The Wall Street Journal

October 28, 2011

José Andrés Wants to Feed the World (And You)

José Andrés's life is like one of those off-color jokes. A Southern butcher, a Yankee reporter, a ham baron from central Spain and a cosmetics kingpin from Barcelona walk into the house of a Spanish chef living in the suburbs of D.C. The cast of characters building to the punch line is in constant flux, but as it happens, this is the group gathered around a kitchen table on a quiet street in Bethesda, Maryland,one night this past spring. And at the center is Andrés, 42 years old, looking 10 years older, acting 20 years younger.

For four hours, he never once stops moving. He pops champagne bottles, quarters live lobsters and grills his way through half a dozen cuts of fresh acorn-fed Iberico pork, the prized pig that Andrés has been instrumental in helping import to the States. The feast is as luxurious as it is informal: hunks of lightly smoked bacon topped with Greek yogurt and caviar; slices of rosy, densely marbled loin veiled with sheets of pickled ginger; rice glistening with lobster essence and crowned with a single pearl-white knuckle of meat. As another idea comesto mind, Andrés barks out instructions to his wife, Patricia, then rewards her later with a kiss or a special bite of food.