I’m working on figuring out how to get good food to schools. When you get better as a person, you also get better as a cook. What are some other things you’re still interested in accomplishing? I’ve traveled from French food to foam to this. The journey we’ve taken is incredible, so I want to part of it. I asked where did it come from, and where is it today? When I look at it today, I so want to be part of the future. First of all, it’s why I came to America, because of the diversity. I’m a food fan before anything, which is why I wrote the book, New American Table. We chatted beforehand, covering the Southern California food scene, New York and his future plans.Ĭonsidering all you achieved at such a young age, was it difficult to stay motivated? On January 20, Samuelsson was at South Coast Plaza Home Store to perform a cooking demo adjacent to Marc Burger and to publicize his latest cookbook, New American Table. Since then, he’s earned two James Beard awards and launched several additional restaurant concepts, including C-House fish and chophouse in Chicago, Streetfood in Stockholm and two branches of Marc Burger.

In his early twenties, he scored a coveted three-star review from The New York Times. Samuelsson trained at the Culinary Institute in Gothenburg and worked in Europe before vaulting on to the Manhattan dining scene at a high-end Swedish restaurant called Aquavit.

Lennart and Ann Marie Samuelsson adopted young Marcus and his sister, and they moved to Gothenburg, Sweden. Marcus Samuelsson was born in Ethiopia and lost both parents to tuberculosis. His inspirational story has become legendary in the culinary community.

New American Table by Marcus Samuelsson