It is a Monday evening, just around 7, and Mr. Samuelsson — hotshot chef, food impresario and kinetic force behind Red Rooster Harlem, one of Manhattan’s restaurants of the moment — is displaying his usual verve.
On the red carpet, he snaps a picture of his glamorous wife, the model and philanthropist Maya Haile, with Beyoncé. In the European sculpture gallery, he is chatting with Kanye West and several of the New York Knicks. At the Temple of Dendur, he is dining with André Balazs, the hotel owner, and Chelsea Handler.
The next morning at 10, Mr. Samuelsson, in a fresh shirt and tux trousers, is sitting in a sound studio some 60 blocks downtown, painstakingly recording the audio version of his new memoir, “Yes, Chef.” Six hours later, in a vintage, red velvet tuxedo jacket, he is overseeing an intimate dinner for 350 at Gotham Hall on behalf of Queen Silvia and Princess Madeleine of Sweden.
And the morning after that, Mr. Samuelsson is back uptown to work the lunch rush at Red Rooster, that culinary mosaic of Southern, Swedish and Ethiopian comforts on Lenox Avenue in Harlem.
Such is the wild and frenetic life of the modern celebrity chef, that strange amalgam of food savvy, marketing acumen and business skill all wrapped, in Mr. Samuelsson’s case, into a media-ready package. At 41, he has exploded not only onto New York’s food scene but also onto its cutthroat food business scene.
Yes, there is Red Rooster and five other restaurants. But there is more — much more. A forthcoming cookware collection for Macy’s. A new line of teas. Deals with American Airlines and MasterCard. Appearances on “Top Chef Masters,” “Chopped All-Stars” and “The Next Iron Chef.” Two Web sites, FoodRepublic.com andmarcussamuelsson.com, not to mention four cookbooks and the memoir. His growing, multimillion-dollar enterprise stretches from New York to Chicago to California to Stockholm, and employs more than 700 people.
It is a time-tested recipe. Mr. Samuelsson is the figurative heir of Julia Child and Wolfgang Puck, but he is hardly the only one. Mario Batali, Todd English, Tom Colicchio, Alain Ducasse, Bobby Flay, Lidia Bastianich, David Burke — the list of marquee names in celebrity chefdom is long. Many of these chefs have built sprawling empires of restaurants — Mr. Batali has 25 — and have captured the popular imagination with TV shows, iPhoneapps and assorted products.
The question for Mr. Samuelsson and other rising stars is how far and how fast they can push a personal brand. The more business ventures they start, the less they can personally control the quality. It is a quandary that any successful entrepreneur faces as a business grows.
“We constantly have to edit, curate, sift through our brand,” Mr. Samuelsson says. “Where is the stretch? Where is the perfect fit? Where does it make sense? You have to be a Baryshnikov.”
It is a challenge, but the financial rewards can be big. Successful restaurants in major cities can bring in $10 million a year, more for hot spots like Red Rooster. But chefs can easily double their income with endorsements, books, consulting jobs and just about anything emblazoned with their names.
Mr. Puck, who got the initial idea for a line of frozen foods from Johnny Carson, a regular at his Spago restaurant in the 1980s, today oversees a $400 million-a-year company. Some $30 million of that comes from consumer products like soups and sauces. His line of appliances and cookware generates $50 million. “Cooking is an evolution,” he says. “If you don’t change, you fall behind.”
by Adrienne Carter, NY Times | Read more:
Photo: Tony Cenicola
