Celebrity chef Jose Andres sidestepped red tape to bring aid to Gaza
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MADRID – Celebrity chef Jose Andres’ disdain for red tape is one of the reasons his food charity found itself coordinating the humanitarian effort in Gaza when seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli air strike.
The aid workers for World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed
WCK began moving food aid to starving people in northern Gaza in March via a maritime corridor from Cyprus, in collaboration with the Spanish charity Open Arms.
It acted after Israel refused to let the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, deliver food
Mr Oscar Camps, director of Open Arms, said in an interview with Reuters that the maritime route between Cyprus and Gaza had been open since Dec 20, but no organisation had used it.
They constructed a makeshift jetty from rubble and unloaded the aid just metres away from bombardments amid warnings from Israel that it could not guarantee their security, he said.
Mr Andres, who is Spanish and American, said on social media platform X that he decided to get involved in the maritime aid delivery after an invitation from the Cypriot government, hoping other aid providers would follow suit.
He said on March 26 that 67 WCK kitchens were operating in Gaza, feeding 350,000 people a day. Operations are now suspended following the Israeli air strike on the WCK convoy.
Earlier in the conflict, WCK had partnered with restaurants and hospitals in Israel to feed people displaced or injured in the Oct 7 attack,
Mr Andres said on April 2 that he was heartbroken and grieving for the families and friends of the seven WCK workers killed in the Israeli air strike.
The seven killed were citizens of Australia, Britain and Poland, as well as Palestinians and a dual citizen of the US and Canada.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Mr Andres to express his condolences.
Mr Biden also told Mr Andres he would make clear to Israel that aid workers must be protected, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing.
'Adaptive'
WCK was founded by Mr Andres in 2010 after he travelled to Haiti to provide aid following an earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people. The non-governmental agency has fast become one of the leading providers of emergency aid at scenes of natural disaster or human conflict.
The agency describes itself as “first to the front lines”, using an “entrepreneurial and adaptive” approach to “err on the side of feeding people expediently versus asking for permission or following systems and bureaucracy that lack urgency and flexibility”.
“When others are assessing the situation, we are already feeding and in the process we learn what is going on, not the other way around,” Mr Andres told the Spanish-language edition of Vanity Fair in a recent interview.
A Palestinian man cycling past a damaged vehicle where employees from World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli air strike.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The charity says it entered Ukraine five days after Russia’s invasion in February 2022
Born in 1969 in a coal mining town in Spain’s northern Asturias region, Mr Andres worked as an apprentice at chef Ferran Adria’s experimental El Bulli restaurant near Barcelona before moving in 1991 to the US, where he set up the tapas restaurant Jaleo.
His company ThinkFoodGroup now owns more than 20 restaurants, including one that has two Michelin stars.
He has cultivated relationships with some of the US’ most powerful people, receiving a US$100 million (S$135 million) donation from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2021 and striking up a rapport with former US president Barack Obama.
Mr Obama’s government in 2014 named him an “Outstanding American by Choice”, an award given to naturalised US citizens who have achieved extraordinary things, and followed up with the National Humanities Medal in 2015.
His relationship with Mr Obama’s White House successor, Donald Trump, was less cordial.
The Spaniard cancelled plans for a restaurant in Trump’s Washington hotel over comments the then-presidential candidate made about Mexicans, calling them “rapists” and “murderers”.
Trump sued Mr Andres for breach of contract, and the two reached a settlement in 2017. REUTERS
