Welcome to the Monthly Book Report and Book Review Link-up #16!
On the First Wednesday of each month I will be sharing my latest read – which could be a cookbook, a celebrity chef biography or memoir, a lifestyle book, a gardening book, a homemaking book or maybe even a cozy kitchen mystery book. They may be paper books, eBooks, or audio books. I have challenged myself to read or listen to at least one book per week, and I plan to share that with you all here.

In addition to my Book Report, there will be a Book Report LInky – a chance for all of you to share your own book review blog post (TWO per blog, please). We want to see what had you page flipping, can’t put it down, totally captivated.
Lastly will be a few Featured Reviews from the previous month’s shared posts. This will be a post picked at random by the host. Each host will likely pick their own features – so that’s multiple chances to be featured!
If you have any suggestions for me on book I should check out – please let me know!
Title: Yes, Chef – A Memoir
Author: Marcus Samuelsson
Publication Date: May 2013
Published by: Random House Trade
Listed Price: $16.99 (Paperback), $4.99 (Kindle)
About the Author:
Marcus Samuelsson is the acclaimed chef behind many restaurants worldwide including Red Rooster Harlem, MARCUS Montreal, and Marcus B&P in Newark, NJ. Samuelsson was the youngest person to ever receive a three-star review from The New York Times and has won multiple James Beard Foundation Awards including Best Chef: New York City. He was tasked with planning and executing the Obama Administration’s first State dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Samuelsson was also crowned champion of television shows Top Chef Masters and Chopped All Stars, and was the winning mentor on ABC’s The Taste. Samuelsson received the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Personality for his TV series titled No Passport Required with VOX/Eater and and he is an executive producer of Viceland’s show HUSTLE.
Brief Description of the book:
It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations. Yes, Chef chronicles Samuelsson’s journey, from his grandmother’s kitchen to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of chasing flavors had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs, and, most important, the opening of Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fulfilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, and bus drivers. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.
My Review:
If you watch even half as many cooking competition shows as I do, than you definitely know who Marcus Samuelsson is and how talented he is. I did know that he had an interesting life before celebrity status but I had no idea just how interesting. I found myself reading his story in his own voice and really was intrigued by the details he shares about his first few years in Ethiopia and his journey to being adopted by a Swedish family. He has had an extraordinary life and shares it beautifully in this book that follows his road to culinary greatness.
This Months’s Featured Posts:
These are posts that stood out from the list of linked up posts last month. I hope you will hope over and check out their review. And don’t forget to link-up your own book-centric posts – YOU MIGHT BE NEXT WEEK’S FEATURE!
Alchemy of Secrets
Shared by Honey Bears and Sydney Beans
Useful
Shared by MomLit
The Book Review Linky
Meet Your Librarians…errmmm I mean Hosts!
Now for the link-up!
Party Guidelines:
1. Please take some time to poke around and visit some of the other links.
2. Please take some time to check out your hosts and co-hosts on social media.
3. We appreciate the variety of blogs on the www; however, the Book Review Linky is for links related to Books. Please link accordingly.
4. All Captions need to be Family-Friendly and PG. If your post has EXPLICIT content, you must label it in the caption. If you DO NOT DO this your link will be removed.
5. You may add TWO Book-Centric Post per URL.
With your help, we can continue to grow the Book Review Linky Party ! Thank you!
We are looking for Co-Hosts. Help us Rock this party!
If you are interested, please contact Estelle at homemadeonaweeknight@gmail.com
By joining the Book Review Linky, you signify permission for the listed Hosts to share your posts and images here and receive an email reminder when our next Book Review Linky is LIVE.
Sounds like Yes Chef-a Memoir is a book I’d enjoy reading. Thanks for the thumbs up. Hope you’ll check out my post, Plant You Scrappy Cooking: a Cookbook Review. Warm regards, Nancy Andres @ Colors 4 Health.
Yes Chef sounds interesting to me too. I don’t watch the baking shows (but my daughter does and loves them) but I did like watching The Bear and realized there is much more to a restaurant than I ever knew.
That sounds like a fabulous memoir!
I rarely watch cooking shows any more, but I’ve heard of Samuelsson – had no idea about any of his background though, so this looks like a really interesting memoir! Happy Reading!
Hey there Estelle, thanks bunches for sharing What Did You Read This Month with Bookish Bliss Musings & More Quarterly Link Up.