Yes, chef! Marcus Samuelsson says everyone needs these 10 cookbooks and utensils

Sunny may be a professional chef, but she loves a good dinner hack just like the rest of us. "My most-used pantry item has to be pouches of flavored beans or rice of all kinds that you can microwave, and in 60 to 90 seconds be on your way to an easy side dish," she says.

"I discovered these shortcuts during 2020 when I moved most of my shopping online. Before, when I grocery shopped in person, nine times out of 10 I would get exactly what I needed and it would take effort to slowly scan each aisle for new products. But going online and typing in a keyword gives you so many options and can open your eyes to things you walked right by in the store."

She'll eat these microwaveable pouches of beans as is, or she'll mix in other ingredients like sausage or roasted vegetables. It doesn't get easier!

"I measure everything! Eyeballing is great for cooking, but when it comes to baking, that is strictly a science," Babs says. "All of my dry ingredients get weighed, and it makes a huge difference in the quality of the dish." (Again, she didn't pick a specific brand, but this Greater Goods scale gets an impressive 3,500 five-star reviews.)

As for what to splurge on, Marcus considers knives — and especially Korin knives — a solid investment.

"It's a Japanese store where they know so much about knives," he shares. "It's like buying a great pair of shoes. You want to go to a curated space where the person is super knowledgeable about what she or he is selling to you. Maybe you only buy one or two knives a year, but you're buying really good stuff. It'll change how you cook. It's a great gift, too."

As for what type of knife to prioritize, Marcus says, "If you're an advanced cook, get a set. Otherwise, a chef's knife is probably the knife you're going to use the most."

He cautions against putting knives in the dishwasher and suggests purchasing a knife sharpener to keep your tools in tip-top shape. "And slide them into a block so you don't just throw the knife in with the forks and spoons. Protect it."

No surprise that Marcus's most prized pieces are his own design. "I love my plates because they really represent my journey, both Nordic and Ethiopian," he explains. "I was teaching my son to swim, and the color of my plates represents the water. In Sweden, it's not perfectly blue but more of a petrol blue-green. That's one of the colors we explored."

If you don't need a full dinnerware set, you can also buy individual salad plates, a platter and silverware. "Go for the color!" says Marcus.

When it comes to decorating his kitchen, Marcus says it's a team effort. And the family loves to make art with edible paints. "My kids and I paint a lot in the kitchen with spices or food," he says, explaining that spices are a good natural resource for color. "Turmeric is great; so is cold coffee, cold tea and red wine. We mix them, and it's fun." 

For something abstract, made with actual paint, check out this limited-edition print from Marcus's West Elm collection.

Anyone who has a love of cooking — and especially soul food — should familiarize themselves with the work of Leah Chase from New Orleans, says Marcus.

"Her restaurant's been around for 85 years," he says. "As a young Black woman, she broke the color barrier. She didn't care that white and Black people weren't allowed to eat together. She served everybody. She's an icon to me, but reading her backstory was like, 'Yeah, this is why I'm in America. This is cool, you know?'"

The chef also draws tons of inspiration from Marco Pierre White's White Heat. "He was not French — he was English, he had long hair, he was young. He looked like a rock star," shares Marcus. "I was like, 'What is this?' I was totally blown away. I thought you had to be French to be a chef, and obviously not being French, I was like, 'Oh, there's another guy doing this?' So Marco's books, and especially White Heat, were a game-changer."

Marcus says he gravitates toward "the backstory of the person, or the journey."

"Charlie Trotter, may he rest in peace ... his cookbooks are very chef-y, but I've never seen food shot that way, and I've never seen American food on that level done in a book. It transformed America for chefs," he explains.

If you want an iconic cookbook, Marcus recommends this pick, which is based on the beloved San Francisco restaurant of the same name. "[Judy Rodgers's] roast chicken recipe is the best way to roast a chicken," gushes Marcus. "And the book really goes into the process."

Another "game-changing book," The Slanted Door was written by beloved chef Charles Phan, who recently passed away, and was named after his Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco.

"That restaurant, what Chef Phan did, opened up doors," Marcus says. "He put locations in major cities, on major avenues, with great food, so it became accessible for a lot of Americans who had not had a chance to try Vietnamese cuisine."