Top Chef Masters' winner Marcus Samuelsson puts African food on the radar

Marcus Samuelsson grew up around the contrasting flavors of Swedish and Ethiopian food.

He helped his sisters and grandmother pickle fresh vegetables and make meatballs in Sweden, but he also was exposed to Ethiopian food through his relatives in Africa.

The award-winning chef and cookbook author wowed judges and walked away with the top prize on "Top Chef Masters." He has won numerous awards, and was the guest chef for the Obama administration's first state dinner honoring the prime minister of India.

The acclaimed chef, cookbook author and restaurateur will be in the metro area Thursday to discuss new American cuisine inspired by the recipes from his latest cookbook, "New American Table".

Q: Congratulations. You must be very proud of winning Top Chef Masters. What does that mean to an already accomplished chef?

A: It was exciting. It was a lot of fun. We worked really, really, really hard for almost a month.

Q: Who was your greatest competitor? Was it someone in the top three?

A: You know what, I thought that Susan (Feniger) was really, really strong. Her food... wasn't over intellectual or anything, it was just really good, yummy food. And I thought Jody (Adams) was really, really a good cook. ... And then Jonathan (Waxman) had so much experience and so much charm. It's hard to compete with that.

Q: How do you feel about putting African food on the culinary radar?

A: That's something I feel very, very strongly about, obviously. I feel like it does so much for us and how we interact with Africa. Hopefully, this will inspire people to go to Africa. Now you've got the World Cup on TV so people are looking at Africa from  a new way... a very positive way, not from AIDS, war and famine.

Q: You grew up in Sweden but was born in Ethiopia. How would you describe that culinary marriage?

A: The Swedish cooking obviously does have its bit of spices, but we cure meats and we cure fish a lot. We smoke it. Obviously the Ethiopian [cooking] is very much based in slow cooking. It's based in lots of spices, lots of flavors. I work with both, but in a dish I don't necessarily try to combine the two.

Q: At times, some of the judges didn't quite know how to interpret Ethiopian food. Did you feel like you were taking a risk?

A: I definitely felt that I was taking a risk, but I felt that was part of what I was there for. Of course, I could do another yummy dish that maybe came from Italian heritage or another heritage, but that's not what I was there for. But that was not what the challenge very often was about. It was very often about what defines you.

Q: Tell us about the charity you were playing for.

A: This (Unicef) Tap Project is something that works directly with finding clean water and that is especially important for me. I've seen that all over Africa where young kids -- 5, 6, 7 years old -- are walking for hours just to find clean water. So when you've seen that experience, that's something that sticks with you for a long time.

Q: What's next for you?