Keeping up with Super Bowl Players Ultimate Tailgate Chef Marcus Samuelsson

Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson has been busy lately!

Not only is his New York Times bestselling memoir, Yes, Chef flying off the shelves, the master chef behind the Super Bowl Players Ultimate Tailgate’s five-star food menu has been traveling around the country, lending his passionate voice to causes that are near and dear to his heart.

“We need to eat with a spiritual compass,” Chef Marcus says. “We need to start thinking about our meals in a completely different way, value them in a completely different way.”

The internationally renowned chef was on hand recently for Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown: Last Bite, a live retrospective television event happening at the historic Atomic Liquors in Las Vegas. He joined fellow New Yorker Anthony Bourdain, Treme star Wendell Pierce, chef Roy Choi, comedienne Bonnie McFarlane and CNN anchor Don Lemon for a lively debate on issues as diverse as the consequences of fast food, first source hiring and the hope in Detroit’s future (the Lions, perhaps?) -topics that are raised in episodes of the just-wrapped season of Bourdain’s Emmy-winning series.

“I live in Harlem. I work in Harlem,” Chef Marcus shares on the show. “Can you do this urban evolution inclusive, and not throw out what was there before, but create something new?”

After his flagship restaurant Red Rooster opened in 2010, 15 additional new restaurants opened in the area –catapulting Harlem into the limelight as a totally refreshed destination for culturally significant experiences, such as having a soul-satisfying meal.

“I look at Harlem as part of my canvas,” Chef Marcus says, “and it’s completely diverse –Latin, Black, Caribbean, Chinese, Jewish. That’s what I want to pay homage to in my restaurant.”

Those who attend Super Bowl 48’s Players Ultimate Tailgate will have a chance to sample the richness of a menu prepared and catered by Red Rooster Harlem, with selections as soul-satisfying as charcuterie and farm cheeses to cornbread and tomato jam, a raw bar with oysters on the half shell and tuna carpaccio, and lobster tails, stone crab, shrimp and salmon, to pulled pork sandwiches and Fried Yardbird, a Red Rooster signature dish … Oh, my!

A Conversation with Anthony Bourdain and Albert Maysles featuring Marcus Samuelsson. Chef Marcus is again joining fellow chef Anthony Bourdain and legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles for a talk –this time, about film and food- on Wednesday, December 11 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in New York. Moderated by cultural critic and writer Michaela Angela Davis and featuring Chef Marcus as special guest, the group will discuss the art of filmmaking, “serendipitous dining” and the power of photography in connecting diverse peoples around the globe. Sounds delectable!

And if you want a taste of comfort food that celebrates the roots of American cuisine –to go along with the quintessentially American tradition of a Super Bowl- reserve your seat at the 2014 Players Ultimate Tailgate. Better yet, book one of our Super Bowl Packages and enjoy all that New York has to offer!