Marcus Samuelsson - Award-Winning Chef, Restaurateur, Author

The One Way Ticket Show

Marcus Samuelsson is the renowned chef behind many restaurants worldwide including Red Rooster in Harlem (NYC) and Overtown (Miami); Hav & Mar in Chelsea (NYC); Metropolis at PAC-NYC; Marcus Bar & Grille in Atlanta and its Live! flagship at American Dream (NJ); and several MARCUS locations including the Bahamas, Montreal and most recently Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Samuelsson was the youngest person to receive a three-star review from The New York Times and was the guest chef for the Obama Administration’s first state dinner. He has won eight James Beard Foundation Awards and recently won a 2023 Emmy Award for the Short Form Program “My Mark.” Samuelsson hosted the critically acclaimed No Passport Required on PBS. Additionally, Samuelsson has won numerous competition shows including Top Chef Masters and Chopped All-Stars and appears regularly on those franchises as a Judge. He also recently appeared as an Iron Chef on Netflix’s Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. Samuelsson also hosted and produced the Seat at the Table on Audible and co-hosted This Moment podcast with Swedish rapper Timbuktu on ACAST.

A committed philanthropist, Samuelsson is co-chair of Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), which focuses on helping underserved youth. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Samuelsson converted his restaurants Red Rooster Harlem and Red Rooster Overtown into community kitchens in partnership with World Central Kitchen, serving well over 280k meals to those in need. In Newark, Samuelsson’s Marcus B&P partnered with Audible and World Central Kitchen to create Newark Working Kitchens, which has engaged 37 local restaurants to provide 1.5 million meals to those in need. Samuelsson also co-produces the annual Harlem EatUp! Festival, which celebrates the food, art, and culture of Harlem.

He is the author of several cookbooks, the New York Times bestselling memoir Yes, Chef: A Memoir and his latest book, The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food.

Follow Samuelsson on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at @MarcusCooks and on TikTok at @Marcus_Cooks.

On this episode of The One Way Ticket Show, Samuelsson offers his one way ticket destination is a toss-up between Rio de Janeiro and space!

In the course of the conversation, Samuelsson shares:

1. The allure of both Rio and space

2. The role soccer great, Pelé, played in his life

3. The link between memory and food and how that’s carried out in his work

4. How he draws on his Ethiopian and Swedish heritages

5. What Harlem means to him

6. His community and charity work

7. Inspiration for his unique sartorial sense

8. Why his happy space is to go into a small restaurant in Japan and watch the chefs go to work.