It is impossible to capture the essence of José Andrés, one of America’s leading culinary lights, in a few words.
Why?
Andrés is a man on a mission—actually, many missions if you go by the number of people working for him, the frequency of phone calls and emails, and the continual stream of folks vying for his attention.
Besides, he is passionate—possibly obsessed—about developing and cooking the world’s most over-the-top food.
“My food speaks to you,” he says, “but are you willing to listen?”
Glancing into his test kitchen gives you an inkling of what this man is about: food. Well-equipped and decorated with photos of some of his more memorable creations, it’s where Andrés comes up with some of his zanier dishes, like his signature Cotton Candy Foie Gras served at his minibar in Café Atlántico.
However, his food is not just experimental: José Andrés is, first and foremost, one of the world’s most outspoken and zealous supporters of Spanish cooking, his native cuisine. In fact, Andrés returned recently from acting as chairman of a three-day Culinary Institute of America event at its California branch at Greystone at which 800 participants (120 were food experts from Spain) listened and learned about traditional and avante garde Spanish cooking. “I was selling Spain,” he says.
Who better than Andrés to lead such an event, for he came to the kitchen in his childhood home in the town of Mieres in the province of Asturias, Spain. “My mother and father cooked, so my passion started then,” he says. Apparently, Andrés tended the family’s paellas as a beginning cooking task.
As a teenager, Andrés studied cooking more formally, and after several apprenticeships, he worked with Master Chef Ferrán Adriá—a man whom Andrés still regards as his mentor—of the three-star Spanish restaurant El Bulli.
After arriving in the US in 1990, he worked for several years in New York City before moving to Washington, DC, where he opened his first tapas restaurant, Jaleo, on 7th St., NW.
“The tapas concept belongs to a lot of people, but I put my mark on this restaurant,” he says. “Jaleo represents my food memories from childhood to the present.”
After that success, the rest, of course, goes down in the history books: Andrés now owns—and often cooks for—three Jaleos (in DC, Maryland, and Virginia); Café Atlántico (in DC) with its experimental minibar; Zaytinya (in DC) for Greek and Mediterranean tapas; and Oyamel (moving from Virginia to DC), noted for its stunning Mexican food.
Meet the chef
Q What is your favorite cuisine?
A Spanish cuisine is the only cuisine. That’s my chauvinistic side. But I like a good plate of oysters at Kinkead’s or the Old Ebbitt Grill. I like anything Japanese. Mexican. And the best tomatoes grow in San Torini, Greece They give an explosion of flavor in the mouth.
Q What is your comfort food?
A The ones I have never tasted. I would like to be a Roman and eat a flamingo’s tongue. They are a huge delicacy. I get bored repeating dishes twice. I would like to eat the aroma of truffles, it’s more philosophical. Or good caviar, a good sardine.
Q How do you spend your leisure time?
A What is it? Time off shouldn’t be. It’s a terrible way of seeing life. There should be a place where everyone is enjoying everything all the time. The world would be a healthier, better world. Live at the fullest.
Q What about the mini bar?
A It’s unique to Washington, though it could really work anywhere. The avante garde part of me is not understood by all. But I do this for my own enjoyment. A chef must do things to please himself, and be as nutty as he wants to be. As for me, food is the light bulb of flavor. You open your mouth and think you are tasting light.
