theGrio’s summer 2012 books round-up: Great beach reading on black love, African-American history and more!
theGRIO REPORT - Whether you are looking for words of wisdom from a top chef or a former of secretary of state -- or perhaps a little history or just a great story -- theGrio has your summer 2012 reading list covered...
Yes, Chef: A Memoir, by Marcus Samuelsson, Random House, $27.
Marcus Samuelsson was only two when a tuberculosis epidemic swept through his native Ethiopia. His mother, with Marcus and his sister in tow, walked more than seventy-five miles under the hot sun from their village to the hospital in Addis Ababa. His mother never made it out of the hospital, and Marcus and his sister soon found themselves living in Goteborg, adopted by a loving Swedish family. He had been given a second life, with which he appreciatively learned how to shine.
This vibrant memoir, which was penned with author Veronica Chambers, exquisitely details Samuelsson’s fascinating life and love of food, which started when he learned to cook on the knee of his Swedish grandmother and eventually led him to vocational cooking school and jobs as a cruise ship chef. When he came to New York’s Aquavit restaurant in 1995, Samuelsson became youngest chef to ever receive a three-star review from the New York Times. Follow that up with TV chef stardom, cooking for President Obama’s first state dinner, and owning the latest Harlem hot spot, Red Rooster, and you see the hard work, tenacity and passion that got him where he is today, despite the racial divide in the restaurant world.
“A hundred years ago,” Samuelsson says, “black men and women had to fight to get out of the kitchen. These days, we have to fight to get in.” But get in, he did.
A culinary journey lovingly and poignantly told with candor, Yes, Chef is a gorgeous, delectable read.
