Never mind the prime minister of India, who is the guest of honor. When Barack and Michelle Obama hold their first official state dinner on the South Lawn tonight for 300 people, one of the hottest names will be that of guest chef Marcus Samuelsson.
At 39, Samuelsson is a cooking world superstar. The African-born, Swedish-raised, naturalized American owns restaurants in New York (Aquavit), Chicago (C-House) and Stockholm (Streetfood). As a 20-something newcomer to New York cooking for Aquavit, he gained renown as the youngest chef ever to get a three-star review from The New York Times.
Awards for Rising Star Chef and Best Chef in New York City from the James Beard Foundation followed. Samuelson has also hosted a television cooking show, authored three cookbooks in English (and more in Swedish), launched his own line of cookware and partnered with Starbucks to create new coffee blends. At one point, he was even listed as one of America’s most eligible bachelors by People magazine, before marrying Ethiopian model Gate Haile.
Marcus Samuelsson
In some ways, the chef is a perfect choice for the Obamas. Beyond his cooking creds, Samuelsson shares Obama’s multiracial and multi-ethnic upbringing, and a social conscience and cooking style spawned by his unusual childhood. (It probably didn’t hurt his consideration that he owns a popular restaurant in Chicago.)
Born in Ethiopia and orphaned at age 3 when tuberculosis claimed the lives of his parents, Samuelsson and his sister were adopted by a Swedish engineer and a housewife. He describes how he developed his passion for cooking working in the kitchen of his Swedish grandmother, a professional cook. After studying cooking in Sweden, Switzerland and Austria, he was recruited to come to New York to work for the late Hakan Swahn at Aquavit.
In recent years, Samuelsson has worked as a spokesman for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, providing support for tuberculosis initiatives in developing countries – an issue close to his heart. He has also worked with the Careers Through Culinary Arts Program, which provides inner-city high school students with training, scholarships and jobs in the food service industry.
Just as important, he shares Michelle Obama’s passion for healthy foods. Unconfirmed reports are that the first lady’s garden will supply some of the vegetable courses on tonight’s menu.
Samuelsson reportedly beat out competition for the guest chef honor that included Charlie Palmer of Aureole in New York; Michel Nischan of the Dressing Room in Westport, CT; Dan Barber of Blue Hill in New York and Patrick O’Connell from the Inn at Little Washington.
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2 Comments
#1. Herenert 11.24.2009
Apparently there are an endless number of “First State Dinner Parties’ or ‘First Dinner Parties of State’ in the Obama White House, beginning about Feb 23 2009, and the pics are there too
Today President Obama and US governors will get down to business, mapping out how the $787 billion economic stimulus will be spent, but last night the first couple welcomed them into the White House for the first black-tie affair.
Before the party dined on favorite dishes of the president (scallops) and first family (huckleberry cobbler), Obama toasted the nation’s governors, saying, “to the certain hope that despite our current travails, that we will all emerge more prosperous and more unified than we were before.”
http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2009/04/20_questions_and_answers_about.html
#2. Borderorder 11.24.2009
Having a dinner party for governors or any other group is not a State Dinner Party. State Dinners are those black tie affairs where the President dines with the Head of State of another country.
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