Yes, Chef

A Memoir

By: Marcus Samuelsson

Narrated by: Marcus Samuelsson

Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“One of the great culinary stories of our time.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations.

Marcus Samuelsson was only three years old when he, his mother, and his sister—all battling tuberculosis—walked seventy-five miles to a hospital in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Adaba. Tragically, his mother succumbed to the disease shortly after she arrived, but Marcus and his sister recovered, and one year later they were welcomed into a loving middle-class white family in Göteborg, Sweden. It was there that Marcus’s new grandmother, Helga, sparked in him a lifelong passion for food and cooking with her pan-fried herring, her freshly baked bread, and her signature roast chicken. From a very early age, there was little question what Marcus was going to be when he grew up.

Yes, Chef chronicles Marcus Samuelsson’s remarkable journey from Helga’s humble kitchen to some of the most demanding and cutthroat restaurants in Switzerland and France, from his grueling stints on cruise ships to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a coveted New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of “chasing flavors,” as he calls it, had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs and, most important, the opening of the beloved Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fufilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents and prime ministers rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, bus drivers, and nurses. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.

With disarming honesty and intimacy, Samuelsson also opens up about his failures—the price of ambition, in human terms—and recounts his emotional journey, as a grown man, to meet the father he never knew. Yes, Chef is a tale of personal discovery, unshakable determination, and the passionate, playful pursuit of flavors—one man’s struggle to find a place for himself in the kitchen, and in the world.

Praise for Yes, Chef

“Such an interesting life, told with touching modesty and remarkable candor.”—Ruth Reichl

“Marcus Samuelsson has an incomparable story, a quiet bravery, and a lyrical and discreetly glittering style—in the kitchen and on the page. I liked this book so very, very much.”—Gabrielle Hamilton

“Plenty of celebrity chefs have a compelling story to tell, but none of them can top [this] one.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Red Rooster’s arrival in Harlem brought with it a chef who has reinvigorated and reimagined what it means to be American. In his famed dishes, and now in this memoir, Marcus Samuelsson tells a story that reaches past racial and national divides to the foundations of family, hope, and downright good food.”—President Bill Clinton

©2012 Marcus Samuelsson (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"The Red Rooster's arrival in Harlem brought with it a chef who has reinvigorated and reimagined what it means to be American. In his famed dishes, and now in this memoir, Marcus Samuelsson tells a story that reaches past racial and national divides to the foundations of family, hope, and downright good food." (President Bill Clinton)

"I've read a lot of chefs' books, but never anything like this one. Marcus Samuelsson has had such an interesting life, and he talks about it with touching modesty and remarkable candor. I couldn't put this book down." (Ruth Reichl, best-selling author of Tender at the Bone)

"Marcus Samuelsson has an incomparable story, a quiet bravery, and a lyrical and discreetly glittering style - in the kitchen and on the page. I liked this book so very, very much." (Gabrielle Hamilton, best-selling author of Blood, Bones, & Butter)

I love Marcus Samuelsson, but…

This book was excellent. I love Marcus Samuelsson and his story, he is inspiring and a joy to watch on tv. However the narration of this book was really distracting and frankly hard to listen to…it was a shame since the content was so wonderful. My recommendation is to read the book physically, and not listen to the audiobook.

Inspiring

Inspiring for a lead line such as myself. Beyond incredible story and all round the best chef memoirs I have read and I’ve read a few. This story is extremely unique. And again also inspiring Af for a black person like myself in this industry.

fascinating tale of ambition and drive

I love watching cooking shows on TV with my daughter and my husband and we try to guess who will be eliminated and why. This book is by one of the chefs who is often a judge on 'Chopped'. He is not warm and fuzzy, but he seems very sharp and very focused. Listening to this book explains a lot of that attitude. His is the story of an Ethiopian orphan adopted by a Swedish family who grew up to love cooking and to aim for very great success very young. His story is well told and interesting, although he is not a professional reader and the performance would have been better with a professional reader. However, his own voice does bring something to the story....just not better comprehension. He gives a wonderful picture of what European kitchens are like and how he came to prefer life in New York. He also reveals a lot about his personal life. But for the most part it is a very fascinating book with just a little preachiness at the end. But I enjoyed it enough to read it very quickly.

another world view

Great story of beginnings, drive, struggle, personal mistakes and triumph. great story. I don't know if I like him but he has my respect. he did not candy coat the mistakes like other authors tend to do.

Not just for foodies

An inspirational life story flavored with adversity and triumph, discrimination and acceptance, love and loss.
A look behind the kitchen doors of culinary schools, to crew ships, to three-star French restaurants to huts in Ethiopia. The reader is transported on a journey across continents and cultures that embrace a shared love for food and how it brings us all together. In Yes, Chef, Marcus shares how his unique life story lead to his passion for synthesizing his classical training, respect for food cultures, and love for the flavors and comforts that authentic eating delivers to create a signature all his own, yet can be claimed and recognized by all. Through hard work and tenacity, Marcus has created a table where all are welcome,

An honest take on both the world of cooking and matters of ethnicity.

What an amazing, energized take on food, culture, and self identification. Many topics looked at here: multiculturalism, racism, sexism, socioeconomic divides as well as family, self worth, drive, and commitment to community. All of this while embodying an appreciation and understanding of food from various continents with such insight and detail I feel as though I have completed a cooking course by the end of this book.

Loved it!

I got this because it was cooking related and I love to read about restaurants and chefs. I had no idea it was narrated by the author. Typically I don’t like that because most writers don’t have the skills of a trained narrator, however in this situation it was wonderful. Hearing Marcus tell his life story in his own words was amazing! Often I find nonfiction boring. But he made it so incredibly interesting.

exceptional, beautiful, genuine

Well written, from the heart, and as best an autobiography as you'll ever read. It's about a person more than a Chef.

I liked it, but...

I really liked his story. I think it took a lot for him to talk about some not-so-shining moments. He has certainly suffered for his craft!

What didn't work for me was through half of the narrative, it sounded like Marcus was reading from the page, almost as if he was doing so for the first time. The book starts out conversationally, and his accent is appealing, but then becomes stilted and distracting.

Still, I recommend this for anyone who thinks they want to work in an award winning kitchen. The hard work and sacrifice are considerable, and culinary school just isn't enough.

I'd very much like to eat in his restaurant. It is nice to know a bit more about this chef I've seen on TV so much.

Fascinating

A fascinating story. What makes it even more special is that Chef Samuelsson narrates it. I can't wait to eat at Red Rooster the next time I am in NY.