Book Review - Yes Chef by Marcus Samuelsson with Veronica Chambers

I recently completed reading this gem of a memoir of the life of New York chef Marcus Samuelsson. I picked this book up on the cheap a couple of years ago and finally got around to giving it a read. I must admit I had never heard of Marcus when I started reading but right out of the blocks this one was a page turner. This is the kind of book I wish I read as a teenager to let me know the sacrifices you need to make if you want to be successful in this world. This guy has lived a life. A focused life. From the moment he decided to become a chef he seemed to make the decision that he wanted to be a really, really good chef. He didn't just want to cook food, he wanted to leave his mark and according to the book that is what he is doing. 

Marcus was born in Ethiopia and was adopted by a Swedish family not long after. He grew up in a happy family playing football (soccer) and had good close friends who he made whilst trying to make his way as a footballer. In his late teens he was abruptly cut from the team and then, to the benefit of the culinary world turned his hand to cookery. He went to the local culinary school, but right from the start wanted to work in the best restaurant in town. His early years in cooking had me aching with envy at the fantastic choices he made all in the line of becoming the best chef he could. He knocked back an opportunity to cook in Amsterdam at his father's behest and bided his time until an opportunity to cook in Switzerland came along. Whilst the kitchen he worked at in his home town of Goteburg gave a glimpse of kitchen life, the Victoria-Jungfrau  kitchen in Interlaken in the Swiss Alps was really where he hit his stride. The time there was turbulent on a personal level but what he really learnt was what cooking at a higher level was all about. Whilst in Switzerland he loses his best friend of the time to a car accident and whilst cooking in Austria when the restaurant in Switzerland in closed for the off season he becomes a father after a whirlwind romance. His strong foundations of family help him to not turn his back on his responsibilities, at least financially, to his daughter but nothing will distract him from being the chef he is driver to become. His relationship with his daughter will not come until many years later. 

For now he has only cooking on his mind. 

After the death of his cheffing friend in a car accident he moves on to France and a three Michelin star restaurant called Georges Blanc named for the Chef owner. His time there as with all of this part of the young chef's life is about becoming a better chef. This restaurant sounds more like an idea of the a restaurant than anything a normal person could actually run. I can't really describe it but it sounds more like the description of a village than a restaurant.

And then it all changes and Marcus heads to the place that will become his home. New York. In the city that never sleeps Marcus finds himself cooking at Aquavit, a Swedish restaurant. This is a restaurant on the rise and part of a chain of restaurants with an ambitious owner who wants to take his restaurant to the world. Marcus makes a name for himself here and climbs the ranks to become the executive chef and then a partner. From here he tries to open a new African restaurant that fails to take off and has a falling out with his restaurateur form Aquavit and has to go it alone.  

At this time he makes inroads into the world of the television chef on Top Chef and also finds himself cooking for the then new President Barrack Obama at a dinner at the White House. Again there is a bit of a battle until he came make his dream of opening an upmarket restaurant in the the Harlem district of New York. Having been born in Africa and raised by white Swedish parents he believes he connected to his roots in the people of Harlem. 

Whilst my focus is usually on the cheffing parts of the book there is also a part of the book that talks about his meeting his daughter and bringing her to the USA to see his world and meet her father. Also, he reaches out and tracks down his father and half sisters back in Ethiopia. His wife whom he met in New York is also Ethiopian and they wed in Addis Abba, Ethiopia. All massive parts of this fantastic story of a chef. 

I loved it from start to finish, though I so love the early days of his culinary journey most of all. I would give it a 8 out of 10. A must read for any budding chef. I dare you to read those early chapters and not want to get on a plane to Europe. Happy cooking!!!