Jose Andres, chef and owner of a fleet of chic restaurants including The Bazaar at the SLS Hotel in Miami, and a nonprofit documentary film team are in the early stages of shooting a Travel Channel-like showing off Haiti's food and cooking.
Andres has visited the country more than a dozen times since a massive earthquake struck the southern part of the country, devastating the capital Port-Au-Prince and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
"Jose went to Haiti three months after the earthquake," said Sebastian Lindstrom, a filmmaker and head of the What Took You So Long Foundation. "He didn't know what he wanted to do but he wanted to support the Haitian people and figure out how to use food as an agent of change."
Though it seems like this is the byproduct of too much time spent with chef, author and television host Anthony Bourdain the project isn't quite off the ground, even though it has support the from the minister of tourism, according to Lindstrom.
Andres declined to discuss the project until more details are solidified.
"Jose feels the project is still very much in its infancy," said Stephanie Salvador, a spokesperson at his Washington D.C.-based ThinkFoodGroup, and "would like to give [it] a bit more time to develop and take shape."
Lindstrom said the team has been circulating the pitch video, likely looking for funding. If the project moves forward and leads to something more - in whatever format - the purpose is to show that there's more to Haiti than the earthquake, and even the food.
"The Republic of Haiti and the rest of the country is not in the limelight," Lindstrom said, "and it has so much potential."
For more follow Zach on Twitter @ZachIsWeird.
Follow Short Order on Facebook, on Twitter @Short_Order, and Instagram @ShortOrder.
