Marcus Samuelsson (Photo by Matt Dutile)
Marcus Samuelsson — celebrity chef, TV personality, restaurateur and activist — arrives in town Oct. 7 as the headliner of SAVOR, a benefit dinner for The Doorways, a nonprofit that provides lodging to families who have come to Richmond for urgent medical care. The chef is no stranger to philanthropy, nor to Richmond. We spoke with him recently about the city's burgeoning food scene, why Richmond is like Gothenburg, Sweden, and what he can’t wait to dig into when he arrives.
Richmond magazine: What’s your impression of Richmond as a food town?
Samuelsson: Richmond has gone through its own historical culinary journey, and either a lot of chefs are moving back to Richmond and opening restaurants, or the ones who are there are trying new things. From a culinary point of view, maybe 10 years ago you didn’t hear much about the city, but now you do. Of course as chefs, we know a lot about Virginia, whether it’s ham or oysters, or the fact that it was an entry port for rice and okra.
RM: It used to be just the big cities that had all the action, but now, more and more, it’s also small cities.
Samuelsson: Over the last 10 years, not only the major cities have very cool food scenes. It’s trickled down to cities that are midsize or smaller, and chefs that have worked in New York or San Francisco are coming home and opening their own places. I grew up in Gothenburg, in Sweden, a city very similar to the size of Richmond. It’s interesting, but in a smaller city the access to the farmers is a little bit better.
RM: As this food revolution continues, what issue or issues are the most urgent?
Samuelsson: How can we make sure that if you don’t have a lot of money, you’re still able to eat well? It’s tricky, because where I grew up in Sweden, or in Africa, there was an awareness of certain tastes and ingredients, regardless of income level. And think about all the great food we eat from Mexico and South America; it’s from working-class people. Southern food is rooted in this same thing. Now, today, one of the biggest divides is access to vegetables.
RM: This is a surprisingly complicated topic, isn’t it? Vegetables. Because it’s not just about taste or nutrition anymore.
Samuelsson: We have to start shrinking the mouths, or we won’t have enough fish and meat to go around. It’s learning how to cook a different way, learning how to enjoy different ingredients, cutting down on waste.
RM: We’ve just been talking about shrinking mouths — now I want you to imagine opening one. What’s your eating-out list when you come to town?
Samuelsson: Barbecue. I also want to see what Peter Chang is up to, and what Michael Hall at Spoonbread is doing. And Mamma ’Zu, of course, interests me, because it’s been around so long and still going strong. But beyond the restaurant, for me it's also important to see what the purveyors are doing. So, ham, of course. And peanuts, definitely.
