About this item
Monday, January 14, 2019
3:00 pm
It begins with a simple ritual Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother's house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations. Yes, Chef chronicles Samuelsson’s journey, from his grandmother’s kitchen to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a New York Timesthree-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of chasing flavors had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs, and, most important, the opening of Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fulfilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, and bus drivers. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.
About the Author
Marcus Samuelsson is the acclaimed chef behind many restaurants worldwide including Red Rooster Harlem, MARCUS Montreal, and Marcus B&P in Newark, NJ. Samuelsson was the youngest person to ever receive a three-star review from The New York Times and has won multiple James Beard Foundation Awards including Best Chef: New York City. He was tasked with planning and executing the Obama Administration's first State dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Samuelsson was also crowned champion of television shows Top Chef Masters and Chopped All Stars, and was the winning mentor on ABC's The Taste. Samuelsson received the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Personality for his TV series titled No Passport Required with VOX/Eater and and he is an executive producer of Viceland's show HUSTLE. He currently serves as Executive Chef-in-Residence of Buzzfeed Tasty's talent program. His exciting audio project with Audible, titled Our Harlem is out now. A committed philanthropist, Samuelsson is co-chair of Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) which focuses on underserved youth. Samuelsson also co-produces the annual week-long festival Harlem EatUp!, which celebrated the food, art, and culture of Harlem. He is the recipient of the 2019 Vilcek Foundation Prize in Culinary Arts, awarded to immigrants who have made lasting contributions to American Society. He is the author of multiple books including The New York Times bestselling memoir Yes, Chef and his latest book-- The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem. Recent restaurant openings include: Red Rooster Shoreditch in East London and Norda Oslo in Norway. His newest restaurant, MARCUS, is now open at the Four Seasons Montreal. Marcus is also the founder of the Marcus Samuelsson Group (MSG) , which works to maintain Samuelsson's culinary and cultural pillars, creating outstanding experiences that celebrate food, music, culture, and art in all its endeavors from high-end restaurants and fast-casual cafes to media and experiential events. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at @MarcusCooks.
