The USA Character Approved Blog has now officially launched! For my first post-soft launch post, I’m profiling chef Marcus Samuelsson.

For many of us, Marcus Samuelsson first appeared on our radar screens when he was chosen to cook the Obamas’ first White House state dinner last November. But the accomplished young chef had already made quite a name for himself. At age 24, he was named co-owner and executive chef of New York’s Aquavit, transforming the Swedish restaurant with his willingness to use distinctly non-Swedish ingredients such as curry and lemongrass. And he is the youngest chef ever to receive a three-star restaurant review from The New York Times.

Samuelsson comes by his global approach to cooking naturally. He was born in an Ethiopia village. When he was three, his mother died of tuberculosis, and he and his sister were adopted and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden. Continue reading “Chef Marcus Samuelsson approaches cooking and life without boundaries” →