Chef Andrés Delivers Meals to Inn

Celebrity chef José Andrés has delivered meals on a number of occasions to the Children’s Inn at NIH recently. He wears protective gear to keep himself and the vulnerable children and young people at the inn healthy. 

“The kids are enjoying the food deliveries and their parents are, too,” said Gaynell Amaya, a research program assistant in 1NW Inpatient at the Clinical Center. “It’s nice to see them smiling as they share a family meal together.” 

“Yesterday [May 4], he dropped food off in person as a family from Peru was going over to the hospital, and they thanked him for the food,” said Sonja Luecke, the inn’s communications director.

“They spoke in Spanish, across a distance, and the chef asked the little girl what her favorite food was. She said chicken and rice, and the chef said he would ask his cook to prepare Peruvian style chicken and rice for her for today since she is about to go inpatient. So he had the chef at his Peruvian-style restaurant prepare today’s meal for inn residents: Arroz con pollo al estilo peruano, specifically for the little girl who is going inpatient tomorrow. It’s the sweetest gesture!”

Said an NIH’er who is a friend of the chef and helped arrange Andrés’ visits to the inn, “It’s a nice example of someone from the surrounding community ‘wanting to take care of my heroic friends at NIH, and let them know I’m just down the street’—those were his exact words to me.”

Andrés is founder of the nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK) and a noted area restaurateur. During the Covid-19 crisis, he and his WCK team, plus an army of volunteers, have taken over the kitchens at Nationals Park in Washington’s Navy Yard to prepare fresh and nutritious meals for thousands of Washington-area residents daily who are dealing with food insecurity.