I've been lucky to travel and work all over the world through the lens of the back of the house, and I love that monocle. I love that lens, because it's real people.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of experiencing different cultures and people through one's work and travels.
Marcus Samuelsson reflects on his fortunate experiences of traveling and working around the world, particularly highlighting his appreciation for seeing life from a unique perspective. By referring to his experiences as looking through a 'monocle,' he conveys a sense of clarity and focus on real, authentic interactions with people, which enrich his understanding of the diverse cultures he encounters.
In practice
In a presentation about cultural diversity, this quote can illustrate the value of authentic experiences.
I'm engaged in food on so many levels, and I love that. So my work, my craft, is around food, and writing is one aspect of it; communicating a narrative, cooking online is one aspect of it; solving the food chasm that we have in Harlem and finding a farmers market is another one, and all of them are equally exciting for me.
To become a good cook is to know yourself, and I, at this point, know myself. I know myself, and I know the cook I want to be and the cook I am striving to be.
As a chef, I always have in mind how to properly feed the public, but at times it's easy to forget that some people have trouble even getting any food, much less adequate nutrition.
I came into this environment where there was so much love, so much positive energy. I never heard my parents say, 'We have adopted kids.' The minute my sister Linda and I landed in Sweden, we were their kids.
Children want to mimic adults. They notice when you choose to prepare fresh vegetables over calling in another pizza pie for dinner. They will see that food made with love and care outweighs going through the drive-through window.
Simple ingredients can be used to make elegant dishes with just a little extra attention to detail.
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim.
Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived, precisely where it was he had felt most at home.
Vagabonding is an attitude — a friendly interest in people, places, and things that makes a person an explorer in the truest, most vivid sense of the word.
Of all possible debauches, traveling is the greatest that I know; that's the one they invented when they got tired of all the others.
I like to say, 'I spend one-third of my time in Nigeria, one-third in Europe or America, and one-third on a plane.'
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