In "No passport required", culinary diversity clears all boundaries – Entertainment and life – The Columbus Dispatch



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What makes America great? If you ask Chef Marcus Samuelsson, it's the food and the various ways he landed on our plates.

Samuelsson, the chef and restorer of the James Beard Award, will try to prove this point when he will present "No Pbadport Required". on PBS Tuesday. Samuelsson and his team will visit six cities, discovering small pockets of ethnic cuisine and the exotic cultures that created them.

He is an immigrant himself. He was born in Ethiopia but grew up in Sweden, where he and his sister were adopted by a Swedish geologist and his wife. Samuelsson learned his craft by watching his grandmother, Helga, in the kitchen, he said.

"She was an amazing cook, and she helped me meatballs with dumplings, just learn herring, and all that. And for me, at age 6, learn the values ​​of cooking and understand the points of flavor … I am always very excited to represent her as well as the chefs and mentors I've had who come from all horizons "

The show will explore such culinary cross-pollination enclaves as the Vietnamese in New Orleans, the Mexicans in Chicago, the Haitian culture in Miami, and the Ukrainian-Russian traditions in Seattle.Samuelsson, 47, thinks that the experience of immigrants is unique and he understands it very well.

"They are uprooted very often," he said. "There is something dramatic going on in their country. They were uprooted from everything and came to America, and very often the food – even though they had other concerts and other jobs and other things in their country – the Food was their first entry into this country. And they made a living. And I think it shows how America is and can be amazing.

Samuelsson studied at the Culinary Institute in Gothenburg, Sweden, and was then apprenticed to Austria and Switzerland. He was 23 when he immigrated to the United States and landed a job as an apprentice at an upscale restaurant in Manhattan. A year later, he became the executive chef and copied a three-star review of The New York Times.

He has an adult daughter and a 2 year old son. He says he's questioning about teaching proper values ​​to his son. "How to explain to him this moment and where were you during that moment? Did you add anything to the conversation – when he was 15, 12 or 20 years old?

" As an immigrant, j & # I left Sweden to come to America because I believed in diversity, is not it? As an immigrant, we are challenged right now as people of diverse backgrounds, we are challenged to be able to tell a delicious and delicious story about food, but also about culture. " The PBS producer of the series, Pamela A. Aguilar, describes "Pbadport" as follows: "Marcus arrives in a city, meets characters, then through their stories and experiences plunge deep into this community. Immigrant. "[19659002]" But it's also (pretty much) how there is always a fusion in the great American culture and then seeing what those touch points are, and how we can celebrate the differences and celebrate the transition. "

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