How I Built A $75 Million Restaurant Empire

[Music] culture is a massive part of building a bridge between us and them whatever us and them is [Music] i've been an immigrant six times in many different countries i always feel comfortable when i'm in a kitchen i worked at a three-star michelin restaurant in france chef there said to me very basically jeff you can never own a restaurant there's not a black owned restaurant that has the ambition that you have [Music] my name is jeff marcus samuelson and i'm the founder and co-founder of marty samson group and also red rooster red rooster is become one of the most famous restaurants in new york city a vision about bringing people together opening red roost in 2010 was massive not just for me but for the people that are impacted here in this community harlem has such an incredible excellence and storytelling when it comes to art music writing and food is right there i wanted to do something that combined all of that we want to share and broadcast the story of harlem of its community to the world the restaurant industry is one of the most incredible industries in the world because it's all about working together and overcoming and we're in a moment right now with covid where we're really challenged but i've also seen during this time some of the best work in all of us i might be the only swedish that you know i was born in ethiopia but raised in sweden [Music] we ate fish probably four or five days a week and i grew up very closely with obviously my family but also my grandmother my grandmother was really the cook in the house we didn't like mom's dinner we biked over to grandma's house where not only did we eat well but we also had to cook it everything from apple that has fallen became apple jam to always herring to pickle or fish to smoke and when you're a teenager and you start to have those weekend jobs and stuff like that i always worked in restaurants or anything within hospitality not knowing that grandmother had trained us in this field i learned a lot about social skills my social skills being in the restaurant navigating in the kitchen it was a place i always felt at home whether i worked in japan france switzerland or here in america i always feel comfortable when i'm in a kitchen it wasn't done it's all about understanding flavors right all of us can taste the same things actually salt sweet sour bitter heat and um is probably the one that comes almost last to us in terms of understanding everyone can taste this so the way you build it as a chef you do it through fragrance you do it through aesthetic and you do it through textures and it's all about reimagining and dreaming this but also then pulling all the strings together to making a dish this smells good i worked at a three star michelin restaurant in france and chef there said to me very basically like chef you can never own a restaurant there's not a black one restaurant that has the ambition that you have it doesn't exist not in france not in europe anywhere as harsh as that maybe sounded that gave me a clear choice that it wasn't fair but in one way he was stating a fact being black life is extremely harsh choices that you are set out to do is never easy so for me it gave me clarity i have to now go to america not that i had seen it in america but i do know there was black excellence maya angelou i knew of oprah i knew a prince you know like things like that there's black excellence i always believed in myself and i was always nurtured a lot of confidence from my parents and i was like i can go so i did i got a job and i really grew up through the first job i had here at restaurant and the success that we had got three stars from new york times and he showed me that i could belong that everything that i practiced since i was came out from really my grandmother's kitchen at a very early age i can now put to practice and hitting that main stage in manhattan was something that gave me enormous amount of confidence but also seeing a past that i can own a restaurant i can add value i can create this dream so i started to write it down one day i want to own my restaurant and i moved up to harlem and i started studying the community and i was guided from a lot of people what harlem really meant not just as a name actually as a neighborhood and with all of that studying that took seven years we opened so that southern food coming up north that's what we celebrate here part of it has to do with a great migration one of these most incredible events in american history where we got so much out of jazz music so we know that the fact that six million people moved from the south to north also changed how we eat the other side of the menu is also through the lens of an immigrant right harlem has so many different pockets depending on what history italian harlem jewish holland puerto rican spanish harlem the waves of immigrants to come to harlem like me and my family we're from ethiopia we're from sweden so this mash-up between african and american harlem that is really traditionally based in the migration the food that was brought from the south super north and then you mash that up with the immigrant harlem and that's all through the lengths of comfort food this is the food at redwood now i came to this country with 300 and it took 25 years to build this and 10 days to break it down pre-code there's 180 people that worked in red rooster 180 people serving 4 000 customers a week and also jobs that have health care and creating working in the middle class every day you're nervous is this going to work that's really the state very often as an immigrant you you just come to a place you bet everything on on this idea and you work so hard to make it work i share that story with a lot of people in this country when something like covet happens it's like all of that sense of security is taken away and and it gets real gnarly and scary and i also have to acknowledge that i've been extremely privileged and lucky to be able to get through this and it wouldn't be possible with a lot of help from the community as well i mean the restaurant community as we knew it pre-covered it's gonna take five six years to build back there's no other way to look at it but i can't put my head in my sand for five six years we gotta work we're grateful to loans and opportunities that local government and federal government gave restaurants it was very hard to get them black and brown communities had a harder time getting to those loans are you doing boom there you go march 16 we closed our restaurant in a traditional setting and became a community kitchen and we served over 250 000 meals for the community for the neediest for the first responders and we partner with jose andres and the world center kitchen my staff came in all gloved up messed up and started to serve others it would have been easier for most people just to sit out we came to work every day we showed up every day to serve our community the word restaurants need to restore as a chef as a community leader i have a role it's not a passive role i have an active role be passionate about your field about the vertical you pick because if you're going to be passionate and you're open to learn you will never be out of work

Channel: CNBC Make It

Views: 697,261

Keywords: CNBC Make It, Make It, CNBC, How To Make It, Entrepreneurs, Starting A Small Business, Business Success, Small Businesses, Finance Tips, Career Tips, Work Hacks, Lifehacks, Money Management, Career Management, Managing Business, covid-19 cases, Black-owned businesses, Marcus Samuelsson, marcus samuelsson tasty, marcus samuelsson bon appetit

Id: rsC-uQgeSgA

Length: 8min 24sec (504 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 07 2020