Chef José Andrés: "Vegetables are so Sexy"
Chef José Andrés won the James Beard Humanitarian Award for his relief work in Puerto Rico after the devastating effects of hurricane Maria in 2011. He used the local arena as giant kitchen to provide 75,000 meals a day to feed the hungry in the island. He has published a memoir called "We Fed an Island" telling his experience managing chaos, which is like running a kitchen, he says. In the second part of this NPR interview (18':50"), he talks about his background in Spain, how he learnt to cook paella from his father, he jokes about the criticism he faced as an immigrant for daring to change a traditional American dish, the Philadelphia cheesecake, he celebrates vegetables and fruit ("vegetables are so sexy", he claims), he jokes again about "molecular gastronomy", and he concludes by stressing how important it is not to be afraid of failure if you want innovate, either in the kitchen or as a relief worker after a hurricane.