🇺🇸 United States · Ethiopian cuisine · b. 1971
The Ethiopian-born, Sweden-raised chef who brought Harlem onto the global fine-dining map.
Marcus Samuelsson is an Ethiopian-born, Swedish-raised American chef who has done more than almost anyone of his generation to reshape what American restaurant food can be. Born in Ethiopia in 1971, he was orphaned during a tuberculosis epidemic and adopted with his sister by a Swedish family in Gothenburg, where his adoptive grandmother taught him to cook. He trained at the Culinary Institute in Gothenburg, did stages across Europe — Switzerland, Austria, France — and arrived in New York in 1994.
In 1995 he became executive chef at Aquavit, the Scandinavian restaurant in Midtown, at the age of twenty-three. Aquavit earned a three-star New York Times review that year — Samuelsson was the youngest chef ever to receive one — and in 2003 he won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef: New York City. In 2010 he opened Red Rooster Harlem, an explicit commitment to making Harlem a fine-dining destination on its own terms; the restaurant fuses Ethiopian, Swedish and African American culinary traditions and has become one of the cultural centres of the neighbourhood.
Beyond the restaurants, Samuelsson is an author, a frequent television presenter (including the PBS series 'No Passport Required' with Anthony Bourdain–style travel journalism), and an advocate for Black chefs in the U.S. industry. He has cooked the first state dinner of the Obama administration and was inducted into the James Beard Foundation Hall of Fame in 2021.
Three traditions, one plate. Samuelsson's cooking explicitly fuses his Ethiopian birthright, his Swedish upbringing and the African American culinary tradition of Harlem — and he is firm that these are not competing claims on his identity but complementary ones. He is also one of the most outspoken U.S. chefs on the structural exclusion of Black cooks from the top of the industry, and Red Rooster was conceived in part as a counter-statement to that.
His flagship since 2010; cultural anchor of contemporary Harlem dining.
Bar and pizza concept.
Seafood-focused; opened 2022.
Where he was executive chef 1995–2006; still operating under different leadership.
These recipes from our database reflect the ethiopian cooking tradition that Marcus works in. They are not direct reproductions of Marcus's copyrighted recipes, but traditional dishes inspired by the same culinary heritage.
“I cook the way I grew up — Ethiopian, Swedish, and now American. None of those identities cancel the others.”
“Harlem deserves a great restaurant the same way every great neighbourhood does.”
“The kitchen is a place where you can rewrite who is at the table.”
Graduates from the Culinary Institute in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Arrives in New York.
Becomes executive chef at Aquavit at age 23.
Aquavit receives three stars from The New York Times — youngest chef ever.
Wins James Beard Best Chef: NYC.
Opens Red Rooster Harlem.
Publishes memoir Yes, Chef.
Inducted into James Beard Foundation Hall of Fame.
He was born in Ethiopia in 1971 and orphaned during a tuberculosis epidemic. He and his sister were adopted by a Swedish family in Gothenburg, and Sweden is where he grew up and trained as a cook.
Red Rooster is Samuelsson's flagship restaurant, opened in Harlem in 2010 as a deliberate commitment to make the neighbourhood a fine-dining destination on its own terms. The menu fuses Ethiopian, Swedish and African American culinary traditions.
He has won the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef: New York City (2003), the Best International Cookbook award (for The Soul of a New Cuisine, 2007), the Humanitarian of the Year award (2017), and was inducted into the JBF Hall of Fame in 2021.
Yes — Samuelsson was the guest chef for the first state dinner of the Obama administration, hosted for the Prime Minister of India in November 2009.
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