Marcus Samuelsson

Secrets of a Skinny Chef

2013-04-23T11:38:24-04:00

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. People come up to me all the time and ask how I stay the way I am, and it's no secret. The first lesson a chef needs to learn is how to handle a knife; the second is how to be around all that food. (And I've learned both the hard way.) Sure good genes help, but it also takes a lot of work on my part. I'm an avid runner and play soccer every weekend, but I also have to constantly watch what I eat and I'm always thinking about how to balance my meals.

On a typical day, I've usually eaten 15 things before lunch. By morning I've tasted the fresh vegetables that have come from the farms, a spoon of sauce here, fresh corn bread out of the oven there, and a dish of say, fried chicken. The lifestyle of a chef is being around food all the time, and it's the late night eating and drinking that comes with the job that can be a real killer. Chefs don't eat at normal hours so the only time you feel like you really need a meal is after service, when you're exhausted and just crave something to help you wind down.

So how do I combat getting my weight out of control? By thinking about balance throughout the day. If I know I'm going to an evening event where there will be rich (but delicious) appetizers being passed around, I'll eat light for lunch like a salad with a bit of protein. Or if I've been sampling sweets from the Nook or couldn't resist a burger during the day, I make sure to keep it simple at night. I've said this many times before, but if I indulge in a lot of meat one night, I'll make sure to eat vegetarian later in the week. It not only helps me stay fit, it's also great for our environment.

To help you throughout your busy week, here are 10 quick and easy recipes you can make for dinner that are delicious, healthy and take advantage of the freshest produce of the season. Some dishes will take less than 30 minutes to prepare while others can be made ahead and assembled or reheated in no time. Want more? I've also included five dinner roundups from FoodRepublic.com that will ensure you don't have to make the same dish twice next month.

Diversity, Drive and Determination in the Kitchen

2013-02-21T10:11:43-05:00

It's not uncommon that people will ask me which black chefs I admire -- that answer is easy. Patrick Clark, the venerated chef of New York's Odeon and Tavern on the Green; Sylvia Woods, my Red Rooster neighbor who was and still is a part of this Harlem community for over 50 years; Edna Lewis, the South's answer to Julia Child; and Leah Chase, my mentor and New Orleans great who inspires everything from Disney movies to Treme. I know I stand on these chef's shoulders and I can continue their path to inspire and aspire young black chefs.

You've heard me say that black people had to work really hard to get out of the kitchen and now they have to work really hard to get back in -- I don't want you to think I'm being negative. 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 sauté vegetables when that trade could be taught at home. The attitude was that those jobs were beneath us and there were better opportunities available; why would anyone want to work in a kitchen?

The fact remains that black chefs are underrepresented in fine dining kitchens. There are more Asians and Latinos prepping, chopping and sous viding behind the line than there are African Americans. But we're getting there. When I look at the line cooks in the kitchen at Red Rooster, I know we're on the right way. When I recognize talent, I reward it; one of our former line cooks, Charlene Johnson Hadley, became head chef of American Table Café and Bar last year.

But this isn't a soapbox to declare our accolades. This is to show how glad I am that times are changing. Coming up with my fellow chefs in Europe, I was usually the only chef of color in all the kitchens I worked at across the globe. Peterson's indicates that 4 percent of enrolled students at The Culinary Institute of America are black. This doesn't sound like a lot, but the good news here? It's double what it was eight years ago.

Think about what American food looks like to people who live outside of the U.S. Speaking from the European point of view, American food means hamburgers as well as fried chicken, mashed potatoes and BBQ. Southern food. There is such a large contribution of traditional soul food in the U.S., yet there aren't a correlating number of black chefs to represent it in fine dining kitchens.

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. Look at Preston Clark, Patrick's son, who is recognized with equal admiration in the culinary world as his father. Or Paul Carmichael, the Barbados native who became the exec chef of David Chang's Ma Pêche last fall. These are chefs who had mentors that believed in them and paved the way in the kitchen.

I've worked with the Careers through Culinary Arts Program for more than 10 years and it's programs like C-CAP that are helping shift the tides. They guide underserved high school students and prepare them for career opportunities in the restaurant and hospitality industry across the country. Many of my chef friends and I have hired our staff from C-CAP and I urge my fellow restaurateurs to use resources like these to encourage diversity in their kitchen. Let's recognize the talents who are defying tradition and following a dream. This is a trend I hope never gets old.

Chickpeas, The Other White Bean

2012-12-13T09:53:31-05:00

For those of you who read MarcusSamuelsson.com or follow me on Facebook and Twitter, you know that I post a Meatless Monday recipe at the beginning of every week. But what you may not know is that Meatless Monday isn't just a clever hashtag -- it's a nonprofit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Going meatless reduces our carbon footprint and helps us lead the way towards climate change. Beyond that, it can cut our meat consumption by up to 15 percent and opens us to find alternative sources of protein. And one of the most incredible, often overlooked sources? Chickpeas.

According to PepsiCo (they've teamed up with the U.S. Agency for International Development to boost the production of chickpeas in Ethiopia), the water footprint to produce a kilogram of beef, pork, chicken and soybeans are 18, 11 and 5 times higher than chickpeas. That translates to 43 gallons of water to produce one pound of chickpeas versus 1,857 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef.

Believed to have first originated in the southeastern part of Turkey, chickpeas are an incredible source of vegetable protein (double the protein content of wheat), are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that boost heart health and provide a substantial amount of iron, potassium and enough vitamins that companies are looking to take some of the additional crops and make a ready-to-eat food product that the World Food Program has used to address famine in Pakistan.

So I ask, why don't we use chickpeas more? It's a highly versatile ingredient that can be made into dips, soups and breads, and can be roasted, stewed and even baked into cookies. I challenge you to find new ways to use this amazingly nutritious and inexpensive product and contribute to lowering our obesity problem as well as our carbon footprint. To help get you started, I've made a list, together with FoodRepublic.com, of my favorite ways to use chickpeas.

10 Recipes, 10 Ways To Deliciously Use Your Thanksgiving Leftovers

2012-11-14T13:55:50-05:00

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.

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. Hurricane Sandy showed us that more than anything. Residents in the New York area witnessed the kind of impact one act of nature can have, and now more than ever we need to keep tradition to lift our spirits. It's also the time to offer whatever you can to friends, neighbors or anyone who could benefit from even the smallest gesture of kindness.

I often talk about cooking with a spiritual compass -- when you're making that turkey on Thanksgiving morning, think about buying one more bird and giving it away. Hurricane Sandy lessened the number of food banks receiving free turkeys this year because many who usually donate were displaced by the storm. Additionally, frozen-food sections of supermarkets were damaged, ruining many turkeys that would otherwise be given away. Give someone who is struggling a reason to keep the holiday tradition alive in their home, wherever that may be.

And make sure to eat with a spiritual compass, too. Don't waste any part of your leftovers. A study by the National Resources Defense Council reported that Americans throw away 40 percent of the food supply every year. That's $165 billion annually. If you need help getting creative with how to use your Thanksgiving leftovers, with the help of Food Republic I've compiled my 10 favorite ways to make sure you're not wasting a thing this holiday season.

Eat Globally, Eat Better!

2012-09-12T11:41:50-04:00

I was honored to spend a few hours at the Huffington Post Oasis at the RNC and DNC these past two weeks, talking about how to eat globally to eat better. I couldn't have asked for a better response from both those who came up to me at the conventions and those who commented on my recent blog on this topic, but the one thing almost everyone asked me for is for some more ideas for incorporating this idea into their daily lives! So with some help of my friends at FoodRepublic.com and MarcusSamuelsson.com, here are 10 of my favorite recipes that highlight dishes that are so full of flavor you don't have to eat a lot. Some are quick and easy and some take a bit more time, but I guarantee all of them will make you feel better from the inside-out.

Banning "Healthy Food" From Our Diet

2012-08-22T15:50:37-04:00

Here's a thought: what if we ban the word "healthy food" from our culinary vocabulary? I'm not talking about banning foods that are considered healthy. I'm talking about changing the way we think about food overall.

Our country is in the midst of a cataclysmic health crisis, much of it caused by how we eat. More than one-third of American adults are currently obese (another one-third are overweight), and the next generation is looking worse. According to the CDC, the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents has almost tripled since 1980. It becomes an even more alarming number when you read that obesity is already responsible for $150 billion annually in medical costs.

We can all agree that government can't solve the obesity crisis alone. It's an ongoing issue that will require a collaborative effort across private and public sectors if we want to see some long-term success. However, in this election year, it would be irresponsible for our candidates not to stress the significance of this health epidemic; this crisis should be considered as top of mind as immigration, foreign policy, education and energy.

And then there are the instances where government is actually part of the problem -- actively keeping us from eating better. Take, for example, the $16.9 billion in federal subsidies that went to corn syrup producers in a 15-year period, according to a 2011 CALPIRG report. If that money was given back to consumers to spend on food, we'd each get $8 dollars to spend on junk food and a little more than a dime to spend on apples.

But as a professional chef, I think we also have a special obligation to lead the way in making sure that we no longer divide our food choices between what's considered "healthy" and what's considered "tasty." 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.

I'm excited about what my colleague and chef friends like Bill Telepan, Michael Anthony and Sam Kass are doing to help provide better options for school children across the country. They're engaging in initiatives led by Michelle Obama and I was sorry to see that the NYC Department of Education had to discontinue the program that recruited professional chefs to help provide fresher food to public schools. Of course, I commend Jamie Oliver for implementing this new way of thinking about school lunches. Children aren't going to eat something because it increases their fiber intake; they're going to eat it because it tastes yummy and delicious. He's not telling kids asparagus should be eaten. He's letting them taste asparagus when it's in season and showing them how delicious it can be. He's using his skill and platform as a chef and making people want to eat foods that are good for them.

Look at what Nathan Myhrvold is doing at the Cooking Lab in Seattle. Behind the door to the lab where he's inventing a mosquito-zapping laser in hopes of combating malaria, his team is applying scientific methods to extract the purest flavors from products as commonplace as carrots and peas. Some might call it a passion project, but I see how this idea will change the way we eat. That rich, creamy soup? It's actually made from vegetables that were run through a centrifuge to extract the solids from the liquid and contains little to no unnecessary fat for flavor. I'm telling you, tasting that food means tasting the future.

For me personally, I often look to global cuisine and ingredients to help make delicious and nutritious meals. I am always shocked that people in second and third world countries living on very low incomes are often are eating meals that are far healthier (and tastier in my opinion!) than what we eat in America. I'm constantly experimenting with different combinations in my kitchen to replicate this way of eating. Lately, I've been experimenting with ramen and created a noodle made from teff, a delicious food grain that is very important in Ethiopia because it's used to make injera, the flatbread Ethiopians eat with every meal. I could tell you how nutritious it is, but that's not the point. If you eat a bowl, you will find it equally if not more tasty and fulfilling than that burger and fries. Also, by continuing to surprise your taste buds you won't need to overeat -- you'll just be looking forward to the next innovation on your plate.

There shouldn't be a distinction between what's healthy and unhealthy. Cooking and eating well, meaning deliciously and nutritiously, is not just an issue of access or cost -- it's also an issue of education and understanding, and our government has a responsibility to help with this transition. And as chefs, we have the responsibility to do our part both from behind the stove and beyond.

"Yes, Chef": Recipes from a Tasty Journey

2012-07-25T11:29:55-04:00

My journey as a chef can be traced in ways that not only pays homage to the food I eat but by the people who introduced me to a diverse world of flavors that I use in my recipes today. There was Helga, my grandmother, who shaped my resourcefulness and core cooking values. Then there were the tough yet brilliant chefs who knocked me around at Victoria Jungrau in Switzerland. I had a long-lasting love affair with the flavors from Japan and the hustling New York street vendors. And of course a life-changing return to Ethiopia has made huge impacts on my life in food.

My memoir shares all of this, and what would a chef's personal memoir be without plenty of recipes to accompany it? These easy-to-make dishes, inspired by my love for chasing flavors around the globe represent the different locations of where I've lived and worked--fish tostadas will take you to my hometown by the sea while the berbere that peppers my "Yes, Chef" cocktail brings back the spices of Ethiopia. Though I was trained to see fancy French food as the best of what cuisine could bring (and without a doubt it is delicious) I have found that passionate, well-prepared food can be found just as easily on the streets of Harlem as it can in a five-star restaurant in Paris.

Made to be completely adaptable, I encourage you to put your own culinary spin on these dishes. No fresh tuna? Substitute Pacific salmon or tilapia to top the tostadas. If you snag juicy oranges from your local farmer's market use the rinds instead of beets for a candied topping to pair with my molten lava cake. Alter these dishes to fit your local palette or favorite cuisines and share your new creations with me @MarcusCooks

Is That Your Baby? Growing Up a Child of White Parents

2012-06-29T09:14:37-04:00

One of the reasons I wanted to write my memoirs is that besides talking about food, the other thing I am most often asked about is adoption. 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. It helped that they had informally adopted my older sister, Anna, an eight-year-old foster child, born to a Swedish woman and a Jamaican man. But more than anything, it helped that they were who they were: Lennart and Anne-Marie Samuelsson, resolutely hard-working middle-class Swedes who weren't afraid to go their own way.

I like to say that my Mom and Dad were the original Brad and Angelina (if Brangelina lived in a small fishing town and made cabbage rolls), but in fact my mother's parents were the ones who first made blended families the norm. I had a Jewish auntie -- Anne-Marie's parents had taken in a girl from Czechoslovakia during World War II and raised her as their own. My grandparents were far from rich, but it was not strange for them to stretch their means to provide for others. And that's how it was for my parents; we didn't have money but we always ate well.

In my book Yes, Chef you can see old photos of them: my Mom with her beautiful, long hair and my dark blonde Dad, sporting a stylishly scruffy beard. They were so cool, so ahead of their time, without even trying. So many of our neighbors and my friends couldn't understand what my parents had done in adopting us, especially children from Ethiopia, but the impact on our extended family was immediate. I had Canadian relatives and cousins from Korea. If we got into fights at school, it wasn't because we were adopted. If we didn't understand what a word meant, it wasn't because we were adopted. My mother made sure that fact never creeped into conversation and she didn't let it define us.

But that didn't mean we were oblivious to the fact that Linda and I had white parents and my parents had black children. This one time we were visiting D.C. and my mother had to take us kids and leave the city. She had been so excited to come to America, to buy copies of Essence and Ebony magazine so she could learn how to comb our hair and buy the products she needed to tame our unruly afros. But she was getting it from both sides -- white people couldn't understand what this Swedish woman was doing with two little Ethiopian children, and black people would be constantly asking her a thousand questions. This was the 1970's and there weren't celebrities adopting children from African countries. I was about eight years old at the time and I can remember thinking Anne-Marie was most disappointed because her expectations of that trip were not met; how times had changed when I accompanied my mom to a conference for adopted children and their families in our nation's capital some 30 years later.

My father loved to take us on historical vacations and you should have seen the stares we received in East Berlin. We had just come from the West -- the people were so diverse and colorful -- but the eastern part of Germany was so gray and we stood out, my tall Swedish parents and their three small children with jackets, gloves and hair that put Michael Jackson and Prince to shame. Here, I remember the looks we got, but by that time our family had gotten used to it. We knew we had different skin colors and were from different countries, but that never stopped my parents from doing the hard work of parenting. My parents were there: in front of me, behind me, in the middle of my life at all times: reprimanding me, giving me confidence, teaching me valuable lessons, to help make me the man I am today.

A dozen times a week, easily, I am stopped on the street by someone -- most often a woman -- who tells me that she is the mother of an adopted child. More and more, over the past few years, these women have adopted a child from Ethiopia and they've read about me or seen me on TV and know my story. While I love to hear these stories, I always wonder when will be the time the "norm" will flip on its head again. Will there be black parents adopting white kids? I'm waiting for the moment when some rich Nigerian man decides he wants to adopt an Asian child. Is this happening yet and if not, what will it take to change the conversation? In an open-minded world, everything is a possibility.

When I ride the subway back and forth, sometimes I look at the other passengers and wonder if any of them are children who have been adopted or parents who have adopted. That clearly wasn't the case for me -- it was obvious we weren't Anne-Marie and Lennart's biological children. Not knowing and wondering how many people on that train might come from blended families gives me hope that in time we'll see a broader range of cross-race adoptions and it will seem as commonplace as a Swedish family adopting two siblings from Ethiopia seems today. And once we achieve that, we'll find momentum to start another conversation.

Skip Lunch Fight Hunger

2012-05-08T09:59:05-04:00

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. We have food from practically every corner of the world available at our disposal and it's amazing what a great meal you can have for under ten bucks.

But others aren't so lucky. The same ten dollars you spend on lunch is all it costs for City Harvest to feed 37 kids who are hungry. That's pretty astounding. City Harvest, one of New York City's only food rescue organizations, is once again asking us to join their 10th annual Skip Lunch Fight Hunger campaign. By donating what you or I would normally spend on lunch, you can help City Harvest to provide children and their families with good, nutritious food. Every summer thousands of New York City children who depend on school lunches may face hunger. Any donation, big or small, can help City Harvest feed the hungry. Childhood nutrition and healthy eating is a cause that is extremely close to my heart. I'm asking if you'd help me support this very worthy cause.

This doesn't mean we have to skip lunch altogether. Consider this an opportunity to enjoy the seasonal produce found at your farmer's market and make a healthy, nutritious and delicious lunch at home. Let the fresh fruits and vegetables be your guide and make something that will keep for the whole week. What will I be making? I think I'm going to start with the barley salad found in my cookbook, New American Table -- pearl and black barley are tossed with fresh cucumber, spinach, mint, pine nuts, and feta cheese to create a toothy and crunchy salad that is an ideal way to get a daily dose of your vegetables!

Here are a few more lunch recipes from Food Republic that you can make at home. Tweet me (@MarcusCooks) using the hashtag #SkipLunchFightHunger and let me know which ones are your favorite and remember to donate your lunch money to City Harvest at www.skiplunch.org. You'll be helping feed a lot of families and I can't think of a better cause than that.

Everything's Tastier in Texas

2012-04-23T23:48:26-04:00

This weekend I'm headed to the Austin Food & Wine Festival, and I couldn't be more excited to see what's happening there. It's Food & Wine's first-ever food fest in the Texas capital, happening on the heels of SXSW and a few months before Austin City Limits (the city's two major music events). Clearly, people are beginning to see Austin as more than just fostering musical talent. It's becoming a bona fide food town.

At Austin Food & Wine, I'm on the schedule for cooking demos like "Birds of a Feather," where I'll prepare Red Rooster's Fried Yardbird and a traditional Ethiopian stew Doro Wett, and "Green Eggs & Ham," where I'll talk about the importance of sustainability in the kitchen. But I'll also be checking out everything else that's going on.

I have to mention how thrilled I am about the Test Kitchen and Interview Lounge at the W Austin, hosted by Food Republic this Friday. The guys have been working hard on the lounge, which will feature live interviews with chefs, musicians and entertainers in front of a small audience in the Living Room's Screened Porch at the hotel. They'll also be in the kitchen Friday at Trace, the restaurant at W Austin, working with the staff to create some tasty recipes to be featured on Food Republic. (W Austin is also offering a chance to win a food-themed weekend through this competition.)

As for the weekend, I'm most excited about meeting the crop of new and talented chefs and seeing what they're up to, including Tyson Cole, Top Chef Winner Paul Qui and Philip Speer of Uchi and Uchiko. Of course it'll be great to see what friends Michelle Bernstein, Sam Mason, Tim Byres and Gail Simmons have been up to. It will also be a chance for me to catch up with a few chefs I've worked with in the past. I'm looking forward to a reunion with Terrence Gallivan and Seth Siegel-Gardner, two of the hottest chefs in Houston right now, and who are working together on a new restaurant that's sure to be a success.

I'm going to let the festival guide me and help me explore Austin, from the kitchens of my friends to the vintage clothing and music shops and new restaurants that are popping up all over town. Festivals such as Austin Food & Wine and SXSW are defining this city and letting others see the changing landscape of not only music and culture but in food. Every time I'm in Texas I come away learning something new of American food -- whether it's a new cocktail or an innovative way to prepare BBQ. As a chef, Austin is a great place to be inspired.

In the meantime, check out a few of these great stick-to-your-ribs recipes from Food Republic that you can prepare to get in the spirit of this weekend's Austin Food & Wine Festival.

8 Recipes to Perfect Your Brunch Skills

2012-03-31T11:11:08-04:00

With Easter and Mother's Day just around the corner, you know nothing says "Happy Easter" or "Thank you for taking care of me, Mom" quite like a happy brunch between family and friends. It's no wonder that New York City is known as the "Brunch Capital of the U.S" since almost every New Yorker can be found munching on some form of French Toast or Eggs and sipping on Mimosas at any given morning on any given weekend. I'm excited for this year's Easter Brunch in Harlem since aside from our regular Gospel Brunch at Red Rooster, we'll also be serving a special brunch in our newly opened Ginny's Supper Club.

While dining out for special brunch celebrations is a must, especially if you live in NYC, what makes brunch even more special is when it's made at home and shared among your loved ones. It's also one of the easiest meals to prepare since the options are limitless!

For me, brunch is such a versatile meal since you can play on both the sweet and savory in your dishes. It also allows you to be playful and experiment with new spices and flavors to your favorite brunch dishes, like Corned Beef Hash or Eggs Benedict. Spice up your brunch classics with bold new twists or try some international staples as a new addition to your repertoire.

Don't forget to add a great cocktail to your menu- it's the perfect touch to the perfect meal.
With the help of Food Republic, we've put together 8 recipes of great global brunch dishes that can help you perfect your brunch skills and impress even the savviest brunch eaters from New York.

However, we can't be to blame if your guests show up uninvited every weekend for your same great tasty dishes... That's just a risk you'll have to take.

For more great recipes and tips, follow me on Twitter (@MarcusCooks)

8 Recipes for the Best Workout

2012-03-19T10:32:07-04:00

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. While keeping active is a major aspect of staying fit, what you use for fuel definitely factors in.

It's key to know which essential foods will keep you going and help your body recover after hard work. Certain foods are good for preparing your body for an intense workout and giving you the energy you need to endure it. Others are great for after exercising to help you maintain calorie burning, build muscle, and prevent cramping.

Since nobody knows men and food like Food Republic, we pulled eight great recipes of theirs to try out before and after a workout. Give them a try -- energy food can be seriously delicious.

For more healthy tips and recipes, follow me on Twitter (@MarcusCooks)

5 Elegant Dishes With Simple Ingredients

2012-03-01T15:30:37-05:00

Since this winter hasn't been all that harsh in most parts of the US, we can't resort to our usual heavy winter classics. But that doesn't mean we should neglect our favorite winter ingredients. Cooking seasonally is not only great for the environment (since it requires less travel and chemical additives for your produce) but also great for your budget. But just because you can find inexpensive ingredients in each season doesn't mean you have to maintain that frugal attitude when cooking.

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!

With the help of Food Republic, we've picked five great winter ingredients -- Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, grapefruit, pears, and sweet potatoes -- and rounded up five amazing recipes guaranteed to knock your socks off! These recipes are all fairly upscale and will have your dinner guests fooled into thinking you either ordered straight from a restaurant or had a world-class chef help you in the kitchen.

For more great tips and recipes, follow me on Twitter (@MarcusCooks)

Savoring Harlem: Watching the New Harlem Renaissance Come Alive

2012-02-22T10:11:18-05:00

As the famous Langston Hughes poem entitled "Harlem" starts, "What happens to a dream deferred?" many often think that the line refers to Harlem itself. That somehow some grandiose dream of what Harlem was or could be has withered or in this case "dried up like a raisin in the sun." Well, I'm here to testify that that's not the case! The Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem is alive and thriving, more so now than ever before, and in many cases food is at the center of Harlem's new economic growth. Within the midst of great history and cultural diversity lies a food side of Harlem just waiting to be discovered by those foodies who seek it. My goal is to show you just that, and that's why I invite you to join me this Friday at 8pm ET/PT for a Food Network special where I show you my neighborhood, Harlem as we cover its current food revolution.

Harlem's rich culture and impressive ethnic diversity inspired me to move to Harlem eight years ago. I knew when I moved here that one day I would want to open a restaurant in Harlem that would represent Harlem's diverse community and be a place people from around the world would want to visit. 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. Virtually every type of cuisine now has a place in Harlem.

For decades, Harlem has also been the birthplace and safe haven for the arts and social movements like jazz, American poetry, and many other ideals that still resonate in our country today. In one of its most flourishing times, known as the Harlem Renaissance, great poets, musicians, actors, athletes and intellectuals roamed its streets finding inspiration in its people, buildings, and living institutions of thought and culture. It was home to dozens of theaters, restaurants, and even speakeasies -- and all shared the purpose of housing creativity, entertainment, and brotherhood. Even at Rooster, we take inspiration from an original Harlem speakeasy.

While many thought opening a restaurant in Harlem was a lost cause because of its economic decline in the past couple decades, I knew through its deep artistic and cultural history there could be a resurgence of the types of restaurants that made the original Red Rooster a prime destination for everyone from politicians to musicians. With a higher unemployment rate than the rest of the city (18% as compared to 4-5%), Harlem has been hit hard by the recession, yet in recent years, Harlem has seen an influx of new shops, restaurants, and businesses that are starting to bring it back to how it once was in its glory days. These businesses are not only bringing commerce to the neighborhood but are also hiring within the neighborhood as well. When I opened Red Rooster in 2010, I quickly learned that you can't help improve a neighborhood unless you bring everyone along with you. We made it a priority to hire the majority of our staff from Harlem. I constantly think about affordability when planning out my menus, since inclusion of the community is what drives my interest for Red Rooster.

Slowly, we're starting to see great improvements in Harlem and city dwellers are starting to see plenty of reasons to come uptown, not just to be entertainment but as a new place to live and create new business opportunities. Harlem currently has a higher percentage of growth in new housing units, population growth, and growing median household income than the rest of Manhattan, according to the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. With a cheaper rent base and available vacant spaces, Harlem is starting to see an influx of diverse city dwellers that are moving uptown. When new businesses like Harlem Shambles butcher shop meet classic Harlem institutions like Sylvia's, the hope to revitalize Harlem starts to shine.

Join me on Friday, February 24 at 8pm ET/PT for my Food Network special, Savoring Harlem, as I share with you what all the excitement in Harlem is about! You'll not only get to see the new food revolution happening in this great neighborhood but you'll also get to witness what truly makes Harlem so great.

The Music of Cal Massey

2012-02-16T11:00:23-05:00

Throughout much of February, Harlem becomes alive with much appreciation towards Black History Month. Among those greats whose lives are constantly celebrated in Harlem through monuments and such are the likes of Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, and Malcolm X. But there is one African American notable that is not often attributed to Black History, but in fact should be because of his deep contributions to jazz and American music as a whole. That individual is Cal Massey, a renowned trumpeter and composer, whose soulful compositions continue to resonate today.

While this groundbreaking composer may go unknown to many, his contributions to American music are remarkable. His poignant works have been recorded by John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan, Philly Lee Jones, Archie Shepp, and others. In addition to composing jazz music, Massey spent part of his career as a touring artist who performed across the country, including Harlem's original Red Rooster.

Join me at Red Rooster Harlem, as we host two evenings of tribute concerts to honor this legendary jazz musician. Our tribute to Cal Massey will be conducted by Fred Ho -- revolutionary Chinese American baritone saxophonist, composer, writer, producer and political activist. Fred has received numerous honors for his work and is the youngest person to ever receive the Duke Ellington Distinguished Artist Lifetime Achievement Award. His unique work and style personify the cross-cultural hybrid of American New Music and Jazz.

Of course, the night would not be complete without the Red Rooster's signature fare and libations. Our menu will feature a selection of newly composed dishes and signature cocktails reflecting the vibe and elegance of Red Rooster's downstairs venue.

Seated tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Show times for Wednesday, February 22nd are 7:30pm and 9:30pm and show times for Sunday, February 26th are 6:00pm and 8:30pm. Seating for the first show of each night starts 1 hour before show starts.
For reservations, please call 212-792-9001.

We hope that you will join us for what is sure to be an unforgettable evening.