Marcus Samuelsson’s Advice For Cooking During The Pandemic

At the end of the day, while being forced to cook more may breed some resentment in the kitchen, the truth is that we might never have this much time at home again. So why not make the most of it, at least when it comes to your meals? Chef Marcus Samuelsson suggests we take this opportunity to “go outside your comfort zone,” explaining, “this is the time to do it because you probably have more time to dive into a recipe that you would want to do normally, right? This is a chance to learn a food or a culture that you probably didn’t know before.”

So while you may be a pasta connoisseur or an enchilada enthusiast already, take a spin around the globe and see what else you can whip up. “If you cooked a lot of Italian food, well maybe it’s time to look on the other side of the Mediterranean, maybe go into Moroccan food… or food from Israel or something like that,” the chef suggests.

And if your novice culinary mind is spinning from talk of all these different cuisines, that’s okay too. Samuelsson says to think of this time at home as your chance to start learning the basics, calling it “a massive opportunity to pick up a skill like cooking that you can now take with you for the rest of your life.”

You can see chef Marcus Samuelsson on programs like the Food Network’s Chopped and season two of Selena + Chef, streaming now on HBO Max.