Chef Jose Andres: Fruits and Vegetables: "Unbelievably Sexy," Meat: "Overrated"

When I sat down to watch 60 Minutes on CBS, I was taken with chef Jose Andres' words, largely not because he is a vegan or vegetarian chef, but more precisely, because he isn't. See what he tells a skeptical Anderson Cooper.


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"I believe the future is vegetables and fruit. They are so much more sexier than a piece of chicken."

"Let's compare a chicken breast, the best chicken breast from the best farm with a beautiful pineapple. Cut the pineapple, already the aromas are inundating the entire kitchen, has acidity, a sour afternote, touches of passionfruit. The chicken breast, it's okay."

"Meat is overrated. Meat to me is slightly boring. I love meat too, but only once in a while. You have a piece of meat and you put it in your mouth you chew the first five seconds all the juices flow around your mouth they're gone and then you are 20 more seconds chewing something that is tasteless at this point. Something like this doesn't happen with a pineapple or an asparagus or a green pea."

Thoughtful words for us to ponder, considering how meat-centric most people are. So many cannot imagine a meal without meat. I cannot a imagine a meal with it.

I also loved that he volunteers at the DC Central Kitchen, which has a 12-week training program for homeless and other in-need citizens. He says, "Chefs of America, we should be more outspoken about the way we are feeding America, not only about what I'm feeding them in my restaurant or in the great restaurants of America. It's only one, two or three percent of the Americans that eat in those restaurants. We should be more committed about the other 97 percent of Americans that don't come to our restaurants."

Jose Andres, a wise man. Read the full story.