Marcus Samuelsson
I love Thanksgiving because it's a holiday that is centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me.Collection: Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite American traditions. I quickly picked it up when I moved to the U.S. from Sweden.Collection: Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday - it's a day that's American to the core and it's a day that's all about what and how we eat.Collection: Thanksgiving
I credit my grandmother for teaching me to love and respect food. She taught me how to waste nothing, to make sure I used every bit of the chicken and boil the bones till no flavor could be extracted from them.Collection: Respect
Finding creative and effective ways to simultaneously give back and economically empower people is something that is increasingly important. Not everyone can open a business and directly create jobs in the way that we have at Red Rooster Harlem.Collection: Business
The holidays are my favorite time of year! Christmas was always one of the biggest celebrations in Sweden, and I look forward to the festivities each year.Collection: Christmas
Just like keeping a healthy diet is important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, eating the right foods is just as important for getting the most out of your workout.Collection: Diet
Being an Ethiopian-born, Swedish-raised chef, there's nothing traditional about my Thanksgiving spread.Collection: Thanksgiving
Although I believe affection and romance should be shown all year around, it's always smart to have a good plan up your sleeve for Valentine's Day.Collection: Valentines
When I get the chance to make my favorite breakfast on the weekend, I often choose to make pancakes.Collection: Chance
We struggle with eating healthily, obesity, and access to good nutrition for everyone. But we have a great opportunity to get on the right side of this battle by beginning to think differently about the way that we eat and the way that we approach food.Collection: Food
In Ethiopia, food is often looked at through a strong spiritual lens, stronger than anywhere else I know. It's the focal point of weddings, births and funerals and is a daily ceremony from the preparation of the meal and the washing of hands to the sharing of meals.Collection: Food
The Swedish Christmas is definitely unique, even throughout Scandinavia. Like Christmas everywhere, it's a very family-centered holiday.Collection: Christmas
Without food, we cannot survive, and that is why issues that affect the food industry are so important.Collection: Food
Whether you're on a diet, or you're looking for a go-to one bowl dinner recipe, salads should be thought of as crowd-pleasers, not a dreaded component of a meal.Collection: Diet
Every time you use the word 'healthy,' you lose. The key is to make yummy, delicious food that happens to be healthy.Collection: Food
Since the gluten-free diet is not for everyone, it's recommended that you stick with a gluten-free diet for at least 3 weeks first to see if it works for you.Collection: Diet
For many of us, clean water is so plentiful and readily available that we rarely, if ever, pause to consider what life would be like without it.
Weekends are sacred for me. They're the perfect time to relax and spend time with family and friends.
Casseroles don't have to be about canned ingredients and vegetables you normally wouldn't even think of eating alone, much less stuck in between layers of sauce and breadcrumbs. They can vary from everyone's favorite all-time casserole, macaroni and cheese, to the ultimate English casserole, Shepherd's Pie.
While you can find zucchini in markets in most places year-round, allowing you to make everything from breakfast dishes like zucchini and onion frittatas to snacks like zucchini-stuffed crab cakes, the onset of fall marks the beginning of hard squash season.
Like all food, whether you're talking about Persian food, or Chinese food, or Swedish food, it's always a reflection of wars, trading, a bunch of good and a bunch of bad. But what's left is always the food story.
Spices, of course, are essential.
Most people cringe at the thought of a casserole.
Coconut is one of those love-hate ingredients.
In the hot summer months, popsicles are a perfect way to cool down while enjoying a delicious, fruity treat. Frozen, refreshing, mouth-friendly candy on a stick cannot get any better... or can it?
Going meatless reduces our carbon footprint and helps us lead the way towards climate change.
Clean water and access to food are some of the simplest things that we can take for granted each and every day. In places like Africa, these can be some of the hardest resources to attain if you live in a rural area.
They say never trust a skinny chef, but the fact is, to stay healthy when you're a chef means you have to work twice as hard.
Salad can get a bad rap. People think of bland and watery iceberg lettuce, but in fact, salads are an art form, from the simplest rendition to a colorful kitchen-sink approach.
Even just a few spices or ethnic condiments that you can keep in your pantry can turn your mundane dishes into a culinary masterpiece.
I stand behind everything I've done.
To become a good cook is to know yourself, and I, at this point, know myself. I know myself, and I know the cook I want to be and the cook I am striving to be.
Oatmeal is a cheap and healthy breakfast.
I happen to love coconut, particularly for that sweet and crunchy texture it adds to any dish.
Even before the earthquake in Haiti, only half the country's population had a source of safe drinking water.
I learned from my grandmother, who grew up in devastating war times, how important it is to keep with tradition and celebrate the holidays during tough times.
The darker the chocolate is, the more antioxidants it contains. So when eaten in moderation - just a few bites from a well-made dark chocolate bar, for instance - there's no need to feel bad about indulging once in a while.
You have to balance, but you can be aggressive as a chef. It benefits the food. You have to be passionate. You can't be angry cooking.
Criticism is part of the creative man's journey, and I appreciate it.
I think that if you grind your spices and keep them in small batches, you can use them in endless ways. The key thing is to have a spice mill or a coffee grinder, and to keep your spices cold and in tightly lidded boxes.
As a chef, I could not wash my hands - nor clean pots, pans, utensils, meats or produce, nor make soups and sauces - if I did not have clean water. Were this to happen, of course, these would be the least of my concerns. Because water is the linchpin of survival: without it, not much else matters.
I love using rice as a flour; I'll grind roasted rice and dip fish in that. It gives a beautiful, crunchy texture.
I love cookbooks for completely different reasons. I love 'The Harry's Bar Cookbook' and Marco-Pierre White's 'White Heat' for their feel. For pure learning, Gray Kunz wrote a great cookbook, 'The Elements of Taste', published in 2001. The first time I read Charlie Trotter's, the Chicago chef's first cookbook, I was blown away.
I would love to take a cooking class from Gandhi. Maybe I could teach him how to cook, and he could teach me his message. I wouldn't mind learning how to make couscous from scratch from a North African woman, either.
We know so much about the European food story, and we're getting to know about the American food story; but we know so little about the African food story.
I don't have memories of Ethiopia as a child. I didn't learn about Ethiopian culture until after I moved to New York and started meeting people from the Ethiopian community.
As an adopted person, once you find out about that 'other' side of yourself, it's almost like you find out who you really are.
I had great schooling, and my parents were always in front of me, or next to me, or behind me, making sure I had whatever I needed.
Most of my education has been around food.