 July 11th, 2011
06:30 PM ET
Food says so much about where you’ve come from, where you’ve decided to go, and the lessons you’ve learned. It’s geography, politics, tradition, belief and so much more. All week, Eatocracy has invited you to dig in and discover the rich, ever-evolving taste of America in 2011 - ultimately culminating in the fourth edition of our Secret Supper in New York City. Tonight, Eatocracy has gathered together some of New York's most dynamic and vocal residents at Red Rooster to not only stuff them with a multi-course meal crafted by Marcus Samuelsson, Suvir Saran and George Mendes, but also to talk about the inextricable bond between food and cultural identity. After a week reminiscing on the flavors of home, it's time to finally dip into the cultural melting pot and pull up a chair to our virtual table. Samuelsson, the owner of Red Rooster, was born in Ethiopia, adopted, raised in Sweden and now calls America home. We couldn't think of a more fitting venue or personality to host our dinner discussing how food can bridge and connect generations and cultures.
Each chef was asked to create menu items based on their own culinary identity. Samuelsson serves up an appetizer of country ham, pickled peach and fried okra atop a biscuit as an homage to the soul food of Harlem, the historically African-American neighborhood where Red Rooster is located.
Chef Suvir Saran tells the room about his Northern Indian background and his dish, chaat. To get in touch with our roots, we must "eat well, eat honestly and eat hungrily."
CNN anchor Don Lemon comments on how food is such an intrinsic part of who we are and a link to the past. Adding: "The best conversations happen around the table. Anytime you hang out at a house party, where do you end up?" To which the whole room answered in unison: "the kitchen."
Chef Samuelsson honors his own Scandinavian roots along with New York's Jewish heritage by way of a "bagel and lox" yellow tomato gazpacho with pickled char and char roe.
Each guest was asked to fill out a name tag with how they identify themselves culturally. Answers varied from "Jamerican" (Jamaican and America) to "The 'Ishes" - Scottish and Irish. How would you fill out your name tag?
Next course is head-on shrimp with a dirty rice cake. Meanwhile, several guests reflect on how they sometimes felt "weird" and "ashamed" as a child because they were eating food not typically seen in American culture.
Marcus and Suvir pose with CNN Hero Jorge Munoz, a bus driver who delivers hot meals to those in need seven nights a week, 365 days a year in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Silence hits the room as plates of fried yard bird, liver ganache, and pickled watermelon rind appear. Many comment on how cooking with organ meat, like liver, has become haute in recent years - but for many growing up, they used all parts of the animal out of necessity.
José Manuel Carreño of American Ballet Theatre lingers over strawberry rhubarb crumble, whiskey fudge and sweet potato doughnuts. The dinner may be over, but we encourage you to continue the conversation on how food and cultural identity intersect in the comments below.
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And I say again be thankful for the things that are important, just to have drinking water, I think pickle peaches would be the last thing anyone would be thinking of. Flaws or not
Let's just think how blessed we are to be here an America, to have the wonderful, things that we take for granted,daily walk's,not hearing bombs blasting in our ears, having water to drink, having place's to go when we are hungry, thankful for all the good thing's that are available to us, there is so much more to be concern about. Be thankful. Is pickle peaches and yard bird that important?
Yes they are important. There is not a day that goes by that I am reminded of the very fortunate position I am in to be living in this country, even with all its flaws.
GAG ME WITH A COOKING SPOON! E-tocracy's secret supers are the most borish, god aweful, hateful things ever created much less published. What a major crock of coagulated dog;s blood. Talk about an air of STUCK UP AND COMPLETELY disconnected from the true meaning of gastronomy. BARF!
Are you "Shirley U Jest?"
Nope not me. Secret suppers do frustrate me though. Because of that I avoided reading this article until today. Why? Because from all the good work that goes into getting all this talent and food, knowledge and interesting people gathered into one room – all we get from it is a synopsis, an executive overview at best. What a Tease. Where's the depth?
At any rate, the yellow tomato gazpacho sounds intriguing. I wish I had a description of how the flavors worked with each other. I'm curious why the pickled char and roe was chosen for this when the very essence of gazpacho is to express the freshness of the garden ingredients and flavors. Was the roe fresh or pickled too, because that could change things a lot. Didn't the fish overpower the vegetable flavors or were they complimentary in a novel way? Thank goodness the Scandinavian chef didn't use hákarl. The pickled watermelon rinds and peaches take me way back though. Yard Bird, lol The Yard Birds were a good band. I thought I was the only one still using that out-of-date phrase – kudos. Dirty rice – wow, what's in that dirty rice and how dirty was it.... See this stuff could be a hour long TV special. There you go Kat, that's what you'll be doing next in about two years or so.
All in all – The eclectic array of foods, definitely is New York City and says I'm America too. It must have been both delicious and fun.
Mmm...food-the best part of every meal! :)
My tag would be SouthernTexItalian. I grew up with country food like grits, collard greens, black eyed peas, corn bread, Texas food like cowboy beans and barbecue, and amazing Italian food – there's a wonderful Italian population in Houston. And for the record, Italian in Texas isn't much like East Coast Italian.
Hmmm, I think my name tag cultural description would be Mid-Westifornia. A lot of influence from family in Southern Missouri, then we moved to California when I was in grade school. Desserts definetly had a lot of influence from the Norwegian side of the family in North Dakota.
You never quite know what you will get at our table. Today it is German, yesterday Vietnamese. Our kid must be very ethnically confused.
My heritage is somewhat boring in comparison.... Father's side from early English settlers (not Mayflower, but soon afterwards), Mother's side German and Irish late 19th century immigrants. Most of the cultural identity from my dinner table growing up had been stripped down to a fairly bland version of 1930s-60s American by the time I was born in the 70s.
Then again, I learned to cook in self defense. And in that, took influence from lots of different places and have been helped along by a fiance who's Jewish and also food-adventurous.
Mine is similar – I grew up with Swedish Meatballs but also whatever the newest Campbell's soup recipe was. I swore off pot roast at 20 but will do one occasionally (with horseradish) now.
Adventurous boyfriends and friends in the city have let me expand, but some of these things I would have a hard time eating – pickled peaches? Liver? I'm not even that sure about Gazpacho and Okra!
I do "secret" underground dinners on a regular basis also. We try not to get too precious about it all.
chef Sun
Did you mean precocious?
"If you say it loud enough, you’ll always sound precocious;
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"
What is the difference between spiced peaches and pickled peaches? The first I am very fond of but have never tasted the latter.
Pickled are SO GOOD. They're pickled, peeled and whole, in a sweet, spiced brine. Maybe I'll shoot a step-by-step.
Please DO!!!
Fried Yard Bird??? What the h3ll is THAT? Yuck!
I find it funny and disconcerting how peoples' minds are so easily misled and can freak out over really silly things. I suppose you are associating "yard" with something dirty, but chickens are called yard birds because they traditionally roamed on farmyards.
I apologize in advance if you didn't know what chickens were.
I'm guessing "fried yardbird" is a hip term for fried chicken.
What an amazing evening that must have been! And a wonderful question. My cultural identity (not my politics LOL) is Texan: German hill country, Mexican flavors, cowboy beans, Vietnamese from the immigrants to the coast, and Cajun influences. Salt pork, cornbread, beans, blue crab in a spicy boil... Wash it all down with Shiner Black Lager.
samuelsson & Lemon used to date
pretty sure samuelsson is married to Gate (Maya) Haile...
Was wondering when someone would say something childish, but never expected gay-baiting. Classy Dude...
That image should be on YummyWar (dot com, of course). It as just reset... so could win!
Yum! that food looks so good. Never heard of a pickled peach, I'm going to have to try that.
What is that a picture of on the red wall behind Chef Saran?? And I'm wondering how pickled peaches taste.......
pickled peaches are wonderful. my grandmother used to make them. haven't had them in many years but i still dream about them
Okay, I'm here. And my napkin is in my lap.
odd photo to have in a dining room. If I'm there I';m hungry, I don't want to have to analyze some silly artsy fartsy thing.