Change the Recipe: Because You Can't Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs

by José Andrés

there is something noble, creative, humble, and fundamentally human about cooking.

That’s what it means to change the recipe. When all else fails, or the situation cannot be fixed, you need to adapt. On the go, in real time.

To fix the broken parts of our world, you often need to break the rules.

You don’t need the best ingredients in life to create a special dish or a lasting memory.

Sometimes you want to take the lead before you’re ready, before you know how to lead. Sometimes you take the lead and you still have lots to learn about how to lead. Control your fire. Master the fire. Master yourself and identify the source of energy within you. Understand what you’re good at doing and what you love to do. Then you can do whatever you want.

That’s when I started to realize that I loved this idea of dreaming bigger, of doing anything I wanted. Nothing was going to be given to me; I just had to make it happen. Opportunities lay all around. It was up to me to seize them, and to enjoy every moment.

life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

You should never let slip the opportunity to tell the world what you want. Nothing will happen if you’re the only one who knows.

When you’re starting the journey of your adult life— or any time you’re on the verge of starting something new—you need to dream about your new horizons. Those dreams may be vague or confused, romantic or idealistic. But they provide purpose and direction, a sense of who you are and where you’re headed. Don’t settle for the comfortable or the familiar. That will always be the safety net for a circus performer. You will surprise yourself only if you take some risks and shoot for the stars.

Something will always go wrong, and we will surely make many mistakes. The only thing we can do is to step up. Yes, somebody else might solve it for us. But it’s better if we can be the one to fix the mayhem we created.

even without a single reservation on the books. Every moment was an opportunity to train and improve.

cooking is a universal language: you can talk to anyone by sharing a plate of food.

You will wander along many small roads until you find your own highway.

We don’t need to be that extreme to be innovative. But we do need to take risks, to be fearless, to embrace failure, and to test our own ideas in a boiling-hot pot of oil. We need to write new recipes, to open new doors, to find new ways. The desire to search for what comes next needs to be found deep inside yourself. You are the only person who can stop you from finding the wonders of your true self.

“I want to work for you,” I said with a big smile on my face. “You don’t work for anybody,” he replied. “You work with somebody.”

When you keep moving, opportunities start to pop up for you.

when you’re young, don’t hesitate. Don’t harbor any doubts. Just be happy, or move on.

The reality is that you need to keep learning in any line of work.

Follow what you feel is your purpose—not what others tell you to do. Otherwise you lose your soul and become a commodity. Don’t be a commodity. Be true to yourself.

You cannot expect excitement to come to you if you keep your distance and accept other people’s opinions.

There’s always food somewhere. There’s always a kitchen somewhere. There’s always a gas cylinder or generator somewhere. More importantly, there’s always the empathy and willingness to help people somewhere.

Listening will get you far in life, no matter what your calling is. If you’re listening, you’re learning and growing your understanding of the world.

I always dreamed of creating a real-world version of the fairy-tale pot that could feed the world: an infinite supply of goodness that would end hunger for everyone.

You don’t destroy the local economy when you come to help; you revive it. You help people get back on their feet by feeding them and employing them at the same time. Otherwise, you end up doing what the world did in Haiti: you dump so much free food that you put the local farmers out of business.

the fierce urgency of now.

I like to say that World Central Kitchen is the biggest organization in the world. Because, even if they don’t know it yet, every single restaurant in the world could be part of World Central Kitchen. Every single cook, every farmer, every delivery driver. They don’t know it, but we do. Because we will find them and work with them to expand the idea and the reach of what we do together.

I don’t want to know who people are or what they did. I only want to know what I see them doing. Because for me, that’s the most powerful thing.

You don’t overvalue people, and you don’t undervalue people. You just take them at face value with what they are doing on the ground in the moment.

With a strong team of soulmates, you can do amazing things. What you need to do is find those people, and build that team—the rest will look after itself. Don’t worry about looking for them. These kinds of people have a way of finding you, because they want to help their own community.

Cooking makes us human. It’s what separates us from every other animal on the planet. We are the only species to cook our food.

People are more resolved to solve problems than the leaders and experts above them, who often seem to be detached from reality.

I’m a big believer in leaders living where the problems are.

Titles are only good for the paper they are printed on. Real experts wear dirty boots because they have real-world experience and talk to real people.

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. —MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.,

If you’re hungry for stories, you can learn so much about where we’ve come from—and where we’re going. You can and you should read those stories. But you also should show up, with your bare feet in the sand, or your knife and fork in your hands, and feel those stories for yourself. Because you are part of the next chapter of those stories.

Only at the end do you realize that there are never right or wrong decisions. The wrong decisions are the ones you never made. So whatever decision you make, go with it. You will always have time to correct yourself, because if you’re on the move, you will have other opportunities. If you stay in one place, you won’t get that chance.

Small actions have a huge ripple effect that you are not able to understand in the moment but that affect the future in ways that could change the world.

There is a purpose in finding your purpose. It takes time and work.