James Beard Award-Winning Chef, Author of Notes from a Young Black Chef & Executive Producer at FOOD & WINE Magazine
Kwame Onwuachi: Biography at a Glance
- Kwame Onwuachi is the James Beard Award-winning chef behind TATIANA, which has been named the #1 Restaurant in NYC by The New York Times in both 2023 and 2024.
- From selling candy on the subway in order to raise money for his first catering business to competing on Top Chef, Kwame's remarkable path to success is the epitome of grit, resilience, and passion.
- TATIANA highlights the true diversity of American food and the culture and history behind it by fusing Caribbean, African, and Black American cooking in a way that bridges cultures and inspires community.
- In his inspirational memoir, Notes from a Young Black Chef, he shares a powerful and shockingly honest account of chasing your dreams—even when they don’t turn out as you expected.
- After experiencing how unwelcoming the culinary world can be, Kwame launched The Family Reunion, a multi-day celebration of diversity in the hospitality industry that brings together more than 300 chefs, business leaders, and culinary enthusiasts annually.
- Kwame is also on the Leadership Council for No Kid Hungry and is passionate about building purpose-driven brands that address food insecurity, food waste, and access to clean water.
- A true storyteller, Kwame takes audiences on a journey that highlights the power of turning your passion into positivity and the importance of chasing your dreams despite every obstacle that life throws your way.
Media
NYT: TATIANA is the #1 Restaurant in NYCBook: Notes from a Young Black ChefKwame Onwuachi Is a Whole New Kind of Celebrity ChefSan Francisco Chronicle: ‘8 years ago I was selling candy on the subway’NYT: A Young Chef, and a Stunning ComebackKwame Onwuachi Reveals Name, Theme of His D.C. Comeback StoryWork in Progress with Sophia Bush Podcast: Chef Kwame OnwuachiA Jury of My Peers
Videos
Biography
Kwame Onwuachi is a James Beard Award-winning chef, and author of the critically acclaimed cookbook My America and the memoir Notes from a Young Black Chef, which is being turned into a feature film by A24. Kwame has been named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs, Esquire Magazine’s Chef of the Year, and is a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes. He’s also been featured on Time’s 100 Next List and has been named the most important Chef in America by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Kwame appeared as a judge on season 18 of Top Chef after first appearing as a contestant on the show in season 13. He also was the host of the 2021 and 2022 James Beard Awards in Chicago. Kwame currently serves as Food & Wine’s executive producer. In this newly appointed role, Kwame will collaborate on big brand moments and events, including the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, as well as lead “The Family Reunion: Presented by Kwame Onwuachi,” an annual multi-day event that celebrates diversity in the hospitality community.
He was born on Long Island and raised in New York City, Nigeria, and Louisiana. Onwuachi was first exposed to cooking by his mother, in the family’s modest Bronx apartment, and he took that spark of passion and turned it into a career. From toiling in the bowels of oil cleanup ships to working at some of the best restaurants in the world, he has seen and lived his fair share of diversity. Onwuachi trained at the Culinary Institute of America and has opened five restaurants before turning thirty.
His restaurant concept Tatiana, opened at the Lincoln Center in November 2022. Since its opening, it has had numerous top accolades, including “The #1 Restaurant in New York City,” by the New York Times, for the last two years in a row, “The One to Watch” by World’s 50 Best Restaurants, and La Liste’s “World's Best Restaurants List.” In the fall of 2024, he partnered with the Salamander DC hotel, to open his newest restaurant concept, Dōgon.
Topics
Recipe for Success: An Inspiring Story of Resilience
Kwame Onwuachi launched his own catering company with twenty thousand dollars that he made from selling candy on the subway. By the time he was twenty-seven years old, Onwuachi had opened one of the most talked about restaurants in America. But Onwuachi found the road to success riddled with potholes. Growing up in the Bronx led him to brushes with gangs as a teen, drug dealing in college, and encounters with racism as a young chef.
Through food, he broke out of a dangerous downward spiral – embarking on a journey that led him to the kitchens of the most acclaimed restaurants in the country and appearing as a contestant on Top Chef.
A powerful, heartfelt, and shockingly honest story of chasing your dreams – Onwuachi inspires audiences to pursue their passions, despite the odds.
Notes From a Young Black Chef: Ingredients for an Inclusive Workplace
Kwame Onwuachi’s love of cooking remained a constant even when, as a young chef, he was forced to grapple with just how unwelcoming the culinary world can be for people of color. His early experiences taught him about the kind of kitchen he did not want to lead - and that the most devastating forms of racism and sexism are not always the most visible.
Now a James Beard Award-winning chef, Kwame's commitment to an inclusive workplace has attracted some of the most talented chefs in the world of fine dining. Audiences will learn how to shine a light on the challenges their own organizations face, with memorable stories from Kwame's journey to illustrate the ingredients for success.
