kkforya
I don’t play fair ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've seen Chef Marcus on different shows and be featured in various videos, but I thought this feature from CNBC's Make It series was pretty cool and thread worthy.
Have any of you eaten at The Red Rooster?
Cliffs:
- He’s been an immigrant 6 times, in many different countries
- Worked at a 3-star restaurant in France, and was told by another Chef that “Chef you can never own a restaurant, there’s not a Black-Owned restaurant that has the ambition you have”
- Opened Red Rooster in 2010 and it has become one of the most famous restaurants in NYC, specifically Harlem.
- Talks about why Harlem and what makes the city so special and unique
- Says the resultant industry is about working together and overcoming
- Calls himself a “Swethiopian” - Born in Ethiopia, but adopted by a Swedish couple after he and his sister were separated from their family in the 1974 Ethiopian War.
- Grew up very close with his family, learned most of his culinary basics from cooking with his Swedish grandmother
- Talks about how being black, life is extremely harsh and choices you are set out to do are never easy.
- Set out to America to fulfill his restaurant dream because he knew the Black Excellence existed there
- Cites Maya Angelou, Oprah, and Prince as his American Black Excellence inspiration
- Had a first job in America as a Chef and the success from it showed him that he could make it and own a restaurant and have value in America
- Moved to Harlem and had to learn what it meant to be in Harlem as a community
- He’s opened 23 restaurants and typically employs 2,000 people
- He has also written several books about Black Culture and immigration’s influence on his food.
- Talks about the Great Migration being one of the most incredible events in American History and how Black southerners brought their culture and cuisine to the north
- His food is influenced by Southern Black American food as well as the pockets of different cultures from immigrants everywhere that live in Harlem
- Starts to get choked up when talking about Covid-19’s affect on the restaurant industry and taking away the sense of security that people worked so hard to build
- Through loans from the federal government, they were able to stay afloat, but acknowledges that black and brown communities had to work even harder to get those loans.
- Is proud of his team for working hard and giving back to their community by serving their community members in need and first responders during the thick of the pandemic.
- “Be passionate about your field, about the vertical you pick, because if you’re gonna be passionate and you’re open to learn, you will never be out of work.”
I really enjoyed the video!
I searched for a thread on this, so if one has already been made and I missed it, my apologies - please merge.