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For most Americans, black or white, mention “black superstar chef” and one name will come up—and one name only—Marcus Samuelsson. If the Neelys exemplify the populist level of African American food, and G. Garvin is representative of an increasing sophistication of black viewers and eaters, Marcus Samuelsson is the harbinger of a different African American future.

At the close of first decade of the twentieth-first century, African Americans are more diverse than ever before in history. An African American president sits in the White House. Like the president, Marcus Samuelsson is representative of the new and increasing diversity of those labeled “African Americans.” They represent newer and recently arrived immigrants and their descendants, all of whom have no personal link to the history of African American enslavement in the country or the diet it spawned. Samuelsson was born in Ethiopia, adopted by a Swedish family, and taken to Goteborg, Sweden, where he and his sister were raised. The tastes of hog and hominy that were traditionally ascribed to the enslaved and their descendants are tastes he learned as a chef after his coming to America. Samuelsson’s culinary training is classic; early on he began to cook under the instruction of his Swedish grandmother, a professional cook, and he later trained at the Culinary Institute in Göteborg and completed apprenticeships in Switzerland and Austria.

Like Patrick Clark before him, Samuelsson attained fame at an early age. He arrived in New York City in 1991 to apprentice in the kitchen of Aquavit, serving the crisp, clean tastes of Scandinavia to New Yorkers in a décor that seemed transported from the lands of the midnight sun. Three years later, he became the restaurant’s executive chef and shortly thereafter became the youngest chef ever to receive a three-star review from the New York Times. Other accolades followed, and in 2003 he was named best chef in New York City by the James Beard Foundation. Coming from a Swedish restaurant, Samuelsson has been unfettered by the racial assumptions of the dining public and therefore has been able to cast a wide culinary net. His restaurants have offered not only the food of his native Sweden but also served Japanese-American fusion food and the food of the African continent.

Young, ambitious, and multitalented Samuelsson also authored cookbooks in English and Swedish. The first Aquavit and the New Scandinavian Cuisine celebrated the food of his adopted homeland. En Smakresa (A Journey of Tastes), published in Sweden, detailed Samuelsson’s personal journey of tastes, and Street Food speaks about the snacks that are a part of the daily lives of the world. Samuelsson’s culinary journey further evolved when, at the behest of Gourmet magazine, he journeyed back to Ethiopia for the first time. The trip proved revelatory and revolutionary. Reacquainted with the continent of his birth, Samuelsson began an odyssey that culminated in another book, The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa. A television miniseries for the Public Broadcasting Service, numerous appearances on television cooking competitions and at food media events, a coffee deal with Starbucks, a new cookbook on American food, New American Table, and a series of videos for AOL are only some of the long list of projects that have made Samuelsson the best-known African American in food at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Samuelsson has now taken his African American culinary journey full circle and in fall 2010 plans to open a place on 125th Street in Harlem that will focus on fresh, local, and seasonal American foods—the Red Rooster. The location is totemic for African Americans, and the name is that of a legendary Harlem bar. In a tip of the toque to not only the location but also the culinary history of the African Americans who made Harlem famous, the menu will highlight some traditional Southern black foods, including fried chicken, macaroni and cheese with bacon, and bread pudding.