Even the most gifted, virtuoso cooks endure periods of apprenticeship and youthful uncertainty before being recognized as truly great. But for Marcus Samuelsson, this coming-of-age tale seems to be unspooling in reverse. The Ethiopian-born chef, who learned to cook from his adoptive Swedish grandmother, emerged on the culinary stage more or less fully formed as the award-winning chef at the Scandinavian restaurant Aquavit at the precocious age of 24. Since then he’s dabbled in numerous projects, with varying degrees of success. He’s experimented with Japanese cooking (at the doomed Riingo) and African fusion (at the doomed Merkato 55). He’s starred on TV shows (he won Top Chef Masters last year) and traveled the globe writing cookbooks. But as Samuelsson hops restlessly from one adventure to the next, there’s a sense that this hypertalented cook is still trying to translate his early success into a lasting culinary voice and style.
He may have found it, finally, at his long-delayed, eagerly awaited new restaurant, Red Rooster Harlem, which opened about a month ago down the block from Sylvia’s on Lenox Avenue off 125th Street. This is Samuelsson’s first venture into neighborhood dining (he lives in Harlem), and, tellingly, also the first restaurant he’s operated separately from his partners at Aquavit. The menu is filled with home-cooked favorites from Stockholm (gravlax, Swedish meatballs) and Harlem (mac and cheese, fried chicken, oxtail stew), and the elegantly appointed room has been designed with comfort in mind. The walls are decorated with tastefully curated art pieces (many by Harlem artists) and assorted neighborhood artifacts (the restaurant is named for a famous Harlem speakeasy). A bountiful gospel brunch is served on Sundays, and a stout Red Rooster burger is available at lunch. And if you want a cup of Scandinavian mulled wine to warm you up on a snowy winter’s evening, you can get that too.
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