Chef José Andrés and his relief organization, the World Central Kitchen (WCK), prepared meals through Wednesday night for police officers who worked during the chaos sparked by pro-Donald Trump extremists at the US Capitol.
Following the unrest, Andrés and his team spent all night making pizza, fried egg sandwiches, hot stews, and vermicelli pasta with sausage, potato and vegetables for “the heroic women & men keeping our city safe tonight.”
1am and @chefjoseandres is frying up eggs for sandwiches. The @WCKitchen team also prepared vermicelli pasta with sausage, potato and vegetables for everyone working through the night here in DC following today’s mob insurrection. pic.twitter.com/xvtcrUbSmt
— Nate Mook (@natemook) January 7, 2021
“I don’t know what else to do right now… so we just started cooking,” Andrés wrote. “Pizzas weren’t enough for everyone… many have been working over 30 hours nonstop. So we turned Jaleo into WCK kitchen cooking 100s of hot stews on this cold night… plus fried egg sandwiches & fruit!”
The celebrity chef tweeted early Thursday morning that his team had just finished delivering the last meals. “But after today’s attack on our democracy… I couldn’t go home without seeing the National Archives, where our nation’s founding documents live,” he wrote under a video he shared from outside the National Archives. Andrés called Wednesday “a tragic day for America.”
Hi everybody…what can I say…today was a tragic day for America. I’m here in Bethesda, picking up 120 pizzas to bring to downtown DC to the heroic women & men keeping our city safe tonight. I’m meeting my @WCKitchen team which is also bringing our kitchen truck to support… pic.twitter.com/FmoPedVYeu
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) January 7, 2021
Andrés’ World Central Kitchen has delivered around 50 million meals in more than a dozen countries since it was founded by the Spanish-American chef in 2010. It has also provided millions of meals in the US during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Spanish-American chef launched the “Chefs for The Polls” campaign, during early voting and on Election Day in DC and other cities including Houston, Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, and Milwaukee, handing out free meals to voters waiting in lines through his charity.
When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the region in March 2020, Andrés temporarily shut down his restaurants and turned some of them into community kitchens for those in need.
The World Central Kitchen team also traveled to Japan in February to provide food to the people who were quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship due COVID-19.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Join Forces With DC Chef to Fight Hunger