Chef José Andrés will get to cook with natural gas at his new restaurant in Palo Alto, CA despite a city ban.
After a legal tussle Andrés is poised to open his Eastern Mediterranean restaurant Zaytinya at the upscale Stanford Shopping Center with the gas appliances necessary to “achieve its signature, complex flavors,” Andres’ newly planned restaurant, Zaytinya, is one of the latest Simon Property Group buildings that received project approval in 2019, including for a a gas line, which the restaurant relies on. The plan, however, changed when planning staff informed the company that due to the City Council’s revision of the building code, the restaurant was required to use electric stoves.
Simon wrote a letter in April threatening the City Council with a lawsuit if it maintained the ban, according to the letter. This “is a unique situation, where parts of the project were built or under construction when the City’s all-electric new construction rule went into effect,” according to a statement from the City Council. “Except for this one-off situation, Palo Alto’s all-electric requirement is being implemented for all new projects and substantial remodels.”
“SPG is confident that the enforcement of the new Reach Code in this context is legally defective and unconstitutional, and SPG is thus prepared to take all actions necessary to enforce its legal rights to employ gas facilities within Building EE,” wrote Anna Shimko, an attorney for SPG Group LLC. She added that Zaytinya relies on traditional cooking methods that only natural gas appliances would grant “to achieve its signature, complex flavors.”
The Department of Energy announced a new rule in early February that would create an “energy conservation standard” for gas stoves and electric equipment. Prior to the February rule, Richard Trumka Jr., a top Consumer Product Safety Commission official, told Bloomberg that banning the manufacture and importation of gas stoves is “on the table” if they “can’t be safe,” citing a study claiming to link the cooking appliances with childhood asthma cases.
“Zaytinya cannot compromise the caliber of its cuisine and reputation, and if SPG cannot provide gas in Building EE, Zaytinya will likely choose not to locate within the City. This would be an unfortunate loss for the residents of Palo Alto, as well as a compensable loss for which SPG would be forced to seek redress,” Shimko said.
Born in Spain, where he learned the craft of cooking first from his parents and then in the kitchen of Ferran Adrià’s groundbreaking avant-garde restaurant elBulli – José Andrés immigrated to the United States in 1991, first to New York City and later to Washington, D.C., where he and his partners established a group of restaurants that has earned countless fans and won numerous awards over the years.
Andres holds close both his identity as a Spanish immigrant and an American citizen, placing upon himself the responsibility of both culinary ambassador and immigrant representing the two nations. He is a visionary and a humanitarian, establishing World Central Kitchen in 2010 as a means for feeding the many – using culinary training programs to empower communities and strengthen economies as well as food disaster relief in the wake of emergencies around the globe.
He has been widely recognized for both his culinary and his humanitarian work, including by the James Beard Foundation – which named him Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2003, as well as Humanitarian of the Year in 2018; TIME Magazine, which included him on the list of 100 Most Influential People in 2012 and 2018; and President Obama, who awarded José the National Humanities Medal in 2015. José holds two Michelin stars for his avant-garde tasting counter minibar by José Andrés in Washington, D.C., as well as four Bib Gourmands.
