Beyond Bazaar: José Andrés Feeds Los Angeles and the World
With two Michelin stars, a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, recognition as one of Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People' and several James Beard awards, José Andrés is a well-recognized visionary in the food world. On Jan. 4, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, in recognition of his humanitarian work with his organization World Central Kitchen, which provides meals to people during times of disaster and war. Of course, that was under the Biden administration and just a few weeks later newly-elected President Trump included Andrés on his social media post about "fired" presidential council heads, suggesting he'd removed his title helming the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. Andrés responded soon after that he had submitted his resignation weeks before as his two year term in the position has already concluded.No matter what honors he receives or side projects he may take on moving forward, when it comes to feeding people, the Spain-born chef continues to push himself. Feeding those in need is always top of mind, but his passion and innovation for upscale restaurant environments continues to captivate.
His inventive dishes and eclectic atmospheres have made his restaurants hits all around the country, in cities including Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas; Miami; New York; Chicago; and L.A.; as well as international destinations like Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Mexico City.The revered restaurateur is continuing to expand his empire and set to make an even bigger impact here with two new concepts at The Shay hotel in Culver City: Zaytinya, opened in December with Butterfly following soon after. Bazaar Meat is set to open later this year at Downtown's mixed-use development The Grand LA, where they'll be serving fresh takes on Andrés famed tapas-inspired dishes.Many first became familiar with the chef from The Bazaar, his Beverly Hills restaurant known for its wild and whimsical menu featuring flavor fusions, unique presentations and displays of molecular gastronomy. Opened in 2008, it was the JAG restaurant group's first project outside of D.C. and a popular special occasion locale at the SLS Hotel until it closed in 2020. In 2022, he made his return to L.A. with San Laurel at the new Conrad Los Angeles, where he also helms the food and beverage program at the hotel's Airlight pool, Alto (formerly Agua Viva) rooftop and The Beaudry Room lounge.
'I remember being there with Frank Gehry the first time he showed me that space,' Andrés recalls of the Conrad, set within The Grand complex that the famed architect designed. 'He said, 'I make buildings that will be better buildings if they have a heart. And I need you, José, to become the heart.'' He describes the still-thriving San Laurel as 'a little bit of Spain meets California — good food that travelers and locals alike can come to have.''We're doing Bazaar Meat because we wanted to do something different. I didn't want to clone what we did in L.A. before,' says Andrés, who has outposts of the high-end steakhouse in Las Vegas and Chicago. 'It's going to be a hybrid of what people used to love from the old Bazaar and not just meat, but we'll be doing grills [with] vegetables.'
Zaytinya brings his soulful cooking and innovation to a more Mediterranean menu — with Turkish, Greek and Lebanese influences — and it already boasts locations in New York, South Beach and D.C. '[It's] a concept that I believe will do very well here and it's a brand that has done very well for me from the day I created it,' Andrés says.Influences from his native Spain will always infuse Andrés' cuisine and he strives to bring fun, creative elements to every dish. Case in point: his buttery jamón ibérico de bellota cinco jotas ('hand-cut from the famous acorn-fed, black-footed Spanish pig'), which is served at San Laurel on a plate adorned with a small portrait of the pig's likeness.'I think there's creativity from the eyes of a chef that began his career in Spain, right?' says Andrés, who has upcoming openings in Palo Alto, Arizona and Vegas. He'll make his first foray into residential luxury developments in West Palm Beach, debut a hotel in Georgetown and publish his next cookbook, Change the Recipe: Because You Can't Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs) in April 2025 — all while continuing his humanitarian work.
About how that work might be impacted by the new president, Andrés told Los Angeles in an interview before Trump re-entered office, "Even in my own family, we disagree. You know, I've had my own personal issues with President Trump about immigrants and division of immigrants to America," he explains. "I hold my ground in the same way he holds his. I will say that during the pandemic, the first thing I did was go to the Department of Agriculture to meet with all the top team there to see how World Central Kitchen could help take care of people. The same week, I ended up in the White House speaking to President Trump about ideas and steps to take care of Americans that were going to be going through hardships. At the end of the day, I put country over personal thoughts or politics or anything. I've met with Republican and Democratic presidents. I've fed both.""You don't run a country when you go for the vote. You run a country when every single citizen, in one way or another, involves himself in development of your community, development of your country, that's what we all should do," he adds. "Respecting each other or respecting each other's views without trashing or bringing down anybody else because he has different ideas than you. In this case, if you respect me, I will respect you. If you respect others, I will respect you. That's my mantra."
Respect may be the key to his success — in the culinary community and beyond, but the chef's gift for combining flavors is what's made his restaurants so popular. 'Food is about ingredients — about fruits, vegetables, meat and spices,' he says. 'I think the main thing is, 'let's make food that's good,' and everything else just rights itself."In addition to Bazaar Meat, Andrés is also looking forward to restaurant openings in Palo Alto and Arizona this year. He just opened Bazaar Mar in Las Vegas, In 2027 he'll make his first foray into residential luxury developments in West Palm Beach and a hotel to be called The Bazaar House in Georgetown.All this while he continues his humanitarian work. In addition to helping during the L.A. fires, WCK is also currently in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza. He's also preparing to release his new book, Change the Recipe: Because You Can't Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs in April, which he describes as stories about how to manage and adapt when things don't go as we plan in life, 'just change the recipe and you'll be ok.' More info on José Andrés new concepts at Culver City's The Shay Hotel, Downtown's The Grand L.A., and much more at joseandres.com.
A shorter version of this story first appeared in the January 2025 issue of Los Angeles magazine, on newsstands now; click here to subscribe today.
_
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Lamine Yamal and the curious finish which shows why he is different
Lamine Yamal again. Adrien Rabiot again. Left-footed goals again. On a wild night in Stuttgart, where Spain and France played a game of basketball on a football pitch, the storyline had a familiar narrative running through it in more ways than one. It was 331 days ago when Yamal scored that goal against France in the European Championship semi-finals, his left foot sumptuously curling the ball into the top corner from 25 yards out, leaving Rabiot wishing that he had not only got across quicker to try to block the shot but that he had also chosen his words much more carefully the night before the game. Advertisement 'If you want to play at a Euro final, you need to do more than he has done up until now,' the France midfielder said about Yamal, who was 16 years old at the time. 'Move in silence, only speak when it's time to say checkmate,' Yamal replied on Instagram. Yamal posted again after scoring his wonder goal against France: 'Checkmate'. Eleven months later it was Rabiot who scythed down Yamal from behind for a penalty that the 17-year old calmly converted. What is it with teenagers constantly wanting to have the last word, eh? Except Yamal wasn't quite finished. His second goal against France, 13 minutes later, put Spain 4-1 up and made him the standout candidate for the player-of-the-match award. But it was a curious and highly unusual finish. Well, unusual for anyone else, but maybe not for Yamal. Some data first. In competitive games for club and country at senior level, Yamal has scored 31 goals and 29 of them have been with his left foot. His right foot isn't, to borrow that old cliche, just for standing on. But it's fair to say that he doesn't use it much, which is why Philipp Lahm said what he did when he told The Athletic in April how he would try to mark Yamal. 'He has to be on his weaker foot at all times. He cannot have any space,' Lahm, the former Germany international, said. One of Yamal's two weaker-foot goals came in Barcelona's 4-0 victory at the Bernabeu in October, after which he joked: 'Real Madrid's players didn't know that I have a right foot too! I had to use it when needed.' It looked like it would also be required against France in the UEFA Nations League semi-final on Thursday night, when Yamal broke into the penalty area in the second half after running onto a first-time pass from Pedro Porro. Holding off a challenge from the France centre-back Clement Lenglet — that wiry frame of Yamal's is deceptively strong — and with the angle against him, he somehow managed to slip the ball past the goalkeeper Mike Maignan. From a vantage point high up on the opposite side of the stadium — in other words, a long way from the goal — the first instinct was that Yamal had scored with his right foot, primarily because that was how it looked in the blink of an eye. Indeed, that was still the assumption when a slow motion replay started to be shown on the screen, partly because of the position of the ball but also the fact that the France centre-back Clement Lenglet was on the inside of Yamal rather than the outside. By going with his left foot, Yamal surely risked the shot being blocked. At least that was the theory. Yamal had other ideas and instead of taking the more conventional route and shooting with his right, he prodded the ball beyond Maignan with his left. It appeared as though the ball was almost pushed, which is why the soleplate of his boot is visible afterwards – Yamal has to work so hard to get enough purchase on the ball to send it past Maignan using this technique that his leg ends up horizontal after making contact. It looks strange when you watch it back but it was hugely effective and perhaps also goes some way to explaining why Maignan seemed to be caught slightly off guard and beaten in a way that you wouldn't expect him to be in that scenario. In fact, the France goalkeeper ended up diving after the ball was already past him, which suggests that Yamal had taken him by surprise with such an unorthodox and instinctive finish. It is also — and this is an area of his game where he is so different from his former Barcelona team-mate Ousmane Dembele, who genuinely has no idea which is his stronger foot — an example of how Yamal doesn't suffer at all from being so dependent on his left. Why? First things first, his left foot is obviously a thing of beauty, whether passing, shooting or dribbling. There was a moment late in the France game, which Spain won 5-4, when Yamal was performing pirouettes in the centre of the pitch, the ball glued to his left foot to such an extent that the opposition left-back Theo Hernandez decided to change sport. Cue a rugby tackle. Secondly, Yamal is able to improvise and use his left foot in so many different ways, including the 'trivela' – an outside-of-the-boot shot or pass that he executes brilliantly over a range of distances. Yamal is able to do that with such precision, that it doesn't just negate the need to use his right, but at times it's actually more efficient to play the ball with the outside of his left because it's naturally in his stride pattern. Inevitably at this point the mind wanders to other predominantly one-footed players, including everyone from Diego Maradona to Arjen Robben and Ricardo Quaresma. Ultimately, though, Yamal is one of a kind or, as the Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi recently put it, 'one of those talents that appear once every 50 years'. Advertisement Against France, on his 20th cap for Spain, Yamal upstaged Dembele, one of his rivals for the Ballon d'Or, and Kylian Mbappe and Desire Doue too. Next up for him is Cristiano Ronaldo, when Spain take on Portugal in the UEFA Nations League final in Munich on Sunday. Ronaldo, for context, was another six months away from playing his first international match at Yamal's age. (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
CNBC
3 hours ago
- CNBC
Where a Michelin-starred Japanese chef eats, drinks and shops in Tokyo
Shingo Akikuni is best known as the chef at SHINGO, a one-Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant in Miami. He grew up in Japan and returns yearly as a visitor. The fourth-generation sushi chef told CNBC Travel how he spends his time there. Ginza Sushi Aoki Akikuni's first recommendation is where he was trained as a chef. The restaurant — which was opened over 50 years ago — is led by a chef who "makes himself available for not only locals, but also people that are visiting from abroad," Akikuni said through a translator. Noda For more contemporary flavors, Akikumi recommends visitors try fusion restaurants run by chefs who were trained in different parts of the world. One such restaurant is Noda, which marries Japanese techniques and ingredients with French influence. "In addition to the cooking, he really loves the wine pairing," his translator told CNBC Travel. Restaurant reservations are usually made over the phone in Japan, Akikuni said. To avoid language barriers, he recommends that travelers make reservations through their hotel concierge. Toranomon Yokocho Akikuni also suggests eating at a Yokocho, an alleyway lined with street vendors and bars. Toranomon Yokocho, a newer food center in Japan, is a modern take on the Yokocho concept — although it is set up in a "nice development," he said. Food there goes beyond Japanese cuisine, and visitors can "try a little bit of everything all in one place." Good Music Bar Akikuni recommends the vinyl music bar with an extensive record collection and live acts from Monday to Saturday. The bar has great cocktails, a high-quality sound system and is big enough for groups of friends, he said. Kasumicho Arashi The hidden bar is known for its fruit-based cocktails, Akikuni said. It's tucked in the basement of a house in the residential area of Nishiazabu. The speakeasy incorporates "great farm fresh items" in its menu, he said. The SG Club This one is owned by Shingo Gokan, whom Akikuni called "one of the most famous bartenders of this generation." Gokan, who won the 2021 Industry Icon Award from the World's 50 Best organization, also owns a speakeasy, Sip & Guzzle, in New York City. The bar, which "has been popular for a long time," has three unique floors with different menus and a cigar room, Akikuni said. Tokyo offers many spots for sightseeing, and Akikuni's favorites are the Meiji Jingu Shrine and the Toyosu Fish Market. Meiji Jingu Shrine The shrine — arguably Tokyo's most famous — is a must-see, he said. The shrine was built in 1920 in the busy neighborhood of Shibuya. "It's a great break from the hustle and bustle of the city," he said. It's free to enter and lies within a man-made forest. It opens around sunrise and closes around sunset. Toyosu Market Akikuni said he visits the Toyosu Fish Market every time he's in Tokyo. At the market — the largest in Japan, at around 4 million square feet — he sees the vendors and suppliers who stock his Miami restaurant, he said. The early morning tuna auction is a popular attraction there. Visitors can ballot for the chance to view the auction up close, according to Japan National Tourism Organization's website. In January, a 608-pound bluefin tuna was sold for around $1.3 million dollars – the second-highest price paid since the auction began in 1999. Visitors who do not win the lottery can still watch buyers bid for their choice from farther away, and also buy some fresh fish for breakfast after. Toyosu Fish Market is known as the "best in the world," but fewer people know about the Toyosu Fruit and Vegetable Market, Akikuni said. "Japanese people generally are very dedicated to whatever craft that they have," he said. "So if they're a strawberry farmer, they're trying to grow the very best strawberries." Omotesando and Harajuku While the neighborhood of Ginza is home to many international brands, Akikuni recommends shopping on Omotesando or in the neighborhood of Harajuku instead. Both have stores that visitors will "only find in Tokyo," he said. Omotesando, referred to as the Champs Élysées of Tokyo, is an avenue with iconic Japanese fashion houses like Comme des Garçons and Issey Miyake. It's also home to Omotesando Hills, a shopping complex with more than 130 shops. Harajuku, however, is known for its subculture and quirky fashion. Both areas are walkable and easy to explore, said Akikuni, with vintage shops where visitors can pick up luxury and trendy pieces. The Imperial Hotel and Aoyama Grand Tokyo Akikuni prefers two hotels in Tokyo, both of which offer different experiences. The Imperial Hotel is close to the Royal Palace. It opened in 1890 to welcome foreign visitors, according to the hotel's website. The traditional concept of Japanese hospitality — or "omotenashi" — is what draws him to the hotel, Akinkuni said. It's like looking "into the past of how the standard of hospitality was created" in the country, he said. The contemporary Aoyama Grand Tokyo is a good option for shopping in Harajuku or Omotesando. It's close to both neighborhoods and the food is excellent, he said.
Bloomberg
4 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Portugal Considers Sweetening Incentives for Golden Visa Program
Less than two months after Spain scrapped its golden visa due to concerns about its effect on the housing market, Portugal is considering whether to sweeten its golden visa program and make a special tax regime for expatriates even more attractive. Minister of the Presidency Antonio Leitao Amaro said in an interview that the measures being discussed would aim to bolster foreign investment and lure global talent to Portugal's economy.
