The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has appointed this Wednesday the Spanish chef José Andrés co-president of the Advisory Council for Sport,
Fitness
and Nutrition, as reported by the White House in a statement, as reported by the Efe agency.
The council is an advisory body to the president charged with promoting physical activity and healthy eating for all Americans, regardless of background or ability.
The White House also ensures that from now on it will include a new approach related to the promotion of mental health.
The statement details that José Andrés, 52, is an "internationally recognized innovative chef", named in 2012 and 2018 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time
magazine
and decorated in 2015 by the then president, Barack Obama , with the National Medal of Humanities.
According to the White House, the chef has been a "pioneer" of Spanish tapas in the United States and is also known for his avant-garde cuisine.
The message also details that, as a Spanish naturalized American, the Asturian has been a "tireless defender of immigration reform" to regularize millions of people.
More information
José Andrés: “Hunger cannot be seen and is present in your city”
In 2010, José Andrés founded the NGO World Central Kitchen to provide food to crisis-hit communities, as he did by delivering 3.6 million meals in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017. The organization also partnered during the COVID-19 pandemic covid-19 with restaurants and farmers across the United States to "combat food insecurity" and in Spain, for example, mobilized dozens of volunteers led by chefs to prepare and distribute millions of meals throughout the territory.
Today he and his organization work in Ukraine and neighboring countries to feed refugees and victims of the Russian invasion.
Last June, the work of World Central Kitchen and the chef was recognized with the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Concord. A distinction awarded, according to the jury at the time, for its "various cooperation projects with the kitchen as a central element" and for turning his experience in the gastronomic field "to develop forms of exemplary humanitarian assistance, attentive to helping the most disadvantaged in the most extreme situations, in pursuit of a fairer and more sustainable society".
José Andrés later decided to donate double the amount received for the award — endowed with 50,000 euros — to La Palma, after the island suffered for weeks from the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.
But the relevance of José Andrés goes beyond his humanitarian work.
The chef is one of the greatest ambassadors of Spanish gastronomy in the United States, where he owns an empire of almost twenty restaurants spread throughout the country.
In 2019 he also opened, together with the Ferran and Albert Adrià brothers, the Little Spain market in New York, a 3,000-square-meter restaurant space with kiosks dedicated to traditional Spanish dishes and preparations.
I'm proud to partner with @Axiom_Space to have created the meals that will feed the #Ax1 crew on the @Space_Station...paella, ratatouille with pork, jamon ibérico, marcona almonds & more!
#Ax1 @FerminIberico @cincojotas @albertadriapro @NASA @CasasdeHualdo @joseandresfoods @CommanderMLA pic.twitter.com/y40VUdzk09
– José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) March 23, 2022
Precisely the chef himself announced this Thursday on his Twitter account his collaboration with Axiom Space to create the menus with which the members of the AX1 space mission are fed.
Paella, ratatouille with pork, Iberian ham and Marcona almonds, will be some of the dishes and ingredients that make them up, says José Andrés.