GOURMET: KNIVES OUT

Here’s why chef Kwame Onwuachi is one of the food world’s fastest-rising stars

- NICOLAS STECHER

At 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.