The 52-year-old chef has been based in the US since 1991, where he runs several restaurants with his group ThinkFoodGroup and has become one of America’s most famous cooks.

However, he is best known for his humanitarian work. Through his nonprofit World Central Kitchen, Spanish chef José Andrés is serving thousands of fresh meals to Ukrainian families.

In Poland, the chef and his team were among the first to arrive to feed the thousands of refugees fleeing the war, providing them with cups of tea and chicken and vegetable soup.

People of the World…Hello from Lviv in Ukraine 🇺🇦 Let me introduce you to one of our incredible @WCKitchen restaurants here! Chef Mike & his team are cooking amazing meals…delivering multiple times each day to the train station, shelters & more in Lviv! Heroes! #ChefsForUkraine pic.twitter.com/Du0571QbMI

— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) March 2, 2022

“Hot meal distribution today in Ukraine at the Rava-Ruska border!,” Andrés said in a tweet on Monday. “Huge lines as people wait to enter Poland.”

World Central Kitchen said it provided 4,000 meals in 18 hours to people in Medyka, Poland.

Hot meal distribution today in Ukraine at the Rava-Ruska border! Huge lines as people wait to enter Poland…@WCKitchen is partnering with Caritas nuns to serve food here & the Shehyni border crossing…We will also bring them additional supplies soon! #ChefsForUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/K0QvLlFIKd

— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) February 28, 2022

The organisation is partnering with Caritas nuns to serve food to refugees, as well as several other organisations, restaurants and bakeries around Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

“Any Ukranian chefs that want to join World Central Kitchen #ChefsforUkraine and help us feed their own people, we are ready to take care of them, we need them,” Andrés posted in a tweet on Saturday. 

The organisation is now present in several Ukranian cities including Kharkiv, where one kitchen was only 500 metres from where a missile hit on Tuesday. “Everyone is okay and they are still cooking, sometimes without lights and hearing the attacking planes overhead,” Andrés wrote.

This is true bravery & courage…I am in awe of these heroes in Kharkiv! One kitchen is only 500 meters from where the missile hit yesterday…Everyone is okay & they are still cooking, sometimes without lights hearing the attacking planes overhead… #ChefsForUkraine 🇺🇦 @WCKitchen https://t.co/ZwXAwRt7mP pic.twitter.com/tbGPCMH8TX

— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) March 2, 2022

Andrés founded World Central Kitchen in 2010, after an earthquake devastated Haiti, and has been busy ever since. The non-profit prepared nearly 4 million meals for residents of Puerto Rico in the wake of hurricane Maria in 2017. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Andrés turned his New York City and Washington, D.C. restaurants into takeaway kitchens where meals cost $10 but diners were encouraged to pay what they could afford.

In 2017 Andrés also made headlines when he was sued by the Trump Organisation, after he refused to work at the company’s new Washington hotel.

He was included in TIME magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in 2018 and was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

Andrés was born in the town of Mieres in Asturias. After going to culinary school in Barcelona, he worked at Ferran Adrià’s restaurant El Bulli. He arrived in New York City at the age of 21, and moved to Washington D.C. to start a Spanish restaurant called Jaleo, which helped popularise tapas in the U.S.

Last year he received the Princesa de Asturias de la Concordia award for his humanitarian work.