The Red Rooster Cookbook

August 15, 2016
With four cookbooks and two memoirs already under his belt, Samuelsson (Marcus off Duty) at last turns his attention to what has made him a celebrity in New York and beyond, his Harlem restaurant, the Red Rooster. Harlem and its history are never far from the chef’s mind, with numerous profiles of uptown denizens, like Billy Mitchell of the Apollo Theater, sharing space with soulful recipes and joyful tales of working uptown. The section on chicken is entitled “Birdland” and, as with each of the dozen chapters, comes with a suggested playlist of classics to listen to while cooking. The chapter showcases his classic fried yardbird, with its dark meat chicken soaked overnight in a marinade of coconut milk, buttermilk, and spices. For brunch, there is Aunt Maybel’s ham buns and chocolate gravy, and we learn that when President Obama came for dinner there were short ribs braised in plum sauce along with a vegetable medley featuring the unlikely combination of sweet potatoes, green beans, and jalapenos. Fisher’s food and street photography colorfully captures the character of Samuelsson’s dishes as well as the characters that inhabit his neighborhood. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, InkWell.

October 15, 2016

Samuelsson (Marcus Off Duty) is an acclaimed New York chef who cooked at Aquavit and other high-end restaurants before opening his own. He founded Red Rooster in 2010 "to cook and be happy in Harlem," where he resides. The restaurant's location, customers, staff, and recipes are the heart of this entry, which contains Southern-inspired and multicultural dishes such as deviled eggs with chicken skin mayo, hot gumbo with tripe and rice, charred char arepas (Venezuelan corn patties), and pickled peach and plum cobbler with warm vanilla sauce. Also included are music playlists, interviews with artists and musicians, and stories of Harlem's history and Red Rooster's first years of operation. VERDICT An eclectic restaurant cookbook with bold takes on comfort food.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2016
Owner of Harlem's crazy-successful Red Rooster restaurant, whose audacity was to offer an authentic fried-chicken recipe to a community already full-up with them, rock-star-chef Samuelsson throws everything into this stone soup of a book: his native Ethiopia, his adopted Sweden, the haute-cuisine precision of his European training, and the multiculti flavors of Harlem, from the spicy blend of musical beats to the ever-shifting street scenes, from the rich Afro and Latin culinary and literary traditions to the Apollo theater, all narrated throughout by Samuelsson, who somehow blends comic humility ( I could taste my fear. It tasted like chicken. ) with gargantuan ambition and daring. But Samuelsson delivers the goods, starting with killer cocktails (including a deliciously refreshing beverage called the Savoy: green and red grapes muddled with lemon juice, agave syrup, and an ounce and a half of vodka), moving to the Red Rooster's signature fried chicken (with buttermilk, coconut milk, and a magical blend of dry spices called Chicken Shake), charred summer succotash, and a spectacular mud pie with bourbon raspberrieswith dozens of other winning recipes along the way. Includes a wealth of illustrations, remembrances by local figures, and, yes, playlists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)