Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson – Audio Version
Book Blurb:
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.
My Review: 3.5 stars
Yes, Chef was a great companion on the four-hour ride to visit my son at Indiana University. I enjoy listening to memoirs, only if read by the source, as I feel as if a friend is simply sharing their story with me.
I’m familiar with Marcus Samuelsson by his celebrity chef status as well as my own obsession with Chopped. His Ethiopian and Swedish background definitely intrigued me and I definitely wanted to learn more about him.
Samuelsson’s route to become chef and restaurateur was both arduous and circuitous with many physical and emotional challenges along the way. Race, relationships, money and opportunity were his variables. He always had drive and persistence.
His recognizable voice was sometimes hard to understand and a few words seemed foreign to him when he read them aloud. It was at those moments I imagined his ghostwriter putting in words into sentences that just didn’t align with his natural vernacular. But no matter to this reader, I could listen to him talk all day!
I loved learning the actual duties within the kitchen hierarchy: Sous chef, Line cook, Chef de Partie, etc. Samuelsson did a good job describing the layers of flavors of the different foods and spices he mentioned. He had so much experience with difference cultures, which of course leads to a unique assortment of flavor palettes.
His ambition (not just in the kitchen) was his strength and is portrayed as an unparalleled force to be reckoned with. However, it’s also that same ambition that often blinded him in some personal matters. Certainly, I didn’t love all the choices he made, but I would never judge him for that. For the reviewers critiquing him on his moral compass, I don’t feel it’s their place to do so. This is his story, honest and bold, and he chose to share it with the world. That in itself shows his bravery and vulnerability tenfold.
Food lovers, Food Network junkies and those who like to cook at home will definitely enjoy this memoir.
Quotes I liked:
Bookstores are a giant present waiting to be unwrapped, full of stories and discoveries and lives.”
-“I’m always battling myself – the part of me that says I can and the part of me that says I can’t. My greatest gift has been that the part of me that says, “I can’t” is always, always just a little bit louder.”
-“Hard work IS its own reward. Integrity IS priceless. Art DOES feed the soul.”
-“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.”
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