Kwame Onwuachi

The deliciously creative and inspirational Kwame Onwuachi is a top chef who took an unconventional path to culinary success, having started out in the kitchens of an oil spill clean-up ship. He is winner of the 2019 James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year award, was on the Forbes “30 under 30” list, and was also a contestant on Season 15 of the reality cooking show, Top Chef. His memoir, Notes from a Young Black Chef, in which he highlights the racism and elitism ingrained in the fine dining industry, was published in 2019. It is now being adapted as a feature film starring Lakeith Stanfield. In 2021 he joined Food & Wine magazine as an Executive Producer.

Born in Long Island, New York, and raised in the Bronx and for a time in Nigeria, Onwuachi had a troubled childhood and struggled with education and authority. After being expelled from University, he moved to Louisiana to live with his mother and started working on a boat as a cook serving crews cleaning up the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He returned to New York in 2010, waited on tables, and started up his own catering business. He enrolled at The Culinary Institute of America in 2012, and after graduation he worked as a line cook at Manhattan’s Eleven Madison Park. Following his appearance as a contestant on Top Chef in 2015, he opened his own restaurant, Shaw Bijou, at the age of 26. In 2017 he was hired to open a restaurant in the new InterContinental Hotel in Washington D.C., called Kith/Kin. It was a huge success, with Food & Wine magazine naming Onwuachi one of its Best New Chefs in 2019, and Esquire naming him its Chef of the Year for 2019, and identifying Kith/Kin as one of the Best New Restaurants in America. Onwuachi was also named Rising Star Chef of the Year at the 2019 James Beard Awards.

Onwuachi regularly connects with his legions of followers and fans through Twitter, and Instagram, posting pictures and videos of his latest culinary creations. He is also available for that personalised shout-out via the Cameo platform.