>>interviewer: hi everybody. we are joinedtoday by chef marcus samuelsson; he is the chef and owner of red rooster in harlem innew york city, the winner of top chef masters, and the author of "yes, chef," a memoir chroniclinghis extraordinary journey from ethiopia to sweden to harlem, with many stopsalong the way including the white house. there is a line from "yes, chef"-->>marcus: and the google office. >>interviewer: and the google office mostimportantly. >>marcus: yes. >>interviewer: on 14th street. there's a linein "yes, chef" that struck me that i wanted to read: "who’s going to make thepeople realize that food dismissed as ‘ethnic’
by the fine-dining world could be producedat the same level as their sacred bouillabaisses and veloutã©s?†and i haveto say, after reading "yes, chef" the answer is chef marcus samuelsson. so please me inwelcoming to google new york, marcus samuelsson. [applause] >>marcus: thank you. >>interviewer: glad you're here. >>marcus: thank you. i'm happy to be back.i've been here twice, one time for the launch of the african book, "the soul of a newcuisine," and one time with martha stewart for a christmas thing you guys were doing.
>>interviewer: and this is the best time--thirdtime's the best, right? >>marcus: it is, by far. by far. [laughter] >>interviewer: so i have to admit i read yourbook and reading it made me feel like possibly the laziest human being on the planetbecause you have done everything and worked so hard throughout your career--your quitelong career at this point because you started quite young. and i can't even imagine--you'reonly forty-one now--which is very young by my standards because i'm not quiteforty yet--but i can't even imagine what you're going to do in the next ten or twenty years--sowhat made this moment the right
moment to write a memoir? >>marcus: i think that there's an evolutionright, as a self and as a chef and i always actually envisioned to be a good chef byforty-two or something like that because i think that's a perfect age in terms of youknow who you are and being a chef, so much about it is knowing who you are, andyou can express that through food. but also where i was in my life, you know, married;i knew about my ethiopian side; i also knewwhere in the dna, in terms of my restaurant, where do i need to be? where was it importantfor me to be, beside just having a store? and all of that takes time; it takes timeto become a good chef, not that many become
good chefs, you have to find the consciousof finding yourself; and then, where do you need to operate from? you know, i becamechef very early--maybe too early--but then also hadn't asked myself those questions of"is there something larger? can i be part ofchanging the footprint in this city? what's going on in the food chasm in this specificcity, in this country? what are my responsibilities?" >>interviewer: that's great. well, you know,the book is so beautifully written and, just starting with the first chapter i haveto admit it actually almost brought me to tears reading about--the story about yourmother and how you've never seen a picture
ofyour birth mother and that vignette was really a very powerful story-- >>marcus: yeah. >>interviewer:--and one that i think a lotof people didn't know about you, if they know some parts of your life. was--when youread the final manuscript--was there a story or an event that struck you as particularlypoignant and important to write about? >>marcus: well, i think i want to keep a bookthat has the pace of myself. i mean the chapters are pretty short, so there's a fastgood pace, it's a quick read. if you're an immigrant like me, it might take two weeks,but someone like you who's been here longer
maybe two days. [claps hands together] it'sa quick, i wanted to keep a quick read, and also have people from all walks of lifeshare it at a dinner table. if you were seventeen and wanted to--was into cooking--you couldread this book and relate to it. if you were the parent, you could sort oflike see yourself in your journey and your struggles; and if you were the grandparent,there was this sort of "oh, that's what we do with our kids. we inspire them to cook."so keeping the pace but also keeping it an entry level to all people. you know for meit's important to explain the journey in terms of profession, specifically, cheffing isso different today than it was when i came in, right? it was one way, you worked in afrench restaurant, and you worked yourself,
you know, as hard as possible, and the onlyway to respond was "yes, chef." but, just as much as your business evolved, ours too.so now people might know cooking through top chef or through an online recipe. what happened?what was the difference? i wanted to explain that sort of--that journey and alsoexplain for people from all colors a window in to how a black laborer's journey is,because it is different. just like a woman's journey is different. and guys can alwayssay like, "no no it doesn't matter, there's nodifference. we're all open." it is different. and it's not about an [author] conversationabout race that wasn't polarizing. it's like "you know what, i've never thought aboutthat" and from all sides of it say like "you
know what, that's uh, hmm. i've never thoughtabout that journey." >>interviewer: let's talk a little bit aboutthat because you do talk a lot about race in the book and it's a really fascinatingperspective being one of--really the only--executive chefs of color in the city, i mean maybe {chefcardo stenza} there's maybe a handful in sort of the fine dining arena-- >>marcus: mmm >>interviewer: but you've really made a markfor yourself and you write a lot about the racism that you've faced along the way inyour career, some of the really off color remarks thatwere made to you by quite prominent chefs
that were really disturbing to me and mademe not want to watch certain programs ever again,it just--there've been a lot of challenges that you've faced and what about thoseexperiences sort of influenced the way you run your business now? >>marcus: i think that i've been lucky enoughto work in really great restaurants and that taught me what to do, but also taught mewhat not to do more than anything. if i walked into any great french restaurant that i workedin, there was no women, zero. it was--the narrative of the black chef didn'texist to the point where you had to explain for them that you were there working in thekitchen many, many, many times and even when
i got the job, they didn't have the job becauseit was a black chef, so that does two things--that either makes you sharper or quit.and a lot of people quit and that's their life answer why you don't havemore diverse entry level in the work force. and cooking is just one thing, you can saythe same in the tech world, you can say the same in--i mean, the book is a mirror up--to look introvert yourself-- to look into yourself, "you know what? how does that reflectmy environment?" you know? and i mean the fact that there's not enough women in thecooking world is just nonsense because the most influential people in cooking have alwaysbeen women. >>interviewer: sure.
>>marcus: you can look at it from just eatingaround the world, but you can also look at it from in this country who changed thegame? alice waters and julia childs. we wouldn't have food tv without julia. we wouldn't think--wehave fifty-four farmer's markets in new york city. without alice asking thosequestions, maybe we'd have two. on the larger scale, who are the biggest game changers?women. and just that cooking in terms of a restaurant, in terms of fine dining, whichis one segment of this conversation, could beargued that it's more suitable for a guy. it's almost like an olympic--you run reallyreally fast but that does not explain what, who contribute our community and changes howwe eat. fine dining cooking is the minority
in this pyramid that we call food--foodcommunity. >>interviewer: well talking about your journeysome more you've had--excuse me, i think i alluded to this in the introduction--manymany along this journey and i would love to hear moreabout that journey including your time almost becoming a professional soccer player tocooking for the white house and some of the key moments that stand out for you. if youcan just tell us a little bit about them. >>marcus: well for me one of the key momentsever was when i was allowed to work for free for a year. when i got the chance to workin france. >>interviewer: we would hire you for thatfor a year, if you wanted to work for free
here. [laughter] just kind of ignoring me--we would pay-- >>marcus: well, you know--it would be a goodeducation for both, i'll tell you that. we'd be closing the gap on the food chasm, i'lltell you that. i would ask a lot of questions and you guys are smarter than me so you wouldfix it. >>interviewer: we'd just google it. [laughter]and find the answer. >>marcus: yeah, exactly. no but that chanceto work in the three star michelin restaurant in france was for me a big success becausei sent out thirty-five letters. me and my
mother went to the local library to send outa lot of letters and we got just like a--i think that the undertone in the book shouldbe about rejection--how do you deal with rejection? all of us here have been rejectedand how do you deal with that? it's in the personal life, it is--it happens in work placeand what you do with that? and for me it was actually the perfect time. you know, istarted writing to three star michelin restaurants when i was eighteen-nineteen-twentybut i didn't get there until i was twenty-three. but it actually turned out to be better forme because i was a better cook. although each one of those answers back werepainful. but in the meantime i taught myself french and i was a better cook. so therejection does not always have to be that
you have to get off your journey, you know,i went to switzerland instead of france, and they spoke french in switzerland and germanso now i got yelled at in swedish, german and french, which was a good advantagebecause before i went to france, i need to know some of that. so it's being committedto the craft, being completely in love with your craft. if there was anyway i doubtedthat, there was no way i would have taken that abuse, or those things. i'm also nowthinking about is there a way to create incredible food without abuse? >>interviewer: what's the answer? >>marcus: well, we're searching. [laughter]because there is a commitment inside that
you can't doubt that has to happen and ithink, you know, i think red rooster's asked me a lot of questions and i have to answerthem. i always trust my work and i seek new questions in my work. and you know, i've beenlucky enough on the book tour to travel to some of the best restaurants in the ci--inthe country and i ask--you know i get a window in to what's going on in american food andit's a better plate today. it's more diverse whether you eat in chinese, muslimrestaurant in san francisco or you eat at a good texmex restaurant in austin, or youeat in a really cool, great fun environment inmiami, or you eat in copa in boston--the kitchens are more diverse they are--the evolutionis completely different now--i'm so happy
that that's happening. and i think americais one of the few places that can create that. because the entrylevels to work in a kitchen is still pretty low but you're curiosity level is very highso people come from all walks of life which is great. i worked in the tech world but nowi want to become a chef. look at what nate's doing in seattle. look at what moderncuisine is happening there. that will answer a lot of questions--not just on the modernamerican cuisine today--but those guys are so bright so they'll probably figure out--maybehow, maybe they have the question to end famine? you know because that's how thatmodern cuisine is part of what they're working on and they're also working on these otherthings and that's so great where cooks
are coming into this industry not just onthe --the way i got in--that's one way--but it's so great to have people like nate andother people in the conversation because they're going to ask themselves questions: "how canwe figure out better against diabetes? allergies?" and these big questions that wehave that i've find it is important as a chef--we have to. filling restaurants, that'spart of our job and we should be doing this especially if you have a big platform, youshould be doing that. >>interviewer: but driving the larger conversationabout food and how things-- >>marcus: the larger conversation, absolutely.and that's what we do, i --my company--i'm committed to that and that is why we havecommunity arm that is very strong and we do
cooking classes for free in the community.that's why we have a tech side that is very strong. >>interviewer: tell us about the tech side.what are you doing? >>marcus: well i just felt with ms.com andfoodrepublic.com--i wanted--what i saw online didn't sort of match with--the foodconversation i saw online didn't necessarily match with how-why i got into the industry.i got into the industry about curiosity and i went to learn. so i thought what anopportunity. what if food republic was focused on making a food platform that was gearedtowards men--so it's about forty-five/fifty five percent men/women--that is women friendlybut that you learned something and we
celebrate each other as chefs so that wasa space that was open so we built a platform around it. on ms.com its aboutseventy-thirty women to men and there we might focus on--it's very community oriented toharlem--its sort of a map into harlem but also what food healthy after yoga or afteryou've been working out. so this adding something to the web space was about learning andfeeding people's curiosity and become better cooks and become smarter shoppers in today'sfood space. >>interviewer: yeah. well it's interestingthat you're using the platform that you've been given or that you've really created foryourself between things like top chef and your james beard awards and all the rest ofit to really become an activist in the food
movement and maybe people don't know thatmuch about that, so it's interesting that you're--i mean it's great that you're doingthat. >>marcus: i mean you have to i mean like thesewonderful platforms that you guys are part of creating--evolving are there for usas consumers right, so when i opened red rooster and i had doubts i went to twitter right awayand i was like "should i have vintage plates or new plates?" and right away-shoosh-vintage comes in right? "should i do my jamaican oxtail or grandma's oxtail?"--whoosh--right away. [interviewer laughs] it's a fun way of engaging and allowing peopleall over the world to participate and feeling close to this narrative--this conversation.it's not about self-promotion, that's getting
tired, so i use twitter as a--icurate carefully about the food conversation i want to have and what i see because i'mlucky to be in austin one day and harlem the next week and then maybe at a food marketsomewhere else right? but i know that the people there hang out with me online, theywant to be part of that, so i think have to curate--ican't just post anything, you know? >>interviewer: observation-- >>marcus: observation, sifting and makinga yummy, sticky space for the people that want to engage. >>interviewer: it's interesting how you'veused social media to influence the evolution
of red rooster. i think that's veryunusual, because i think chefs come in and they have such a clear idea of what they wantto do and the personalities of the chefs that i have met tend to be very controllingfor the most part, not in a bad way, so it's amazing that you've been able to engage inthat dialog and actually have it influence your menu and influence the choices that you'remaking in a really-- >>marcus: for me it was red rooster and ididn't grow up in harlem so i can't say that i grew up there, but i wanted to create arestaurant that was a mirror image food wise of that community. and some people, dependingon where you live, where you grew up, know more or less about that community, it'smystique, it's an old neighborhood, but maybe
everyone doesn't know about what itreally is and i thought, "well, i've lived there for ten years, i want to map that outon a menu. i want you to taste harlem." well there's obviously a center of african-americanheritage there that we should honor. there's also el barrio and on top of elbarrio there's a new mexican community, therefore the tacquitos. there's also the italian corridor,like it's been there forever, and then you have this new west african because--yes,there are black african americans, but the west africans has another newingredient that we might not know about so that's why we have shrimp powder on the restaurant,on the menu. so when you read the menu of red rooster, it's curated and craftedbased on seasonality, but also based on harlem.
you see harlem and that's our jobthere. >>interviewer: that's amazing. in the--gettingback to the book quickly, you were pretty much an open book through out the processand really went raw and told a lot of details, very personal, deeply personal things. i thinkif you're going to right a book like that obviously you need to be prepared todo that. was there anything you wish you had left out, or a story that you actually wishyou had included? >>marcus: i mean, the process of writing thisbook was over five years, three days a week, i just woke up really early and wrote tomy editor and co-writer, veronica. and i mean, we had to narrow it down to three hundredsomething pages, from like fifteen
hundred pages--something like that. but, there'sa lot of stories, a lot of moments obviously that didn’t' get in there, but youknow this book, like anything, was bad for a long time before it got good. so there wasa lot of stuff out there and how does this stuff--youknow--that's where andy came in and really edited this well. and, how do i tell thesestories? i felt it like it was really about beinghonest and not protecting--i knew when i walked in i didn't want to do a victory lap. it'sso male and so tired. [interviewer chuckles]and i knew also that i wanted --if i'm going to borrow time from the reader--borrow thattime--there's a lot of stuff they can
do--they needed to get to know me better.like i've read books about known people that you know less about them after spent, likefor me, two weeks, 'cause i read slow and i'm pissed after that. [laughter]you have to get to know me better than before, right? and also, learn something about yourself.i want this book to be a sense of a mirror to yourself like "you know what, whatare we doing in that space? are we hiring from this community?" well there's aproject right across the street here, how many of those people work for google? likequestions, questions, questions. what can wedo about that? how can we engage in that community? what responsibility do we have when we buythese buildings? who that great for?
it's great for a lot of people, could be greaterfor even more. what can we do to engage? questions. >>interviewer: you know you're absolutelyright. you raised some good questions. i'd-- >>marcus: mmm hmm. that's why we should hangout and have a beer together.[marcus laughs] >>interviewer: let's hang out anytime youwant. i'm on it. >>marcus: yeah. yeah. >>interviewer: i'll see you tomorrow. [laughter]one of the things that you talk about in the book is the failure of merkato 55which i actually had the pleasure of dining at before it opened; that makes me sound likean insider--it was for an event that you were doing and i had the honor of dining atyour restaurant before it closed and you kind
of highlighted that as one of yourbiggest professional disappointments. it was quickly followed by, well in the book it wasquickly followed by top chef masters, cooking for the white house state dinner.i'm curious what that failure taught you, what the failure of merkato 55 broughtout of you? >>marcus: it taught me a lot, i mean, there'sno way rooster would have been as delicious and yummy without that failure, right? >>interviewer: why do you say that? >>marcus: well, because you learn so much.you guys learn so much. you guys launch products all the time--
>>interviewer: that fail. >>marcus: that fails miserably and these arethe smartest and the brightest, but i know that you guys are sitting in war rooms andsaying "why did it fail? it can't fail. we gotta do better," and you come back at itright? and-- so i think for me i learned about the conversation about african fine diningis not wrong. that is not wrong. i should have learned more about the community. whenyou're in the meat packing, there's nobody would walk there on a thursday at nine-thirtythat wants to have a kumbaya african experience. they want to stand on a table,do shots, and have a good ass time. well let them have it, but it should not be africangood food, shouldn't be dragged down to that
misery. and shame on me for thinking thatthey were even on the same conversation. i think that is great that all that stuff isthere, and it has that incredible bridge and tunnel feel,[laughter] which a bridge and tunnel should have, andthat has nothing to do with {unintelligible}. i should have kept the two out of the way.so that's the quick answer right? what else did it teach about myself? you know it was2006 when we signed the lease and when you're in this bubble of bigger, better, bigger,better, you know that lease was, that rent was about a hundred thousand dollars a monthfor a restaurant,
>>interviewer: wow. >>marcus: and we--i so wanted the deal i waslike "no problem, we'll just pack it." you know and then you become chasing rent, sothat informed my decision about doing something that i would not be chasing--commit is stillto chase flavor, not to chasing rent. it taught me so many things. again, the purityof the product wasn't wrong, it was my head wasn't clear and i wanted to do it toobad so two things was good about it: we quit before it got bad bad, and i learned on howto listen and walk a neighborhood more. and that's why i walked around harlem before iengaged. so hindsight, it all worked out, but it tookme a lot of self--sort of learning and so
it's like okay. and it's good, it's good.you get humbled and you listen and you get better, or you don't and then there's anotherpath. >>interviewer: well, in the book you bringa lot of tastes so much to life, i'm wondering if there's a cookbook in the worksfor "yes, chef" like a journey of chef samuelsson? >>marcus: yeah, i mean, a lot of people haveasked and actually---maybe it's called "no, chef" i don't know. [marcus and audience laugh] i don't know. we thought--i struggle withthis a lot--but i've never done anything where there wasn't food. i'm like, i know this isa
memoir but how many recipes can we--are wegoing to have? and andy's like, "none." my editor said, "none." i was like, "whoa!" iwas nervous about how to engage with an audience without food, and not stand on it in anyway.even when i speak, i always bring up food terms. so that was a first for me, andi think--i don't even think about what's next in terms of writing things in terms of"yes, chef" right now, because i feel like we're in the middle of it. it's been a greatrun, and we have now, it's sort of the product of what comes out of it, i don't know.we'll see. >>interviewer: okay. >>marcus: but it's a interesting idea, yes--chef.
>>interviewer: all right, we'll take a percentage.so there was a great article just over the weekend in the times-- >>interviewer: --leading up to this eventi'm sure about [marcus laughs] building-- >>marcus: i love that! >>interviewer: about building your brand andsort of the empire that is marcus samuelsson. can you talk to us a little bit aboutthe brand of marcus samuelsson and the pressure of that and sort of how that's all going andwhat's-- >>marcus: well i don't think any of it--iget annoyed when you're a known person with a platform and you talk about the pressure.pressure is being outside looking in. pressure
is "how am i going to pay my rent?" that'spressure. "how am i going to provide for my family?" anyone with a platform and hasan option on what to do and how to curate a grade--lucky. you're lucky. and you're privilegedand that's what my sort of obsession with curationfor the audience is, right? because i know if we don't take care of that, lightsout. very quickly. so i wouldn't--i never look at it as pressure. i look at it as wehave to be gooder than the rest, there has tobe narrative because the people that take time out and spend money with us deserve it.and i think about everything that we touch on that level. and it has to be--it can neverbe a false promise. and if we're a two dollar
cornbread, it should feel like atwenty-eight dollar cornbread. and the reality is-- >>interviewer: there's twenty-eight dollarcornbread? >>marcus: well-- >>interviewer: where are you eating? where-- >>marcus: truffles, truffles. >>interviewer: [laughs] fair enough. >>marcus: the reality is that i live in acommunity where most of those great, grand experiences and amenities are south of thatcommunity. and i resent that. and i'm not
going to walk around angry, walking around--"thisis wrong, this is wrong." that's not gonna happen. i'm going to provide it in mycommunity first. so when you do that trip, when you come with that beautiful bag, thatchanges your narrative of uptown and commercialism is very fast. it's now changed real estate,it's now changed job progression, so it'll happen and it can be cornbread at atime. if it's curated; if it's done really sticky, yummy delicious. >>interviewer: and not twenty-eight dollars-- >>marcus: and that's what i think about. youthink about the brand, well that's the brand, right? it's aspirational; it's inclusiveversus exclusive; and of course it's easier
when you're a swedopian living in harlem tothink about those because i have different--i think about my grandmother fromsweden or my sisters and brothers in africa, they're in my conversation. and i thinkabout the chef that i grew up with, you know, because it's an encompassing inclusivenessthat others might or might not have been exposed to. >>interviewer: i want to open it up for questionsin a couple of minutes because there's a lot of-- >>marcus: no you don't. you’re a good interviewer.this is all you. >>interviewer: thank you! an indian oprahup here. i just want to do a couple "finish
this sentence for me" and then we'll openit up for questions. >>marcus: oh wow. >>interviewer: so people can get ready toask their questions at one of the two mics because we are recording for youtube thatwould be great. so if you'll fin--are you ready? >>marcus: i'm ready. >>interviewer: all right. swedish food is? >>marcus: salty, pickled, delicious.
>>interviewer: fusion cooking is? >>marcus: can be confusion-confusing, butis also eye opener because it's cross right, it's essentially a cross. i think there'sa new word--i think we're going to look at fusionthe way that we look at a fax machine or a vcr. it was a moment but there'sdefinitely a better product coming out of that. so-- >>interviewer: what's a better word for it? >>marcus: you know, i don't know if i havea good word for it, but i do think that it's sort of like, it encompasses ethnicsomewhere right? and cross? fusion, it comes
from using in jazz, and sometimes a food wordgotta come and be in and of the foods, you know? that's why when you work with foodslike food desert, it doesn't work because there's not a desert in those places. likeit's got to come in and of--that's why i like--not like but focus more on food chasm becauseit's choices that we deliberately made that certain people should be in on food andgood options and certain people should not. it's not a desert, it's a decision. >>interview: okay. junk food is? >>marcus: when i was a kid, it was aspirational,because i never got it. [laughter]never. so it's like this thing over here,
right, but still, as bad as it is, it alsoinspires us a lot to do--like when a chef when we are fun we think about something weuse words as we go there we think about fast cash, we think about burger but we do ourinspiration of it, we think about fries, but we do our version, so it can be fast, it canbe delicious, depends on who makes it, right? it's like the author, it's like thechef. so. i suck at this thing by the way. >>interviewer: no, you're great at it. [laughter]good. food bloggers are? >>marcus: hmm. well, we are--we now--we hireand we work with the tribe. so, it took me a long time to understand that whole thing.a long time. i like it now. took me a long
time. we joined. [laughter] >>interviewer: my favorite thing about harlemis? >>marcus: oh, the people. the people. it'sthe closest thing to africa, it's the best thing of life. like i always say, it's likea polaroid picture. sh-sh-sh, oh there it is.it's very--it's imperfect, it's perfect, it's great. good. >>interviewer: very good. >>marcus: good part of town. >>interviewer: reality--
>>marcus: maybe we should have an office. >>interviewer: what's that? >>marcus: where google should have an office. >>interviewer: all right, i'll tell them. >>marcus: i'm a complete believer that techshould be uptown. young people, lot of space, open minded, and it would completelychange north manhattan. >>interviewer: there's a lot of movement towardssort of a tech center/entrepreneurial center in the bronx.[mumbles] >>marcus: mmm hmm. great.
>>interviewer: reality chef competitions are? >>marcus: fun, exhausting, and i love thefact that it gets the family involved. so many times when you have like kids and parentscoming like "we--" --i'll tell you a funny thing like i did a cooking class in the harlemand this kid come up to me and i was doing the salad between the chicken and somecheese, he said, "chef, is that ricotta?" and he was thirteen years old, and i waslike, "yeah, how do you know that?" he's like, "i'm watching chop, you know?" [laughter]and the window in, the fact that "whoa" i had not idea the difference between ricottaor brie at thirteen years old. so it can be that and if it is the window into for us toeat better or
learn, have conversation about food--fantastic!it can also be very similar to sports right? we watch more sports, doesn't meanthat we are healthier. [laughter] so it really depends--it really depends how you do it. >>interviewer: i think many american men watchingfootball on saturday, or sunday rather, would disagree with that. they thinkthey're very healthy. my husband being one of them, just watching the football. >>marcus: yeah, yeah. >>interviewer: i told him he's not actuallyon the team, but he doesn't agree with me at all.
>>marcus: yeah, in his mind at that moment,he is. >>interviewer: yeah, he's on the team. he'sthe coach. >>interviewer: home is? >>marcus: harlem, uptown. >>interviewer: awesome. thank you. >>marcus: good. all right. >>interviewer: any questions? >>marcus: yeah, we have to have questions. >>interviewer: we have somebody waiting upthere?
>>marcus: i like it. >>male speaker #1: before i get to my question,may i add one thing to your "do not ever say again" list? tech is for young. >>marcus: you're right. you're right. >>interviewer: that's true. >>marcus: that's is--you're right. shame onme. >>interviewer: you're being schooled. >>marcus: i can't wait for the game though. >>male speaker #1: another learning.
>>male speaker #1: i have a nephew whose beenenthusiastic about food since he was four, i mean we gave him espresso cups as abirthday present when he was four, and he was already working on his knife skill thing-- >>interviewer: what could possibly go wrong?[laughter] >>male speaker #1: he's just finishing uphis first year at johnson and wales in providence-- >>marcus: nice, good school. good choice. >>male speaker #1: but after a summer of doingnothing but making pico de gallo, he's really thinking seriously now about "maybe i wantto be a food scientist working for a big corporation, maybe this restaurant thing is not for me,"i mean might he be on the right
track or might he be missing something. imean it's an incredibly tough lifestyle, it's incredibly tough life. is he blowing itoff too soon or maybe being wise that it's not for everybody? >>marcus: well, i think the good thing withhim is he's asking himself important questions. and, you know, where he is in thatstage of "who am i?" and "what do i want?" right? today, in cooking, you can be an incrediblefood scientist and johnson and wales was a good part of that journey. when i wascoming up, you could basically chef. that was one area--to be chef, so there's twentyentry levels today about cooking, i think him finding this out, he's on his own pathand journey, is the answer and the great thing
is that he can do that, and then when he'stwenty-five, twenty-six, maybe he wants to try a restaurant again, and then maybe hewants to solve how to make the best deep fried chicken the healthiest in the world and guess,he sits on the knowledge on both sides then by then. the path that he's on,i think, is more of what the common new chef is going to be like. it's not just one areaof the guy who didn't like to go to school, became a chef. that was what my generationpretty much came out of. the next one's going to come in so many different levelsand he represents that. so, his journey's his journey. i would never put tough orchallenging around being a chef. i just don't think that's --. when you truly --it's yourcraft--it picked you and
you picked--it's tougher to do something youdon't like. because you'd rather work fifteen hours a day with something that youlove, than twelve hours a day with something that you hate, right? that's really the maththat you have to do. so, that's that. >>male speaker #1: thank you very much. >>marcus: thank you. yes? >>female speaker #1: hi, so-- >>marcus: take that mic down a little bit,come on. >>female speaker #1: it was for a taller person. >>female speaker #1: so going back to thebook, i read it, i thought it was so moving,
it's clearly such a distinctly youstory, but when it resonates with so many people. i was so curious what it was liketo work with a writer on such a personal story, what she brought to the party and-- >>marcus: yeah. yeah, a lot. >>female speaker #1: how the process changedbecause of it? >>marcus: well, she brought spelling.[laughter] how about that basic, you know after i'velived in six countries, and i can't spell in one language well. i can't. i mean, i keepthis sort of twelve year old sort of knowledge--actually younger, nine year old sort of vocabularybecause i don't know how to
spell those words i want to say so--she broughtthat, but i also had to be--you know i knew veronica, i knew veronica for a longtime--and the trust was everything right? so veronica--very thoughtful, and she knewthe story i needed and wanted and was committed to tell. and i'm so privileged thatrandom house, and it was three years in a row i'd have to go random house and say"hey, the book's not good, we got to wait a year." three years. and they supported it.and i was nervous taking that elevator up because so many times they could have justsaid "you know what, we're going to cancel the whole thing." but they supported it becausethey wanted--there was a good story in there. and i was very grateful for that and veronicaand andy, the editor, constantly kept
me, "it's got to be stories, it's got to begood stories." when if it wasn't good, we eighty-sixed it. we didn't put it. so workingwith her specifically was about trust, and she spends way too much time with me for herfamily. you know she came up and not with a[unintelligible], [interviewer coughs] i mean she made it work. she brought her daughterin the kitchen and her husband came and i always had to constantly pay themwith fried chicken. [laughter] but you know, we were committed, we were in a band, youknow. so much about doing this when you give is you got to be in, in, and if you're not,then you can't tell a story. so.
>>interviewer: excuse me. any other questions? >> marcus: well, great. >>interviewer: i asked them all. >>interviewer: thank you so much-- >>marcus: thank you. it's always a privilegeto get here.
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