NEW YORK (AP) — Marcus Samuelsson is keen on leading with intention. That focus is seared into the delectable dishes prepared at his popular restaurants, but it is also expressed with his staffing.
“My restaurants are a reflection of the society we’re living in. (At) Hav & Mar, we decided on Black leadership, female leadership, because there was a void for it. Red Rooster opened in Harlem because we wanted to create jobs within our industry for Black and brown individuals,” said Samuelsson, a multiple James Beard Award-winning chef. “I love food and I want to gear it towards … everybody, but the opportunities should also be a little bit more evenly distributed.”
To honor trailblazing restaurants founded by women and people of color, Samuelsson and fellow chef Jonathan Waxman host “Seat at the Table,” an eight-part Audible original series that premiered toward the end of last year. In the series, chefs, along with many involved in the inception of their restaurants, present an oral history of some of America’s most iconic eateries such as New York’s groundbreaking Jezebel, started by Albert Wright, Washington, DC’s Ben’s Chili Bowl, by the Ali Family, and The Slanted Door, created by Charles Phan in San Francisco. Food serves as the roux of the podcast, while the impact the establishments have had on their communities and adds the shrimp, sausage and potatoes.
“Coming out of Black History Month, going into Women’s (History) Month, I felt it was really necessary to share this, that we know our Black stories are not monolithic,” said Samuelsson, who was born in a hut in Ethiopia but raised in Sweden after his birth mother died during a tuberculosis epidemic in the early ’70s. “I always feel like when you enter a restaurant, you’re entering a piece of American history … that’s really what we want to capture in ‘Seat at the Table.’ It’s beyond the food —…
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