MADRID, April 2 (Reuters) - Celebrity chef Jose Andres'

disdain for red tape is one of the reasons why his food charity

found itself coordinating the humanitarian effort in Gaza when

seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The aid workers for World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed

when their convoy was hit shortly after overseeing the unloading

of 100 tons of food brought to Gaza by sea.

WCK began last month

moving

food aid to starving people in northern Gaza via a maritime

corridor from Cyprus, in collaboration with Spanish charity Open

Arms.

This decision followed Israel's

refusal

to allow the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) to

deliver food to northern Gaza following claims that some agency

staff had taken part in the attack on Oct. 7 by members of the

Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel.

Oscar Camps, director of Open Arms, said in an interview

with Reuters that the maritime route between Cyprus and Gaza had

been open since Dec. 20 but no organisation had used it.

They constructed a makeshift jetty from rubble and unloaded

the aid just metres away from bombardments amid warnings from

Israel that it could not guarantee their security, he said.

Andres, who is Spanish and American, said on X he decided to

get involved in the maritime aid delivery after an invitation

from the Cypriot government, hoping other aid providers would

follow suit.

He said on March 26 that 67 WCK kitchens were operating in

Gaza, feeding 350,000 people a day. Operations are now suspended

following the Israeli airstrike on the WCK convoy.

Earlier in the conflict, WCK had partnered with

restaurants and hospitals in Israel to feed people displaced or

injured by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on the country, and then

switched in February to helping air drops of aid over Gaza.

'ADAPTIVE'

Founded by Andres in 2010 after he travelled to Haiti to

help following an earthquake that killed more than 300,000

people, WCK has fast become one of the leading providers of

emergency aid at scenes of natural disaster or human conflict.

The NGO describes itself as "first to the frontlines", using

an "entrepreneurial and adaptive" approach to "err on the side

of feeding people expediently vs. asking for permission or

following systems and bureaucracy that lack urgency and

flexibility".

"When others are assessing the situation we are already

feeding, and in the process we learn what is going on, not the

other way around," Andres told the Spanish language edition of

Vanity Fair in a recent interview.

The charity says it entered Ukraine five days after Russia's

invasion in February 2022 and set up restaurants in five cities.

Born in 1969 in a coal mining town in Spain's northern

Asturias region, Andres worked as an apprentice at Ferran

Adria's experimental El Bulli restaurant near Barcelona before

moving to the U.S. in 1991, where he set up tapas restaurant

Jaleo.

His company ThinkFoodGroup now owns more than 20 restaurants

including one with two Michelin stars.

He has cultivated relationships with some of the U.S's most

powerful people, receiving a $100 million donation from Amazon ( AMZN )

founder Jeff Bezos in 2021 and striking up a rapport with former

U.S. President Barack Obama.

Obama's government in 2014 named him an "Outstanding

American by Choice", an award given to naturalized U.S. citizens

who have achieved extraordinary things, following up with the

National Humanities Medal in 2015.

His relationship with Obama's successor Donald Trump was

less cordial.

The two reached a settlement in 2017 after Trump sued Andres

for breach of contract when the Spaniard canceled plans for a

restaurant in Trump's Washington hotel following comments the

then-presidential candidate made about Mexicans, calling them

"rapists" and "murderers".