Marcus Samuelsson

Marcus Samuelsson is the most celebrated Black chef in America — a James Beard Award winner, restaurateur, and culinary storyteller who has made Harlem the center of a global food narrative. His flagship restaurant, Red Rooster Harlem, is both a dining destination and a community institution, blending African American, African, Caribbean, and Swedish cuisines in a celebration of the neighborhood's cultural richness.

Born Kassahun Tsegie in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1971, Samuelsson was orphaned during a tuberculosis epidemic and adopted by a Swedish couple, Ann Marie and Lennart Samuelsson. He grew up in Gothenburg, Sweden, trained in the European culinary tradition, and moved to New York, where he became executive chef at Aquavit at age 24 — earning a three-star review from The New York Times, the youngest person to do so.

Samuelsson cooked the Obama White House's first state dinner in 2009 and has since opened restaurants across the United States and internationally. His memoir, Yes, Chef, became a bestseller. He founded the Harlem EatUp! festival, has mentored dozens of young chefs of color, and has used his platform to address food inequality and support underserved communities. His identity — Ethiopian by birth, Swedish by upbringing, American by choice — informs a cuisine that is as layered and complex as his story.