José Andrés

José Ramón Andrés Puerta was born in Mieres, Asturias, Spain, on 13 July 1969. Andrés' family moved to Catalonia when he was 6. He enrolled in culinary school in Barcelona at the age of 15, and when he needed to fulfill his Spanish military service at the age of 18, he was assigned to cook for an admiral. He met Spanish chef Ferran Adrià in Barcelona, and he worked for three years at Adrià's restaurant El Bulli in Roses, Catalonia, from 1988 to 1990. In December 1990, he was fired by Adrià and he decided to move to the United States.

Coming to the United States

At the age of 21, Andrés arrived in New York City to cook in Midtown Manhattan at an outpost of a popular Spanish restaurant, Eldorado Petit. During his time in New York, he also staged servings at The Quilted Giraffe. In 1993, Andrés was hired to lead the kitchen at Jaleo, a new tapas restaurant in Washington, D.C. In subsequent years, he helped the owners of Jaleo to open more restaurants: Café Atlántico, Zaytinya and Oyamel, along with two more Jaleo outposts. In 2003, Andrés started a minibar – a restaurant space within a larger restaurant – at a six-seat counter within Café Atlántico. This Minibar eventually became a stand-alone restaurant with a twelve-seat counter. Seats are released on a monthly basis; according to the Washington Post they typically are reserved within 24 hours.

Chef and restaurateur

As he opened more restaurants in the U.S., Andrés became more well known in his native country Spain, starring in his own cooking show, Vamos a Cocinar, which debuted in 2005. He also published his first book, Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America, in 2005. In 2006, he partnered with Robert Wilder to form ThinkFoodGroup, making Andrés a co-owner in his restaurants. Together, they opened more restaurants in Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Puerto Rico.

Beginning in the fall of 2010, Andrés taught a culinary physics course at Harvard University with Ferran Adrià. In May 2012, Andrés was named dean of Spanish Studies at The International Culinary Center, where he and Colman Andrews developed a curriculum in traditional and modern Spanish cuisine, which debuted in February 2013. On 29 October 2012, he announced he was heading back to the classroom, and would teach his first course on how food shapes civilization at George Washington University. He did so until 2023, when he started the Global Food Institute at George Washington University.

Andrés married Patricia "Tichi" Fernández de la Cruz in September 1995. The couple has three daughters; they live in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. He met his wife while they were both living in Washington, D.C.; she is originally from Cádiz, Andalusia, in the southwest of Spain. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in December 2013.

Andrés is an avid golfer and loves cigars. He is a fan of the Washington Nationals and has thrown out the ceremonial first pitch at Nationals games, including during the 2019 World Series.

He has a collection of 1500 rare cookbooks, including an 1825 first edition of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's The Physiology of Taste, a rents and receipts notepad from 1795 that belonged to Thomas Jefferson’s chef Honoré Julien, and an 1851 edition of The Virginia House-Wife by Mary Randolph. He has expressed a predilection for his early edition of Auguste Escoffier’s Ma Cuisine, his first edition of Irma S. Rombauer's Joy of Cooking, and Ángel Muro's El Practicón.

On 5 November 2024, Andrés said he would run against Rep. Andy Harris in the 2026 election for Maryland's 1st Congressional district. He called Harris, a Republican and chair of the House Freedom Caucus, a "disgrace making so many lies and hateful rhetoric."

Trump Hotel restaurant and lawsuit

Andrés planned to open a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel (also known as Old Post Office) in Washington, D.C., in 2016. After Donald Trump made disparaging comments about illegal Mexican immigrants in June 2015, Andrés withdrew from the contract with the Trump Organization, which then sued him. Andrés counter-sued, and the parties reached a settlement in April 2017.

The Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C., closed on 11 May 2022. It was sold to CGI Merchant Group, and later reopened as the Waldorf Astoria Washington, D.C., on 1 June 2022. On 13 June 2022, Andrés announced that he would return to the location to open the restaurant that he had planned in the original 2015 deal. The Bazaar by José Andrés opened on 8 February 2023. Andrés remains an outspoken critic of Trump.