Jose Andres Plans Ritz-Carlton Restaurant In Puerto Rico

WASHINGTON -- If ever there was proof that D.C. celebrity chef José Andrés has global ambitions, here it is: Andrés announced this week plans to open a restaurant at Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve hotel in Puerto Rico. The eatery, currently without a name, will be the chef's first outside the continental United States. Both hotel and eatery are slated to open in December 2012.

According to a media advisory, the menu will feature high quality ingredients that will highlight the island's traditional cocina criolla cuisine, the chef's Spanish heritage and Americana cooking. Breakfast and lunch will be served -- no word on lunch yet -- with indoor and outdoor seating, plus a rum bar.

This will be Andrés' first major public undertaking since the re-imaging of his Penn Quarter nuevo Latin eatery, Cafe Atlantico, as America Eats Tavern, a conceptual ode to various eras of American cookery.

Back in May, Andres was named the country's most outstanding chef by the James Beard Foundation for 2011.