![]() "The food that they produce, the level of attention to detail that goes into every single aspect - whether it's the receiving of produce to putting that said produce through a process of fabrication, the cookery and then onto the plate. "It was and still is an amazing restaurant," he says of the highly acclaimed Per Se. He says he wanted to learn from the best. He took all that experience into the high temples of American cuisine – first, Per Se, and then Eleven Madison Park, both in New York City. In Nigeria, he says, "if you wanted 20 wings, you had to raise 10 chickens. And then inherently, I also learned a lot about cooking." "I spent a couple of years there, learning about my culture, my ancestors' traditions that I wasn't familiar with. So his mother sent him to live with his father's relatives in Nigeria. "I was definitely veering off on the wrong path as a kid growing up in the South Bronx," he says. Here, a plate of charred brassicas, served with Nigerian red sauce. Noah Fortson/NPR Onwuachi's life story is written in his recipes. On his father's side, there are roots in Jamaica and Nigeria, where Onwuachi spent two years as a tween. Creole and Caribbean flavors infuse his cooking. His mother's family hails from Louisiana and Trinidad. Onwuachi's life story is written in his recipes. She shielded me with love, instead of revealing to me the harsh realities that were going on." "There were a lot of times where we didn't have lights," he says, "and my mother made up a game called Lights Out, where we all slept in the living room together and put candles everywhere. "So she started a catering company from the house, and me and my sister became her first two employees." "My mother was an accountant and she wanted to figure out a way to spend time with us while still taking care of the bills," Onwuachi says. But that road began in a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx, where he grew up with his mother and sister. Eventually, there would be a stint on Top Chef, work in the best restaurants in America, the opening of his first place in D.C. His road to the rarefied world of fine cuisine has had many fits and starts, which he details in a new memoir, Notes From A Young Black Chef. These days, Onwuachi is a rising star in the food world - the executive chef at Kith and Kin, a celebrated Afro-Caribbean restaurant in Washington, D.C., and a nominee this year for a prestigious James Beard award. And I want to explore this a little bit more." "Here's something that brings back these fond memories. "I didn't know that I wanted to cook, but it was like, here's something that I'm familiar with," he says. ![]() He went to the grocery store and bought ingredients to cook a chicken curry. And I immediately flushed everything that I had down the toilet and was like, I need to find myself," Onwuachi recalls. He was, he says, lost.īut when he saw President Obama, something clicked. He was dealing drugs to survive after he dropped out of college. It was the morning after the election of America's first black president, and Kwame Onwuachi was hungover.
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