Chef Jose Andres' Culinary Wild Ride

(CBS)  Jose Andres calls himself a pilgrim from Spain - a chef who arrived in the United States 20 years ago with just $50 in his pocket and a set of cooking knives. But these days it's hard to call him anything less than an amazing American success story. He was GQ magazine's chef of the year, runs restaurants on both coasts and has been nominated for outstanding chef in America by the James Beard Foundation.

Andres' personality is enormous, as are his plans to charm America into changing its eating habits. But it's his avant-garde approach to cooking that has really made him famous, and has his diners rethinking how much fun food can be.

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Link: D.C. Central Kitchen

"Eating has to be fun, has to be a social event, but where you have fun that you are relaxed. But at the same time that you are relaxed, doesn't mean that you cannot be putting a lot of thought behind what eating, what the food means to you," Andres told correspondent Anderson Cooper.

"Minibar is a window into creativity, that's all," Andres added, laughing.

Jose Andres' "minibar" is a kind of culinary laboratory in Washington D.C. where Cooper was lucky enough to skip a month-long waiting list for one of just six seats.

He got the first course and the first surprise: a temperature layered cocktail.

"This is what we call the drink by the chef," Andres explained. "A cocktail can be made by the bartender. But the cocktail also can be made by the chef."

"It's great. It's hot but it's cold. There's cold underneath it," Cooper observed.

"Already your taste buds are already being excited because they are asking themselves, 'What's happening here?'" Andres said.

What's happening here is "molecular gastronomy" - a cooking technique that embraces science and technology. Andres says his 30-course menu is as much about the brain and the eye as the tongue and stomach.

Listen to his explanation of "the air" floating on top of caviar brioche: "It's like if you are walking in Fifth Avenue and you could open your mouth and right there in the middle of Fifth Avenue you would have that flavor in your mouth, that's what air is all about."

Then there was what appeared to be a miniature ice cream cone, with salmon roe "bubbling" out.

"Bagel and lox. Inside has cream cheese and instead of the smoke salmon has salmon roe," Andres explained.

Dishes are a bite or two with some complicated combinations. For example, Cooper wondered why there was cotton candy wrapped around seafood.

"Cotton candy is the most amazing form of caramelization ever invented by man. You're gonna love it. It's going to be sweet and the smokiness of the eel," Andres explained.

Andres dishes are cutting edge, so what he thinks about ingredients may surprise you.

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

"You find vegetables and fruits sexy?" Cooper asked.

"Unbelievably sexy," Andres replied, laughing. "Come on, think about it for a second, okay? 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. Acidity. Sour after notes, touches of passion fruit."

"All right. You're makin' me excited," Cooper said.

The chef told Cooper he thinks meat is overrated. "Well, meat to me, it's slightly boring. Hold on, I love meat too but only once in a while. You get 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, an asparagus, or a green pea," he explained.

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[paul_te]

So here I am working out at the hotel gym and watching CBS on TV interviewing Jose Andres pro advocate on how Government should tell our schools how to feed our children healthy school lunches but when you look at him, Jose is overweight and out of shape. How can you listen to a guy telling you to eat healthy when he doesn't. Hipocrite!! That's like listening to the President on anti-non smoking ad but then he smokes? What the hell is wrong with these people? Parent's are the one who should step up and tell their kids to eat healthy. Not the Government. Just food for thought. People need to accountable for their actions.

[lawyer57]

When you feed 4000 American citizens a day, maybe your comment will be worth a damn Stickman. In the meantime. learn how to use your own language correctly and spell "themselves" and "commission" correctlty, and maybe you won't be a disgrace to your own country, though i doubt that. If you had .01% of the class that Chef Jose Andres had, America probably wouldn't be in the dilemma it's in, you self-entitled ******.

[shakingmyhead]

Completely uninteresting....

[Stickman66]

Doesn't Scott Pelle ever get disgusted with himself playing the smarmy, nauseating, boo hoo advocate for those poor ILLEGAL immigrants that kill themselveas in the commisission of a crime? Aw gee Scott, let's all get into a sob circle and pass the tissues, sniff, sniff. Why don't you hire a bus to bring them straight up to your place. I'm sure your neighbors will appreciate it.

[mojito57]

Re: the "all american canal". It is sad that people have drowned in the canal. Perhaps several bridges should be constructed to allow safe access into the U.S. by these people who are breaking the law!