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It’s hard to think of a better-timed book than Marcus Samuelsson’s “The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food,” a luminous journey through the many beautiful worlds of African American cuisine.
Part cookbook, part tasty history lesson, adds a sweet note to the belated celebration of underrated black artists, writers, directors, inventors and innovators. The book is also a mood lifter for this terrible pandemic year. What’s more heartwarming than 300 pages of food illustrations so succulent you want to eat them from the pages?
Born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, Samuelsson personifies the mythical, multicultural, immigrant from New York. He is best known as Aquavit’s award-winning former chef and the pilot of his thriving and revolutionary Harlem Red Rooster restaurant.
And he’s a damn good writer. It brings to life a sprawling constellation of black American chefs – some famous, some little known – and their creations. Samuelsson, his co-author, the photographers, researchers and recipe testers took four years to produce “a big step forward for my team, like the Olympics,” he told the Post.
“The Rise” reveals the mind-blowing reach of the black culinary genius, an integral part of what Samuelsson calls “the beauty of America”.
“You can’t think of American music without black music, and it’s the same with American food,” he told the Post.
Some people still perceive African American cuisine primarily through the prism of Southern “soul food”. More enlightened eaters know the truth is that worlds are more complex. Dishes with Guyanese, Jamaican and Senegalese origins appear on the menus of many restaurants.
But the gastronomic selection of cherries may be lacking by how completely “black” food is intertwined throughout our culinary fabric. The dishes of “The Rise” come from all over the world. Their chefs made them American, though not of the steak and apple pie school.
“How do people understand the black kitchen?” Samuelsson thought. “Jamaican cuisine is different from the Ethiopian cuisine or the cuisine of the Great Migration” of the American South, he said. In “The Rise,” it sets out to honor all the different styles that have become part of the American culinary scene.
“The Rise” illuminates dozens of chef creations and careers. Some are recognizable as Eric Gestel of New York, Eric Ripert’s executive chef who was born in Martinique in Le Bernardin and JJ Johnson of Harlem’s Field Trip, who was born in the south. Another is completely anonymous: an undocumented Mexican immigrant who works in a San Diego kitchen.
We also meet Austin, Texas, Chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph’s Guyana-style smoked venison with roti and pine nut chutney; The lamb wat inspired by Eritrea by New York chef Eden Fesehaye; and Fred Opie West African style peanut seafood stew with cracked rice.
There’s also a warm nod to Patrick Clark, who prior to his untimely death from heart failure in 1998 made Warner LeRoy’s Tavern on the Green an unlikely culinary magnet for several golden years.
A unifying theme among many of the chefs featured in the book is their enthusiasm to spend time in Africa and learn from the continent’s myriad traditions, styles and raw materials.
“I knew I had done something last year when five of my friends said they were going to Nigeria to learn. They used to go to Paris, “Samuelsson said.
“It has always been the same with music. Jazz musicians like Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie always did. Stevie Wonder went to Nigeria to meet Fela [Kuti]. “
Well, but what about the recipes? There are 150 of them, each with a miniature chronology. If you’re baffled by buttermilk and baobab peach popsicles, Savannah, Georgia, baker Cheryl Day makes lemon-based dessert of the iconic East African baobab as easy as apple pie.
Samuelsson managed to round up all the chefs while he was busy running restaurants in New York and four other cities, organizing charity events, and producing television programs.
“As in any minority community, it exists as an underground network” of acquaintances, he said. But he met many at his annual Harlem EatUp! gastronomic festival. “All the best African American chefs came, so I cooked with most of the people in the book,” he said.
Samuelsson was accused by some Harlemites of “gentrifying” their neighborhood when the Red Rooster opened. One chef even accused him of “cultural appropriation”.
Samuelsson writes: “Black food is important”. But “The Rise” soars above politically correct slogans.
“America is facing two pandemics: the pandemic of racism, which has been around longer than COVID,” he told The Post. But “we are highly stratified and complex, which from a food point of view can only become more and more delicious”.
These are some of the New York-based chefs and restaurateurs who are featured in “The Rise”.
Alexander Smalls
Founder of Cecil (210 W. 118th St.) and Minton’s Playhouse (206 W. 118th St). Modern steakhouse and atmospheric jazz club next door.
Eric Gestel
Executive Chef, Le Bernardin (155 W. 51st St.). World famous French seafood restaurant, three Michelin stars.
Melba Wilson
Owner, Melba’s (300 W. 114th St.). Popular southern-style dishes in the lively dining room.
JJ Johnson
Chef / owner, Fieldtrip (109 Malcolm X Blvd.). Place at the counter for global rice dishes
Tiffany Jones
Pastry Chef, Red Rooster (310 Malcolm X. Blvd.). Marcus Samuelsson’s hot spot for African-American and Swedish-influenced “comfort food”.
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