José Andrés
speaker
675 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard May 2025
last heard 11 Feb
José Andrés’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Feb 2026 with 1.
Appearances
That takes two hours, and at the end, only water, only salt. And the little animal. It's unbelievable. It's to die for. You know, a happy day for me. I remember coming. So I was in the Spanish Navy. First time I come America, I was cooking for the Admiral. And I'm like, really? I was a young cook already. Talented. I won a little championship here and there.
Already working some high-end restaurants in Spain. mandatory military service, but for me, the military service changed my life in so many good ways. Service to your nation, service to your country, be part of a group of people with a very clear mission, working as one. But anyway, I cook for the admiral. I tell him, really? I'm having the best life. He has two, three daughters.
I have my own apartment. I'm only cooking for the family. They're treating me like a son. Life was good. But I wanted to go on a boat. Not on any boat. In the training ship of the Spanish Navy. The training ship for the midshipmen. A sailing ship. A tall ship. The Juan Sebastian Delcano. Technically Magellan was the guy that began the circumnavigation on the world. But he died.
Now, it's women that go in the old days, 300 men. Now, actually, the princess, future queen of Spain, is on this boat right now on the train trip. First time I leave Europe. First time I visited Canary Islands. First time I visited Africa, Ivory Coast, Abidjan. First time I visited Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. My first caipirinha, my first papaya. First time I visited Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo.
First time I arrived to Florida, United States, Pensacola. The city of the five flags. Hello, one of the five flags, the Spanish Castilian flag. Hello, of sure I belong here. Yeah, I already was in love with America since I was a little boy. The NBA, the Westerns, the history of America, the Civil War, I was fascinated with America. There is first time I had soft shell crops in my life.
Those are the moments that every time you... I remember when my father brought the first kiwi home. I was a little boy and my mom was so upset because he paid like 4% of his monthly salary to buy five kiwis. But my father was like... I guess that's why I became so crazy. For me, finding a new product is like the happiest moment of my life.
Soft-shell crab for me was like, holy cow, soft-shell crabs are amazing. A whole crab that you can eat like a seal that is soft. Oh, my God. Those moments I remember like it was yesterday. But one of the most beautiful things is I moved to New York in the next segment of the trip. And I remember coming under the Barrison Bridge, Lady Liberty Bridge. Ellis Island. I'm an immigrant.
Even I'm not an immigrant. I'm just a soldier, a Navy guy visiting America. I became an immigrant later. And that night I'm watching the American flag before we go to shore. I'm looking at the stars, same stars we were talking before. I'm looking at American flag. I'm looking at the stars, the dark blue color, the white stars. And me, I'm like, holy cow, America is amazing.
Look, they put in their flag the same blue sky at night where you imagine that you can be free, that everything is possible, that you are welcome, that if you are hard, you can belong. I look like a fool when I realize a few weeks later, whatever, that the American flag stars actually were the states. Okay, yeah, I had no clue that the stars were the states.
To this day, I think my story is much more beautiful than this, much more beautiful than the states. But anyway, I wanted to share that story with you because when we dock, around 30th Street on Manhattan, 30 years later. So I finished the military service, I came back to America, I moved to New York, then I came to Washington.
But 30 years later, I opened Mercado Little Spain, which was bringing a bigger piece of Spain to New York, to Manhattan. 200 meters away from the same place I arrived in New York for the first time 30 years before. And when they tell me about the American dream, I want to share the message that if anything, the American dream is more alive than ever before.
With that doesn't mean that we live in a perfect place in a cocoon where everything is perfect. Actually, no. The American dream is realizing that actually we need to work harder. for the things we want for ourselves and from everybody else around us. That the American dream is recognized that we are a beautiful place created through centuries by so many different people that contributed so much.
That people like me, I'm right now so proud and so happy and so thankful overall of being given the opportunity to come to this country, to belong as an immigrant, first with an E2 visa, then with a green car, and then becoming an American citizen with three beautiful American daughters. That much of who I am, I live 70% and 90% of my adult life in this country. I know where I come from.
I love Spain. Everybody knows it. But also I know where I belong. And everybody knows how much I love this country. And now go back into my first arrival as a sailor, my comeback as an immigrant. And the last 30 plus years, I want to remember that moment with the American flag and the beautiful night sky full of stars. Because it's still the American dream. I want to repeat myself. It's here.
But we all need to do better to work towards that dream where we do it sharing longer tables. where we do it with dignity to others, especially to the voiceless, especially to the poor, and that together we solve the problems that we face. The problems are opportunities for us to work together. And that's what our politicians need to do more of.
Well, I think America is oftentimes truly appreciated by people who come here. The people that are here, it's almost like you're just too accustomed to it. You feel entitled.
There's a lot of Americans that have an entitled perspective about this country, whereas most of my friends that come here from other places... Russell Crowe had a brilliant thing that he was saying about America the last time he was here. He said, the rest of the world is counting on us. Because this is the place of freedom. This is the place of opportunity.
This is the place where anybody can come and make something out of themselves. And it's not the United States owes you. The people here, the people become entitled and they have this perspective. We get too used to the fact that we're here. If you lived in another part of the world, you'd appreciate America. Whenever I travel, I love traveling. I love seeing other parts of the world.
But I can't wait to come home. I love it here. I love it here specifically. It's just a wonderful part of the world. Austin is a very cool place. Austin is amazing. It's the perfect size city. I think I talk about it too much so people are moving here too much. I try to hedge my enthusiasm a little bit. I think it's cities can get too big.
And when cities get too big, people become a burden rather than your neighbors and your community. People become, you know, you have this diffusion of responsibility. There's too many people. It's not my problem. Too many people that are in the way. Instead of this is my community. and Austin is not too big. People are friendly, and they're nice, and there's a lot of art here.
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