José Andrés

Jose Andres was a Spanish-American chef who owned nearly a dozen of the most popular restaurants in the United States. Born and raised in the Northern Region of Spain, Andres' love of cooking was apparent at a very young age. Having spent countless hours in his family's kitchen, learning the art of cooking simply by doing it, he decided to dedicate his life to cooking by enrolling in school. He started attending the prestigious Barcelona cooking school, known as the School of Restaurants and Hotels, where he trained with some of Spain's most esteemed chefs. After graduating from the school Andres worked at various popular restaurants in Spain, including El Bulli, where he would hone and develop his craft. Wanting a new challenge, Andres moved to America in his late 20s where he hoped to own and operate his own restaurant. He settled in Washington, D.C. and within a few years was running the popular restaurant Café Atlantico in the nation's capital. The popularity of Café Atlantico allowed Andrew to expand beyond D.C. and he soon opened restaurants in major cities all across the country, most notably Los Angles, Miami and Philadelphia. His restaurants were known for their small plates, or tapas, which is popular in Spain, and by the late 2000s Andres was largely responsible for the tapas boom in America. In addition to owning and operating several successful restaurants in America, throughout his career Andres also wrote several cook books and appeared as a guest various American talk shows and cooking shows. His biggest honor came in September of 2016 when President Barack Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal, one of the nation's highest honors for those working in creative fields.