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Harlem-based renowned celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson will be featured Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend on June 15th on Netflix. The award-winning chef has more than two dozen restaurants under his name.
Marcus Samuelsson will join new Iron Chefs Curtis Stone, Gabriela Cámara, Dominique Crenn and Ming Tsai to welcome the Challenger Chefs to a duel Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. The Challenger chefs have to cook some delicious dishes to become the very first Iron Legend.
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Everything about new Iron Cook Markus Samuelson
Ethiopian-born chef Marcus Samuelsson lost his mother to a tuberculosis epidemic a year after he was born. Samuelsson and his older sister Fantaye were also separated from their family in 1974 during Ethiopia’s civil war. However, housewife Anne-Marie and geologist Lennart Samuelsson from Gothenburg, Sweden later adopted the siblings.
He has been passionate about food and cooking since childhood. After being inspired to cook in Sweden by his maternal grandmother, he developed a love for food. To improve his culinary skills, he joined the Culinary Institute in Gothenburg, after which he completed an apprenticeship in Austria and Switzerland before coming to the USA in 1994 as an apprentice at the Aquavit restaurant.
His culinary know-how soon made him Executive Chef of Aquavit. Soon after, he became the youngest chef to receive a three-star restaurant rating from The New York Times. After that, there was no turning back for the master chef.
Samuelsson was named Best Chef: New York City in 2003 by the James Beard Foundation. He also received the 2019 Vilcek Foundation Prize in Culinary Arts. The award is given to immigrants who have made a significant contribution to American society.
He opened one of his most popular restaurants, Red Rooster, in Harlem in December 2010 and his second Harlem restaurant, Streetbird Rotisserie, in the spring of 2015. Samuelsson has reportedly created more than 200 jobs through his two restaurants, 70% of which are workers from the community Neighborhood.
Since then he has opened over two dozen restaurants in Nordic countries such as London, Bermuda, Canada, New York, New Jersey, Washington and Chicago.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, “Samuelsson converted his restaurants Red Rooster Harlem, Marcus B&P in Newark, and Red Rooster Overtown in Miami into community kitchens in partnership with World Central Kitchen, serving well over 280,000 meals to those in need,” according to his official profile .
Iron Cook The Other Ventures of Marcus Samuelsson
Samuelsson, Creative Director for Kitchen & Table Restaurant Concepts, Eatery Social and Restaurant Norda, currently works as Executive Chef-in-Residence on Buzzfeed Tasty’s talent program.
The philanthropist has also been crowned champion of television shows like Top Chef Masters and Chopped All Stars and was the successful mentor at ABC The taste.
The 50-year-old chef is also co-producing the annual week-long festival Harlem EatUp!, celebrating Harlem’s food, arts and culture in a telethon special on ABC for the sixth year running.
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As an author, he has written several books including The New York Times bestselling memoir Yes, Chef, Hustle in Harlem, The Rise and The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food, and other. His 2006 African-inspired cookbook, The soul of a new kitchenwon the title “Best International Cookbook”.
He is also the founder of the Marcus Samuelsson Group (MSG), which works to preserve Samuelsson’s culinary and cultural pillars.
Stream Netflix this Wednesday and watch Samuelsson give the Challenger Chefs some tough competition in the cook-off. Iron Cook.