José Andrés is just like most good fathers: He makes sure his kids are fed, embarrasses them with dad jokes and drags them on road trips. The only difference is that instead of filming it all himself, Andrés brings a full camera crew. (And he’s the founder of global charity giant World Central Kitchen.)
Premiering tonight on Discovery+, Andrés’ new show, José Andrés and Family in Spain, follows the chef and his three Generation Z daughters—Carlota, Inés and Lucia—as they travel across Spain, exploring the culinary corners of his homeland.
“This show should not be José Andrés and Family, but Carlota, Inés and Lucia and Their Father,” Andrés joked earlier this month at his Think Food Group’s Mercado Little Spain in New York, where he was hosting a launch party (not for the first time).
“This show is about more than Spain—even the ones that really know me will say I gotta tell you that everything began in Spain, period,” said Andrés. “But this show is to say [that during] this pandemic that we've all been together with friends and family, enjoying each other for a moment: cooking, breathing and singing together, through good times and not so good times. Going through a lifetime experience that hopefully we’ll never experience again …. Now, we’re going to start traveling, seeing the world, making longer tables, and there was no better place to show this than in Spain.”
In the six-episode series, Andrés guides his daughters through a celebration of Spanish culture and gastronomy, visiting chefs, artisans and friends from his past including legendary chef Ferran Adrià. The girls are independent and intelligent, taking each new adventure in stride whether that be paragliding across volcanoes in the Canary Islands or dining on Valencian paella rich with rabbit, getting crash courses from the locals with every new spot. While watching the girls milk goats for Andalusian cheese is exciting enough, the show is accented perfectly by all of the wide, excited expressions of Andrés senior, still finding amazement as he eats (probably his millionth) "bikini" sandwich or croqueta.
“This show is building bridges, understanding that the people that are not like us are not our enemies. The people that are not like us are actually the people that can enrich us, that can make us better. That can help us say this world is a beautiful place,” said Andrés. “The show is not really about Spain even though it is about Spain. This show is saying that the world is open, and that in 2023 this world is going to be anything we want it to be.”
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