For about a week, wildfires in Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties have threatened lives and destroyed properties across Southern California. As devastation spreads, Spanish Chef José Andrés has once again sprung into action. Though he’s not currently in California, he’s leading a team from afar to ensure that those displaced by the wildfires are taken care of. Andrés – who spent months providing hot meals to Puerto Ricans following Hurricane Maria – and his nonprofit, World Central Kitchen, partnered with LA Kitchen to deliver thousands of meals a day. The famed chef has used his social media to call for volunteers, which has even attracted the attention of other celebrity chefs, like Tom Colicchio.
By Saturday, the operation had expanded to include Downtown Ventura. “Grateful to our firefighters on the front lines,” his tweet said. “We are cooking hot meals in Downtown Ventura and are ready to serve you.”
Andrés, who became a US citizen in 2013, feels it is his duty to step up. “I always felt like I have to give back to America what America has given me,” he told Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes. “Chefs of America, we should be more outspoken about the way we are feeding America, not only about what I am feeding them in my restaurant or in the great restaurants of America,” he said. “It’s only one, two, or three percent of the Americans that eat in those restaurants. We should be more committed about the other 97 percent of Americans that don’t come to our restaurants. That should be what I hope one day, it will be my little contribution.”
This has guided him to distribute more than 2.2 million meals in Puerto Rico – a project that is still ongoing – and to now offer Californians that same sliver of hope.