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Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson is no stranger to leading a high-pressure lifestyle. By the time he was 24 years old, the Ethiopian-born and Swedish-raised multi-hyphenate had risen to the role of executive chef of New York City’s Aquavit – and shortly afterward he became the youngest person ever to receive a three-star review from the New York Times.
In the ensuing years, he made a name for himself as one of New York’s preeminent restaurateurs – opening Red Rooster in 2010, Hav & Mar in 2022 and Metropolis in 2023, among other establishments. Samuelsson has written cookbooks and memoirs and been a staple on the Food Network for years.
Now the husband and father is expanding into an entirely new industry: In collaboration with West Elm, Samuelsson is releasing a 32-piece home goods collection that pulls inspiration from his Scandinavian and Ethiopian roots, as well as his life in New York City.
Samuelsson sat down with Quartz to discuss the state of eating out in 2024, his inspirations in cooking and creation and the next steps in his career. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Quartz: We are now three years removed from COVID-19 lockdowns shutting down much of the restaurant industry. How have people’s relationships with eating out changed during that time?
Samuelsson: I think that two things happened to the pandemic: The experience of what you could order at home got better. So you developed a whole new generation of great home cooks. So when you go out, you want service, you want theatrical dining, you really want that step up.
[Diners] want to feel like, ‘I am out, not only am I out here with my friends and family, there’s people in this room that makes me feel great. I’m part of something.’
People also have more choices now. And those choices are going to continue to get better and better. Food that took people two days to get, will take one hour to get.
Quartz: One of the delightful things about visiting Red Rooster, in Harlem, is the ambiance – including the presence of live music. When you’re cultivating your own restaurants or visiting others, what factors, outside of food, are important to you?
Samuelsson: With Rooster specifically, it’s really about Harlem as a community that is so amazing. It’s our job to bring that into the restaurant. And when you can introduce live music – it’s not just that we’re bringing music to this place – for you as a patron.
I also take a tremendous amount of pride in the fact that we pay musicians to live in this community. There’s so many moving parts that make Red Rooster, Red Rooster.
With Hav & Mar, being in Chelsea, it has to be in and of that community. When most people go to Chelsea, they think about the art galleries and the high-line. So we have an art program that is done by our partner, Derrick Adams.
If we’re going to be part of that community, what is our contribution? I don’t like to enter a neighborhood without doing the research on what was there before me.
Quartz: What inspired you to move in this new direction and design a home goods collection for West Elm? Did you find that as you were designing this collection, the inspirations that you were pulling from were in any way similar to the inspirations that you pull from as a chef?
Samuelsson: I am a creative – being a chef has obviously been the biggest part of my professional career. But I’ve been painting since I was 18 or 19 years old. I’ve been writing for many, many years.
And part of designing restaurants is collaboration with the architect. Many times, I say ‘I wish the Scandinavian feel would come through a little bit differently.’ With most of my restaurants, I ended up making the first design prototypes.
There was a true collaboration with West Elm – it’s one of the things that I worked on that I enjoyed the most. I enjoyed having a partner that is so established but still so open to listen to ideas. It has been an amazing journey.
Quartz: What aspect of this collaboration with West Elm are you most proud of?
Samuelsson: There were many things: So many of the bright woods and the tables are inspired by going back to my father’s fishing village, in Sweden. And then, at the same time, I was able to have prints from Africa and that part of the world. And it’s still one collection.
Quartz: You’ve been painting for years, you’ve been writing for years, you’re a chef and you’re designing this furniture. But ultimately, what do you come back to at the end of a long stressful day?
Samuelsson: Cooking. All the aspects of cooking. Whether it’s buying food at the market, explaining food to my kids at home, or even thinking about food.
I still feel like I’m interning at writing, interning at painting or making furniture. But with cooking – I’m not interning. I’m very clear where I’m going with that.