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José Andrés has seemingly done it all: The renowned chef has earned Michelin stars, James Beard Awards, Emmys, honorary degrees from Harvard and Georgetown and even the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
But one new venture was checked off his list with the opening of his first Silicon Valley restaurant, Zaytinya, at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto late last year. Zaytinya offers Mediterranean fare in the tapas dining style, encompassing cuisines from Turkey, Greece and Lebanon.
Zaytinya was also the setting for my recent conversation with Andrés about his new cookbook, “Spain My Way,” the state of the restaurant industry and more.
During our hourlong conversation, Andrés would pause to chat with patrons wanting to thank him for a wonderful meal and critique the food that was brought out to us. (“One thing is to do the manicure. Other thing is to do Robespierre,” he said to a chef while pointing at the crudite’s lack of stems.)
Andrés answered questions about everything from what he would tell his younger self to the future of Spanish food in America. This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Peninsula Foodist: Why create another Spanish cookbook?
José Andrés: It’s always so many stories. One book is never enough to put all the stories, and it’s a recipe book that happens as stories. At the end of the day, I always say that I’m a storyteller, really. Restaurants are storytelling. (They are) ways for chefs to express themselves.
PF: Where do you see Spanish food in America heading?
JA: One of the best traits, personalities of America (is that) America is so many things at once, is how open it is to embrace its own identity, but (also) to embrace the identities of others.
Now we are in a moment that we are even second guessing if immigration is the future of America or not. America is the most diverse country for food. How many places in the world have Ethiopian restaurants, Afghan restaurants, Turkish restaurants, Japanese restaurants? It’s fascinating, and this is an asset for America.
PF: What challenges do new restaurant owners face today?
JA: Right now, the world is living a roller coaster, and this has (a) negative impact, especially on the small business owners, the small restaurants. And obviously, the shortage of labor is real.
I think the pandemic has rewritten a lot of rules (about) what people want to do with their time. We need to make sure the restaurant industry is not only a pathway for people going from A to Z, but it’s a place that a lot of people want to stay.
I think all of us, and obviously every single restaurant owner of one or more restaurants, we have the responsibility of trying to see how we (can) create better models for a sustainable restaurant industry, not only for the restaurant and the restaurant owners and the restaurant employees, but everything that runs the restaurant, which is the farmers.
PF: What are your thoughts on surcharges?
JA: We need to make sure our guests come to the restaurants and pay one price. And if we have to add extra (costs), put them through the price structure of the menus. … I think restaurateurs sometimes feel they are pressured to put these extra surcharges as a way to say, “This is out of my control. I wish I didn’t have to. I don’t want to increase the price on my menu, therefore I put the surcharge, so you understand that it’s against my own will.”
PF: What do you think the world needs more of right now?
JA: I think the world needs more people that believe that we need to be investing in the well-being of the voiceless, the well-being of the poor. Some people confuse it with communism. I think the future of America, the new American dream, is not only to work to provide for your own and make yourself and your people successful, but I think the new American dream is to make the people you don’t know successful as well.
Because life is like a lottery. Some are born with the winning ticket numbers, and others don’t even have access to the lottery ticket. … I will only ask everybody to be more thoughtful in the way we put our philanthropy investment dollars, where philanthropy is not anymore a redemption of the giver, but philanthropy is about the liberation of the receiver.
PF: I know that you immigrated to the U.S. at 21 years old. If you were able to speak to your younger self right when you were deciding to move here, what would you say?
JA: Study more business, business, business. And if I didn’t study business, bring (a) business mindset closer to you, quicker and faster.
PF: What do you ultimately aim to achieve with your restaurants? What is your goal?
JA: If you asked me before, when I was young, I will make sure I save money, I will buy an island, I will open a restaurant (and) you will only come by boat. It’ll be only open four months every year, probably. That’s what I will enjoy, or (being) on a boat with a restaurant, then I sail the world. I go to a port or a beautiful island, and I will open every other month on one island around the world.
Maybe I’ll end up doing that. You come to see me, only 24 seats, maybe 12, maybe six. I’ll be hunting or fishing, or scuba diving, probably.
PF: So if that was your dream back then, what is your dream right now?
JA: Go feed the world. The dream is to make sure in a world of plenty, nobody’s hungry. I’m 56. I don’t know if I’m gonna fail, but I know it’s a lot of people that believe in the same dream, many of them here in Palo Alto. So I’m gonna keep pushing to make sure that we invest the time, the resources (and) the money to accomplish that.
Zaytinya, 180 El Camino Real, Suite EE 1400, Palo Alto; 650-203-2000, Instagram: @zaytinya. Open Monday and Tuesday from 4-9 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4-9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4-10 p.m.
“Spain My Way” can be ordered through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop or Indigo.
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