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>> simon: he's one of the world's most important christian leaders, the spiritual guide to a flock of 300 million. he presides over a part of the christian church most americans are not aware of, and he does it from a country that is 99% muslim. come with us on an adventure into one of the most spectacular and oldest of all christian enclaves, threatened today as never before. >> cooper: jose andres calls himself a pilgrim from spain. >> liquid nitrogen. a chef who arrived here 20 years ago with just 50 bucks in his pocket and a set of cooking knives. >> are you ready for this, because i believe your life is going to change forever. i mean it.

>> cooper: this is going to change my life? >> maybe. >> cooper: but these days, it's hard to call him anything less than an amazing american success story. ( laughter ) what just happened? >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." my nasal allergies are ruining our camping trip. i know who works differently than many other allergy medications. hoo? omnaris. [ men ] omnaris -- to the nose! [ man ] did you know nasal symptoms like congestion can be caused by allergic inflammation? omnaris relieves your symptoms by fighting inflammation. side effects may include headache, nosebleed, and sore throat. [ inhales deeply ] i told my allergy symptoms to take a hike. omnaris. ask your doctor. battling nasal allergy symptoms? omnaris combats the cause. get omnaris for $11 at omnaris.com.

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tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior or any swelling or affected breathing, or skin, or changes in eyesight, including blurry vision or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. i found answers about fibromyalgia. then i found lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. >> kroft: every medical study ever conducted has concluded that 100% of all americans will

eventually die. this comes as no great surprise, but the amount of money being spent at the very end of people's lives probably will. last year, medicare paid $55 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients' lives. that's more than the budget of the department of homeland security or the department of education. and it's been estimated that 20% to 30% of these medical expenditures may have had no meaningful impact. most of the bills are paid for by the federal government with few or no questions asked. now, you might think this would have been an obvious thing for congress to address as they try to reform health care. but as we reported last november in the midst of the debate, what used to be a bipartisan issue has become a politically explosive one, a perfect example of rising costs that threaten to bankrupt the country and how hard it is to rein them in.

>> dr. ira byock: miss klish. it's dr. byock. >> kroft: marcia klish is either being saved by medical technology or being prevented from dying a natural death. >> byock: we're just here checking on you. >> kroft: she is 71 years old and suffering from complications of colon surgery and a hospital- acquired infection. she's been unconscious in the intensive care unit at dartmouth-hitchcock medical center in lebanon, new hampshire, for the better part of a week. one of her doctors, ira byock, told us it costs up to $10,000 a day to maintain someone in the i.c.u. some patients remain here for weeks; one has been here for six months. >> byock: this is the way so many americans die; something like 18% to 20% of americans spend their last days in an i.c.u. and, you know, it's extremely expensive, it's uncomfortable. many times, they have to be sedated so that they don't reflexively pull out a tube, or sometimes their hands are restrained. this is not the way most people would want to spend their last days of life.

and yet, this has become almost the... the medical last rites for, you know, people as they die. okay, let's go see her. >> kroft: dr. byock leads a team that treats and counsels patients with advanced illnesses. >> byock: hello, there. >> kroft: he says modern medicine has become so good at keeping the terminally ill alive by treating complications of underlying disease that the inevitable process of dying has become much harder and is often prolonged unnecessarily. >> byock: families cannot imagine there could be anything worse than their loved one dying but, in fact, there are things worse. most generally, it's having someone you love die badly. >> kroft: and what do you mean by dying badly? >> byock: dying suffering, dying connected to machines. i mean, denial of death, at some point, becomes a delusion, and we start acting in ways that make no sense whatsoever. and i think that's collectively what we're doing. >> kroft: a vast majority of

americans say they want to die at home, but 75% die in a hospital or a nursing home. how do so many people end up in the hospital? >> dr. elliot fisher: it's the path of least resistance. >> kroft: dr. elliott fisher is a researcher at the dartmouth institute for health policy, which did a detailed analysis of medicare records for patients in the last two years of their lives. he says it is more efficient for doctors to manage patients who are seriously ill in a hospital situation. and that there are other incentives that affect the cost and the care patients receive; among them the fact that most doctors get paid based on the number of patients that they see, and that most hospitals get paid for the patients they admit. >> fisher: the way we set up the system right now, primary care physicians don't have time to, you know, spend an hour with you, see how you respond, if they wanted to adjust your medication. so, the easiest thing for everybody up the stream is to admit you to the hospital. i think 30% of hospital stays in the united states are probably unnecessary, given what our research looks like. >> kroft: that's a staggering figure. >> fisher: it's a huge amount.

>> kroft: and once someone is admitted to the hospital, fisher says, they're likely to be seen by a dozen or more specialists, who will conduct all kinds of tests, whether they're absolutely essential or not. >> meredith snedeker: they did x-rays, they did blood work-up, they did lung capacity tests. >> kroft: meredith snedeker's 85-year-old mother spent her last two months shuttling between a nursing home and a community hospital in new jersey, suffering from advanced heart and liver disease. dorothy glas was a former nurse who had signed a living will expressing her wishes that no extraordinary measures be taken to keep her alive, but that didn't stop a legion of doctors from conducting batteries of tests. >> snedeker: i can't tell you all the tests they took, but i do know that she saw over 13 specialists. >> kroft: what kind of specialists? >> snedecker: neurological, gastroenterologists. they... she even saw a psychiatrist because they said she was depressed. and she told the psychiatrist,

"of course, i'm depressed, i'm dying." >> kroft: when we reviewed the medical records, we discovered that there weren't 13 specialists who attended to her mother; there were 25, each of whom billed medicare separately. the hospital told us that all the tests were appropriate, and an independent physician who reviewed the case told us it was fairly typical. among the tests conducted was a pap smear, which is generally only recommended for much younger women, not an octogenarian who was already dying of liver and heart disease. >> fisher: in medicine, we have turned the laws of supply and demand upside down. >> kroft: what do you mean? >> fisher: supply drives it's own demand. if you're running a hospital, you have to keep that hospital full of paying patients, in order to... you know, to meet your payroll, in order to keep the... you know, pay off your bonds. >> kroft: so, the more m.r.i. machines you have, the more people are going to get m.r.i. tests? >> fisher: absolutely. >> kroft: there are people that would argue this is great medicine. you get tested for every conceivable, possible malady you might have. >> fisher: the best care may well be staying home with a trial of a new medication, rather than being admitted to a

hospital where you can be exposed to a hospital acquired infection. we have a system that rewards much, much more care. >> kroft: in almost every business, cost-conscious customers and consumers help keep prices down. but not with health care, and that's because the customers and consumers who are receiving the care aren't the ones paying the bill. >> david walker: the perverse incentives that exist in our system are magnified at end of life. >> kroft: david walker used to be the government's top accountant, the head of the government accountability office, the g.a.o. he now heads the peter g. peterson foundation, which is a strong advocate for reducing government debt. he says that 85% of the health care bills are paid by the government or private insurers, not by patients themselves. in fact, most patients don't even look at the bills. does that make any sense? most things you buy, you have... the customer has some impact. >> walker: we have a system where everybody wants as much as

they can get, and they don't understand the true cost of what they're getting. the one thing that could bankrupt america is out-of- control health care costs, and if we don't get them under control, that's where we're headed. >> kroft: with end-of-life care, there are also delicate cultural and political considerations. patients, with their families' support, want to cling to life, and it is often easier to hope for a medical miracle than to discuss how they want to die. >> byock: hey, charlie. i want you to meet somebody. how you doing? >> kroft: when we met charlie haggart, he was 68 years old and suffering from liver and kidney failure. he wanted a double-transplant, which would cost about $450,000, but doctors told him he was currently too weak to be a candidate for the procedure. at a meeting with charlie's family and his doctors, dr. byock raised the awkward question of what should be done if charlie got worse and his heart or lungs failed. dr. byock told him that resuscitation rarely works on

someone in charlie's condition and that it could lead to a drawn-out death in the i.c.u. >> byock: either way you decide, we will honor your choice, and... and that's... that's the truth. should we do c.p.r. if your heart were to suddenly stop? >> charlie haggart: yes. >> byock: you'd be okay with being in the i.c.u. again? >> haggart: yes. >> byock: i know it's an awkward conversation. >> haggart: it beats second place. ( laughter ) >> kroft: you don't think it makes any sense? >> byock: it wouldn't be my choice. it's not what i advise people. at the present time, it's their right to request it. >> kroft: and medicare has to pay? >> byock: and medicare pays for it. >> kroft: charlie haggart died a few months later. a family member told us his condition had deteriorated so much, they decided to let him go peacefully. but when it comes to expensive, high-tech treatments with some potential to extend life, there are few restrictions. by law, medicare cannot reject

any treatment based upon cost. it will pay $55,000 for patients with advanced breast cancer to receive the chemotherapy drug avastin, even though it extends life only an average of a month and a half. it will pay $40,000 for a 93- year-old man with terminal cancer to get a surgically implanted defibrillator, if he happens to have heart problems, too. >> byock: i think you cannot make these decisions on a case- by-case basis. it would be much easier for us to say "we simply do not put defibrillators into people in this condition," meaning your age, your functional status, the... the ability to make full benefit of... of the defibrillator. now, that's... again, that's going to outrage a lot of people and it's... >> kroft: but you think that should happen? >> byock: i think, at some point, it has to happen. >> kroft: well, this is a version, then, of pulling grandma off the machine? >> byock: you know, i have to say, i... i think that's

offensive. i mean, i... i spend my life in service of affirming life. i really do. and to say we're going to pull grandma off the machine by not offering her liver transplant or... or her fourth cardiac bypass surgery or something is... is really just scurrilous. and it's certainly scurrilous when we have 46 million americans who are uninsured. >> walker: every other major industrialized nation but the united states has a budget for how much taxpayer funds are allocated to health care. because they've all recognized that you could bankrupt your country without it. >> kroft: so, you're talking about rationing? >> walker: listen, we ration now; we just don't ration rationally. there's no question that there's going to have to be some form of rationing. let me be clear-- individuals and employers ought to be able to spend as much money as they want to have things done. but when you're talking about taxpayer resources, there's a

limit as to how much resources we have. >> kroft: but if recent history is any guide, rationing has become the third rail of american politics, even though dr. elliot fisher says we already limit health care based on income and whether people have insurance. after analyzing medicare records for end-of-life treatment, he's convinced that there is so much waste in the present system that if it were eliminated, there would be no need to ration beneficial care to anyone. multiple studies have concluded that most patients and their families are not even familiar with end-of-life options and things like living wills, home hospice, and pain management. >> fisher: the real problem is that many of the patients who are being treated aggressively, if you ask them, they would prefer less aggressive care. they would prefer to be cared for at home, they'd prefer to go to hospice, if they were given a choice. but we don't adequately give them a choice. >> kroft: at some point, most doctors know that a patient's not likely to get better. >> fisher: absolutely.

>> kroft: and after you've run through all the choices, then... >> fisher: sometimes, there's... there's a good conversation; often, there's not. you know, patients are left alone to sort of figure it out themselves. >> kroft: that's what meredith snedeker says happened to her mother. though she received $40,000 worth of care in her last two months of life, not one of her 25 doctors sat down with dorothy glas and her family and discussed how she wanted to die. marcia klish might have lingered for quite some time in the intensive care unit at dartmouth-hitchcock. but dr. byock and his team had a number of meetings with her closest friend, barbara menchin. she said klish would not want to be kept alive on machines if there was no meaningful hope of recovery. it was decided the doctors would not try to resuscitate her if her condition worsened, which it soon did. >> byock: her heart has just flipped into a rhythm that doesn't allow it to beat effectively. >> kroft: she died a few moments later. >> byock: this is a hard time in

human life, but it's just a part of life. collectively, as a culture, we really have to acknowledge that we're mortal, get over it, and start looking at what a healthy, morally robust way for people to die looks like. >> kroft: if you are wondering whether the health care reform legislation passed in march addressed any of the end of life issues raised in our story, the short answer is no. the new law was designed to slow the growth of medicare expenses, but it does include a pilot program to reward doctors for the quality of care they provide rather than the quantity. but it also reduces medicare payments for hospice programs that studies have shown to be very cost-efficient.

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>> simon: would it surprise you to learn that one of the world's most important christian leaders, second only to the pope, lives in a country where 99% of the population is muslim? his name is bartholomew, and he is the patriarch of 300 million orthodox christians. he lives in istanbul, turkey-- the latest in a line of patriarchs who have resided there since before there was a turkey, since the centuries following the death of jesus christ when istanbul was called constantinople and was the most

important city in the christian world. but times change-- and as we said last december when we first broadcast this story-- and in modern muslim turkey, the patriarch does not feel very welcome. in the past, the authorities there have seized christian properties and closed christian churches, monasteries and schools. his parishioners are afraid that the future of their church, the oldest of all christian churches, and its patriarch will be threatened. ( chanting ) his official title is impressive: his all holiness bartholomew, archbishop of constantinople, new rome, ecumenical patriarch. "ecumenical" means "universal" and, worldwide, 300 million orthodox christians look to him for spiritual guidance.

we first met him in istanbul. it was easter, and worshipers from throughout the orthodox christian world had come to celebrate christ's resurrection on the holiest day of their calendar with the man who they see as their pope. my first question is this: how should i refer to you? as "your all holiness"? as "patriarch"? as "ecumenical patriarch"? what is the proper way to address you? >> his all holiness bartholomew: bartholomew. ( laughter ) the official title is "your all holiness." >> simon: your all holiness. >> bartholomew: but for me, bartholomew is enough. >> simon: for him, perhaps, but not for us. and while his all holiness may occupy the ecumenical throne, his quarters are a far cry from the vatican. his office is cramped and relatively austere, his desk littered with papers. no michelangelos here.

all that's left of a christian empire once ruled from istanbul is a complex of nine buildings tightly squeezed onto less than an acre of land. now, is this the vatican of your church? >> bartholomew: well, our headquarters. >> simon: it's called the phanar, and it has been the heart of orthodox christianity since 1599. his all holiness promotes an informal atmosphere here. there's none of the ritual that surrounds the pope in rome. and there is no cathedral, only a modest church. the neighborhood that surrounds it used to be greek and christian, but today is predominantly muslim. i think a lot of people would want to know, your all holiness, why the leader of so many millions of orthodox christians in the world lives in a country that is 99% muslim?

>> bartholomew: because we are here before this country becomes a muslim country, much earlier. since ever. since the very beginning. >> simon: since the very beginning of what? >> bartholomew: of the foundation of our church. of the church of constantinople. >> simon: and in the beginning, istanbul was called constantinople, the ancient city on the bosphorus where east meets west. the city's skyline is dominated by minarets. at friday prayers, the mosques are teeming. ( bell rings ) but the city's richest and most renowned christian churches are museums today, mecca's for tourists, not for worshipers. from the chora church, with its fresco of jesus whose eyes seem to go right through you, to the

hagia sophia, the first great church in christendom and an architectural wonder built a thousand years before st. peters in rome, and for centuries, the most important church in the christian world. ( chanting ) fast forward a few centuries and it's hard to find christians in istanbul. this church holds 500 people, but during its sunday service its pews were practically empty. it was the same everywhere we went. at the turn of the last century there were nearly two million orthodox christians in turkey. one and a half million were expelled in 1923 and another 150,000 left after violent anti- christian riots in istanbul in 1955. today, in all of turkey, there are only 4,000 orthodox christians left. >> bartholomew: we are treated as citizens of second class.

>> simon: you're treated as second-class citizens? >> bartholomew: and we don't feel that we enjoy our full rights as turkish citizens. >> simon: if you're treated as second-class citizens here and you are greek, why don't you go to greece? >> bartholomew: because we love our country. we are born here. we want to die here. we feel that our mission is here as it has been for 17 entire centuries. >> simon: 17 centuries? >> bartholomew: 17 centuries. and i wonder why the authorities of our country do not respect this history. >> simon: to better understand the patriarch's frustration, he suggested we head off on our own mission, 500 miles east of istanbul to a region called cappadocia.

we launched our search for this christian history in a hot air balloon and came upon one of the most bizarre and dramatic landscapes on earth. from above the clouds, it looks like a city of stone. and when you approach the cliffs you see doors and windows carved by hand into the rocks eons ago. it's extraordinary enough from the outside, but open one of the doors and step inside, and you enter a world of unfathomable beauty. chapels with frescos painted while rome was still ruled by the caesars and bethlehem and nazareth were dusty little towns. are there any christian remains as old as this in the holy land, in jerusalem or bethlehem? >> sevim karabiyik: not that i know of. >> simon: our guide, sevim

karabiyik, told us-- much to our surprise- that one of the gospels were written in turkey and that three of the apostles spread the word here. there are hundreds of these churches in cappadocia where christians sought refuge from persecution. the oldest, built in the 5th century when christianity was in its infancy. do you think many christians realize that it all started here in turkey? >> karabiyik: personal experience? no. >> simon: it all started in the holy land, because that's... >> karabiyik: but... >> simon: ...where jesus is from. because nobody... >> karabiyik: that that's where it's taken... >> simon: ...disputes that. but the christian religion began in turkey. >> karabiyik: in anatolia, in turkey. >> simon: the patriarch then sent us to the depths of the sinai desert, to a greek orthodox monastery where early christians also sought protection. it's called st. catherine's, and it's located at the foot of mount sinai where, according to tradition, moses received the ten commandments.

it is the oldest functioning monastery anywhere. there are 25 monks here today, servicing the smallest diocese in the world. the monks are all greek, with one exception. >> father justin: all together, we have 3,300 manuscripts. >> simon: the chief librarian, overseeing an incomparable collection of ancient manuscripts, is father justin. >> justin: most of these date from the 10th to the 14th century. >> simon: a converted baptist from el paso, texas. he showed us the monastery's collection of byzantine icons, the largest and oldest collection of icons in the world. then he took us to what the patriarch really wanted us to see: a little-known letter written by the prophet mohammed almost 1,400 years ago, signed and sealed with his hand print, offering protection and religious freedom to the christians of the monastery.

>> justin: these are precedents from mohammed himself for toleration and peace among people of differing faiths. >> simon: the patriarch then brought us back to the 21st century and turkey, to his own back yard. he took us for a ride on an island off of istanbul in a carriage with a police escort. the patriarch wanted to show us that mohammed's message of tolerance has not been received by the turkish authorities. his prime example: the halki school of theology, the only greek orthodox seminary in turkey, empty and abandoned. no priests, no prayers. thank you, your all holiness. it's very kind of you. the halki was closed down by turkish authorities after passage of a law banning private higher education. that was back in 1971. >> bartholomew: it's a pity and a shame.

it's a crime to keep such a school closed, unused, for no reason. why? >> simon: reasons of state. >> bartholomew: reasons of state. >> simon: as a consequence, the church can't train new priests, potential new patriarchs who, under turkish law, have to be born in turkey. it's as if rome closed down the college of cardinals. the hallways where 100 young seminarians roamed are desolate now. the library's priceless collection of old manuscripts lies untouched. walk into a classroom and it seems as if the students had just gone home today, not 38 years ago. >> bartholomew: this school prepared people who preached peace, preached unity, preached love. so not giving to the church the possibility to prepare these people, we offend human dignity.

>> simon: the patriarch says it not only offends human dignity, it offends him personally, because this is his alma mater. halki is where he studied to be a priest. so you studied in a classroom just like this? >> bartholomew: yes, for seven years. >> simon: the patriarch was born dimitrious arhondonis in turkey. like all turkish citizens, he served in the turkish army. he was ordained at the age of 21 and elected ecumenical patriarch in 1991. but the turkish government does not recognize the ecumenical or international part of his title. to them, he is merely a local bishop. >> bartholomew: i have visited the prime minister, submitting our problems, concrete problems, and asking why, and asking to help us. >> simon: do you get answers? >> bartholomew: never. >> simon: do you sometimes fear that the community will be wiped out?

>> bartholomew: not really. we survived. we do believe in miracles. >> simon: and that, the patriarch says, is because turkey is also the holy land, spiritually not very far from jerusalem. >> bartholomew: this is the continuation of jerusalem. and for us, it is equally a holy and sacred land. we prefer to stay here, even crucified sometimes. because in the gospel, it is written that it is given to us not only to believe in christ, but also to suffer for christ. >> simon: he said even to be crucified sometimes? >> bartholomew: yes. because we believe in the resurrection. after the crucifixion, resurrection comes.

>> simon: do you feel personally, your holiness, that you are being crucified sometimes? >> bartholomew: yes, i do. >> simon: that comment on being crucified was extremely controversial in turkey and touched off a national debate on its treatment of the church. official reaction to our report was negative. a letter from turkey's washington embassy called it "biased and one sided" and pointed out that turkey's prime minister has met the patriarch to discuss his concerns. but according to the church, so far, "there has been no tangible improvement on any of the problems." beer and wine and cupcakes. i was doing the corporate grind like everyone else. but to be successful, i knew i had to be different. ink, ink, ink, ink, ink. i mean, i love that card. it does things differently too. great customer service, going above and beyond to help me out as a small business.

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>> pelley: now cnn's anderson cooper on assignment for "60

minutes." >> cooper: jose andres calls himself a pilgrim from spain. a chef who arrived here 20 years ago with just 50 bucks in his pocket and a set of cooking knives. but these days, it's hard to call him anything less than an amazing american success story. as we first reported in may, he was "gq" magazine's chef of the year, runs restaurants on both coasts and has won most every culinary award america has to offer. jose andres personality is enormous, as are his plans to charm americans into changing their eating habits, but it's his avant-garde approach to cooking that's really made him famous, and has his diners rethinking how much fun food can be. >> jose andres: eating has to be fun, has to be a social event, but where you have fun that you are relaxed. but at the same time that you are relaxed, doesn't mean that you cannot be putting a lot of thought behind what... what eating... what the food means to you.

minibar is a window into creativity, that's all. >> cooper: welcome to jose andres' minibar. a kind of culinary laboratory in washington d.c. where i was lucky enough to skip a month long waiting list for one of just six seats. >> andres: very delicate. >> cooper: do i drink this or eat... >> andres: drink it. >> cooper: first course, first surprise. a temperature layered cocktail. >> andres: this is what we call the drink by the chef. >> cooper: oh, i didn't even realize this was alcohol. >> andres: a cocktail. a cocktail can be made by the bartender. but the cocktail also can be made by the chef. >> cooper: it's great. it's hot, but it's cold. there's cold underneath it. >> andres: already your taste buds are already being excited because they are asking themselves, "what's happening here?" >> cooper: what's happening here is molecular gastronomy, a cooking technique that embraces science and technology. jose andres says his 30 course menu is as much about the brain and the eye as the tongue and stomach.

listen to his explanation of the air floating on top of that caviar brioche. >> andres: it's like if you are walking in fifth avenue and you could open your mouth, and right there in the middle of fifth avenue, you would have that flavor in your mouth. that's what air is all about. >> cooper: so what's that cone all about? >> andres: bagel and lox. inside has cream cheese and instead of the smoke salmon has salmon roe. >> cooper: bagel and lox. dishes are a bite or two with some complicated combinations. for example, i wondered why there was cotton candy wrapped around my seafood. >> andres: cotton candy is the most amazing form of caramelization ever invented by man. you're going to love it. it's going to be sweet and the smokiness of the eel. >> cooper: wow. chef andres dishes are cutting edge, so what he thinks about ingredients may surprise you. >> andres: i believe the future is vegetables and fruits. they are so much more sexier

than a piece of chicken. >> cooper: you find vegetables and fruits sexy? >> andres: unbelievably sexy. ( laughter ) come on, think about it for a second, okay? let's compare a chicken breast-- the best chicken breast from the best farm with a beautiful pineapple. cut the pineapple, already the aromas are inundating the entire kitchen. acidity. sour after-notes, touches of passion fruit. >> cooper: all right. you're making me excited. >> andres: come on and the chicken breast? it's okay, but i do believe today meat is... is highly overrated. >> cooper: meat's overrated? >> andres: meat is overrated. >> cooper: what... what do you mean? >> andres: well, meat, to me, it's slightly boring. hold on, i love meat, too, but only once in a while. you get a piece of meat and you put it in your mouth, you chew, the first five seconds, all the juices flow around your mouth, they're gone, and then you are 20 more seconds chewing something that is tasteless at this point.

something like this doesn't happen with a pineapple, an asparagus, or a green pea. >> cooper: how would you describe jose andres to someone who's never met him or never tried his food? >> ruth reichl: expect wonders. >> cooper: ruth reichl is one of america's most respected food writers. >> reichl: food is going to do things that you never imagined. it's going to come floating at you. ( laughter ) it's going to explode. it's going to have textures that you didn't ever think that would be in your mouth. >> cooper: so it's not just a gimmick? it... >> reichl: it's not a gimmick? it's a kind of magic. it's like a circus of the mouth. >> cooper: reichl says andres started a revolution when he moved to america almost 20 years ago. >> reichl: he was the first person to really start thinking about molecular gastronomy in this country, and what molecular gastronomy says is "what if we think about deconstructing food?" >> cooper: deconstructing food?

>> reichl: deconstructing food. taking the parts of the food, you know, separating them and recombining them in interesting ways. >> andres: new england clam chowder. >> cooper: i love new england clam chowder. watch how he deconstructed my favorite soup. >> andres: look at those clams. >> cooper: and probably america's most traditional one. >> andres: the traditional new england clam chowder. the clams are overcooked. these ones are raw, already so much better. >> cooper: every ingredient is the same. >> andres: cream. >> cooper: clams, bacon, cream, until he adds the potato. >> andres: a potato mousse. but is the lightest form of potato mousse ever. this is what america is all about. a spanish boy that came 18 years ago actually trying to move forward a classic american dish. new england clam chowder. >> cooper: ( laughs ) wow, it's clam chowder. >> andres: great. my name is jose andres, and i cook for a living.

>> cooper: andres' techniques are so advanced, he's been asked to teach a course in culinary physics this fall at harvard. >> andres: one of the things we are trying to do today is to make sure that we are able to feed people maximum flavor with a minimum quantity of food. >> cooper: he's been visiting the scientists there for years, working to understand the chemistry of everything in his kitchens. and while we were there with him, he spent the better part of a day trying to better understand a complicated emulsion... >> it surrounds the oil molecule. >> cooper: ...known as mayonnaise. >> andres: we are surrounded by science. everything that happens in our lives, especially food, is a science. finally what is happening, is that we know the why. >> cooper: the whys and whats of high school didn't interest andres too much, so he dropped out and enrolled in a cooking school in barcelona. his big break came when he was hired into this kitchen, where the world's most celebrated

chef, ferran adria, trained him in avant garde cuisine. jose andres left for america and in 1993, opened up this classic spanish tapas bar called jaleo in washington d.c., where he built a reputation and a following. now the cook who arrived in this country with a few dollars in his pocket runs eight successful restaurants. his latest, called the bazaar, has him spreading the gospel of spanish influenced molecular gastronomy in beverly hills. so, that's... that's... >> andres: liquid nitrogen. >> cooper: that's liquid nitrogen. ( laughs ) and that's popcorn? >> andres: caramelized popcorn. are you ready for this, because i believe your life is going to change forever. ( laughter ) i mean it. >> cooper: this is going to change my life? >> andres: maybe. okay. ( laughter ) that's dragon breath, boy. >> cooper: what just happened?

what's happening in the bazaar's kitchen is that andres and his culinary director reuben garcia are creating dishes with tastes and textures that have customers doing this. >> andres: when i cook, i'm not going to lie to you, i'm very selfish, me and my team. we need to please ourselves. we need to make sure that we are convinced of what we are doing and eating and that we see ourselves in that dish we are creating. if i don't please myself, it's impossible i will be able to please you. >> cooper: the bazaar is the only restaurant in los angeles with a four-star review from the l.a. "times," and getting a reservation here is a bit like getting a seat next to jack nicholson at a laker game. while jose andres is proud of his success in sunny los angeles, he is probably prouder of the kitchen he has volunteered at for the last 17 years in this tough washington d.c. neighborhood. >> andres: i came here as a

cook, sharing my time peeling potatoes. >> cooper: the d.c. central kitchen was founded by robert egger. >> andres: hey! >> cooper: he says andres wandered in and offered his expertise just weeks after he moved into town. >> robert egger: we couldn't get rid of him, man. i mean, he came down here and he was always down here helping. >> andres: and i always felt like i have to give back to america what america has given to me. >> cooper: he was drawn to their model, a 12-week culinary training course for people with little hope-- former prisoners, drug abusers and the homeless. now they distribute fresh meals daily prepared from one ton of donated surplus food. staffers say they've stopped being surprised when they hear... >> andres: hola guapa. >> cooper: ...first thing in the morning, when the chef shows up to work. >> andres: chefs of america, we should be more outspoken about the way we are feeding america, not only about what i'm feeding

them in my restaurant or in the great restaurants of america. it's only 1%, 2% or 3% of the americans that eat in those restaurants. we should be more committed about the other 97% of americans that don't come to our restaurants. that should be what i hope one day will be my little contribution. >> cooper: the chef has hired 10 graduates from the d.c. central kitchen and personally mentored 50 of their interns. he's also helped to raise a million and a half dollars for the program that helps to feed 4,000 people every day. do you see yourself as a spanish chef working in america or an american chef who is trained in spain? >> andres: i see more and more myself as an american chef that was trained in spain. >> cooper: at 41 years of age, this unofficial ambassador from spain is about to open restaurants at the new cosmopolitan resort in las vegas, also in miami, mexico city and paris. >> thank you so much.

>> cooper: but washington d.c. remains home for andres, his wife patricia and their three daughters: carlotta, ines and lucia. it's also here in d.c. that the chef who wants to change the way america looks at food offered me one last lesson during last call at mini bar. >> andres: this is a mojito. >> cooper: that's a mojito? >> andres: that's a mojito. put this on your tongue and it's going to explode. and you're going to find this amazing. take a look. what you see here like a solid thing. like you will think actually inside is liquid. because outside is a very thin membrane, but is liquid. and you say how we make that? well, in the end, it's simple. we use a seaweed that we call algae. we use a salt that is a salt of calcium. that one with the other allows us to make things like this.

spherification. i don't like to tell people about the ingredients i'm using, but they are very not normal ingredients. average ingredients. the right use of those ingredients allows me to make dishes like this. >> cooper: i'm trying to resist licking that off the plate. >> andres: hey, cut the cameras off. ( laughs ) >> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by lipitor. at the bridgestone invitational. hunter mahan won. tiger woods left the tournament at 18 over par, his worst finish at a professional. in major league baseball, toronto's brandon morrow had his no-hit attempt broken up with two outs in the 9th. more more sports news and scores, log on to cbssports.com. this is jim nantz reporting. ck . that was a rough time. my doctor told me i should've been doing more

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