Here’s why chef Kwame Onwuachi is one of the food world’s fastest-rising stars…
WAt a spry 33 years old, chef Kwame Onwuachi’s dizzying life has already overflowed with explosive successes and chaotic nadirs. Conscripted to early duty in mom’s kitchen, his parent’s rich cultural traditions (Nigerian and Jamaican father, Trinidadian and Creole mother) infused the prodigy with a robust gastronomic palate. After studying at the Culinary Institute of America, Onwuachi cut his teeth at esteemed NYC foodie Meccas like Per Se and Eleven Madison Park, once the World’s Best Restaurant.
An early career marked by ambitious disappointments (his first restaurant, Shaw Bijou, closed after only three months) was counterpointed with a litany of successes – beginning in 2015 when Onwuachi was selected as a contestant on season 13 of Top Chef. His second effort, Kith/Kin, met with overwhelming adulation; in 2019 it was named one of the ‘Best New Restaurants in America’ by Esquire, which also dubbed him ‘Chef of the Year.’ That same year the James Beard Awards named Onwuachi ‘Rising Star Chef of the Year’, and Food & Wine deemed him one of its Best New Chefs. His memoir, Notes from a Young Black Chef, was published that fateful year as well.
We sat down with one of America’s most promising young culinary forces to discuss his early pitfalls, seminal challenges and the lessons learned, recently opening his highly anticipated New York restaurant Tatiana, and his ‘Mark Your Own Journey’ campaign with venerable champagne house G.H. Mumm.
You’ve faced both early failures and successes. After launching a catering company you realised perhaps you weren’t good enough, and enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America.
I think I wanted to hone my craft. I think I was always well versed in culinary arts because I started so young. But I think the word “failure” is put on you by other people and it’s not something that you should ever say when talking about your own experiences in this world. If Beyoncé sold 200,000 albums she would be considered a “failure” to other people. But if you sold 200,000 albums you’d be an overnight success. So it’s something that other people put on you. I think life experiences are opportunities to learn and grow, and I think I’ve had a lot of them, whether they’ve been “successes” or “failures.”
Chefs often stress how important their teams are. You learned that lesson early on, right?
Your team is everything. I think as a chef, you’re definitely the face of the restaurant, but that lifeline and that pulse comes from the people that are in there every single day, people that are opening and closing, the people that are trusting in your vision to then execute on that. So I think the team is the most important thing for a restaurant. You can’t do it all alone – it’d be physically and mentally impossible. Having that team that’s there to support you is a game changer.
What life lessons did you learn from Kith/Kin?
I learned how to lead a team. I kind of found my voice. I think that’s the most important thing as a chef is find your voice in the kitchen, and I was able to do that there. And I was able to start having fun in the kitchen again.
You opened your new restaurant in New York, Tatiana. What was the inspiration?
Lincoln Center reached out to me to see if I wanted to put a concept in there, and I wanted to pay homage to my childhood. And I thought there was no better way than to shine a light on my big sister [Tatiana] because she helped raise me and we ate a lot of meals together. So it’s my love letter of how I grew up eating in New York City.
How would you best describe your cooking style?
Well my cooking philosophy is if a dish tells a story, it has a soul. You’re not just cooking for perfect seasoning, you’re cooking to share an experience, a memory with someone. So it’s the full gamut of cuisine. I [pull] from a lot of different cultures, and you’ll see that at Tatiana. There’s definitely an Afro-Caribbean through-line, but there’s influence from all different nations as well because that’s what New York is: it’s a melting pot of so many different people and cultures.
Finally, how did the G.H. Mumm collaboration start?
I think it was a natural connection. They have such attention to detail, but also they’ve been around a while doing things at a high level. And a sentiment that I’ve always said is the journey is the reward. It’s not just the end goal, it’s the journey of getting to that place. And they have the same sentiment of Marking Your Own Journey – like you shouldn’t wait to drink champagne just when you’re celebrating something. It should be part of your lifestyle. And that’s the way I like to live my life—I think every day is such a gift and I try to live it to the fullest.
By Nicolas Stecher
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