The late-April release of Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs coincided with the premiere of Yes, Chef!, NBC’s new cooking competition show in which Andrés teams up with Martha Stewart to train a roster of 12 hot-headed chefs. The Emmy-winning, made-for-TV culinary combo met years ago over a meal at Jaleo, Andrés’s first-ever restaurant in Penn Quarter.
In one previously aired episode of Yes, Chef!, contestants vying for a $250,000 prize took on the gastronomic challenge of spherification — specifically, whipping up a believable-looking olive that reveals a burst of silky, liquid flavor in one bite. The delicate technique was born at Spain’s legendary el Bulli, the three-Michelin-starred institution where Andrés himself worked as a young chef. Now diners can sample the molecular tapa that started it all, with a 10-day special running through Saturday, May 24, at the Bazaars in D.C., Vegas, and NYC.
Two years after closing inside the SLS hotel, the avant-garde restaurant is gearing up to stage a big South Beach comeback at the Andaz Miami Beach. With 40 restaurants under his José Andrés Group umbrella, the founder of disaster relief nonprofit World Central Kitchen has no plans to balloon the Bazaar brand.
“For me, we can’t have a Bazaar in every city in America. I want to have a passion for the city and I’m super proud of this one here in D.C.,” says Andrés, speaking to an intimate crowd during his April 29 book launch party. The two-year-old location, situated off the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in the historic Old Post Office building, famously has a full-circle backstory tied to Trump.
Change the Recipe’s author Richard Wolffe goes way back with Andrés, having penned his first book full of Spanish recipes. “He made me do it — he said, ‘a chef has to have a book,’” says Andrés. “And here we are a few years later with a few.” (Eleven and counting.)
The cute new canary-colored hardcover, just 5×8 in size and under 200 pages long, is a departure from his norm. It’s a collection of short stories that cover a swath of topics, including his childhood to nurse parents in Barcelona, why he used to hate (and grew to love) green peppers, food being a universal comfort in conflict zones, and teachable lessons learned in the hectic restaurant world.
“In a night when printers stop working, the bathroom breaks down, and every [customer] has a request, we make it through and ‘change the recipe,’” says Andrés. “The beauty of our profession is you adapt.”
He says his daughters were ultimately the motivating factor behind the memoir. “I think we all have to do this — write down memories. Especially if you’re no longer here,” he says. But he’s not going anywhere soon. “I’ve been doing this for 32 years — and I look forward to the next 32,” he says. “So we’ll all be together for my 87th birthday. Probably I’ll even be making the food.”
We snagged a quick chat with Andrés on the side, in which he reveals a bonafide biography is on the future horizon.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26000468/2211333690.jpg)
Eater: What’s Martha got that you don’t?
José Andrés: She’s very practical — she doesn’t hesitate and she knows what she wants. She has so much energy. [While filming, she’d ask me,] “‘Where are we going to dinner tonight, José?’ What? I have to go to bed.”
Why is it more important than ever to mentor chefs these days?
As you grow older, you learn and then try to pass that on to others. The restaurant business is still one of the most brutal and difficult businesses at every level, [between] the success rate and the hours that anyone has. But still at same time, it’s one of the most fascinating professions anybody can be a part of.
Tell me more about what this new book means to you.
The short stories are very simple, yet sharing a moment that’s important in my life — maybe a lesson I gained from it, and maybe someone’s searching for the same answer to the question. I want to write something bigger later in my life. And I will, eventually. Longer stories and thoughts.
Congrats on taking D.C.’s decades-old Oyamel to NYC this spring.
That was a good move. I bring another concept to Hudson Yards and get to expand another brand.
I heard you got off the Amtrak from NY about an hour ago. You travel so much — what would you say is your top packing tip?
[Whips off navy suit jacket and waves it around like a napkin]: Buy clothing that doesn’t wrinkle!
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
‘Yes, Chef!’ airs Monday nights at 10 p.m. on NBC; Andrés also stars in Netflix’s newly released spinoff series, Chef’s Table: Legends.
