Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson

                  The way I got to know about Chef Marcus Samuelsson was through my mother.  To be honest, my mother is the only reason I know any chef.  When Chef Samuelsson was on Top Chef Masters I was able to find out more about who he was as a person.  He seemed really interesting and I wanted to know more about how he became the chef he is today.  With his memoir, Yes, Chef, I was able to learn about his life and the path he took to become a successful chef.

                There are so many events in Chef Samuelsson’s life; I am not quite sure how he crammed them into just over four decades.  Born in Ethiopia, Chef Samuelsson and his older sister were adopted and moved to Sweden after their mother died.  When they arrived in Sweden, Chef Samuelsson was introduced to cooking by his grandmother.  She was always cooking and Chef Samuelsson liked to help her in the kitchen.  Despite this enjoyment, cooking was not what he directed most of his attention to.  Throughout childhood Chef Samuelsson played soccer.  For years that is what he concentrated on until he was released from a team because he was seen as too small.  It was this dismissal that led him to pursuing cooking as a profession.   

                After completing his culinary education, Chef Samuelsson took his skills all over the world.  He jumped at opportunities in different countries, including Switzerland and Austria, in an effort to grow as a chef.  It did not take too long for Chef Samuelsson to end up in New York City.  For many years he worked with the restaurant Aquavit.  Now Chef Samuelsson has his own successful restaurant, Red Rooster.

                This is a very fast summary of the events in Chef Samuelsson’s life.  There are so many more in the book and a lot of them have nothing to do with cooking.  In the book Chef Samuelsson talks about his adoptive family, his daughter, his wife, meeting his Ethiopian family, and a lot of deaths.  Two of the most interesting people mentioned in the book are Chef Samuelsson’s two mothers.  Ahnu, Chef Samuelsson’s biological mother, risked her life to save her children.  Even though she was suffering from tuberculosis, Ahnu walked miles upon miles to take her two sick children to the hospital.  Once there, she died, but her children were saved.  Chef Samuelsson’s adoptive mother, Anne Marie, took him and his sister in without a second thought.  It did not matter that they were from different countries and were different races.  From the moment they met, he was her son.  Throughout his life, she has loved and cared for him.  At the time of the book’s publication, Anne Marie still worried about Chef Samuelsson working too much.  This is not the only great thing about Anne Marie.  What I think is absolutely incredible about this woman is her treatment of Chef Samuelsson’s daughter. 

                During Chef Samuelsson’s time in Austria, he got a girl pregnant.  Distressed over the situation, Chef Samuelsson was not sure about supporting the girl and the child.  Anne Marie would not hear any of this.  She told her son he would support the child.  Since Chef Samuelsson did not have the money at the time, Anne Marie loaned him the money until he could afford the support himself.  She did not stop there.  When Chef Samuelsson’s daughter was born, Anne Marie made sure she was part of the child’s life, even though Chef Samuelsson was not.  The girl always knew who her grandmother was and that she was loved.  A lot of mothers would not choose to do this.  If their son is not involved, she will not be either.  Anne Marie’s involvement shows how great of a woman she is.

                Something I did not mention before was Chef Samuelsson’s struggle with his race. While his parents did not think anything of his having a different skin tone than them, it was quite a different story in the kitchens. Some restaurants did not even want to hire him because of it. I do not know why. If you can cook, you can cook. Done. End of story. What does it matter what you look like? Apparently someone thinks it matters, and Chef Samuelsson did have to deal with prejudice. However, Chef Samuelsson took these experiences and used them to run his own restaurant differently. In his kitchen he encourages diversity in race, culture, gender, and skill. He gives a lot of people a chance where others would not. I hope other restaurants take note and change the way they run their kitchens. Who knows what great things may happen if they do.