Months after purchasing Yes Chef! as an eBook for my iPad Kindle app, I traveled to the beautiful Barbados for my annual international birthday trip, to attend the Barbados Food+Wine+Rum Festival back in November of 2012. I was moved to write this book review after Chef Marcus recently won the James Beard Foundation's 2013 Writing & Literature Award for Yes, Chef. This will be added to several other JBF Awards over the years.
I made it a priority to purchase tickets to attend Chef Marcus Samuelsson's Cooking Demo as on of my events as well as a private dinner he hosted at the Barbados Food+Wine+Rum Festival! I was fortunate enough to get a picture with and an autograph from Chef (on my notepad ;0) since my actual copy of the book was is electronic.
On a beautiful beach, I fell even more in love with Chef Marcus' talents and welcoming spirit! He's funny and friendly, very open and humble. Throughout the weekend, whenever I crossed his path, or attended another of his events, he was simply warm and inviting to all foodie fans and colleagues around.
Yes, Chef: A Memoir
The story begins with the equally endearing and heartbreaking story, set in his homeland of Ethiopia, about he and his sister's early childhood, battling tuberculosis along with his mother and charged with walking 75 miles to the closest hospital in Part One: Chapter One: Boy. Following is a loving and redeeming story in Part One: Chapter Two: My Swedish Mother where his experiences cooking with his Swedish, retired domestic, grandmother truly moved him and grew him into the renowned chef we know today. The reader has the opportunity to grasp a sense of of where such a balance of smartness, endurance, drive, and general joy has developed. The book is his ode to a lifelong love of food and he humorously discredits his mother with spurring this passion, describing her handling of pasta as one that "not even a prisoner would tolerate...with tinny tomato sauce and mushy frozen peas".
We're taken on a tough winter journey to Smogen where he toiled with the men of the family, preparing fishing vessels for the upcoming season and enjoying an eye opening visit to his uncle's smokehouse. No doubt this hard work lead to his ultimate respect for the protein of the sea.
So we journey into his restaurant experiences in both Switzerland and France, a stint on a cruise ship, to the beginning of his phenomenal work in NYC.
In Barbados, he told the story of how he ended up cooking for his first White House state dinner. It was quite a tale and you can read all about it in Yes, Chef as well.
Yes, Chef is Samuelsson's heart and soul in black in white. He readily opens and allows the readers to experience his history, his passions, his dreams. Chef Marcus is one of the most inviting celebrity chefs I've ever had the pleasure to encounter. His natural spirit is felt in his presence as much as through this spectacular memoir.
Pick up your copy of Yes, Chef: A Memoir at your local bookstore, through Random House, or Amazon.com. It is available as an e-Book, hard, and soft cover.
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