Acclaimed chefs get real about support amid pandemic

When you see Food Network star and Red Rooster founder chef Marcus Samuelsson, his bright smile and colorful style doesn’t let on to a guy who has been through a lot. But no one was safe from 2020.

“Red Rooster Overtown was supposed to open in March of last year, it was very hard when we had to stop,” Samuelsson said in an interview with Let’s Go, South Florida host Arlene Borenstein.

The acclaimed restaurateur turned the experience into a positive one with the help of World Central Kitchen and Food Rescue US, two organizations that have fed people in need during the pandemic and beyond.

Samuelsson’s Red Rooster Overtown

restaurant became a food distribution site, feeding people for months before the doors were

finally able to open in December 2020.

“In the middle of the pandemic we started to serve the community, so we became part of the Floridian/ Miami community in a different way than if we had a normal opening — when something happens there is always something else that opens the door,” said Samuelsson, who has fought difficult circumstances before.

As a child, the Ethiopian-born chef lost his mother to tuberculosis. He and his sister survived the illness and were later adopted by Swedish parents. Samuelsson came to the United States in his 20s with just $300 crediting his multicultural influence for his award-winning food.

In one of his first public events since the start of the pandemic the restaurateur joined Chef Daniel Boulud for an event at Cafe Boulud on Palm Beach island benefitting World Central Kitchen.

Boulud, a multiple James Beard award winning chef, experienced the shutdown like everyone else, however his Boulud Sud restaurant at the JW Mariott Marquis in Miami reopened just recently. Despite the pandemic’s cataclysmic hit on the hospitality industry, the chef believes fine dining will survive.

Watch our interviews with both Samuelsson and Boulud on this week’s Let’s Go, South Florida. Go to SunSentinel.com/LetsGo

Red Rooster is at 920 NW Second Ave, Miami. Hours are 5-11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5-midnight Friday, 10 a.m. - midnight Saturday and 10 a.m. -11 p.m., Sunday RedRoosterOvertown.com.

Cafe Boulud is located inside the Brazilian Court Hotel on 301 Australian Ave, Palm Beach. Hours are 7 a.m.-10 p.m., 7 days a week. Cafeboulud.com.

COURTESY “ChefsGiving 2020,” a collection of more than 30 holiday recipes for a minimum donation of $25, shares intimate cooking lessons from 30 top chefs and mixologists, including Marcus Samuelsson.