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Marcus Samuelsson is one of America’s top chefs. Indeed, he recently won the TV cooking competition, Top Chef Masters. Add that to accolades including 3 star-reviews from the New York Times and awards from the James Beard Foundation. Samuelsson was born in Ethiopia. But after his birth mother died, he was adopted by a couple from Sweden, where he grew up. Samuelsson’s food takes in influences from, among other places, Sweden, Ethiopia and New York City, where he lives. The World’s Alex Gallafent spoke to Samuelsson and asked the chef to share some of his musical influences too. (Photo: Alex Gallafent) Download MP3

Watch as the newly crowned Top Chef Master cooks up a healthy meal for kids at the Harlem YMCA

• Red Rooster Harlem
• Marcus Samuelsson online

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Marcus Samuelsson is one of America’s top chefs. That’s official. He recently won the TV cooking competition, Top Chef Masters. Samuelsson’s prowess in the kitchen has earned him great reviews from the New York Times and accolades nationwide. Marcus Samuelsson’s journey began in Ethiopia, where he was born. His mother died when he was three years old and he was adopted by a couple from Sweden. And that’s where he grew up. Samuelsson’s food reflects influences from the places he’s been. Sweden, Ethiopia and Harlem, in New York City, where he now lives. Today we’re going to hear about Marcus Samuelsson’s taste, not in food, but in music. We asked him to share some of his favorite music tracks with us.

MARCUS SAMUELSSON:  This is [INDISCERNIBLE] by Gigi. She’s an Ethiopian artist, lives here in New York, but from Ethiopia, my home country. And like most Ethiopians I feel very connected, like all Ethiopians I feel very connected. And I think what Gigi’s done here, she’s really found this perfect balance between keeping the singing [INDISCERNIBLE] and the Ethiopian sound. But also with a very contemporary sound. It’s very complex. It’s layered, right. You have [SOUNDS LIKE] depth in her voice and it is strong. Very powerful. And then you have this very poppy sound that underneath all that you can tell its Ethiopian music underneath all of that. It’s mystique. Makes you want to go to Ethiopia. A contemporary version of Ethiopian. I was raised around music at home. We had – we didn’t have a particular very expensive home, but we had a Bang Olofsson stereo that was like as a kid you were not even allowed to go up to it, but when you were there with my mom, she was very specific about the music that we listened to. We listened to Miriam Makeba, we listened to Bob Marley. I remember the first album she ever gave me was Uprising with Bob Marley. She said our family listens to Bob Marley, that’s what she said to me specifically. Okay, mom. This is a fun track by Nas and Damian Marley, As We Enter. This is such a good cut. It’s such a fun cut because also its two different worlds together, right? It puts Jamaica and Ethiopia together. But then you have Queens, Nas, New York. In the background you have this incredible tune from Ethiopique, which was really music that was [INDISCERNIBLE] and made in the ‘60s and ‘70s in Ethiopia and I just think it’s just fun to have it as a backdrop to Damian and Nas. Just fills you up. Fills you up and makes you excited. Where I live in Harlem it’s called Little West Africa and if you are in Harlem, come up on a Saturday or Sunday on the West Side. You’ll see big, tall Senegalese West African men. Mali, Ghana, and they come from the mosque or they’ll just come and eat, talk and converse. And out of their cars you hear [SOUNDS LIKE] Yossour, [INDISCERNIBLE]. You hear West African music. You can buy West African films, DVDs. You can buy [SOUNDS LIKE] ginger juice. It’s truly a whole subculture. This is [INDISCERNIBLE] tomorrow. The music part is the first palate into West Africa for a lot of non-West Africans. If you’re not going to Dakkar, if you don’t have the opportunity to do that, go and get some [INDISCERNIBLE] or go and get some Yossour and listen to that first. And your aesthetics will change and you will hear something new. Then come up town and eat some of the food. And I think then you will understand the food better and you will understand a culture a little bit better. The language becomes an instrument. It could be very free not to understand the language. Cooking is like that too. Many places where I started working in France and Germany, I didn’t understand the language but I had to cook. And a cook can hang. You can do fine without the language and you have to pick up other things. Rhythm, dance, maybe [INDISCERNIBLE] concert and in the kitchen you have to pick up some smell, taste. You have to flow with that. I remember one of the first times I learned English words was actually sort of not necessarily through world music, but I was running up to my best friend’s house and we just looked at this cover of I think it’s called Detroit City with Kiss. And these guys had makeup on. We didn’t know if they were like… I’ve never seen anything like this. So I just remember one of the first words ever learned playing this air guitar. It was like, first I drink, then I smoke. That was the line and we were about six or seven. If I want to think about a person that brings Sweden together from a social level and from a music level, of course, it’s this guy. I don’t care if you’re nine or ninety you have his songs in your iPod. This is my buddy, Timbuktu. [INDISCERNIBLE] which really means everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. He is half-American, half-Swedish. His father was born here in Harlem and he does his accent in Swedish, which is not just Swedish. He comes from a small place called [PH] Squana. And when he raps, when he spits, he spits in this dialect which if you’re from Sweden you can’t do anything but just to love him for that. He doesn’t try to do a – upgrade his Stockholm version or anything like that. No, he sticks to his accent which is brilliant.

MULLINS:  That’s Swedish rapper Timbuktu, a favorite of New York-based top chef Marcus Samuelsson. Our story was produced by The World’s Alex Gallafent. By the way, Marcus Samuelsson’s new restaurant called Red Rooster Harlem, opens in New York next month. You can see a video of Samuelsson cooking for kids in Harlem at TheWorld.org. From the Nan and Bill Harris Studios at WGBH, I’m Lisa Mullins. Thanks for listening.

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