Vest worn by Chef Jose Andres
notes: label: Description
content: Chef José Andrés wore this vest while coordinating relief efforts in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria’s destructive path. Adorned with ten pockets in total, this fly-fisherman’s vest provided the kind of storage and versatility needed during the long hours of working through the crisis. As Chef Andrés traveled across the island, the individual compartments allowed him to carry the tools he needed to conduct his important work, including essential satellite phones, food, and cash. Images from the island show him wearing the vest while serving rice and beans, delivering medicine, and standing knee deep in river water attempting to reach remote islanders after a bridge collapse. He went on to utilize this vest while assisting victims of the December 2017 wildfires in Ventura, California.
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 in Puerto Rico, WCK has supplied food for first responders and families after several different fires in California, in South Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018, and to those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and India (2020-2021).
label: Description
content: Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, and caused additional damage on Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and the US Virgin Islands. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Red Cross began organizing in the days after, Chef Andrés saw a need for dedicated food relief and marshalled the forces of World Central Kitchen to assemble and distribute millions of meals during the first months of recovery following the hurricane. Later that year, WCK built a team of chefs to cook for first responders and families affected by wildfires and subsequent mudslides in Southern California.
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: 2019.0224.01
label: catalog number
content: 2019.0224.01
label: accession number
content: 2019.0224
objectType: label: Object Name
content: vest, fisherman's
label: Object Name
content: vest
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall (flat): 22 1/2 in x 24 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in; 57.15 cm x 62.23 cm x 3.81 cm