-Sometimes I ask myself, "Do you imagine, for a second,
that I didn't follow my instincts
and my thoughts about what's right and what's wrong."
And I only thought about business and business.
Imagine, for a second, I will have my restaurant
and they all will post selfies at the new Trump Hotel.
Imagine for a second that because I will be in the hotel
of who became the President, I will have his ear.
-In the days after Hurricane Maria swept through Puerto Rico,
leaving citizens without food, water or electricity,
master chef Jos? Andr?s arrived with one mission --
feeding people.
His World Central Kitchen
served more than two million meals in about a month.
Years earlier, in 2014,
Andr?s had announced he would open a restaurant in businessman
Donald Trump's forthcoming hotel, in Washington, DC.
At the time, Trump called Andr?s
"one of the very best in the field."
Andr?s said he was "proud to partner with Trump."
But seven months later,
Andr?s decided not to open the restaurant
when the just-declared Presidential candidate
Trump made disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants.
The Trump organization sued Andr?s' restaurant group,
and Andr?s' restaurant group counter-sued.
-Imagine, for a second,
I could have this kind of direct line to the president.
I mean, imagine, for a second,
I was able to communicate with him
and being able to tell him,
"The problem here is bigger than maybe your team
are telling you, Mr. President.
Maybe you are realizing,
and I need you to support me to become the food star."
Imagine, for a second, that he would say yes.
At the very least, we wouldn't be talking
about hungry people in Puerto Rico.
Maybe we will have other issues,
but the hunger wouldn't be an issue.
And you tell me, do I have proof that some people die
because lack of water or hunger?
Yes.
I know maybe other people had issues because water and food.
I know that, for a fact.
Probably I will say that one dead is one dead to many,
because lack of food and water in America today.
So, sometimes, I regret that,
saying if I had better communication.
So, on that front, I get myself on a very high note.
-You can see how emotional Andr?s is over the power
to save lives through food,
as he describes in his book, "We Fed An Island."
This was the first interview he gave,
the day he returned to Washington, DC,
from his first month in Puerto Rico.
Can you tell us a little bit about this photo
and talk about what things were like on the ground
for people in rural areas?
-This is in Lo?za, 30 minutes west of San Juan, by the water.
Every time we'd go, we had -- we still have ten food trucks.
Those are stories, one day, will be told.
Amazing, those food trucks, getting everywhere,
where others were not getting to.
And these two girls will be always there.
Not waiting for a plate of food,
but they will never eat until the last person on the line ate.
And they were there, just helping with the food,
the water,
and there was me who's thanking them
for the amazing service that they were doing.
-Jos? Andr?s came to America to cook.
More than 25 years later,
he's celebrated as a humanitarian.
-"60 Minutes'" Anderson Cooper began his thing of saying,
"He's not a relief expert."
And it's true. I'm n-- It's not my job.
It's not what I do for a living.
-But you did it. -No, it's not my work,
but I didn't put on my curriculum,
but I've been in many hurricanes before.
I've been in -- -The Haitian earthquake.
-In earthquakes before. -Yeah.
-If I was not in all of those situations before,
maybe I wouldn't have the --
the drive to do what we did in Puerto Rico.
We are able to do the most important thing,
which is to gather the food community,
and in the purpose of bringing food relief.
We can say we are first-food responders.
My friend Jean Case gave me that term.
We will become FFR.
-People have been asking Andr?s about his political aspirations.
So I hear you're running for office.
-Yeah, right. The senator's already coming,
saying, "In case you didn't know,
I'm running for Senator, myself.
And you and I, we share the same views.
You should support me."
I'm like, "Really?" -All right, can I read
this quote to you? -Oh [bleep]
-I would not mind running for Senator of Maryland,
because I think we're in need of shaping Congress.
-I think every American should be considering running
for office, especially today.
I think considering to run for office is something very simple.
Everybody has an opinion,
and everybody should be entitled to their opinion.
But I think if you ask yourself, "If I was running for President,
if I was running for Congressman or woman, for Senator,
one, my stand will be on this and this and that issue."
I think it brings a gravitas more
when you're really thinking, "If I was President,
this is what I would do."
There's no use an opinion with no responsibility behind it.
So, I think everybody should be playing this game.
-Yeah, but I -- but you said
that you were thinking about running for office.
-Yeah, they asked me and say, "Would you ever run?"
I'd be like, "Maybe yes.
Why am gonna say no?"
I mean, I'm only 48.
I probably have another 50 years ahead of me, at least.
If I get in shape, 60.
-So, how did a cook from Spain become
a sought-after political candidate in Washington, DC?
He came to America,
for the first time, with the Spanish Navy.
-Was cooking fro the Admiral when he was at home,
which was a great job, because I had
my little apartment in the south part of Spain,
in a little town called San Fernando.
I asked the Admiral to go on a boat,
so he put me on a boat, he grant me that wish,
and was a sailing ship to train the midshipmen.
And they put me as assistant of the second commander.
Cooking on the ship was not easy.
For me to help the second commander,
it gave me more freedom, especially when we went to port.
The boat will become like an embassy.
First time I came America, Pensacola.
-Do you remember something that you ate in Pensacola
and you just thought,
"How am I eating this in America?"
-It was the first time ever, I ate soft-shell crabs,
and, for me, was like, "Wow, this is very cool."
-Were they fried? -Yeah, those were fried,
nice and crunchy.
And that was great, besides the white beaches of Pensacola
and watching the Blue Angels,
all the celebration that was going on,
around the Five Flag celebration.
For me, it was a very amazing moment.
-That was your first time in America?
Pensacola? -First in America, Pensacola.
-Okay, but you came back to America,
and to Washington DC, to start this restaurant, 25 years ago.
-Yeah. -Why Washington, DC?
-I was looking where to belong. So I went to Chicago.
I remember talking to Richard Melman --
the great Richard Melman -- who told me,
"Whatever you do next, throw your anchor over the ship,
and it stay there, no matter what."
That was one of the best advice anybody has given me.
-Through food, Jos? brought
his idyllic childhood in Spain to America.
Every family in Spain cook at home, 33 years ago,
because the middle class was up-and-coming.
People would go every day to the market,
and people will cook every day.
And restaurants, or something that look like restaurants,
I can tell you, no nice-looking restaurants like these.
It was more a diner in a gas station.
But that, to me, looked like the restaurant.
That was for the special occasions.
In becoming 15, leaving home,
and going to work restaurants when I was 16,
this is the first time I began eating, in the kitchen,
the plates that we were serving
to the people in the dining room.
The town I grew up was 2,000 people,
45 minutes away from Barcelona.
Whatever was the catch of the day,
in the port that day, is what they would bring.
And again, you will only buy what you are going to cook.
-Andr?s was approached to open a Spanish restaurant
at a time when Spanish cuisine was not well-known in America.
Andr?s is now credited with bring small-plates
tapas eating to the United States.
Jaleo, now 25 years old,
was in a then-transitioning area of Washington, DC,
that is currently one of the most desirable
locations in the city.
-They told me, "We're opening this Spanish restaurant.
We're looking for a chef."
Drug dealers across the street.
Nobody at night.
Nobody walking, nobody driving.
I was like, "Really? A Spanish restaurant here?
Great."
And they had a vision of the Spanish cooking,
and restaurants like this can have such a bigger
input in a city.
And the neighborhood can help define the DNA of the city.
A restaurant like this can become a pumping heart.
Right in this chair, right in this bar
is where Patrick Moynihan sat,
the first time that we were open.
He began telling me, "Jos?, if you love America,
America will love you back."
Maybe he's the guy I go to, involving politics.
A restaurant like this, a lot of things can happen.
It's an amazing adventure of the living history of our city,
even if you don't realize.
It's a microcosm of who we are.
That's why I love to go into restaurants
and sometimes sit on the bar and just look around,
because it's just every second is a movie in the making.
Yeah, I mean, I always said that I don't open business.
I tell the stories.
I wish that I didn't have so many stories to tell.
-You're exhausted.
-Because life would be easier just doing the Spanish cooking,
probably, but my life wouldn't be as rich.