VINT CERF: And I welcome
you here to Google DC.
This is a very, very
special treat.
It is food for the mind and
later food for the rest of us.
One thing I will say is that
you've just proved my favorite
theorem, number 208, if you
feed them, they'll come.
And here you are.
I can't imagine anyone
in this room doesn't
already know Jose Andres.
He is one of the most visible
of the denizens of DC that I
can think of.
But I wanted to give you just
a little hint about his
background.
He worked with one of the most
creative chefs in the world,
Ferran Adria, at one of the most
famous restaurants in the
world, elBulli, a couple of
hours north of Barcelona.
And, from that very experimental
and exploratory
environment, has developed a
whole philosophy behind food,
and its preparation, and
its consumption.
This man has more energy
than any three
16-year-olds I've ever met.
He is everywhere at once.
He's just back from
South Africa.
And of course, very
excited about--
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
VINT CERF: Yes, Yes!
You can imagine the excitement
with the Spanish win of the
World Championship.
If you haven't seen this,
you need to see it.
There are 26 episodes
called Made in Spain
that he did with PBS.
And instead of just sitting
behind the counter and showing
you how to cook, he went
to the places where the
ingredients come from.
Talked to the people that either
raise them, or farm
them, or get them.
And then show you what to do.
So it's worth the time to go
and explore Made in Spain.
We have some questions that
have already been asked.
I'm not going to go
to those just yet.
I want to actually start out by
asking Jose to give us some
sense for what is it, Jose,
that has made you so
fascinated with playing
with food?
Because that's kind
of what you do.
I've never seen anybody play
with food in more creative
ways than you do, but where
did that come from?
JOSE ANDRES: Wow!
That's the first question?
VINT CERF: That's the
first question.
That's right.
JOSE ANDRES: Thank you very
much, first, for inviting me.
And thank you, all of
you, for coming.
Hopefully, you'll leave from
here thinking that it was
worth your time.
At least we're going to try.
VINT CERF: If they leave early,
you'll know it wasn't.
JOSE ANDRES: So I don't know
what you think when you have
an apple and you kind of bite
into the apple, right?
But me, I think very often, all
the time, people tell me,
wow, Jose, you eat very quick.
And actually I'm thinking,
well, I think
you eat very slow.
But I don't like to
criticize people,
so I don't say anything.
So I eat very quick because
I cannot wait to keep
introducing different flavors,
aromas, sensations, textures
into my mouth that I can
experience something.
So I'm quick because quickness
means more knowledge.
This thing that you can be
smelling the wine for an hour,
and you can smell better than
a guy that does it quickly,
it's false.
Think about it.
The perfume of your wife, the
first two seconds is great.
The next 20, you're going to be
smelling the perfume of the
other woman next to you.
Because the one of your wife,
already you cannot smell
anymore because your nose
is not any deeper.
So eating is that, smelling,
textures, flavors.
I wish I remember that moment
that my mother was feeding me
for the first time.
'Cause this is like a sacred
moment like no other, and
probably is why we are bound to
food in a sacred way that
we cannot understand.
Unfortunately, we don't
remember that moment.
You know, of--
[LAUGHTER]
JOSE ANDRES: But it had to be
an unbelievable moment.
One day, probably, babies will
be smart the day they're born.
And then 20 years later,
you'll remember.
We probably will not see this
for many thousands of years.
Evolution will make it happen.
And then those babies
will remember the
first drop of milk.
That's where we are going.
VINT CERF: So I think the guys
are probably all trying to
relive that moment with some
frequency, I suspect.
JOSE ANDRES: It's a magical
moment, had to be, had to be.
VINT CERF: So let me argue
a little bit about that.
On the wine question, it's true
if the wine is ready to
drink, that first
smell is enough.
But what if it isn't?
And you have to keep
working on it until
it's breathed enough?
And the only way you can figure
that out is to smell it
and taste it for awhile.
So there.
JOSE ANDRES: Yes, you are.
But in the way I sense,
I believe it.
Me, I get bored very quickly.
That's why I try to
do so many things.
And something I already
know is kind of no
fun anymore, right?
At least in food.
Other thing is human
relationships.
Human relationship is not one
day, you meet your wife.
Hi, how beautiful you are.
You get married, and you don't
see her ever again.
No.
Human relationships, for the
record, is something that you
have to keep going through even
if sometimes it seems
monotonous.
But with eating, it's a
completely different
relationship.
VINT CERF: It's a good thing
we're videotaping this, so
[? Patricia ?]
can see that.
That's a very good
affirmation.
JOSE ANDRES: So your argument,
you that love wine, and you
are a great wine--
VINT CERF: I drink
a lot, that's it.
JOSE ANDRES: --wine expert.
I didn't say you drink
a lot, I said you are
a great wine drinker.
VINT CERF: I know.
JOSE ANDRES: It's different.
VINT CERF: Is there
a difference?
JOSE ANDRES: For the record.
So me, one smell, one drop, when
I drink it, I experience
it, I want to open
the next bottle.
VINT CERF: When you say you eat
quickly, does that mean
you eat a lot as a result?
JOSE ANDRES: Well, if we are
getting into the obesity
issue, which we should
probably--
in my job, what I did the
other day, for you to
understand, we had a meat
tasting, Iberico meat.
Fresh Iberico meat, very good.
It's a black pig from Spain.
Eats acorns the last three
months of their lives.
If they knew that after the
three months they're not going
to be alive anymore, probably
they wouldn't
be eating the acorns.
But those acorns transform that
meat into something very
special, very unique,
very fatty.
So we had in Washington
Iberico meat tasting.
It's the first time that we
got different parts of the
fresh pork from Spain
into the States.
I was going through
a week of liquids.
You know what I mean?
I do this.
And I ate, but I put out
the meat every time.
Why I did that?
Because I wanted to eat 20
different parts of the meat.
And I don't know if you-- who
eats steak around here?
VINT CERF: Everybody, right?
JOSE ANDRES: Come on, people.
VINT CERF: These are all
meat-atarians I think.
JOSE ANDRES: When you put a
piece of the best meat you
ever had, think for a second.
The first five seconds
are great.
The meat is like a
sponge, full of
liquids and full of flavor.
And once you bite into it and
you take all the liquids out,
for the next 20 minutes,
you cannot talk with
anyone, which is boring.
Because you are like--
VINT CERF: So do you
see what's happen--
JOSE ANDRES: --trying to
smash everything, so
you can put it in.
I hate those 20 seconds.
I hate them.
That you cannot understand
how.
If you are on Google, you can
press the Arrow backwards, and
you go back to the page,
and you keep searching.
But with a piece of meat,
you cannot do that.
VINT CERF: So do you see
what's happening here?
One of the things that I find
so fascinating about Jose's
philosophy is that he wants us
to experience, wants us to
experience food, not
simply eat it.
And experience it in every sense
of the word, the taste,
the aromas, the textures, the
view, and everything else.
And that's what leads me to
one other question I have.
You seem to have become very
fascinated by the chemistry of
the kitchen.
You're the only person that
I have ever heard of that
believes that cooking doesn't
mean heating, but it might
mean freezing, as in
liquid nitrogen.
What's going on there?
You have this really deep
understanding or appreciation
for chemistry and its
interactions.
We're going to experience
something later
tonight, are we not?
With the olives?
JOSE ANDRES: Yes.
I'm a guy, like many chefs, I
kind of began cooking, first,
because I like it.
But second, because I was not
very good for anything else.
So you have to be careful when
you talk about that because it
seems you are telling the
young kids, don't go to
school, go work, because it
is going to be better.
But actually that's not
what I'm saying.
Actually, it's that the way I
was taught, the way I was
learning was not fun for me.
Used to be in the classroom,
listening to the teacher.
Ooof, it was so boring.
I didn't want to hear
about Marco Polo.
I wanted to be with
Marco Polo.
And if we understand that this
should be the teaching of the
future, the way of teaching,
wow, we are going to have kids
who are going to be so
much smarter, no?
So, going back to the liquid
nitrogen, it goes down to
being very lucky in Washington,
being with people
from NIH, with many friends
that, it happens, are
scientists, with people, like
you that know anything about
everything.
I'm trying to be a sponge
of anything that
is there to be learned.
Not only at the pure culinary
level, how to grab a knife,
how to fry, or how to make an
ice cream, or how to make a
hollandaise.
But trying to go away from the
cooking parameters, as we
understand them.
And try to see what other people
do in their fields, so
you can bring them to yours.
I think one of the things we've
seen in cooking is that
finally we left the kitchen,
and we went
to the outside world.
And this has been great
because we've
been bringing so much.
So liquid nitrogen, today, many
food critics criticize.
It's like, what?
I never see you criticizing a
microwave. And that's weird.
And now we have microwaves
in every home, right?
Or actually think
for a second.
We take ice for granted.
But it's still, to me, when I
open my freezer and I see that
I have frozen water there,
I feel fascinated by it.
Think for a second.
How many of you put a bottle of
beer in the freezer in the
last few years?
Come on, beer drinkers.
VINT CERF: The question
is for how long.
JOSE ANDRES: How many of you,
when you took that bottle out
of the freezer that you kind
of forgot longer that you
wanted, found that the beer
still was kind of liquid?
And then the moment you move
it up and you open, you saw
that the beer kind of completely
froze itself.
How many of you saw
that moment?
Probably you didn't say anything
because you thought,
if I say something they're
going to think I'm crazy.
But what we're talking is about
supercooling, right?
And supercooling is like
almost if you have the
molecules there of the beer that
they are taking a nap,
and they didn't realize that
they've been frozen, that the
temperature went under the
freezing point, yes?
But all of a sudden, you
move the beer, and
the molecules awake.
And they say, what happened?
Who waked me up?
And they see one of you, whoo,
who is this ugly guy?
And the molecules say, oh my
god, I'm supposed to be
frozen, and I'm here
still liquid.
This is not possible.
I'm almost wrecking
all the physical
rules of the universe.
And then boom, the
bottle freezes.
VINT CERF: You know, this is
the best explanation for
Boyle's Law that I have ever
heard in my entire life.
I really appreciate that.
JOSE ANDRES: So there a simple
change in temperature.
And then some scientist that
knows a lot about supercooling
can allow a chef like me and
many others to come up with a
drink that you apply
supercooling to
make a brand new dish.
I'm not a scientist.
We don't try to be.
We don't want to be.
Our brain is not even
smart enough to be.
But maybe we are smart enough to
use the brains of those who
know better.
So we were talking about
freezing temperature of syrup.
You mentioned liquid nitrogen.
Can we see one dish that, only
using almonds and cheese and
liquid nitrogen, but the same
almonds and cheese that you
have at home, we are able to
make something that, with
almost minimal handling, is
a completely new thing?
And using liquid nitrogen, 196
degrees minus Celsius.
VINT CERF: So this is
like a phase change.
Obviously, we all know about
that, ice, water, and gas.
But to have food experience a
phase change is something I
never thought of before.
And that's exactly what you
seem to have described.
Do we have a picture of it?
JOSE ANDRES: Can we
put the video?
VINT CERF: Can we get
a picture of that?
JOSE ANDRES: Laura?
You have my videos?
Who has the videos?
Ah, here they are.
Ladies and gentlemen, almonds
and blue cheese.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
JOSE ANDRES: Spanish
blue cheese.
If I was promoting American
cheese, it would
be Wisconsin cheese.
If I was promoting Italian--
So here we get almonds,
and we fry them.
Everyone can do that.
Here we add, it's a new
ingredient called H2O.
That's kind of weird lately.
And we blend them.
And then we're going to
freeze that blend
of almonds and water.
And we are going to
use this machine,
it's called a Pacojet.
We are able to get a piece
of ice and create a
sorbet or an ice cream.
So what we did is almost getting
that paste of almond.
OK, now it's very pure,
very buttery.
We add some cream.
And we use a blender,
and we have a
cream of almonds, liquid.
Liquid nitrogen.
We're not going to get, now,
into the process of how we
make it, of how people
make liquid nitrogen.
So we get the ladle.
Take a look when we put a breath
of air, gets it moist
in the air and freezes.
So we introduce the ladle
in the liquid almond--
VINT CERF: Oh, this
is so cool.
JOSE ANDRES: And then
we put it back
into the liquid nitrogen.
And use the change of
temperature is going to make
the liquid almond that
is frozen now
separate from the ladle.
All of a sudden, something that
was liquid has changed
completely its texture,
its form.
Actually almond itself
is asking, what is
happening to me?
So here we make this
beautiful--
you know these will be done with
flour and pastry, right?
We don't need that anymore.
Almonds themselves become
the pastry.
And here again, cream
and cheese.
And we're going to blend it.
And this is a great technique,
using nitrous oxide.
We are able to make mousses
immediately.
This one is with cream because
the fat allows us
to put the air in.
But we can make mousses also
only using water, which is a
breakthrough.
So we fill the mousse
into the cup.
Passion fruit.
Grated almonds.
Ladies and gentlemen,
almonds and cheese.
VINT CERF: That's absolutely
incredible, absolutely
incredible.
So there's another chemical
thing that you
might explain to us.
It's what you do when you take
the pits out of the olives and
puree the olives?
And reconstruct them.
Chemically, what's
going on there?
JOSE ANDRES: Well, this
is a technique--
you mentioned Ferran Adria.
If still you don't know
who this guy is,
I don't know what--
are you waiting to go to Google
and find out about him?
Because probably he's not only
the best chef in the 20th
century, but probably is one of
the most forward-thinking
minds ever.
That's a matter to
[UNINTELLIGIBLE].
So what you're talking is
about liquid olives.
Liquid olives, you're going
to have one after.
I began making the joke,
I had a liquid
olive tree in my backyard.
And then one day, they call my
office, and they say, where
can I buy one?
I'm like, all right, no
more jokes, because
people take it seriously.
So liquid olives is funny
because that's one of the
great techniques invented
by Ferran Adria.
Which technically he didn't
invent it because what he made
was a technique we began
calling spherification.
It's sphere, spherification.
Because you achieve
perfect spheres.
Laura, can we put the
mojito up, please?
It's slide 15.
So spherification was something
that was being used
at the pharmaceutical level--
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
JOSE ANDRES: --for
many, many years.
Actually, they were calling
it almost encapsulation.
Recently, I was at Harvard at
the Physics Department looking
on the new machines that they
are working to make
encapsulations.
They don't have a clue for
what they are going to be
using it for, but now they are
able to encapsulate one liquid
inside another liquid, inside
another liquid, inside another
liquid, only by different
densities.
Fascinating.
What can we do with it?
I don't know.
But fascinating.
So spherification, what you
see there is a mojito.
If now I had a knife and I could
cut through, these would
become liquid immediately.
So spherification very much is
the power we have to get the
liquid and their own liquid to
create a shell that will
self-surround its own liquid.
And we use a simple
thing, alginate.
Alginate is something that
comes from seaweed.
In the sea is different
kinds of alginates.
Now, we're not going to
get deep into it.
So we use alginate, and we use
salt, salt of calcium.
And we are able to achieve a
reaction where the alginate
does what it's supposed to do,
which is gelatinize itself.
And by gelatinizing itself,
we are able to
self-enclose liquids.
When you eat the liquid olive,
get it, put it in the top of
your tongue, wait
a few seconds.
And you're going to bring your
tongue against the top of your
palate, and you're going
to see how it
explodes in your mouth.
You're going to say, but, Jose,
why you don't give me
the liquid olive in a glass,
and I drink it?
Ain't the same.
Ain't the same.
It's those kind of little things
that can make a huge
difference in the perception
of how good a dish can be.
So there is an example of
spherification, a mojito.
We made a mojito mix.
We made spherification.
We will get this liquid, we will
add the alginate, and we
will have a bath with
the salt of calcium.
And we will get a spoon.
We will put it up inside that
swimming pool of water with
the salt of calcium.
We will wait two minutes.
The salt of calcium will kind
of cook the mojito mix.
VINT CERF: Just on the
outside though.
JOSE ANDRES: Only
on the outside.
If we wait an hour, everything
will be cooked.
And everything will gelatinize,
everything will get thick.
And then we take these bubbles,
and we put them in
the same canister you saw
before for the cheese.
But this time, we will put
CO2 to get carbonic.
And the carbonic will go
through the wall of the
spherification.
When you put this in
your mouth, will be
fizzy, like a Coke.
And will explode at
the same time.
Simple.
This is what we call
almost an avatar.
Simple things of using the
air we have around here.
And using the natural
ingredients we have in the
sea, and coming up with dishes
that actually are unbelievably
normal and natural.
A fried potato is more abnormal
than this dish.
And we eat fried potatoes.
VINT CERF: This is experiencing
conventional
foods in a way that you never
would have appreciated before.
Because he's combined
ingredients that don't
normally go together in a form
that is absolutely not usual.
This is the olive
without the pit.
So a question I have that kind
of goes along with your
fascination with different
ways of preparing food.
You were in Haiti not
too long ago.
Responding, in part, to the very
serious situation there.
One of the problems they have is
lack of fuel or electricity
in order to cook in the
conventional way.
Can you tell us a little
bit about what you did?
And how you discovered this
alternative way of preparing
food there?
JOSE ANDRES: Well, this always
goes with the thing.
You'd rather prefer not
to talk about it.
Because that's something like,
in my case, probably many of
you do things like this.
I do it because I believe
I can help.
But you do it because you want
to help, not because you want
people to find out
you're helping.
But at the same time, by telling
people, hopefully, you
get more people helping you
in what you are doing.
So it's always like, oh, man.
Do I talk about it?
VINT CERF: You should
talk about it.
JOSE ANDRES: So that's
what we're doing.
So it's obvious why
Haiti, right?
It's where it happened, all
the international help is
going there, right?
And you would think that America
is doing great, that
Europe is doing great, that
Spain is doing great.
The world, on paper we're
doing great, right?
We're sending stuff,
we're sending food.
But think for a second.
Imagine you are a farmer.
Imagine you are a
farmer here in
Washington, producing asparagus.
And Jose has so many asparagus
in Spain that he decides to
send asparagus to Washington
and give them for free.
Why?
Because I'm a good guy,
and I want to do this.
You that are producing asparagus
here and working
hard, all of a sudden, you
cannot sell your asparagus.
What we've been doing, giving
so much food for free, which
is OK the first days.
But when we keep giving that
food for free, we kill the
local economy in such a way that
when the international
help stops and we all forget
about Haiti, the poor farmers
that at least were trying
to have an economy that
self-sustained itself,
go broke.
So they stop farming because
they say, why am I going to be
working for nothing?
So even when we do good, we
always need to be thinking
about the repercussions
of our actions.
That's why one of my most
enlightening experiences a few
weeks ago here-- and I've
been reading, and we
all know about him--
I had dinner with Dr. Yunus.
VINT CERF: Oh, Muhammad,
yes, wonderful guy.
JOSE ANDRES: With Muhammad
Yunus, the Nobel Prize of
Peace award winner.
He's a guy that believes
in microcredit.
And he's a guy that believes
that anything you give should
be given in a way that can
self-sustain itself and can
self-sustain the people
you're trying to help.
So trying to connect all these
ideas with what Vint says,
what I did was--
I am a cook, right?
I believe my profession, we
are not being influential
enough in the way we are
feeding humanity.
Forget humanity, I don't think
we have much to say even in
the way we are feeding
America.
The Farm Bill-- that
we're not going to
start discussing now--
they don't invite any chefs.
And the politicians are going to
be thinking, why do I have
to invite a chef?
Well, that's the problem.
We don't have a connection.
So my thing of Haiti or the time
I've been serving at the
DC Central Kitchen helping
Robert Egger--
probably to me, one of the
heroes of this city, one of
the heroes of this country--
helping local people.
It is my belief that my
profession, not only chefs,
but the food people of America,
we have to have a
bigger voice in issues
related to food.
In Haiti, it's obvious.
You go to Haiti, there's
not one tree.
I was there during
the rainy season.
We were driving.
We went deep into Jacmel.
Beautiful Jacmel, beautiful,
one of the most beautiful
places I've ever seen.
But with so much rain and no
trees to hold the rain to
anything, all the good dirt that
is in the slopes of the
mountains is washed
off by the rain.
And, at the same time, that rain
takes with it rocks and
everything, always killing
people that live underneath in
the valleys.
So what do trees and rain
have to go with a chef?
If they have no trees, but
we give them rice.
But they keep cutting
the trees they have,
and they use charcoal.
If I keep giving them rice, but
I don't give them a method
to cook that rice, I'm not
really solving the problem.
I'm only fixing a little
bit of the problem.
So it's great that we do good.
But we never end the circle in
its totality to really close
the problem.
So what I did was I brought
solar kitchens.
Solar kitchens are not an
invention of mine at all.
They've been around for 34 years
at least. But they are
not successful, and
I don't know why.
So I didn't go there
to help Haitians.
I went there to help myself
in a very egocentric way.
Because if I want to be part of
the solution, first, I need
to learn what the issues are.
So I can put my knowledge to
the service of the needs of
the people.
So I went there for
10 days learning.
I took 16 kitchens with me,
two friends, and we took
almost 1,000 pounds
of equipment.
That was not easy because
we didn't go with any
organization.
We went on our own.
And we started getting
the kitchens ready.
Going to the market, buying,
bringing the food, hiring two
or three local women.
And start cooking and
feeding every day
between 50 and 250 people.
So Haiti, for me, was an
experience on how, in my
profession--
and this is something that
probably everyone of you
should ask themselves--
my knowledge and my profession,
how can I be
helping the person that maybe
lives on the other side of the
street that is not
as lucky as I am.
This is not socialism, this is
not communism, this is only
logicalism.
If you have a piece of knowledge
that can help
someone else, be logical, and
use it to serve those other
people, so we can all keep
moving together forward.
You want to see the
video of Haiti?
You want to see one minute
of the video of Haiti?
Let's put the video of Haiti.
I kind of made it myself, so I
apologize for the editing.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
JOSE ANDRES: This is Jordy.
He's a hero.
He's been there almost six
years in Haiti already.
He was there before
the earthquake.
So it's funny, right?
Because things that you take
for granted, like a knife.
There, I was lucky I brought
my Swiss Army.
Uh-oh.
VINT CERF: What?
Uh-oh.
Did we run out of CPU cycles?
JOSE ANDRES: That was not
the other video I did.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
JOSE ANDRES: Those are the
solar kitchens, you see?
And the pots are black.
So you know what I've
been doing?
It takes you a lot of time.
You can boil a quart of water
in seven minutes.
But since then, I've been
working with a company in
Spain, and I'm trying to do
pressure cookers, but black.
VINT CERF: To absorb the heat.
JOSE ANDRES: So now, I'm sure
once I start using the
pressure cookers, I can be
boiling two gallons of water
under 30 minutes That then
would be brilliant.
So what I want to be doing now
is go back, partner with this
school, they have almost
2,000 children.
And try to see if I can create
a sustainable kitchen.
That can go to the markets,
can go to
the farms, buy local.
Pay them the right price for the
produce, bring the produce
to the kitchen, hire local.
You don't want to leave, but
you want them to live.
It's their problem, not yours.
You are only trying to
open them a door.
Produce the foods using solar
as much as you can.
We did this during the rainy
season, so I'm very happy.
VINT CERF: It still works.
JOSE ANDRES: Because, if I was
able to cook during the rainy
season, I can cook during
the other nine months.
And hire local, producing
local, and
then feeding the children.
And how do we make
this sustainable?
Well, we're going to have to
feed the children, so we are
going to have to create
this in a way that--
United Nations is doing a great
job, but sometimes--
and it's not a criticism, it's
just what's happening--
they've being paying people
to get the broom and start
brooming the streets
of Port-au-Prince.
One woman came to me and told
me, I wish I was serving my
country better.
So if that's the money we are
giving them to pay them for
jobs, so they have some money,
I would be using those women
to produce foods to
feed the children.
There is a solution
to the issue.
So we can end the video.
So here we made different
dishes, beans
that I bought local.
Everyone thinks about Haiti
that they have nothing.
But we need to understand
that people are proud.
We are proud.
Yeah, we can stop the video.
And what they want--
I recommend you to
read an article.
I'm very proud.
I signed this month,
in Food & Wine.
I called Food & Wine's editor,
Dana Cowin, from Haiti.
And I told her, I want to write
an article about Haiti.
Who knows Food &
Wine magazine?
Everyone knows.
She told me, Jose, come on,
don't be frivolous.
I'm like, why?
The Haiti I'm seeing is not
the Haiti I'm reading.
Hold on, it's a lot of need and
a lot of children hungry,
we cannot forget that.
But there's also a lot of people
who are very proud of
their country, willing to work,
willing to work hard to
move it forward, putting
politicians on the side.
The people really want.
So what I did was write an
article almost saying, Haiti
is open for business.
They don't want our pity.
They only want our respect.
So I tell you please, I'm asking
you to read the article
online or buy the magazine.
It is in the month of July.
And there it gives you a
glimpse, an idea of what I saw
in Haiti, and what I think
we can be doing
to keep moving forward.
But this is just a project
that we are calling World
Central Kitchen.
And my idea is hopefully--
we are only four people now
doing it-- but my hope is one
day we will be able to feed
humanity where there is need.
And when I mean humanity, I also
mean New Orleans, when
unfortunately what happened
in the Superdome.
And I mean Nashville, and
I mean anywhere that
we may have an issue.
Obviously, places like Haiti
or anywhere else.
So my idea is one day to get
an army of cooks with
sustainable ways of cooking
that we can go to any area
that there is a disaster and
they need disaster relief.
And that we can arrive and
very quickly start
re-empowering the economy
by buying local.
Very quick, hiring local.
And start producing foods that
can be feeding children and
the people of the country, or
the city, or the region where
they need the help.
So that's a long-term dream,
and this is the beginning.
VINT CERF: So I hope that you
can see what Jose just did.
He took a very simple idea,
which is the solar oven which
didn't require any other fuel.
And he grew that into an
ecosystem that had social as
well as sustainable
ramifications.
I wanted to draw a little
parallel between what you've
done there, and the idea you
expressed, and something that
our engineers at Google, who
also participated in some of
the early recovery
work, noticed.
When the earthquake hit and
telecommunications was wiped
out, the natural, immediate
reaction was to fly in a
collection of donated
equipment.
Almost random stuff that could
be reconfigured into
internet-based services.
And while that was a useful
thing to do, what it didn't do
is sustain the telecom companies
who were needed and
are needed in the long-term in
order to provide sustainable
communications.
So another way of thinking about
this, just as you have,
is not to just fly in random
stuff, but to bring in things
that can be left behind.
And to reconstruct and rebuild
the telecom business, so that
it's sustainable.
I want to move to a very
different topic for a moment
and illustrate another aspect
of Jose's depth of vision.
He told me a little bit before
we came out that he's going to
China for 12 days.
He's going to spend most
of his time in Beijing.
He's very interested in the
possibility of somehow
blending together Mexican
and Chinese cuisines.
My first reaction to this was
sort of, hmm, I wonder what
that's going to be like.
But when I pursued this a
little more deeply, I
discovered that not only was he
thinking about the food and
the cuisine, he was thinking
about history.
So I want you to take us
back through this story
that you told me.
JOSE ANDRES: Is there any
Chinese people here?
VINT CERF: There's some, yes.
JOSE ANDRES: Any Mexican
people here?
So what do think about mixing
Chinese and Mexican?
AUDIENCE: Well, I'm
Vietnamese, so I
can't really answer.
But look what Kogi truck was
doing in California.
And Korean tacos
is a great hit.
So it's possible.
JOSE ANDRES: No, no.
But that it's possible,
we know.
But what do you think?
It's nuts?
Why?
AUDIENCE: No, I--
JOSE ANDRES: It's logical?
What do you think?
VINT CERF: It's weird.
AUDIENCE: Well, I think there
probably is already
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Chinese food in Mexico, since a
lot of immigrants came over
from that area.
JOSE ANDRES: Yep.
Mexicali is a place that has
a huge Chinese community.
What do you think?
VINT CERF: Can we get a
microphone over here?
We're going to get to
Q&A by the way.
JOSE ANDRES: What
do you think?
VINT CERF: I'll shut up in a
minute, but this is going to
be interesting.
JOSE ANDRES: Are you going to
call your government, and
you're going to tell
them, don't let
Jose come into Mexico?
VINT CERF: Use the microphone,
please.
AUDIENCE: I think it's
a pretty good idea.
The ingredients, in both
places seem to be--
JOSE ANDRES: Aligned?
AUDIENCE: --at the
same level, yeah.
Very tropical.
A lot of peppers.
JOSE ANDRES: They love pork?
AUDIENCE: Oh, yeah.
JOSE ANDRES: Chinese
and Mexicans
love pork, like Spaniards.
You need to understand that I
explain the history of the
world through Spain, right?
You'll have to forgive me.
That's one of my problems, but,
hey, it's my problem.
VINT CERF: You didn't say your
name was Rodney Dangerfield?
I don't get no respect.
JOSE ANDRES: China loves
its peppers, as
Mexicans, also Spaniards.
And you are already asking now,
what does Spain have to
do with it?
Right?
VINT CERF: What does Spain
have to do with it?
JOSE ANDRES: In 1565, and for
over 250 years, Phillip II
began a route, a connection that
was uniting China with
the Philippines.
Because there was a lot of
produce coming from China and
all that part of Asia to the
Philippines, to Manila.
From Manila to Acapulco, and to
Acapulco to Veracruz by--
no trucks, but whatever they
had in their time--
and from Veracruz to Spain.
During more than 250 years,
there was a galleon called the
Manila Galleon that was uniting
Asia with Spain.
So all the big connection of
peppers, of the love of pork,
happened during those times.
And this is a period in history
that we are, at least
in the gastronomic point of
view, completely clueless.
So the restaurant I'm doing is
going to try to bring some
life to maybe what happened
during those years.
Of the first peppers arriving
to one place.
Or the first pork arriving to
another, and et cetera, et
cetera, et cetera.
So the restaurant we're
doing is going to be
called China Poblano.
China Poblano or
Chino Poblana.
Rob, you here?
My partner, Rob Wilder,
and his wife, Robin.
We've been together forever.
China Poblano.
Because it's a traditional dress
in Puebla that is called
la china poblana.
You can go, and you
can buy the dress
called china poblana.
And it's in honor of--
they don't know very well if she
was Chinese or from what
part of Asia, but she
came to Puebla.
She was a slave, and
she arrived with a
beautiful dress in silk.
And the local women
loved the dress.
She was very beautiful it
seems. And they start
recreating the dress,
but with cotton.
And with different--
how you call it?
VINT CERF: Thread?
JOSE ANDRES: Embroidery,
traditional to Mexico.
So thanks to that moment,
Puebla got
the traditional dress.
But it happens it
came from Asia.
So that's the story
we're telling.
I always tell people,
I don't open a
restaurant, we tell a story.
And that's what we
tried to do.
We don't have the story,
we don't do it.
At the end, it's the same for
a movie director, right?
Or the same for a writer.
You don't have a story,
you don't do anything.
So very much as a chef,
I feel I'm a
storyteller more than a chef.
VINT CERF: So let me ask whether
you have questions
that you'd like to
ask of Jose?
If you don't, we have some that
have already been asked.
JOSE ANDRES: Are
you having fun?
You seem so bored.
Did they make you be here?
VINT CERF: So let's see, hands
up, and we've got microphones
coming around here.
There's a hand right there
attached to a very nice lady.
JOSE ANDRES: Oof.
Can I look?
Oh, I love this one.
"In your opinion, doesn't our
technology-driven style of
molecular gastronomy--
what is that?--
run counter to the increasingly
popular notion of
keeping simple local and true
to food's roots, like Alice
Waters." My great friend.
It's so funny because Alice,
every time we talk, we kind of
fight in a good way.
And every time she come to the
restaurant, I'm like scared.
I'm like, where is this
asparagus coming from?
[UNINTELLIGIBLE], he says,
it came from Mexico.
I'm like, holy cow, tell her
we have no asparagus.
This is a good thing, talking
about immigration, for you to
understand how every action
has a repercussion.
You know what guys--
VINT CERF: Wait, wait,
Jose, let me get--
I was going to alternate back
and forth between the
questions on the screen and the
questions in the audience.
So this lady has a question.
AUDIENCE: Hello.
VINT CERF: Is it on?
AUDIENCE: It's on.
I just quit my job, and I'm
going into culinary.
JOSE ANDRES: You quit
on the culinary?
AUDIENCE: I'm quitting
to go into culinary.
JOSE ANDRES: All right,
you're another one.
AUDIENCE: I was just wondering
if you have any advice for
somebody who is not a
professional chef, who is
never worked in a professional
kitchen before, who has just
quit their white collar job
to go into culinary.
JOSE ANDRES: To go what?
Ah, what to do.
AUDIENCE: Yes, any advice that
you have would be most
beneficial.
JOSE ANDRES: Shooo.
It's a lot of people, so
I'm going to give you
a diplomatic answer.
Listen, the great thing
is that you--
in life, there's no better
thing than determination.
Like, I'm going to do something,
I'm going to do it.
How often are we in
the limbo of life?
"Limbo" is English?
VINT CERF: Yes, yes,
it's some kind of--
[INTERPOISING VOICES]
JOSE ANDRES: I use words that
sound like Spanish, and I put
an accent--
but my people in the office
never tell me anything.
So I go around the world
using the words.
And one day, they say,
what is this, Jose?
I'm like, Come on.
And I made the word.
My office understands me, but
they never tell me anything.
So it's unbelievable.
So it's good not
to be in limbo.
So you know what you want
to do, so keep going.
And me, this is a phrase that my
office told me never to use
ever again.
But I think it was Winston
Churchill who said, success--
and you want to be
successful--
is going from failure to
failure-- which you are going
to have many--
without losing enthusiasm.
So if you see failure as a good
thing, you're going to be
happy in this business.
But remember to celebrate
it, and you'll do fine.
So keep going.
And remember that phrase.
It's brilliant.
VINT CERF: OK, other
questions?
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]
JOSE ANDRES: So Alice Waters--
about molecular and local.
Guys, it's the same thing.
I don't do molecular.
Molecular, to begin, I don't
know what it means.
I google what molecular
means and read it.
I don't look through a
microscope every time I'm
flipping the chicken.
Oh, because the molecules are
already hitting one to each
other, and they are
getting hot.
It's time to turn the chicken.
Nope.
We are cooks, and we cook.
What we do, probably I would
call it avant-garde Spanish or
nouvelle Spanish, but we don't
call it molecular.
That's a very strange name.
And will only put people like,
they would freak out.
Fritos may be molecular, but
we don't do molecular.
We are cooks, we cook.
And I can do that avant-garde
cooking with local, and I can
do avant-garde with Parmesan
from Italy or
olive oil from Spain.
So it's great to support local
as much as we can.
But being pragmatic, not all of
the time being radical, and
nothing, but local.
Because if we do that,
think for a
second, think for a second.
If we only do local, means
that commerce will break
completely.
Because--
do you play The Age
of Civilizations?
Do you know that game?
Where you are doing commerce,
and you send a guy to a far
away country to
[UNINTELLIGIBLE].
I love The Age of
Civilizations.
It's the same thing.
If during history, we didn't
exchange, we wouldn't be where
we are today.
Actually, America is what it
is today because it didn't
believe in local.
It believed in, let's go out,
and let's bring from overseas.
So I don't mean that we only
need to do that, I don't mean
we need only to be local.
I only say, be local--
the guy is giving me the speech
on local and telling me
how bad of a guy I am.
Because sometimes I buy other
things from other parts.
Even a big percentage of my
vegetables in the spring and
summer are local.
The same guy who is kind of
lecturing me, his shirt says
Nike, his shoes say Adidas,
and his pants say Levis.
And the three of those
things are made 20
hours away by plane.
So also we need to be logical in
the way we preach with the
way we live.
We cannot keep saying things
that we don't live by.
Tomatoes.
Sometimes I have great tomatoes
that come from Mexico
in the middle of February
or March.
Because already by then it's
warm, they have great sun.
But think for a second.
If I was not buying the tomatoes
from the southern
part of Mexico, I would not be
creating jobs in that part and
creating riches in that
part of the world.
So if I don't create riches
there, and they have nothing
to do, where are those
people going to go?
We will create an immigration
problem.
So if we are trying to fix
problems in Haiti, we need to
create a solution
to a problem.
If they have mangoes and I can
help the economy by buying
those mangoes in Haiti, I'm
going to be finding a solution
to a problem.
I'm putting mangoes from
Haiti on my menu.
I'm giving them the opportunity,
on their own, to
have a sustainable business.
If I'm only local, I'll
never be able to--
So what am I going
to be doing?
Writing the check, and sending
to the poor people, feeling
pity for them.
Here, food, a check.
No, let's do it in
a logical way.
So I don't believe that
avant-garde cooking and local
are in a fight.
It's only a few people maybe.
They are together.
And we need to see it always
in a very pragmatic way.
Usually, the center is
the best place to be,
never in the edges.
VINT CERF: So it occurred
to me--
I'll catch this question
in just one moment
and then over here.
That's one and two.
It just occurred to me that if
you don't like molecular
cooking because that sounds too
freaky, maybe we should
talk about quantum cooking.
Because the fundamentals
of quantum theory are
uncertainty, right?
And I don't know about you, but
every time I get into the
kitchen, there's great
uncertainty as to the outcome.
JOSE ANDRES: Slide number
five, please.
VINT CERF: Slide number five?
JOSE ANDRES: No, not
a slider, a slide.
We're not having the
sliders today.
You talk about--
VINT CERF: What's that?
JOSE ANDRES: What is that?
What's the name of
our talk today?
I don't know who
put that name?
Was it you, or was
it our people?
AUDIENCE: What does
light taste like?
JOSE ANDRES: What?
AUDIENCE: What does
light taste like?
JOSE ANDRES: What--
This is the light
bulb of flavor.
When I was little,
I was in school.
I remember teacher telling us
about those particles that
will come from the sun.
That the particles were the
way to transport light.
But they were particles
that were so small.
And I remember my friend was
asking, can we touch them?
And the teacher, what, they are
too small to be touched.
And then I always kept thinking,
like man, wouldn't
it be cool.
Can we make the particles
of light bigger, so we
can play with them?
Wouldn't it be cool that we
could play with light the way
we play with a football ball.
The amazing things we
could be doing.
So this is how this
dish came to be.
What light could taste, if you
could open your mouth, looking
at the sun, and for a second
those particles
tasting like something.
It's almost like a
photon, right?
If a photon, a particle of light
could taste, and you
could put salt.
Say, mmm.
So the light bulb of flavor is
only as good as a dish as you
want a dish to be.
VINT CERF: So would you
like fries with that?
Sorry.
This idea of tasting light
actually has some
real truth to it.
I don't know if you've ever
heard of a condition called
synesthesia, where
your senses are
misinterpreted by the brain.
So you hear a sound, and
you see a color.
Or maybe you see a color,
and you taste something.
So it's actually not impossible
to have your brain
slightly wired oddly, kind
of like his seems to be.
Where you start thinking about
tasting and feeling things
that come from other senses.
I had two hands up, and
I want to get to one.
One was over here somewhere.
There she is.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
I wanted to know if your new
restaurant was going to be in
DC, and how you chose this
area to open up all your
restaurants.
And then, with that, what
your vision is.
If you're going to be expanding
throughout the US.
JOSE ANDRES: The China Poblano,
it's in Las Vegas in
a new casino called
The Cosmopolitan.
Beautiful.
It's going to be small for
Las Vegas' standards.
I'm happy to go to Vegas.
Let's see what happens.
To me, going to Vegas
is almost like--
I love The Wizard of Oz,
it's like going to Oz.
I don't know what I'm
going to find.
But Washington is the town
I grew up in America.
I mean, I grew up, because
I'm still growing up.
It's where I met my wife.
It's where my three children
were born at Sibley Hospital.
It's so funny, tomorrow they're
going to send me a
letter asking for a donation.
First time I mention--
they were so happy.
But I love Sibley.
I always had sushi after every
birth, sushi from Makoto.
I love it, that is perfect.
So Washington is kind
of the town I adore.
I think there's no better
town to live.
If I had to choose
a town, really,
Washington would be it.
I feel like I'm in the
center of the world.
And not only by the political
connotation.
I love the city, I love
how much has changed
over the last 20 years.
I only wish that more people
in Washington felt more
Washingtonian.
Because we are all from
somewhere else, and it's very
easy to say where you are,
or your family, or
where you grew up.
But me, I keep telling people,
I'm from Barcelona.
If my accent wouldn't be
obvious, I wouldn't be telling
them anymore.
But I cannot help myself.
Every time I tell them I'm from
Washington, and they say,
I'm from where?
I'm from where else?
So but I feel a true
Washingtonian.
I adore the city.
It's given me a lot in
more ways than one.
And I feel that I cannot be
in a better city today.
So many of my other restaurants,
while they are
going to be happening in other
cities, because I don't want
anyone to get tired
of my restaurants,
like, another one.
Our plan is to keep
doing Minibar.
I got so many options to
move Minibar to other
cities, to New York.
And I'm getting probably good
deals of building entire
restaurants.
Minibar is genuinely Washington,
and will never be
another Minibar away
from Washington.
VINT CERF: Wow.
Yay.
[APPLAUSE]
JOSE ANDRES: So hopefully one
day, I'll open an American
restaurant, and it'll be here
too, in Washington.
I have my dream is to--
can I get the Philly cheese
steak, Laura?
My dream is one day--
the same way I receive
so much--
I did one day, 10 years ago, the
New England clam chowder.
Because I was going to cook
with Tom Colicchio at his
restaurant when he was still
at Gramercy Tavern.
And that day, I began getting
into a lot of classic American
dishes and bringing them
to life my way.
So here was the Philly
cheese steak.
That the people in Philly,
they didn't like it.
They got very upset with me.
And it was close to an
editorial, asking if I had a
green card or not.
I mean it was really tense.
But this is my homage to
Philly cheese steak.
It has the same thing,
bread, and beef,
and cheese, and onion.
I decided no peppers,
don't tell me why.
And this, a heck of a good
Philly cheese steak.
I think this elevates the
perception of the Philly
cheese steak.
So I don't know if this has
anything to do with your
answer anymore, but--
[LAUGHTER]
VINT CERF: Let's get one more.
I had another hand.
There, this lady here.
LOGAN: Hi, my name is Logan.
And I'm actually working with
Senator Richard G. Lugar who
is very involved with
the Farm Bill.
So if you would like me to take
any comments back to the
office, I'm more than
happy to do so.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
JOSE ANDRES: Wow, look at you.
Thank you.
Listen, at the end, chefs,
we are chefs.
And lately, thanks to you all,
we are getting so much--
now, we open our mouths, and
sometimes people listen.
Me, in my 18 years here in
Washington, 19 years in
Washington, I've seen a lot
of great things happen.
I remember Secretary Glickman
with Robert Egger, the founder
of DC Central Kitchen, were at
Jaleo with my partner Rob.
He got a new kind of law
that was called the
Good Samaritan bill--
this happened around
'94, '95--
that was protecting individuals
and corporations
of donating food.
And this bill was protecting
them from getting sued from
third parties if they donated
that food in a
goodwill kind of way.
So I've been part of many
moments that I've been very
fascinating to see the effect
and reaction to
many of these bills.
My two cents, and we have
great people working,
writing about it.
There's a lot of chefs lately
very involved, speaking about
the different issues
that are related.
Let's talk about corn
in this country.
And tell me why corn has
subsidies from American
government, why they have
breaks, so corn can be
unbelievably cheap?
And the person producing carrots
and beets doesn't have
sometimes the same tax breaks?
Because the issue at hand is
that if big corporations
controlling the big production
of corn are being subsidized
to have cheap corn, then from
the corn, they start producing
foods to feed the cattle that
then make it into the burgers
that a couple, three or four
companies sell to us.
The same corn is used to produce
the high corn syrup,
fructose, calories everywhere
to produce different sodas
that also they can sell
to America for cheap.
Out of the same corn product
is also syrups that go into
the ketchup that we
like so much.
Because it's so sweet that we
all like it, and we keep
putting more ketchup.
Also, the boxes that they sell
to you-- that the boxes they
give you the burger are
sustainable because they use
the by-products of the
corn also to make it.
You see, the entire industry
goes around a single product
that is subsidized
by Congress.
And that same product is
making America sick.
And that same product is
making Mexico sick.
By the way, the number one
and two consumers of
sodas in the world.
So they will tell me that
actually there is no living
proof that sodas make
people fat.
Well, the number two countries
with the biggest obesity
problems in the world are the
number two countries that
consume the most sodas
in the world.
So tell me.
So what I'm asking them,
give me a break.
Because I want to open
a burger place too.
And I will not mind to fight, in
equal conditions, with the
fast food industry in America.
But I want the same opportunity
to produce the
same product as they do.
Or don't give a tax
break to anyone.
And so the fast food
companies, the
price will go up.
And then when you compare the
sandwiches at Jaleo with the
burgers they sell you, you'll
see that the price
is almost the same.
With that, I don't want
to be radical either.
Maybe I have a sandwich in my
menu that has as many calories
as a burger, maybe.
You see, the same way I'm
telling you one thing, I'm
telling you another.
In 1993, I was in Adams Morgan
at Christmas time.
My restaurant was closed.
The only restaurant open was a
fast food chain in the corner
of Colombia and 18th.
Actually, the fast food chain
that day was serving the poor
people of Adams Morgan that
didn't have a place to go.
The same way I'm criticizing
one thing, I'm pragmatic.
And I'm telling you,
you know what?
I'm not going to tell this to
McDonald's because they're
going to use it in their ad
campaign in Christmas.
We are the restaurant
that cares.
They didn't know that they were
doing a public service by
being open in a cold night, so
those people could have a
place to be under freezing
temperatures.
And having a bite to eat,
fairly affordable.
But at the same time, it's not
fair that when barely we have
money to feed our children in
the schools of America.
With only $1 per child, per day,
that I would like someone
to tell me what can you do with
that today in America?
It's very unfair that those
are the people getting tax
breaks that gives them
the opportunity to
produce cheap food.
Not fast food because my food is
fast. Tapas are fast, so I
do fast food too.
They produce that food that at
the same time is getting
America sick.
And then, as we are going to
have to pay for the health
bill 10 years from now.
Are we nuts or what?
I'm trying to tell Congress, we
are trying to tell Senate,
guys, don't give them the money
to sell produce that are
cheap and bad and are getting
America unhealthy.
And on top of that you pay
for the health bill.
Actually, what I would tell
them is, take away the
subsidies, and also they are
going to have to contribute to
pay the health bill 10
or 20 years from now.
In the year 2018, $190 billion
is going to be the cost, the
health costs, related to
obesity in America.
$190 billion.
20% of what is going to be the
health cost of America.
20%.
The Farm Bill should
be addressing that.
What's happening that we
don't have a lobby?
The people of America does
not have a lobby.
The corporations have a lobby.
But the people of America
should deserve a lobby.
Who should do that lobby?
Well, we have [? Mr. Paulin. ?]
Maybe he should be the leader.
He knows about it, he talks like
no one, he has knowledge.
We need to find someone that
will pay for the lobby that
will help fight the agribusiness
lobbies.
That's the only way that America
will be protected.
Until that happens, we are
always going to be
jeopardizing the future
of this country.
Right now, it's national
security.
The Pentagon don't have enough
men to join the army because
of obesity.
That's an issue.
So you tell me, do we want a
healthy, productive America 10
years from now?
Or we want an unhealthy,
unproductive, and sad America?
The Farm Bill can do so
much for this country.
And if Senators and Congressmen
mean their words,
which is serving and protecting
the people of
America, they will be more
outspoken about those issues.
Unfortunately, the politics
play a big role.
And it's politics that I don't
understand and many of you
don't understand.
Only a few people understand.
We need to try to explain that
to America in a language we
all can understand.
Because right now, no one
is explaining it.
But we have a problem, and we're
going to need help to
start fixing it.
Or one day, it'll be late.
VINT CERF: You know,
that's actually--
[APPLAUSE]
VINT CERF: I hope you appreciate
that you've just
heard from about four or
five different people
wrapped up in one man.
An economist, a philosopher,
a chemist, and a chef.
Jose, if there were a Nobel
Prize for food, you would be
my first candidate.
Well, I think we can probably
wrap up where we are now.
We have some little treats that
are hiding over in the
corner there for people.
But once again, let me thank all
of you for taking time out
in the middle of the
week to join us.
And let me thank once
again, Jose, for
being with us tonight.
JOSE ANDRES: Happy to be here.
I feel so thrilled I'm
next to this man.
First time I met him, I was
like, holy cow, what
I talk to him about?
So I feel very humbled to be
next to him and sharing some
time with him.
Because the knowledge of this
man and, obviously, his
contribution to who we are today
in this 21st century has
been so amazing.
So if you guys in Google, once a
year, want to make sure that
any big high-fructose-using
company cannot
be googled at all--
[LAUGHTER]
JOSE ANDRES: This could be
the beginning of your
contribution.
It's only one day a year.
VINT CERF: OK, break time.
Thank you.
Jose, thank you so much.
That was wonderful.
