“TRY this,” Marcus Samuelsson said, cramming a fragrant morsel of fried chicken into his guest’s mouth. “Good, right?”
Mr. Samuelsson, 39, the chef who first made his name at Aquavit, was at home with his wife, the model Gate Haile, testing recipes for his new restaurant, Red Rooster Harlem, which is to open in the fall.
In his duplex off Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Mr. Samuelsson multitasked in his handsome kitchen, greeting friends and co-workers (in English and Swedish) while flipping chicken, sprinkling bacon in the macaroni and cheese and ladling a tea-and-vodka-based cocktail. “I’ve lived here for five years,” said Mr. Samuelsson, who was born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden. “It is very important to bring a restaurant to Harlem.”
Mr. Samuelsson — who, in the last few months, has completed a book tour, created a series of online videos for AOL and was a guest chef for the Obama administration’s first state dinner — is trying to become a brand in American popular food culture, “to hang with Daniel Boulud,” as he put it.
The restaurant, which will be near 125th Street in Central Harlem, will focus on fresh local food. Though Mr. Samuelsson resists the description “soul food,” the menu will include items like collard greens and cornbread.
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