The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem is as lively as the restaurant and neighborhood for which it is named. Marcus Samuelsson is a James Beard Award-winning chef as well as a philanthropist and writer (Marcus Off-Duty: The Recipes I Cook at Home), and he brings his considerable knowledge of food and food culture to the table here. As in Harlem, music drifts throughout: accompanying each section is a playlist complementing the recipes. Dishes from places such as Mexico, Ethiopia and the Caribbean reflect the diverse cultural landscape of the neighborhood. Samuelsson constructs his more than 80 recipes with a clear understanding of the home cook; each is neatly laid out on the page and includes helpful tips. The cookbook is also filled with essays, photography and sketches that capture Harlem's atmosphere and energy. Cooks who want to know the background of what they are preparing, and who understand that successful restaurants reflect the community in which they exist, will queue up the playlists and turn to Red Rooster for a real taste of Harlem. --Cindy Pauldine, bookseller, the river's end bookstore