Chef Marcus Samuelsson talks his new cookbook 'The Rise'

Marcus Samuelsson, Chef & Author, joined Yahoo Finance to discuss his cookbook 'The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food' and the importance of Black culinary history.

Video Transcript

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Obviously the pandemic has been a major setback for so many restaurant owners, but some are offering hope because they're beating the odds. Back with us now is celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson. He's the author of the new book "The Rise-- Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food." Marcus, why was it important for you to write this book, and why now?

MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I think storytelling and content and highlight incredible contribution that African American chefs have done to American food was important when I started the book, [INAUDIBLE], and I started four years ago. But it's even more important when you go through a pandemic like this because the chefs and the restaurants and the people in our industry that's going to have the hardest time to start again is Black and brown chefs that has a harder time to get access to capital, and there's also less generational wealth. So this was a very important time to tell these stories, to highlight them, to broadcast them. And yeah, I'm super happy that we could tell this story of "The Rise."

KRISTIN MYERS: Marcus--

SIBILE MARCELLUS: And you've written about--

KRISTIN MYERS: Sorry. Go ahead, Sibile.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: You've written about the blessing of being both an immigrant and a Black man, and that has given you the lens internally to be able to ask yourself, given the challenges I've been through, how do I deal with today or this issue in life? And you've said that when it comes to America, some of the biggest issues are postincarceration, rehabilitation, and employment. So how are you addressing that through your restaurants?

MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Well, first of all, restaurants are some of the biggest employers-- independent restaurants-- in the country, right? And it was important for me to first show in the book that Black chefs, restaurateurs, and craftsmen are across the country. We at Red Rooster, prepandemic, we employed 180 people. We served about 4,000 people a week. We also was employment for about 70 musicians. So it's about job creation, right?

And this job creation in my community and our communities are game changing. You know, they're on a path to health care. They're on a path to middle class if you work at a Red Rooster.

So for me, it's about the authorship of the Black experience in terms of food. It's about creating memories for all of Americans to understand that we have contributed. And then aspirations so people want to go-- the next generation wants to go to the industry. Yes, it's tough right now, but we're going to come out of this, and it's a fantastic industry to be part of.

KRISTIN MYERS: So, Marcus, I've got about a minute left with you here, and I want to ask you about something that you wrote about in your book. You said that "The Rise" stands on three pillars, and I want to pick up on this piece about authorship where you say that Black Americans have contributed so much to this country's food and culture without proper acknowledgment, a pattern of erasure that continues to this day. The book thing goes on to say "we have to name it so we can claim it."

So I want to ask you, what does claiming authorship look like for you, and what would the impact be? I know it's hard to answer in about 60 seconds, but let's try.

MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Well, thank you for asking. I do think the authorship is important, right, because, for example, Mr. Nearest Green that came up with a recipe for Jack Daniels, if he could have claimed it and had the authorship for that-- he didn't make $1 in coming up with the recipe for one of the most iconic brown liquors in the world, right? That is a massive change in terms of his family and great-grandkids' trajectory.

You know, Black people came up with the starting point of four cuisines in America. Southern, which was sometimes called soul food; Lowcountry from the Carolinas; Creole cooking; and barbecue. These are all cuisines that African Americans experience and chefs has really contributed to.

And the way we know about Italian cuisine or French cuisine, that's changed everything the way we tourist or the way we interact with those countries. It's time for us as Americans to give the authorship to the people who created it and then also the creative conversation during the holiday season of appreciation of Black culture. The more we appreciate each other as a country through food, through music, we're going to have a better dialogue about race and identity. We have to get a better place. If we learn something from 2020 and we're going to have a new start is that we have to have a better conversation, more delicious conversation around race, culture, and identity as Americans.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Well, we'll have to have you back on. Marcus Samuelsson, thanks so much.

MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Thank you so much. Happy holidays, guys.