The latest entry in Book Passage’s
award-winning Cooks with Books program was lunch with Chef Marcus Samuelsson
today, to celebrate the release of his remarkable memoir, Yes, Chef. As our Karen West mentioned in her introduction of the
Chef today, the literary world lost a talented writer when this man chose to
become a chef instead.
The Cooks with Books lunch was held at
Jardinière restaurant in San Francisco, home to celebrated chef and proprietor
Traci des Jardins, and she and Marcus apparently cut their teeth together in restaurant kitchens 15 or
more years ago, he told us at one point while at the microphone today.
“Chefs are storytellers,” Samuelsson
told us. “We have a narrative, a place, emotions to share, and we do it with
food.” Born in Ethiopia, reared in Sweden, and now a citizen of Harlem, New
York, Samuelsson’s life is one of many stories, and part of what has made him
so famous, is the way he shares them.
Chef Samuelsson was delighted that Chef des Jardins chose to give us a
lunch composed of all Scandinavian foods. When he sat across from me, I was delighted to ask him about it; I know nothing about Scandinavian food. As I told my
friend in the car on the way home, all I can recall is that American housewives
in the ‘70s when I was a kid, often served “Swedish meatballs” in a sweet
gravy, in chafing dishes at dinner parties.
We started in Sweden with the first
course, Chef Samuelsson told us. “Rollmops” or as I’d like to call them, “Swedish
poppers,” were made of cured local sardines rolled around bits of cucumber,
with a tiny bit of fresh dill. The plate had watercress and a savory cream. I
could eat these little babies all.day.long. They tasted beautifully of the sea,
bright and fresh and salty, and of the vinegary cure, and then you got the
satisfying crunch of that fresh cucumber in the center. Just delicious. The
wine, a Spanish Basque white, “Uriondo Bizkaiko Txakolina” and thank God I do
NOT have to pronounce that, was pale gold with a really delicate nose. It was
tart, thin apples on the mid-palate, and its bright acid was perfect without
being too sharp with this food course.
Our next course represented Denmark, said Chef Samuelsson. “A Tasting
of Smørrebrød” was the menu title for it. Slices of rye bread, very thin, were
topped in three different ways —the first with smoked salmon, hard-cooked egg
and beets; the second with duck liver paté, radishes, and spring onions; the
third with veal tongue and heirloom cherry tomatoes. The salmon was easy to
love, of course. The paté was insanely fatty and rich, cut only by the sharp
radish and a sip of the wine for this course, Handley Pinot Gris from California’s
Anderson Valley, one of my favorite white wine producers. With the rich paté,
this silky wine sort of slid right along, and then finished rather bright and
crisp. Now, the veal tongue—see, I thought I hated tongue, and then a chef of
Traci’s quality comes along and proves me wrong. Part of what made this little
sandwich so special, was the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes combined with an
extremely acidic dressing. That just worked.
Our dessert is native to Norway, Æbleskivers,
pancakes formed into little balls around strawberry jam, and dusted with
powdered sugar. Light and lovely dessert, deceptively simple. The dessert wine
was one of the best I’ve ever tasted, a red Moscato from Trentino, Italy, from
a producer named Zeni. I swear I was drinking cocoa mixed with dark cherries.
During the meal, Chef Samuelsson
circulated through the room, talking with Cooks with Books participants, having
his picture taken, discussing the food. Book Passage’s Karen West collected
written questions from us and after the meal, Chef Samuelsson took the microphone again
and addressed some of them.
Where can Americans find good Swedish food, besides at Chef
Samuelsson’s Red Rooster in Harlem? He
featured some at Aquavit when he worked there, he said, and diners can
sometimes find Scandinavian dishes mixed into menu offerings at good
restaurants all over the country. His Red Rooster customers are particularly
fond of HIS Swedish meatballs.
Name an indispensible kitchen tool. Chef
Samuelsson said there was a particular spatula that was just the right shape and
size and length for multiple uses, and that is what he’d carry in his pocket in
the kitchen.
Describe what it’s like to be a judge on Chopped, and a contestant on Top
Chef. Chef Samuelsson claimed, “It’s always good if you’ve been on both sides
of a table. I loved judging on Chopped.”
And he gave us a tip about that show—watch for the chef who, by the entrée
round of competition, has focused their concentration. They aren’t watching the
clock, they aren’t watching the judges, they aren’t watching the others, there
is no hesitation as they execute their vision. THAT is the chef who will win
that day.
“Chefs are always aspiring,” Chef
Samuelsson told us. “We’re like mature 8-year-olds, always needing the
approval, the support, the respect, the recognition of our community and our
mentors and our peers.”
If you weren’t with us for this amazing
experience, we missed you! Come to our next one. For more information on upcoming
Cooks with Books events, click here.
Here is Chef Samuelsson with Chef des
Jardins (right), and the kitchen staff who prepared our meal.
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