 New York City, it's your mayor, Eric Adams. Welcome to the Get Stuffed Duncast. Let's get to it. We are just really excited about, you know, the next addition to our Get Stuffed Duncast. And it's amazing how many interesting people we have in the city that are just doing some real good stuff. And I am, as you know, I'm a foodie and I enjoy some good food. I am here today with a great restaurant owner, Marcus Samuelson, with us. He's a chef that really wants to share his journey on how he came about to be in the food space, what he's doing. He popped up in here with a Shade on the front of his shirt. You know, Shade is from Nigeria. Nigeria, I've outlined it, yes, yes, yes, yes. You know, but you know, we are really looking forward to a nice conversation about food and the powerful, people don't realize the power of food and lubricating value of food when you are having challenging conversations. That's part of our breaking bread, building bonds, a thousand dinners, 10 people at each dinner, all coming from a different ethnic, cultural, religious background. And we're using food because when I'm around a table of people and we are enjoying a meal, there's like this soothing comfort that comes over us that we can really start to engage in real talk. But there's something else I do with food. When I give thanks for the meal I'm about to eat, I give thanks to the people who planted the crop, who delivered it on the truck, who's in the kitchen serving it. There's a whole line of people, before you get that meal, that really put in place the motion for you to enjoy that meal. And your story I think is representative of that. And I would love for you just to peep into that. I've been all over Africa, have yet to be at Ethiopia yet, but I'm going to get there during my administration on my African tours. I would love to be in Ethiopia. People would be so excited. And I'll tell you, first of all, I think this is an incredible endeavor that you have this podcast, because you can really speak with people and speak on it in a very, people are going to hear you in a closed way, because this podcast is this intimate. And I would not be here if it wouldn't be for a mayor, Mr. Dinkins. I love it. I was rest in peace, first of all. I was in France. I worked in a three-star Michelin restaurant in France. And I've done all the training. I've studied in Japan. I've studied in Switzerland. And my mother and I, we wanted to get me to a three-star Michelin restaurant. I got the job at a three-star Michelin restaurant. And when I graduated from that, after working for free for a year, Jeff didn't even look up. I said, hey, Mr. Samson, go home to your parents. Come back in three months. You're going to come back and do one more year with us. I said, I can't. Because at that point, I felt I'd built up enough value. And I said, what do you mean? He looked up, what do you mean you can't? I said, I think now I have to go start building my own restaurant at some point. And he said, he looked up, he said, this is a young man. I said, black boy, you can never own a restaurant. You can work in a restaurant, but you can't own a restaurant. And I said, well, you know, I've worked all over the world. And he said, let me simplify it for you. Do you know any black chef in France that owns a restaurant like this? I said, I only worked here and been to Paris once. And he said, do you know anyone in Europe? And I said, I don't, but I haven't been all over Europe. And he said, well, you go back to your parents, you can think about it. And I called my father and said, come home. And took the train home 36 hours in the train. A lot of time to think. Was that Sweden or was that? It was just Sweden, Gothenburg, again, the port town of Gothenburg. But my father said, hey, thought about this. You go into New York. And he said, do you know anyone in New York and can you get a job in New York? I said, there's a Swedish restaurant in New York. And I know I can get a job because at this point I had a really strong resume. And my father said, they used to have a black mayor in New York City. And if they voted for a black mayor, they will support a black-owned restaurant. When? I don't know, but they will. You going, son. And that's it? That's a powerful story. And I say all the time to people that I'm hoping that people look at my life and see their lives. So when we think of David Dink as being the first African-American mayor, we think of him here in New York City. But his energy cascaded out to Sweden that your dad stated that, hey, there's opportunity there. There's a reason the song said if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. And you did just that. How does your family end up from Ethiopia to Sweden? So I was adopted. I was born, sometimes the worst that happens to you can also be the best thing that happens to you. I was born in a hut in Ethiopia. A hut that is basically twice the size of this table. Me and my sister and my mom, we had to work closer. My mother took us to a hospital. She passed away. Me and my sister survived. And I would also say luck and the goodness of others. There was a nurse in that hospital that had to break the law. She took us. Once we were healed, we were two kids, two and four years old. And she's like, I'm gonna take you in. So she took us because she knew it would be better to stay with her and then to be on the screen. So she connected us eventually with us. She had three kids of her own. She connected us after a couple of months with a Swedish adoption agency. And I went from the warmest country in the world to the coldest country in the world. And I went from being a Kassahunse guy to Marcus Samuelsson. And so luck, there was thousands of kids at that time in Ethiopia, deserving and needing the help just as much me. So I never take away faith, luck, goodness of others. And when this thing happens to you, your job eventually becomes to really support other kids in need. Right, no, no, I call it depositing into the social bank of life. And then you could draw on the equity when you need it. It's not luck, it's investment, you know. But we talk about, so African-Americans are essentially even more powerful outside America, sometimes than in America, right? Think about, we're celebrating hip hop this year, 50 years in our city, right? From the Bronx to the world, right? And think about hip hop is today, pop culture and the language of pop culture all over the world. Globally, globally, yes. But if you're a girl of color or boy of color living in Germany or living in Japan and you're connecting to that, right? Not only to the music and the rhythm, but maybe the art, right? Maybe you're graffiti artist now or maybe you're an art director and all of that stems from what those kids 50 years did in the Bronx, right? Right, in the Bronx, yes, right. It's maybe into fashion. Now you see that you can be like Pharrell, you can be head of Louis Vuitton, right? So it has all these other rings on it. So African-Americans never get enough credit as a black boy grown up outside America. We always looked up to what the black culture here was doing. So you, Mr. Mayor, it's impossible for you to know how many people, you're a core responsibility, obviously, the nine million people in New York City, but throughout the world, people are watching what's happening in the city. Listen, brother, I know, I'm the man of New York. Yes, yes, yes. Trust me. It's a global, yes, yes. That's right, listen. When I was in Qatar a couple of weeks ago, they stated there's America and there's New York. Yes. You know? Now, how was your first stay here? When you got here, you saw the tall buildings. You say, wait a minute. You know, I'm in New York City now. How did you feel and what did you find were some of the obstacles that you had to overcome? Well, as an immigrant, I loved it. So obstacles, I never thought I would come to America for it to be easy, right? So I love the energy and it was my job to match the energy of the city, right? Taking the train, seeing, getting all of those different, being exposed to so many different things. I love the competitiveness that New York City just brings something to bring, it brings you out of it, right? Whatever it is, if it's a subway singer, it's the most talented subway singer in the world. It's like, so I just saw, I was around this and I think it does two things to you. You either say, you thrive under this or it's not for you. So people even, it doesn't mean people are not good people, but so I loved it. The only time, it's only twice I really questioned my choice of moving to New York for my 25 years, but both those times ultimately made the love the city even more. 20 years ago, we all know what happened, 9-11 just down the street. And I cooked in the towers the weekend before. Wow. And Michael Monaco, the executive chef, it was kind enough to give me and my friends the space to cook there for an organization called C-Caps, which helps inner-city kids to go to college. And I knew a lot of people that passed away. And it's the only time I would say, I guess the word depression, I was like, I was really down, I couldn't find myself. I was, who cared about fine dining and all the song and dance? But one way to get my energy and spirit that was actually to come back down here and volunteer and a lot of chefs and people like Drew Nearport and a lot of in the food community, really, we found each other by handing out soups, by handing out meals. Love it, love it. And seeing this, and eventually I took the decision to, I said to my mom, I said, I can't leave on this. This is not the way to go out. So I decided to move. I lived in Midtown when I moved to Harlem and found, I always say that Red Rooster in Harlem saved me because I needed to get my groove back and it was being uptown, seeing the joy of being uptown, listening to the music, going to the Apollo, going to the studio, going to Schoenberg that I truly got my energy back and eventually I opened Red Rooster and it really is my love letter to Harlem and black culture, right? But something like traumatic like that, I was really, it was really messed with me in the way that you understand, it was tough. And then the other time where again, I was shocked, shell shocked, but again changed me for the better, was during the pandemic, right? Deep, deep. But I'm lucky because I'm part of several communities. I'm part of the chef community. I'm part of the black community. I'm part of my neighbor in Harlem and I called my dear friend Jose Andres up. We closed Red Rooster and it became a community kitchen and every day for the next nine months, we served New Yorkers. It started with 300 meals a day and 400 meals a day and then 1800 meals a day. We served 280,000 meals during that next nine months. And again, being out there serving food with gloves and with masks and everything. But guess what, Mr. Mayor, whether you are food insecure or whether you are a banker or a lawyer or a guest of Red Rooster, your dialogue with the chef is the same. We started to have regulars. People came back and you know New Yorkers. They were like, yo, I liked the chicken mutt better yesterday. How come we're getting apple today? We should get oranges. It was this back and forth. And as a chef, all you want is a customer. So some of that mantra, some of that back and forth really helped me again finding my rhythm. Love it. And you jumped over and you talked about serving through Red Rooster. How did that come about? How did you decide to open the restaurant and where did the name come from? Because there's some historical connectivity to it. Yes. Thank you for asking me that. Well, going through this moment of doubts in the after post 9-11, a bunch of us we were summoned by Ms. Maya Antelor. You know, she lived in Harlem and asked me to cut her lines, but she lived in Harlem. And she got, I remember walking into our room. You were summoned into a brunch at her house, beautiful brownstone. And a bunch of us, like creatives, people, you know, that was just super talented. She said, if each one of you bet on Harlem, this community will be transformed. If you do music, do it here. If you cook, cook here. So that was actually the seed to starting about thinking about Red Rooster. And going to Schomburg, I started to read about all the different places through the Renaissance, opposed to Renaissance. And this place that Adam Clayton Boho, a young David Jenkins, Mr. Wrangles, and you know, but it wasn't just for the politicians, it was also for the maid and the nurse and the celebrity. And I said, wait a minute, I know the regular New Yorker. I know a lot of new politicians and I also know a lot of celebrities. They all gathered this tiny bar just south of Stryver's Row on 137th and Adam Clayton. It was called, the bar was called the Red Rooster. And it's open and closed and open and closed by the history. And I asked Mr. Dinkins, what was the Red Rooster like? Oh, let me tell you about the Red Rooster. So every time you spoke to someone that was, you know, a little bit older than 60 and 70, you know, in the 70s, they knew that this clear vision about Red Rooster. And I went to Abyssinia and asked some of the elders there, I was like, whatever name I was thinking before, forget about it, it has to be called the Red Rooster. Did you have to find, how did you get it? Because there was a Red Rooster already. So how were you able to get the name? It was several people who had to contact and it had been closed for a long time and we connected their last family and they're absolutely go ahead. And that's really where the Red Rooster name came from. Love it, love it. And I wanted something that New Harlem could connect with but more than anything, Old Harlem felt that we see you, we appreciate you, this is your place. Love it, love it. You know, tell me about the James Beard Foundation, naming you the best chef. That must have been a moment when you said, hey, I have arrived. I mean, the James Beard Foundation is our Oscars, is something that we fire to every year, right? And it's in any industry, we need that. We need those things that we wake up, they're bigger than ourselves. But I, and I feel like one day you and I should work on a bid to get the Beard Foundation back to New York City. Let's do it, let's do it. Yeah, because now Chicago took it from us and we're gonna get that back. But I just give praise to my grandmother. I, food saved me. My grandmother was the one who taught me cooking. I had a lot of great mentors like Miss Leah Chase from Dookie Chase in New Orleans and several people that truly guided me. But, and I think a moment like that when you stand in front of a big audience, it's not just your moment, right? It's all the 40, 50 people just like becoming the mayor of New York City. This is your moment. But it's also the hundreds of people that helped you get to that moment. So for me it was important not to forget the people. I saw my grandmother in that moment. I saw my parents' journey, my sister's journey. And as a journey as an immigrant and as a black New Yorker, truly like listen, if I can do it, anyone can do it. I like that. And you continue to do it as well. I know it had to have been a proud moment in 2009 when you did the president, President Barack Obama's state house dinner. How did that feel? That had to be a deep moment. Number one, it was for the Indian prime minister and you served a predominantly vegetarian meal. Yes, I knew you had to get that in. That's good, that's good, get it, get it, that's perfect. Listen, I'll tell you a funny story. So leading up to this, it was, you know, I didn't know how to tell my mother because I always told my mother everything, but I didn't want to make her nervous. So I called her basically like 20 yards outside the Oval Office. I said, okay, mom, in a couple of hours, I'm going to do this dinner. I know you're going to read about it in Sweden, but I don't want you to be surprised. I just want you to know about it now. It goes quiet on the phone. She's like, you know, the Samuel Sons in your father's village is a big name, you know, and you can't embarrass your father. So maybe it's better you leave. I know people will be upset if you leave, but if you're poisoned, the president of the United States is going to be much worse. So I think it's better you leave. I called my sisters up, like, what's wrong with her? And they're like, what's wrong with you? You should now call her and click. That's my family in a nutshell. Is it just you and your sister? Yeah, I have two sisters. And we were that family. I always said my family helped me get ready for New York City. Love it. My auntie's Jewish, my cousins were Koreans. I had white parents. We were the little black kids running around. Right, right. Our other cousins were French, Korean, Canadians. So they were, you know, they spoke English and French. Right, right. So our tribe was like basically sitting on the seven train or something like that. I'd go to Queens, right? And it prepared me for every single life, you know? Love it, love it. But when you prepared that meal, you knew in your head what you wanted to prepare. And I assume they enjoyed it so much. And it wasn't your last foray into plant-based eating and cooking, you know? Tell me about that journey and why. Well, when we got asked, we were a bunch of chefs that got asked and we had to present the menu. And what I started to do right away was Google Mr. Singh. Because at the end of the day, when you host, it's a guest of honor. And I was like, well, he's vegetarian. And if you take the occasion away, end of the day, it's a dinner that you have a guest that you want him and his family to feel comfortable. Right, right. So I broke it down to a family dinner. And I was like, of course, we have to do two things. It was also when the first Mrs. Obama started the garden. So I was like, well, being inspired by her, him being vegetarian, let's base it on American food with Indian infusion, right? And then let's traditionally lean it towards vegetarian. So he feels comfortable. And that was just, as a host, you just want the guest of honor to feel comfortable. And when we sent that in, they liked that right away. We were one of the few that actually sent that in as, you know, with Mrs. Singh in mind. And before that, the Statens were always French. And I think that's great. If you have the Prime Minister of France coming, right, that's perfect. But not for anyone else, you know? So I think going left sometimes and thinking different, you know, it narrows the space, but if the other person received, then you're in a much better position. And sometimes you're going to lose, but sometimes you're going to connect, you know? And you did the whole Met Gala. You did a vegan meal, plant-based meal for the Met Gala. How did people receive that? Well, I feel really, you know, first of all, thanks to Ms. Anna Winter that allowed us to do that, because again, that's one of those moments. But I think the Met Gala is such an important event for the fashion industry. So, and I knew these occasions that people will Google and research the menu. So I said, this is an opportunity for us to communicate that we are in a new era. Let's move forward. Let's move forward in a cleaner and a better and a healthier way. So I just felt like it was an opportunity for us to truly set a standard and set a statement like this is where we're going. This is what we're doing. This is the future. Yeah, you know, I think about it, you know, you come here as an apprentice, you know, move forward. Now you have one of the top restaurants in the city. Really proud of you. Thank you very much. And it's a story to tell them, hoping young people listen. And it's all about reaching for your dreams, you know, and never, never surrendering or never, never giving up. And sometimes you have to go left to get it right. Yeah, yeah. And that's what you did. And that's your journey too, Mr. Mayor. You know, it's about evolution, you know, and you are putting, being comfortable. One of the things that you learn as an immigrant and is that we very often comfortable with being in uncomfortable spaces. And as you have evolved, right, and now being the mayor of the city, you have to put yourself out there. And I'm sure in the beginning of that journey, it was not comfortable. Now you're in a different space. But if you wouldn't have said, you know what, I'm going to go for it. Sometimes uncomfortable situations are really good. And it's something that I debate with my wife a lot about with our son. Cause I'm like, no, let him go. Let him be a little comfortable out there because he's got to be prepared for New York City. We can't comfort him in every situation. No, so true. And healthy discomfort is a sign of growth. And putting them in that situation. I tell my son now he's getting ready to come out with his first album and he was in Albania doing his thing. And it was about, you got to go for it. If you want to actually obtain it. You went for it. And I can't thank you enough for gracing us with your presence here. I look forward to your continued growth and aspiration as we look at the Red Rooster. Something all becomes new again. Thank you so much. And thank you for being so passionate about New York City as New Yorkers. We love our city. And it means a lot. Thank you so much for having us, man. Thank you. Appreciate it. And this is the information I wanted to share today. I hope to see you for another episode of Get Stuffed Done Cast.