Fun Fearless Foodie

Chef Marcus and I

Award-winning chef and cookbook author Marcus Samuelsson recently stopped by FCI to share his take on global cuisine with students. Here is a taste of some of the many lessons and bites we explored.

Known most recently as the season 2 winner of Top Chef Masters, Chef Marcus’ rise to culinary fame came from his time as executive chef of New York City’s Aquavit, a world-renowned Scandinavian fine-dining restaurant.  Promoted to the prestigious post at only age 24, he has used his passion for both food and success to fuel his career, one that has given him the opportuity to cook for President Obama at his first State Dinner honoring the Prime Minister of India.

The auditorium filled up quickly with culinary and pastry students alike who were anxious to see the Top Chef Master in action, and of course try his food.  As soon as he reached the kitchen stage Chef Marcus was engaging and captivating.  He began the demo with a background on his life and journey to become a chef, starting with his upbringing in Sweden and education working as an apprentice in restaurants around Europe beginning at 18.  What I found to be most interesting is that as he was cooking in these very classic restaurants, he was discovering that technical perfection didn’t always equal great taste.  His intrigue with the American cooking scene and how chefs like Charlie Palmer, Bobby Flay, and Alice Waters were changing American cooking drove him to find a path here to the States.  The entire audience got a good laugh when Chef Marcus told the story of how he wrote letters to the only three people he knew in America to find work: David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, and Hakan Swahn, owner of Aquavit.  Needless to say the only reply he received was from Swahn, and the rest is history.

Chef Marcus began a dialogue with the audience about how American food has evolved, with several students contributing factors such as economic changes, sustainability, access to new foods, and a growth of global dining choices.  While all were correct, he was most fascinated by how the internet has changed the way we cook.  I can certainly appreciate this being a food blogger, but it’s true.  As an internet culture, we can find a recipe in seconds, have a conversation about food on sites like Chowhound and FoodBuzz, and even watch cooking demonstrations live on YouTube.  Websites that were once meant only for news like CNN, Huffington Post, and Salon now have food sections.  The way we learn about food and how it has engaged people from all industries to take interest in it has taught Chef Marcus to focus more on teaching people about the process for cooking great food, not just the techniques.

Yellowfin Poke, prepared sushi style w/ spicy aioli

The discussion of American food led to the question of what is “New American” cuisine, a term that is so loosely used in today’s food culture.  While many would consider taking a classic dish from another culture and using “American” ingredients to be the answer, to Chef Marcus, “New American” is the introduction of regional specific cuisine to menus across the country.  A perfect example of this was his first dish, Yellowfin Tuna Poke Sushi, an interpretation of a very classic Hawaiian dish.  Hawaiian food is a blend of flavors from  Japan, the Pacific Islands, and the mainland, a completely different type of food then something you would find in say, Georgia. Introducing a dish like this to a restaurant in Athens, GA would be something new and different, but still very American.

Keeping with the topic of the changing landscape of American food, Chef Marcus brought up how American food has changed since the events of 9/11, the war, and the most recent economic recession.  His observation is that people are turning to comfort foods as we once did many years ago to cope with what is happening around us.  I think this viewpoint is spot on, but for more reasons than one.  Comfort food is what you want to eat to make you feel better emotionally, it satisfies a hunger both in our stomachs and our souls.  But what it also does is bring people together.  If I post on Facebook that I’m making a macaroni and cheese casserole tonight and I’d love some help eating it, you’d better believe my tiny apartment would be filled to the brim.  The idea of eating a gooey, cheesy dish with friends sounds like the best way to spend an evening.  That very idea alone brings comfort to people.

Coconut Lime Fried Chicken Wing w/ Spicy Ketchup

The appeal of comfort food is also credited to dollars and cents, in most cases comfort food is based upon less expensive ingredients.  Even at some of the fine dining restaurants in New York City cuts of meat like pork belly, pig ears, and flank steak are on the menu.  Tough cuts of meat and cheap grains require a lot of love to make them not only edible, but delicious, and the knowledge that someone put love and work into a meal is perhaps the most comforting thing of all.  Chef Marcus demonstrated one of his favorite comfort foods for us, fried chicken, and showed us how to take the often discarded chicken wing and give it big flavor. He poached his chicken wings in an aromatic liquid of coconut milk and lime juice and breaded and fried them in oil that had been flavored with garlic and herbs, building layers of flavor with each step.

Building a successful dish itself is something that takes time, practice, and patience for a chef.  The dishes you see on restaurant menus often times have been developed over several years before they are introduced to the masses.  One of the students in the audience asked Chef Marcus how long it takes him to come up with a dish, which led him to share his recipe development process with us.

His thought process is based upon a subject and follows a pyramid of steps, each one building off of the other.  It starts with the flavors he wants to incorporate, followed by the aesthetic, the fragrance, the texture, then the regional technique to be used to bring it all together.  The genius behind Chef Marcus really came to light as he demonstrated this exercise.  As we called out ingredients he would rattle off dishes in seconds incorporating all of the steps I previously listed.  It is important to note however, that while he can come up with the idea in a flash, it often takes him 1-2 years to really perfect it.

Foie Gras Ganache w/ Cranberry Chutney

We had the opportunity to watch as he prepared one of his most well-known dishes that was developed for the State Dinner at the White House, Foie Gras Ganache.  This dish was tested many times with fellow Scandinavian chef and FCI VP Chef Nils Noren until they found the perfect consistency and balance of flavors.  They actually worked backwards based on examples of foie gras he didn’t like to come up with what he had envisioned in his head.  The end result was a smooth and decadent mouse-like foie gras that was served alongside a tart cranberry chutney to balance out the richness of the dish.  This was actually my first time trying foie gras and I’m afraid I’ve been spoiled, the chances of me trying a dish that is not only good enough for the President and Prime Minister of India, but to win Top Chef Masters, are unlikely.

There were many takeaways from the time Chef Marcus spent with us, most importantly I learned that the skills and techniques that we are learning in school are of vital importance to becoming a professional chef, but more important than that is having the creative mind to think about food and dishes in a composed way.  Food is a conversation and a comfort, one that needs to hit on all senses for your diners.  As I continue to develop recipes and think about food, I will follow Chef Marcus’s approach to building flavors around a subject and making sure all the senses are satisfied.

Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s next big project is the opening of the Red Rooster in Harlem, NY, a revival of the famous speakeasy from the early 1900′s, featuring fresh, local soul food.  Scheduled to open sometime in the second half of this year, it will be an exciting addition to the neighborhood and an incentive for New Yorker’s to go uptown.  To learn more about Chef Marcus, visit his website at http://marcussamuelsson.com