Jose Andres ThinkFoodGroup
notes: label: Description
content: Chef José Andrés wore this chef’s coat while preparing meals at Oyamel Cocina Mexicana in Washington, DC, as evident by the food stains appearing on each sleeve. He kept the jacket on a hook near the restaurant entrance, located one block away from ThinkFoodGroup offices. The white coat features the chef’s name and “ThinkFoodGroup” embroidered in brown on the left shoulder. Founded in 1993, ThinkFoodGroup is the umbrella company which oversees Andrés’s restaurants in Washington, D.C., New York City, Las Vegas, and Miami, among others. While Chef Andrés has become known for his work in food relief and disaster aid, this coat shows his continued hands-on involvement in the restaurants which bear his name. Chef Andrés donated this item along with several other artifacts to the Smithsonian after he was awarded the Julia Child Award in 2019.
label: Description
content: After immigrating to the United States in 1990 at age 21, José Andrés established and expanded several restaurants in and around the Washington, D.C. area, including the popular tapas restaurant Jaleo. He founded the nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK) in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where the organization prepared and distributed food to Haitians in need. In addition to its work feeding islanders in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, WCK has supplied food for first responders and families after wildfires in California, in South Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018, and to furloughed federal employees in January 2019.
label: Description
content: ThinkFoodGroup works closely with World Central Kitchen and other nonprofits to provide food relief and community support, in line with the company’s mission: “To Change the World Through the Power of Food.” On March 15, 2020, as confirmed cases of Covid-19 spiked in the United States, Chef Andrés announced that ThinkFoodGroup restaurants in the D.C. area would close for the safety of employees and customers. Five of these restaurants, including America Eats Tavern and Zaytinya, were transformed into community kitchens and offered flexibly priced carryout meals prepared and distributed by volunteers.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2019.0224.04
label: catalog number
content: 2019.0224.04
label: accession number
content: 2019.0224
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coat, chef
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall (flat): 34 1/4 in x 27 1/2 in; 86.995 cm x 69.85 cm
label: Measurements
content: sleeves (flat): 26 in x 5 in; 66.04 cm x 12.7 cm