Changing The Recipe

A bit more about my new book, coming in April

Friends, as I told you about last month, I’m working on a new book called Change the Recipe. It's a very personal and special book for me…one that I've been thinking about for a long time!

Yes, I've written many cookbooks with many great recipes over the years. But people keep asking me to write my stories—a sort of cookbook about life. Maybe they want to know if there’s a recipe for building a better world. I believe you can learn a lot about life in the mayhem of a kitchen. In the heat and the noise, you learn how to adapt when things go wrong — and how to perform your best under pressure. You learn about yourself and the people around you.

You learn how to change the world through the power of food.

It's funny, 10 years ago I found myself standing in front of thousands of people on the Mall in Washington DC. I was not there to show them how to make croquetas or gazpacho. Someone thought it would be a good idea for me to speak to the graduating class at George Washington University. With the Capitol in front of me, and the Washington Monument behind me, I was overwhelmed with the moment.

As a cook, an immigrant, a student who didn’t even finish high school, what did I have to say to these smart graduates? My friends at GW thought differently. They believed I had something to share with these students heading off into the world. There was wisdom I’d gained from a lifetime of cooking…cooking for the few and for the many.

So now, in this new book, I’ve written my stories, gathered over a lifetime, from my family’s small kitchen in Spain to my restaurants in America, from natural disasters in the Caribbean to war zones in Ukraine and Gaza. Each chapter is filled with stories that changed my life—experiences that taught me to be bold when you believe in something, and to learn quickly when things go wrong. If you can adapt to a changing world, I promise you'll be astonished by what you can achieve.

That's what it means to change the recipe…to keep moving forward when your plans don’t work, or you don’t have a plan, or the world seems broken. Because if you stop moving, you cannot learn. And if you keep moving, you can build the world you want to live in. My hope is this very personal book can inspire you to think differently, take action, and change the recipe for yourself.

Change the Recipe comes out in April but you can pre-order now…I can’t wait to share it with you!