Africa on My Mind

It's always great to be recognized for the work that you've done. Recently, I was fortunate enough to receive a Best Cookbook Award from the James Beard Foundation for my new cookbook, The Soul of a New Cuisine.

This book was a very personal journey for me, so it was very exciting to be recognized for it. It was also a long time in the making. If you're not in the culinary world, it's hard to imagine how long it takes to put a book like this together. I first had the idea to write an African cookbook about eight years ago, when I traveled to Ethiopia for an article for Gourmet magazine. It was the first time I had returned since my sister and I were adopted when I was three years old, and I was so inspired by the experience. Right away, I set out to learn more about African food. I worked with my writing partner, Heidi Walters, to put together a proposal that outlined my vision of what an African cookbook should be, and my agent shopped it around. We were lucky enough to be picked up by a great book publisher, John Wiley and Sons.

To immerse ourselves in the food and flavors of the continent, we traveled to Africa several times, this time with a photographer, Gediyon Kifle, who beautifully captured life and food on the Continent. It was such an inspiration to see all this food. The hard part was how to articulate it and bring our experience to life.

We spent the next two years writing recipes and stories about our African experience. We knew that we wanted to show people a different side of Africa -- we wanted to focus on African food, recipes, and culture and shift the focus away from the war, AIDS, and famine stories that are usually the focus of Africa in today's papers and reporting. We finished writing in spring 2006, content with our effort to show what Africa looks like from a taste point of view.

The book wouldn't have happened without the countless people we met on our journey who felt just as passionately about the project as we did and generously shared their time and resources to celebrate African food and culture. That's why I was so happy to win the award -- not just for me and my team, but because I feel we are representing an entire continent of over a billion people and giving them a book that celebrates their continent's food -- and that hopefully will inspire you and others to travel to Africa.

Enjoy a taste of Africa for yourself with one of my favorite recipes, Lemon-Olive Chicken.

Lemon-Olive Chicken

4 servings

1 4- to 5-pound whole chicken
kosher salt
10 green olives
5 black olives
4 whole garlic cloves
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 shallots, roughly chopped
1 3-inch piece ginger, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice from 2 lemons
1 tablespoon ras al-hanout

1. Preheat the oven to 400º F.

2. Remove the neck and giblets from the chicken, then rinse and pat dry. Generously rub the neck and body cavities and sprinkle the skin of the chicken with kosher salt.

3. Stuff the neck and body cavities with olives, garlic, lemon zest, shallots and ginger. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice and ras al-hanout, and rub over the breast and legs. Truss the chicken with kitchen twine. 

4. Arrange the chicken, breast side up, on a rack in a roasting pan. Roast until an instant read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh registers 160º F, about 60 to 70 minutes.

5. Transfer the chicken to a platter and let stand for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.


Copyright © Marcus Samuelsson
Recipe reprinted from The Soul of a New Cuisine with permission of John Wiley and Sons, Inc.