Washington:
Award-winning African-American chef Marcus Samuelsson has been invited by the White House to cook for the Obama administration's first State Dinner on November 24, in honour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Samuelsson of the highly-regarded Aquavit, a Scandinavian restaurant in New York, will be working with White House Chef Cristeta Comerford.
The selection process for this reportedly started in the summer, with the White House assistant chef and Food Initiative Coordinator Sam Kass sampling food at several restaurants, to see whose work might be suitable.
A naturalised American citizen, Samuelsson is the most prominent American chef of African descent in the country today. He was born in Ethiopia and adopted by a Swedish couple who raised him in Sweden.
There was no official comment from the White House.