Marcus Samuelsson
I'm an American chef. I'm American. I live here. I love being here. But, of course, it is different. A black man's journey is different.
It wasn't until I came to New York and started to see the African American community, but also the Ethiopian community here, and started to eat the food, started to understand the music. I said, you know, I got to go and understand the culture. So me and my sister went.
I get so tickled when that pilot happens to be an African American because I rarely see that. The same is true when I go to find restaurants. I mean, most places I go, I kind of have some idea who the chef is, which is why I want to go.
There shouldn't be an announcement that divides our food between what tastes good and what is good for us.
If it's done really well, you don't want big portions because you think, 'That was so fulfilling. I'm not stuffed. I feel great.'
Healthy can be the new good. Eating delicious should not be sacrificed because it's healthy.
I think it's very expensive to not eat healthy. Eating healthy is the only affordable option we have left.
I have never seen a picture of my mother. My mother's family never owned a photograph of her, which tells you everything you need to know about where I'm from and what the world was like for the people who gave me life.
I started cooking for the love of cooking, and I am going to keep cooking whether there's a celebrity aspect to it or not.
I feel like there's a lot of tasks in cooking that I want to master, that I want to do better.
I'm engaged in food on so many levels, and I love that. So my work, my craft, is around food, and writing is one aspect of it; communicating a narrative, cooking online is one aspect of it; solving the food chasm that we have in Harlem and finding a farmers market is another one, and all of them are equally exciting for me.
I love having a croissant and a great cup of coffee. Just one cup.
I want people to understand my journey and to be inspired by that. You can be an immigrant, and if you work really hard, you can have your own restaurant.
I don't distinguish the music I listen to from great music - it's just music. There shouldn't be an announcement that divides our food between what tastes good and what is good for us.
Each city should have its own type of restaurant.
I can take a lot of pride that I can launch cookbooks and there's an audience out there that supports that.
As people of color, it took a whole generation in many ways to get us out of the kitchen, and it's gonna take us the same whole generation to get us back into the kitchen and have ownership of restaurants, hotels and stuff like that.
I think the kitchen is the new garage. And I think for a guy that wants to go out and be an evolved person, he should know about his local favorite restaurant. He should know how to cook something.
Cooking turkey every year doesn't have to be monotonous - I want people to always mix it up using different spices and preparations.
There are so many times there could have been a left turn instead of a right turn in all people's lives. I think mine are pretty crystal clear, because of being adopted, being born in Ethiopia, being adopted to Sweden.
I've been lucky to travel and work all over the world through the lens of the back of the house, and I love that monocle. I love that lens, because it's real people.
The food business is very tough, but there's also a lot of love and very giving.
It's fascinating when you're from another place, but you don't speak the language.
The journey into adoption started for my parents, as it does with so many families: my mother and father desperately wanted to have kids, but they couldn't.
I came into this environment where there was so much love, so much positive energy. I never heard my parents say, 'We have adopted kids.' The minute my sister Linda and I landed in Sweden, we were their kids.
My father loved to take us on historical vacations, and you should have seen the stares we received in East Berlin.
For decades, many blacks were reluctant to pursue a profession that was associated with servitude. If you went to school, it was to become a lawyer or doctor. Older generations didn't understand why one would spend money to learn how to chop, peel, dice, and saute vegetables when that trade could be taught at home.
Cooking is in an honest profession where you cannot hide and let others do the work for you. You have to show up, work hard and prove you can do it faster and better. And find a mentor who will recognize your talent and push you in the right direction.
If you get hungry mid-day, a banana is the best snack at your desk, after a workout, or in between classes. Fruit is a very good snack in general.
What I love about the term 'salad' is that it can appear in so many different forms and says a lot about the cook. It could be a simple as fresh green lettuces tossed with a basic vinaigrette, or it could be as hearty as a couscous salad with grilled shrimp.
What makes Harlem special is that at any given time, food seekers can not only find food deeply rooted in Southern, Latin and African traditions, but also can taste the newer Senegalese, Chinese, and Italian influences as well.
I love chicken. But, like a lot of chefs and cooks, I get tired of preparing it the same way.
A juicy chicken breast can be the perfect accompaniment to a classic Caesar salad or a club sandwich. It's also easy to cook, and can be as simple as dressing it with a few spices and popping in the oven.
Simple ingredients can be used to make elegant dishes with just a little extra attention to detail.
Since truffle oil and caviar aren't always in the budget, learning to tweak and enhance just a few ingredients and flavor combinations can help you transform those ordinary ingredients into the extraordinary!
I'm lucky to live in New York, a city that offers so many options for lunch. I can pick up dumplings from a Midtown food truck, grab empanadas by the dozen in Spanish Harlem or get a fantastic bowl of ramen in the East Village.
Childhood nutrition and healthy eating is a cause that is extremely close to my heart.
Let the fresh fruits and vegetables be your guide, and make something that will keep for the whole week.
I'm a firm believer that people find their own passions.
Children want to mimic adults. They notice when you choose to prepare fresh vegetables over calling in another pizza pie for dinner. They will see that food made with love and care outweighs going through the drive-through window.
I learned at a young age what chasing flavors meant, and I've been doing that my whole life.
Packing lunches and going over menus is a great way to make small changes in the way your kids eat.
In the harrowing aftermath of Haiti's earthquake, one of the greatest needs became desperately clear: safe water.
The dialogue and conversation about food is everywhere - television, chat rooms, social media outlets and among everyday conversations.
Between the ages of six and nine, my palette was taking shape as well as my identity as a chef. It was then that I learned the difference between salty, sweet, sour and even spicy.
When you are already eating as cheaply and meagerly as possible, any raise in cost can quickly plunge you and your family into hunger.
People might not protest for overtly political or social causes, but when they can't feed themselves and their family, they will take to the streets.
The reasons for food insecurity are many and varied. But part of the problem is the global farming systems.
Egypt is the largest wheat importer in the world. In some part, this is due to irrigation issues and inhospitable climes. Egypt's dependence on wheat is also partially because for decades it has been cheaper to import wheat, corn, soy and barley from the U.S. than to grow it locally.