Spanish super-chef serves hot meals to Ukraine refugees

SPANISH celebrity chef José Andrés is on the Poland-Ukraine border handing out hot meals to refugees fleeing the latter country.

After reaching the frontier fence in Medyka at around 18.00 CET on Thursday, the US-based restaurateur had dished up over 4,000 dinners by noon the following day.

José, 52, is known for being one of the first on the scene whenever a disaster, natural or human-driven, occurs, in order to keep those affected well-nourished.

From the Haïti earthquake to the Beirut explosion, from Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas to government workers left without their wages following ex-president Donald Trump's shutdown, the star chef and his team from his charity World Central Kitchen get straight into the eye of the storm - literally, in many cases – and sets up his portable stove, cooking and hand-delivering meals.

Originally from Mieres, Asturias, José Ramón Andrés Puerta moved to the USA when he was 22 and runs a string of élite eateries across the country, although he focuses almost as much on his disaster relief as he does on the businesses that keep his bills paid.

After Amazon boss Jeff Bezos gave him €85 million for World Central Kitchen last autumn, Andrés went on to win the 2021 Concordance Prize in the Princess of Asturias Awards, which he said he intended to spend on helping victims of the La Palma volcanic eruption.

Working around the clock in sub-zero temperatures as Ukrainians – including small children, the elderly and people who are sick, pregnant or disabled – stand in line in a bid to get through the border into Poland and the European Union, José Andrés said, in a video he uploaded to his Twitter page: “People just keep on coming.”

“It is below freezing tonight and I am meeting so many refugees, families who are escaping and don't know what's next...we will do our best not to let them down,” he wrote.

In his video, he says: “These families are cold. They've brought with them whatever they can carry, which is normally just a suitcase. There are children coming. All I see is people trying to escape the war.”

Reporting on Friday at midday, he wrote on his World Central Kitchen Twitter site (@WCKitchen): “As snow fell in Medyka today, the WCK team served 4,000 hot meals over 18 hours.

“Tonight we are setting up a tent and tomorrow will begin providing meals 24 hours a day as families continue to cross the bortder at all hours of the night in search of safety.”

He has also investigated rumours that the Polish border guards were allegedly refusing entry to black people.

“I've spoken with many people who are originally from African countries and I can say that the reports I've received, and from what I've seen, they are indeed letting them through,” José Andrés admits.

“At least, here, at the border entry point in Medyka, which is linked to Ukraine via the M-11 route, they are treating the refugees well and showing them respect.”