Feeding Dangerously: On the Ground with José Andrés and World Central Kitchen
José Andrés and Steve Orlando
Illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli
TKO Studios
Published January 10, 2024
Amazon | World Central Kitchen | Goodreads
About Feeding Dangerously: On the Ground with José Andrés and World Central Kitchen
Join Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen for the incredible story of how their mission began and expanded across the globe, serving millions of meals in the most dangerous conditions to bring comfort and hope, one plate at a time.
Natural disasters strike in all corners of the world, relentless and massive in strength. When relief pours in, it’s often focused on supplies, medicine, and reconstruction. Food is so often an afterthought. Who feeds the survivors? Who feeds the first responders? And how can a simple dish rebuild a devastated community?
My Review
World Central Kitchen is one of the charities our family has supported multiple times (and will continue to support), so when I saw this book coming out, I knew I wanted to read it. The images are so colorful, and the text reads as if you’re reading an interview with José Andrés, so it feels very personal.
I’m not sure what I was expecting in terms of a story. I wondered if it would be the equivalent of a memoir but about World Central Kitchen, how it was formed, the places they’ve gone, and how the operations grew.
And it does have a lot of those facts. The book is broken into sections about different places: California, North Carolina, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and the Bahamas. A thread connects each place as José Andrés talks about a fire kindled in him as a child while he watched his father make meals in the mountains, inviting others to join him and always adding more rice to the pan. Through that experience, he learned to value feeding others and to control the fire within him so that he could always do more.
I am already so inspired and in awe of World Central Kitchen, so I feel like this book didn’t have to go far to impress and inspire me. It definitely does those things.
The book itself is pretty huge. The hardcover version is about 12.25″ wide and 9.25″ tall, so it’s sized to be used more like a coffee table book. Displaying the book would be a neat way to start conversations about WCK and what they do.
Currently, $3 from each ebook purchase goes to support World Central Kitchen.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation
José Andrés is originally from Spain and also American. His crew are representative of a diverse group of people.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
None.
Spiritual Content
None.
Violent Content
Some panels show devastation left behind after hurricanes, floods, fires, and earthquakes. The text mentions that people died, and rescue efforts became recovery efforts once time passed.
Drug Content
None.
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