February 24, 2023 • 15 mins
Hours after the earthquake that flattened parts of Turkey and Syria, celebrity chef and founder of World Central Kitchen, José Andrés turned up in Istanbul. Since then, he’s been driving to the worst-hit areas, collaborating with local restaurants to feed quake survivors. They are currently serving more than 260,000 meals a day. Andres talks to us from Turkey about why he rushes to the frontlines of crises, and the power of sharing a plate with a stranger.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi, they and welcome to this episode of Out of Office.
I'm your host Malika Kapool. Today we take you to
Turkey for a conversation with celebrity chef Jose Andreas, who's
working with local chefs and restaurants to serve hot meals
to communities impacted by the earthquake. He says they're providing
more than two hundred and sixty thousand meals a day.
(00:27):
The chef, who is also the founder of World Central Kitchen,
often rushes to the front lines of a crisis. A
few months ago, he was in Ukraine, in Puerto Rico
after Hurricane Maria, in Beirut after an explosion ripped through
the city, in Australia after the bushfires. He arrived in
Istanbul just a few hours after the devastating earthquake rocked
(00:49):
Turkey in Syria. Nothing beats having boots on the ground,
he says, to make an immediate difference, and in this instance,
that difference comes in the form of a hot meal.
It's nourishing, comforting and a sign that someone cares. Chef
Jose Andrea spoke to me while he was driving to Adiyaman,
(01:09):
a town affected by the earthquake. On his way there,
he spoke to me about the mission of World Central Kitchen,
being inspired by Gandhi and the power of sharing a
plate with a stranger listening. So, Chef, thank you so
much for joining me and out of office. How long
(01:31):
have you been in Turkey? Now? Myself I will here
from I think I landed sixteen hours after the earthquake,
so right after within hours. Can you describe the scenes
you saw once you reach Turkey. I landed team in
is Tamboula. From there, I went to Adana. That was
(01:52):
the closest place to all these major earthquake. I saw
chaos in the airport. It's so chaos because those people living,
people coming, engels, another organizations trying to come specifically, so
(02:13):
our teams search and rescue that in the early hours
of an earthquake. We all know it's the most important
thing we have to start doing. This is an earthquake
for the ideas and the destruction is something like I
don't think people can really imagine event seeing the images
on TV. Can you tell us a little bit about
(02:34):
your operation there. I know you're working with a network
of local chefs. How many people are you working with?
How many meals are you being able to provide? Well?
Like always, when we start making one contact run before
we even open our own teaching any restaurant, maybe at peace,
(02:57):
and we start feeling and very quickly we'll go up.
I think on the third day we were doing ninety
thousand meals a day. I would say that the Turkish
people are very handsome. This is a community, a civilization
that has food very rooted in their DNA, and they
(03:20):
love food and food, this friendship and food, this family.
And with that, I want to say that for me,
it was amazing to see how random people that came
from all over Turkey in the back of the cars,
they wouldn't stop anywhere anywhere that there was a fire,
a fire that was warming families, families that were warm
(03:42):
as they were waiting for the chance for the luck
that some news of their loved ones that they were
found under the rubble. At the same time, those people
that they know each other will be feeding those people
waiting for them news of the loved one be found
(04:04):
and start feeding those families. So we start feeling simply
the star teams that after working for long hours under
the gold, they will need a hearty warm milk to
fill their soul and their spirit. When you distribute food
to these people who have been affected by the earthquake, survivors,
(04:27):
people who have been displaced, people who haven't had a
warm meal in days, perhaps, what's the reaction like from
the community and from the people you're feeding well in
a very Turkish fashion, everyone sometimes cooking from the back
(04:50):
of the truck that at that moment is serving as
their only home, because people are afraid to be homes.
People have a hard time going inside the building when
they saw so many hundreds of buildings falling down only
with little aftershocks after the two major earthquake. Expect to back,
(05:11):
and very often when you go, you will always be
given something back. People will offer you child no matter where,
people will offer you a smile. The other day I
was in Hattie, one of the hardest probably is the
hardest hit area of Old Turkey, and there was this
(05:31):
family that they were kind of under underneath what will
be their garage, a family of one little boy, three
little girls, the husband, the wife, the grandfather, and they
were doing there in a little fire that served as
(05:53):
the kitchen but also as the place that they they
got warm. They were put in these kind of kebabs
burger kebabs on a little pen, and before feiting themselves,
they were given that to us. And this is fascinating.
This is the generosity of the Turkish people that even
(06:16):
in their harder's hour, you're looking after foreigners. That's incredible.
I mean, you see such devastation, but you also see
the best of humanity in situations like this. Yeah, and
this is reality I'm saying every day here obviously in Turkey,
everybody will give a jacket to somebody that is not
(06:39):
as warm as they are. Everybody will give a right
to somebody. Everybody will, we will share a bed. I've been.
I've been sharing beds and rooms here in different cities
with no hotels. You see, in these moments, no nobody
looks for their well being. Everybody only looks to do
(07:00):
the best they can, to do something to provide relief.
You know, you said you're providing upwards of two hundred
and fifty thousand meals a day. How is this being funded? Well,
Like always, we I don't know, because I see myself
like one more volunteer. You can call me volunteer in chief.
(07:20):
I call it myself more the whisperer, the whisperer in chief.
But it's great to see how the teams are able
to come another to the situation. Obviously, we've always been
very good in social media, not because we want joeoff,
only because people want to know. Because people see in
(07:41):
real time what we do. Is how we always are
able to finance. People see that we have boots on
the ground, People see that we solve problems in real time,
and used with this simple this simple approach is high
support Walsen Dugitchen and is how by the vast majority
(08:06):
of the Donald of Walzen Drugichien. I would say our
very small, our very small Donald. We have some mind
foundations that give us more, but I will say they
success oble Centerbchen is that everyday people in America around
the world see the effort we do and they you
support us with small donatues and at the end usually
(08:28):
is enough to support this kind of mission. I think
you've really hit on something quite powerful there, because social
media allows you to be very transparent about where people's
donations are going. Otherwise, sometimes when people donate to large organizations,
there's no transparency and there's a worry about funds being
(08:49):
misused like we've seen with some large charitable organizations. Well,
this is obviously an issue, and as Walson Drugitchen is
well in big we had very big events in the
last three years. We had COVID, we had Ukraine and
now we have a Turkey. UM. But I think people
(09:12):
put their trust in Bolsonder kitchen. They see that what
we say we do, we do, that what we say
we cooked, we cooked, and that's why people kind of
believe that they are there with us, even in the distance.
Obviously was in the kitchen, and I hope my role
(09:34):
as a founder for the years to come will be
to make sure that we keep keep our values as
when we began. We always say that we are nothing special.
We only start cooking and start feeding. You're in Turkey now,
you were in Ukraine a few months ago. You've been
(09:55):
to several disaster zones. Um. You've fed the whole island
after Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico. You've fed people who
were pushed out of their homes after the wildfires in
California in Australia. Personally, you see so much trauma up
close personally, how do you how does that affect you?
(10:16):
And how do you cope with the trauma of what
your what you see. So I'm okay, I have I
have good friends, obviously, my wife, my mind, my family
that look after me. You know, I will not tell
you that I go to my hotel roman night I
(10:37):
don't have tear or two more out of Sometimes I
feel powerless, you feel like you could do more, or
you feel like you're going to the confert of your
hotel and its people that are going to viosly be
in a very cold night and without showers and without
bad But for me, it's always been the people that
(11:02):
work without a more important the people going through the trial.
I want to understand why this is so important to
you to feed as many vulnerable people as you can.
You're a celebrity chef, you have a business, a thriving
restaurant business. Why is this so important to you? I
(11:22):
don't know. What I know is that there is enough
money in the world to a hunger, but but we
don't make an I do believe there maybe a many
food in the world to make sure nobody goes hungry,
but we have hungry people. I do believe there should
(11:44):
be enough money in the world to make sure that
nobody is homeless. I do believe it's enough A smart
people are there to come up with solutions to make
sure everybody has a job. I do believe it's enough
brain power in the world to make sure that we
don't have a wall where we have handry children and
(12:08):
a handry woman, a handry communities. Let's talk about the
power of food to comfort people, the power of food
to bring people together. On your Twitter handle, you say,
if you are lost, share a plate of food with
a stranger, you will find who you are. Can you
elaborate on that? And have you shared a plate of
(12:30):
food with a stranger? And what has that meant to
you and to the stranger. I share a lot plenterefood
with a stranger. I remember one time I was in
for a prince. I start talking to this guys and
had some English. I had zero Creole, but the guy
may he spoke French and Greol and some in English.
(12:53):
And at the end he took me to his neighborhood,
a neighborhood that was created homes but there was no
bricks on mortar were homes that they were very very basic,
but that they had all the warmth and we went
in and we had We had an amazing meal. I
(13:17):
remember they had real this is amazing work that they
love to boil and they would fry that orange has
a different had peppers and black peppers. And in that
moment eating with that gentleman, we were able to talk.
We were able to talk about life and what happened
to live, well, how much money he makes, like his
(13:38):
job is random at sometimes life is difficult, he said,
will be nice that life could be My life could
be like yours. I I think you know what's happening
with your life. Me Sometimes I go day today and
I'm praying that tomorrow I would have money to buy
a plate of food and eat. And in moments like
(13:59):
this is and you see yourselves in a way that
you don't imagine because you could be him. You could
be him and the ones we have and the ones
we create. Our own problems sometimes and there are nothing
compared to adis all the people are going through. And
(14:21):
that's why it's important sometimes to have a meal with
a stranger, especially somebody that even if you think your
life is hard, is there people that their life is
much harder than you're and it still they seem to
wake up every morning with a smile and with a
willingness to try to make something happen for them, for
(14:43):
the children, for the community. Thank you so much for
speaking with me today. Well, good luck with your efforts,
and thank you for doing what you're doing. It's absolutely
amazing that was Chef Rosy Andrews speaking to me from Turkey.
I'm sure you're as moved and as inspired as I am,
(15:04):
and he's left me thinking about the power of food
to nourish, to comfort and to heal. I'm Aleika Kapoor.
This episode of Out of Office was produced by Yajo's son.
As always, stay well and thank you for listening.
Hi, they and welcome to this episode of Out of Office.
I'm your host Malika Kapool. Today we take you to
Turkey for a conversation with celebrity chef Jose Andreas, who's
working with local chefs and restaurants to serve hot meals
to communities impacted by the earthquake. He says they're providing
more than two hundred and sixty thousand meals a day.
(00:27):
The chef, who is also the founder of World Central Kitchen,
often rushes to the front lines of a crisis. A
few months ago, he was in Ukraine, in Puerto Rico
after Hurricane Maria, in Beirut after an explosion ripped through
the city, in Australia after the bushfires. He arrived in
Istanbul just a few hours after the devastating earthquake rocked
(00:49):
Turkey in Syria. Nothing beats having boots on the ground,
he says, to make an immediate difference, and in this instance,
that difference comes in the form of a hot meal.
It's nourishing, comforting and a sign that someone cares. Chef
Jose Andrea spoke to me while he was driving to Adiyaman,
(01:09):
a town affected by the earthquake. On his way there,
he spoke to me about the mission of World Central Kitchen,
being inspired by Gandhi and the power of sharing a
plate with a stranger listening. So, Chef, thank you so
much for joining me and out of office. How long
(01:31):
have you been in Turkey? Now? Myself I will here
from I think I landed sixteen hours after the earthquake,
so right after within hours. Can you describe the scenes
you saw once you reach Turkey. I landed team in
is Tamboula. From there, I went to Adana. That was
(01:52):
the closest place to all these major earthquake. I saw
chaos in the airport. It's so chaos because those people living,
people coming, engels, another organizations trying to come specifically, so
(02:13):
our teams search and rescue that in the early hours
of an earthquake. We all know it's the most important
thing we have to start doing. This is an earthquake
for the ideas and the destruction is something like I
don't think people can really imagine event seeing the images
on TV. Can you tell us a little bit about
(02:34):
your operation there. I know you're working with a network
of local chefs. How many people are you working with?
How many meals are you being able to provide? Well?
Like always, when we start making one contact run before
we even open our own teaching any restaurant, maybe at peace,
(02:57):
and we start feeling and very quickly we'll go up.
I think on the third day we were doing ninety
thousand meals a day. I would say that the Turkish
people are very handsome. This is a community, a civilization
that has food very rooted in their DNA, and they
(03:20):
love food and food, this friendship and food, this family.
And with that, I want to say that for me,
it was amazing to see how random people that came
from all over Turkey in the back of the cars,
they wouldn't stop anywhere anywhere that there was a fire,
a fire that was warming families, families that were warm
(03:42):
as they were waiting for the chance for the luck
that some news of their loved ones that they were
found under the rubble. At the same time, those people
that they know each other will be feeding those people
waiting for them news of the loved one be found
(04:04):
and start feeding those families. So we start feeling simply
the star teams that after working for long hours under
the gold, they will need a hearty warm milk to
fill their soul and their spirit. When you distribute food
to these people who have been affected by the earthquake, survivors,
(04:27):
people who have been displaced, people who haven't had a
warm meal in days, perhaps, what's the reaction like from
the community and from the people you're feeding well in
a very Turkish fashion, everyone sometimes cooking from the back
(04:50):
of the truck that at that moment is serving as
their only home, because people are afraid to be homes.
People have a hard time going inside the building when
they saw so many hundreds of buildings falling down only
with little aftershocks after the two major earthquake. Expect to back,
(05:11):
and very often when you go, you will always be
given something back. People will offer you child no matter where,
people will offer you a smile. The other day I
was in Hattie, one of the hardest probably is the
hardest hit area of Old Turkey, and there was this
(05:31):
family that they were kind of under underneath what will
be their garage, a family of one little boy, three
little girls, the husband, the wife, the grandfather, and they
were doing there in a little fire that served as
(05:53):
the kitchen but also as the place that they they
got warm. They were put in these kind of kebabs
burger kebabs on a little pen, and before feiting themselves,
they were given that to us. And this is fascinating.
This is the generosity of the Turkish people that even
(06:16):
in their harder's hour, you're looking after foreigners. That's incredible.
I mean, you see such devastation, but you also see
the best of humanity in situations like this. Yeah, and
this is reality I'm saying every day here obviously in Turkey,
everybody will give a jacket to somebody that is not
(06:39):
as warm as they are. Everybody will give a right
to somebody. Everybody will, we will share a bed. I've been.
I've been sharing beds and rooms here in different cities
with no hotels. You see, in these moments, no nobody
looks for their well being. Everybody only looks to do
(07:00):
the best they can, to do something to provide relief.
You know, you said you're providing upwards of two hundred
and fifty thousand meals a day. How is this being funded? Well,
Like always, we I don't know, because I see myself
like one more volunteer. You can call me volunteer in chief.
(07:20):
I call it myself more the whisperer, the whisperer in chief.
But it's great to see how the teams are able
to come another to the situation. Obviously, we've always been
very good in social media, not because we want joeoff,
only because people want to know. Because people see in
(07:41):
real time what we do. Is how we always are
able to finance. People see that we have boots on
the ground, People see that we solve problems in real time,
and used with this simple this simple approach is high
support Walsen Dugitchen and is how by the vast majority
(08:06):
of the Donald of Walzen Drugichien. I would say our
very small, our very small Donald. We have some mind
foundations that give us more, but I will say they
success oble Centerbchen is that everyday people in America around
the world see the effort we do and they you
support us with small donatues and at the end usually
(08:28):
is enough to support this kind of mission. I think
you've really hit on something quite powerful there, because social
media allows you to be very transparent about where people's
donations are going. Otherwise, sometimes when people donate to large organizations,
there's no transparency and there's a worry about funds being
(08:49):
misused like we've seen with some large charitable organizations. Well,
this is obviously an issue, and as Walson Drugitchen is
well in big we had very big events in the
last three years. We had COVID, we had Ukraine and
now we have a Turkey. UM. But I think people
(09:12):
put their trust in Bolsonder kitchen. They see that what
we say we do, we do, that what we say
we cooked, we cooked, and that's why people kind of
believe that they are there with us, even in the distance.
Obviously was in the kitchen, and I hope my role
(09:34):
as a founder for the years to come will be
to make sure that we keep keep our values as
when we began. We always say that we are nothing special.
We only start cooking and start feeding. You're in Turkey now,
you were in Ukraine a few months ago. You've been
(09:55):
to several disaster zones. Um. You've fed the whole island
after Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico. You've fed people who
were pushed out of their homes after the wildfires in
California in Australia. Personally, you see so much trauma up
close personally, how do you how does that affect you?
(10:16):
And how do you cope with the trauma of what
your what you see. So I'm okay, I have I
have good friends, obviously, my wife, my mind, my family
that look after me. You know, I will not tell
you that I go to my hotel roman night I
(10:37):
don't have tear or two more out of Sometimes I
feel powerless, you feel like you could do more, or
you feel like you're going to the confert of your
hotel and its people that are going to viosly be
in a very cold night and without showers and without
bad But for me, it's always been the people that
(11:02):
work without a more important the people going through the trial.
I want to understand why this is so important to
you to feed as many vulnerable people as you can.
You're a celebrity chef, you have a business, a thriving
restaurant business. Why is this so important to you? I
(11:22):
don't know. What I know is that there is enough
money in the world to a hunger, but but we
don't make an I do believe there maybe a many
food in the world to make sure nobody goes hungry,
but we have hungry people. I do believe there should
(11:44):
be enough money in the world to make sure that
nobody is homeless. I do believe it's enough A smart
people are there to come up with solutions to make
sure everybody has a job. I do believe it's enough
brain power in the world to make sure that we
don't have a wall where we have handry children and
(12:08):
a handry woman, a handry communities. Let's talk about the
power of food to comfort people, the power of food
to bring people together. On your Twitter handle, you say,
if you are lost, share a plate of food with
a stranger, you will find who you are. Can you
elaborate on that? And have you shared a plate of
(12:30):
food with a stranger? And what has that meant to
you and to the stranger. I share a lot plenterefood
with a stranger. I remember one time I was in
for a prince. I start talking to this guys and
had some English. I had zero Creole, but the guy
may he spoke French and Greol and some in English.
(12:53):
And at the end he took me to his neighborhood,
a neighborhood that was created homes but there was no
bricks on mortar were homes that they were very very basic,
but that they had all the warmth and we went
in and we had We had an amazing meal. I
(13:17):
remember they had real this is amazing work that they
love to boil and they would fry that orange has
a different had peppers and black peppers. And in that
moment eating with that gentleman, we were able to talk.
We were able to talk about life and what happened
to live, well, how much money he makes, like his
(13:38):
job is random at sometimes life is difficult, he said,
will be nice that life could be My life could
be like yours. I I think you know what's happening
with your life. Me Sometimes I go day today and
I'm praying that tomorrow I would have money to buy
a plate of food and eat. And in moments like
(13:59):
this is and you see yourselves in a way that
you don't imagine because you could be him. You could
be him and the ones we have and the ones
we create. Our own problems sometimes and there are nothing
compared to adis all the people are going through. And
(14:21):
that's why it's important sometimes to have a meal with
a stranger, especially somebody that even if you think your
life is hard, is there people that their life is
much harder than you're and it still they seem to
wake up every morning with a smile and with a
willingness to try to make something happen for them, for
(14:43):
the children, for the community. Thank you so much for
speaking with me today. Well, good luck with your efforts,
and thank you for doing what you're doing. It's absolutely
amazing that was Chef Rosy Andrews speaking to me from Turkey.
I'm sure you're as moved and as inspired as I am,
(15:04):
and he's left me thinking about the power of food
to nourish, to comfort and to heal. I'm Aleika Kapoor.
This episode of Out of Office was produced by Yajo's son.
As always, stay well and thank you for listening.
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