Marcus Samuelsson has written several books, including cookbooks and The Rise, a cookbook/personal story. Yes, Chef is his memoir of his childhood and his adult life up to 2012, when he was forty-one. He was born in Ethiopia in a tiny village. When he was still an infant, there was a large tuberculosis outbreak, in the middle of a war that eventually resulted in Eritrea becoming a separate country. Marcus was named Kassahun Tsegie at birth, and his sister (later known as Linda) was Fantaye. Both contracted tuberculosis, as did their mother, Annu. She was more ill than the children, but she walked more than 75 miles to get treatment, carrying Kassahun, with Fantaye walking beside her. Not long after they arrived in Addis Adaba, she died, and the children were hospitalized. Both recovered and were released after six months, but now they were orphans; they were told that their father had died in the war. One of the nurses took them home and cared for them until she could contact a hospital that was affiliated with a Swedish adoption agency, which is how the two children came to be adopted by Lennart and Anne Marie Samuelsson, who later changed the children’s names to Marcus and Linda. The couple already had a foster daughter, Anna, who was Swedish and Jamaican.

Growing up in Sweden, Marcus was nearly always the only black child in his school class. There were times when another child would tease or bully him, but his parents were very supportive; they considered themselves a multi-racial family. He was taught to cook by his Swedish grandmother, who loved to cook, much more than did his mother.

This book is very well written, with many details about the difficulties encountered by anyone who wants to become a top chef, but also the subtle and sometimes very blatant racism that Marcus experienced in that field. Anyone who wants to become a chef should read this book first. He also discusses his feelings about his birth and adoption, how truly loving and supportive this adoptive parents were, and how he longed to know more about his birth family. His sister had a few memories, but very few. In adult life, she began searching for their family, and ultimately found relatives, including their father (apparently, he had not died after all).

After many years of struggle and hard work, Marcus did become a famous chef. We know him now from his books and especially from his PBS program, No Passport Required. He often speaks of his origins, his adoption, his life in Sweden and elsewhere, and his immigration to New York. He seems very comfortable discussing all of it in both his writings and in his interactions with other people. His adoptive parents apparently were equally comfortable with all of it, and with his ultimate search and reunion with his birth family. It’s a great book for anyone who really likes fine food and loves the details of seasonings, flavors, etc., and it’s also a great book for anyone with an interest in adoption-related stories.