Quotes by Marcus Samuelsson

But one of the things I have learned during the time I have spent in the United States is an old African American saying: Each one, teach one. I want to believe that I am here to teach one and, more, that there is one here who is meant to teach me. And if we each one teach one, we will make a difference.

For months beforehand, I fielded calls from British media. A couple of the reporters asked me to name some British chefs who had inspired me. I mentioned the Roux brothers, Albert and Michel, and I named Marco Pierre White, not as much for his food as for how—by virtue of becoming an apron-wearing rock-star bad boy—he had broken the mold of whom a chef could be, which was something I could relate to. I got to London to find the Lanesborough dining room packed each night, a general excitement shared by everyone involved, and incredibly posh digs from which I could step out each morning into Hyde Park and take a good long run around Buckingham Palace. On my second day, I was cooking when a phone call came into the kitchen. The executive chef answered and, with a puzzled look, handed me the receiver. Trouble at Aquavit, I figured.I put the phone up to my ear, expecting to hear Håkan’s familiar “Hej, Marcus.” Instead, there was screaming. “How the fuck can you come to my fucking city and think you are going to be able to cook without even fucking referring to me?” This went on for what seemed like five minutes; I was too stunned to hang up. “I’m going to make sure you have a fucking miserable time here. This is my city, you hear? Good luck, you fucking black bastard.” And then he hung up.I had cooked with Gordon Ramsay once, a couple of years earlier, when we did a promotion with Charlie Trotter in Chicago. There were a handful of chefs there, including Daniel Boulud and Ferran Adrià, and Gordon was rude and obnoxious to all of them. As a group we were interviewed by the Chicago newspaper; Gordon interrupted everyone who tried to answer a question, craving the limelight. I was almost embarrassed for him. So when I was giving interviews in the lead-up to the Lanesborough event, and was asked who inspired me, I thought the best way to handle it was to say nothing about him at all. Nothing good, nothing bad. I guess he was offended at being left out. To be honest, though, only one phrase in his juvenile tirade unsettled me: when he called me a black bastard. Actually, I didn’t give a fuck about the bastard part. But the black part pissed me off.

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.

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?

For many sports fans, the onset of fall only means one thing: Its football season!

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.

The Swedish Christmas is definitely unique, even throughout Scandinavia. Like Christmas everywhere, its a very family-centered holiday.

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.

Taking dishes straight off the restaurants menu and putting them into a cookbook doesnt work, because as a chef you have your own vision of what your food is, but you cant always explain it. Or you cant pick recipes that best illustrate who and where you are and what youre doing. And if the recipes dont work, you dont have a book.

I love Thanksgiving because its a holiday that is centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me.

Weekends are sacred for me. Theyre the perfect time to relax and spend time with family and friends.

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 wouldnt mind learning how to make couscous from scratch from a North African woman, either.

Since truffle oil and caviar arent 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 love cookbooks for completely different reasons. I love The Harrys Bar Cookbook and Marco-Pierre Whites 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 Trotters, the Chicago chefs first cookbook, I was blown away.

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.

Every time you use the word healthy, you lose. The key is to make yummy, delicious food that happens to be healthy.

Without food, we cannot survive, and that is why issues that affect the food industry are so important.

You have to balance, but you can be aggressive as a chef. It benefits the food. You have to be passionate. You cant be angry cooking.

Cooking with your kids and engaging them in hands-on activities are two ways to begin to educate children about the healthy eating, and kick start the important task to help change how the younger generation looks at food and nutrition.

People come up to me all the time and ask how I stay the way I am, and its 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.