaurants?
JA: Sometimes it's hard to relax when you know the world … I'm a guy that sees the world in a very positive way, but we are having housing issues and homeless issues and maybe some families are having a hard time. So you ask me, "How do you relax?" Well, it's not like I'm fixing any of those, because I don't dedicate myself full time to those. But yes, I'm a person trying to have a voice like others. I relax by making sure things are better, which sometimes you could argue that's a stress.
A little bit.
JA: But do I take time off like everybody else? Totally. My big pleasure is … I'm 53 and I could disappear tomorrow for a year. My restaurants will be better or worse. Probably they will be better, because the people who make them happen are not me, but amazing people. Therefore, I could afford to do that.
Where would you go if you were to disappear for a year?
JA: Maybe to Ukraine.
It’s not a very relaxing place these days.
JA: Well, it's relaxing in a way. You see people making change by doing whatever they can to survive one more day. But for me, I mean, my stress sometimes is my way to relax. What I try to do over the years is just control my stress. So I don't put that stress on the shoulders of everybody else. I think I'm becoming a better Jedi, I am learning how to do that better over the years. Because in the end, no, we are not engineered the same way. Myself, you ask me how I relax, I relax making sure things are okay. Because if things are not okay, it's very hard to relax.
I can imagine it adds stress for you. On that note, with World Central Kitchen and you mentioned Ukraine and wanting to help people, how can more chefs aid your on the ground efforts?
JA: It's more than chefs. It's writers, it's maître d's, it's restaurant owners, it's food company owners or food company warehouse guys. The food family is a very big family. It's a very generous community. When a restaurant gives a gift certificate, this is not zero cost. Somebody's paying for it. The owners, somebody's giving time. When a restaurant gives a certificate, and America gives hundreds of millions of gift certificates, the people who work in those restaurants donate hundreds of millions of hours to charities, to soup kitchens. Not only in food related issues, but can be any other issue.
It's a special community for sure.
JA: It’s not much more I can be asking for. They are always showing up. And that's one thing I'm always trying to be aware about, what everybody's doing. And I never worry, because I know the restaurant community is always involved. If you take a look, who is making it happen is the locals. And then far away, in Chicago, we got a ton of chefs that showed up in Poland. Sometimes without even calling you, they show up, because they knew we were there. And those are the best ones.They show up and they start cooking one hour later.
That’s beautiful. It's an incredible organization. OK, now I have some quick fire questions. What's your favorite meal to share when you have friends or family over at your house? What do you like to cook?
JA: I don't cook the same way twice. But if there’s one dish I go back to is paella. Which is one of the dishes next to pizza probably that has been highly bastardized. But myself, probably, I'm part of the problem too, because I never cook one rice. If we follow the people of Valencia, paella is only one. It’s paella with chicken, rabbit, and green beans, and nobody can move the people of Valencia from that. And they have the right to claim that. Even I couldn't argue that paella can be anything else — that uses the rice of Spain and follows the parameters and the technique of cooking in a very big paella pan. So that's something I do often. My father did it with me and now I do it with my daughters.
That's great. I love that tradition. What's your go-to drink either for yourself or to serve people?
JA: I like cava from Barcelona. I love Champagne. But I'm a big white wine guy and especially great chardonnay. I love sauvignon blanc if it is from New Zealand or the Southern hemisphere. I like white. Red, I usually never like to drink it with meat, with meals. I like to make my reds be the main course.
Do you have a specific wine, either red or white now, that you are really into or a region that you're loving?
JA: I think the next big grape is mencía. From El Bierzo in Spain. Some of my best friends make wine there. Even I have a vested interest in one of the wineries. My friend Alvaro Palacios makes a heck of a good mencía, and Raul Perez makes a heck of a good mencía, and other people. I think mencía is this amazing grape that still, even in Spain, more people need to discover and even in America even more. I think mencía is a highly likable grape that's in this place, no man's land, uniting Galicia with the rest of Spain or Spain with the rest or Galicia. They've been producing wine there since before Roman times. And it's a great region to visit on top of that. Mencía and then godello on the white side, which is Galicia, moving away from Alberiño, are the two grapes that the world needs to know. But listen, I just came from Moldova, and I was amazed by the wines of Moldova, which actually is one of the most fertile lands to grow wines. I met the owners of this winery called Et Cetera.
All indigenous grapes?
JA: All grapes I cannot even pronounce! Some Ukrainian wines that people slowly will get to like. Paul Hobbs has an Armenian wine that I also cannot pronounce the grape.
Those sound really cool. Wine from that part of the world is really starting to get discovered.
JA: I love these regions that they are, but not because they are known. It's fascinating when you discover something that you never knew.
Absolutely. I just had a Palestinian wine for the first time the other day. I didn't know they made wine in Palestine.
JA: Israel has good wines.
Israel's got amazing wine. When you're in Chicago, what are your favorite restaurants here, other than your own. What are some places you really enjoy going to?
JA: Well, my partners from Bazaar, the Gibsons Group, the Lombardo family. They're amazing. They're great at hospitality. But typically [in Chicago], so many, right? I mean, I opened Jaleo across from one of the first restaurants I ever ate in Chicago almost 30 years ago, Topolobampo. Rick [Bayless] is a good friend. Over the years, I met many, many people here. I remember the days of Tru with [Rick] Tromonto. I miss the days of my good friend, Charlie Trotter. Who else have I met? My God, so long ago, it's crazy. The Paul Kahans of the world, which has always been amazing every time. And it's very difficult, no, because Chicago has always been one of the top, I would say three, four cities in America. It's always been very talented people, very talented chefs. In more ways than one, right? Old talent, young talent. Talent in between. Like Grant Achatz. Talented. I was very honored that he did this kind of retrospective on my food. And I was not even able to come. Grant has been a joy to see shine and go through hardships, personal hardships later and still be there. That's a story for the years. And then obviously, more mom and pop. I mean, so many restaurants, I'm blocked right now in my brain. I try to go to as many as I can. I used to go to more restaurants before, when I was younger.
That's what happens when you get the Time 100 — everybody wants a piece of you! I could sit and keep talking to you and drinking and eating, but I appreciate this time. Thank you so much, truly.
SG LIST:
Today’s list is all things España!
SG Substack: Longer Tables With José Andrés
If you want to go deeper into the mind of José, check out his substack newsletter. I love the concept of building longer tables where we can bring more people together to eat, talk, and share what makes us different — instead of building higher walls that keep us apart. In addition to recipes and musings on favorite foods, José shares conversations with folks like former Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki and three Michelin star chef Dominique Crenn.
SG Wine: Bodegas Raul Perez
José Andrés said we need to drink more mencía wine and said Raul Perez is making some of the best so go order some and start drinking.
SG Snack: Crunchy Quicos
We had dinner with friends the other night and these were part of the appetizer spread (along with castelvetrano olives, my faves!). Once I started eating these, I couldn’t stop!
SG Tinned Fish: La Brújula Conservas
Conservas, fresh seafood that gets conserved just after being caught and processed as fresh as possible into tin cans, has long been a part of Spanish and Portuguese culture. They’ve become trendy in the U.S. in the last five or so years and this is a fantastic brand. I love the mussels and tuna and Drew uses the sardines when he makes pasta con le sarde.
SG Aperitif: Lustau Vermut Rosé
La hora de vermut, or vermouth hour, is big in Spain and is something I’ve really come to appreciate. Pouring some Spanish vermut blanco over ice and topping it off with soda water is super refreshing. I also love using this rosé that way but adding it to a cocktail, like a Manhattan, adds a lovely brightness with just a hint of bitterness.
SG Music: Rosalía “Despachá”
One of the biggest stars to come out of Spain in the last few years, Rosalía has burst onto the world scene. This is her most streamed song on Spotify. She’s going to have probably one of the best sets at Coachella.