Quotes from Marcus Samuelsson

Casseroles don't have to be about canned ingredients and vegetables you normally wouldn't even think of eating alone, much less stuck in between layers of sauce and breadcrumbs. They can vary from everyone's favorite all-time casserole, macaroni and cheese, to the ultimate English casserole, Shepherd's Pie.

For decades, many blacks were reluctant to pursue a profession that was associated with servitude. If you went to school, it was to become a lawyer or doctor. Older generations didn't understand why one would spend money to learn how to chop, peel, dice, and saute vegetables when that trade could be taught at home.

Let the fresh fruits and vegetables be your guide, and make something that will keep for the whole week.

Eating vegetarian doesn't mean you have to eat boring, humdrum dishes.

Many people are turned off at eating vegetarian because of the misconception that all dishes are just an arrangement of bland vegetables.

For me, brunch is such a versatile meal since you can play on both the sweet and savory in your dishes.

If it's done really well, you don't want big portions because you think, 'That was so fulfilling. I'm not stuffed. I feel great.'

When I ride the subway back and forth, sometimes I look at the other passengers and wonder if any of them are children who have been adopted or parents who have adopted.

As an adopted person, once you find out about that 'other' side of yourself, it's almost like you find out who you really are.

I've been lucky to travel and work all over the world through the lens of the back of the house, and I love that monocle. I love that lens, because it's real people.

They say never trust a skinny chef, but the fact is, to stay healthy when you're a chef means you have to work twice as hard.

We know so much about the European food story, and we're getting to know about the American food story; but we know so little about the African food story.

I'm lucky to live in New York, a city that offers so many options for lunch. I can pick up dumplings from a Midtown food truck, grab empanadas by the dozen in Spanish Harlem or get a fantastic bowl of ramen in the East Village.

Hard work IS its own reward. Integrity IS priceless. Art DOES feed the soul.

But one of the things I have learned during the time I have spent in the United States is an old African American saying: Each one, teach one. I want to believe that I am here to teach one and, more, that there is one here who is meant to teach me. And if we each one teach one, we will make a difference.

I'm a big believer in the negligee, that nearly invisible screen standing between you and the object of your desire.

Bookstores are a giant present waiting to be unwrapped, full of stories and discoveries and lives.

Food's my only bag. It's my gig, my art, my life. Always has been, always will be. I'm always battling myself – the part of me that says I can and the part of me that says I can't. My greatest gift has been that the part of me that says "I can't" is always, always just a little bit louder.

I'm OK with firing people when they fuck up, but canning them when they've done nothing wrong - that's painful. [on the layoffs needed after 9/11 hit the business]

If only my love was a net that could keep the flies out. If only my love was a net full of food for all the hungry bellies. I understand why so many people have given up on Africa - no one wants to say we are leaving a continent of people behind to tough it out in a hundreds-of-years-old war of survival, but we are, and the reason is because the level of change it would take to make a difference, to heal past wounds and chart a new path is mammoth, gargantuan, almost unimaginable.

Just us two men," my father said, my father who had so longed for a son that he had flown paper planes--adoption forms in triplicate--all the way to Africa to make his dream come true.

A guy like Franz could talk smack all day about my Afro, my lack of brains, my mother, her alleged lack of virtue.

That gave us enough time to get a shot of Ethiopian coffee, espresso style. Nothing tastes better than Ethiopian coffee; almost everywhere you go, it is roasted right before it's brewed. In the United States, we think it's a big deal if you wait to grind the beans before you make coffee. Here, the benchmark for freshness is miles higher.

I'm always battling myself – the part of me that says I can and the part of me that says I can't. My greatest gift has been that the part of me that says "I can't" is always, always just a little bit louder.