Kwame Onwuachi is the James Beard Award-winning executive chef at
Kith/Kin in Washington, D.C. 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 opened five restaurants before turning
thirty. A former Top Chef contestant, he has been named
Esquire’s Chef of the Year, one of Food & Wine’s Best New
Chefs, and a 30 Under 30 honoree by
both Zagat and Forbes.
Joshua David Stein is a Brooklyn-based author and journalist. He is
the co-author of Food & Beer, the U.S. editor of Where Chefs Eat,
the author of forthcoming To Me He Was Just Dad as well as the
children’s books, Can I Eat That?, What’s Cooking?, Brick: Who
Found Herself in Architecture and The Ball Book. Stein was
previously the restaurant critic for the New York Observer and the
Village Voice. He is the founding member of The Band Books and
the food zine, Reduced Circumstance.
A James Beard Foundation Award and IACP Cookbook Award nominee
“Fierce and inspiring.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Notes from a Young Black Chef might be the literary heir
to Kitchen Confidential. . . . With the same mix of brutal
honesty, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and atmosphere-conjuring
prose. But Onwuachi’s story is completely his
own.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Onwuachi’s memoir should be required reading, not just for future
chefs, but for anyone who wants a glimpse into one man’s tale of
what it’s like to be young, black and ambitious in America.” —The
Washington Post
“A fascinating book. . . . I hope everybody reads it.” —Trevor
Noah, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
“Stunning.” —Kat Kinsman, Food & Wine
“Kwame Onwuachi’s story shines a light on food and culture not just
in American restaurants or African American communities but around
the world.” —Questlove
“This is an astonishing and open-hearted story from one of the next
generation’s stars of the culinary world.” —José Andrés
“A fascinating and far reaching memoir.” —Ed Levine, Serious
Eats
“A young black chef’s raw and gritty tale of survival, ingenuity,
and hustling. Kwame takes us on this journey where he eventually
finds himself captivated by the culinary world of fine dining.”
—Carla Hall, author of Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and
Celebration
“Stunning.” —Food52
“This is the future of Black food writing and a new chapter in the
saga of how chefs come of age.” —Michael W. Twitty, author
of The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American
Culinary History in the Old South
“Engaging and well crafted.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“An inspiring tell-all about the reality of being a young Black
chef in the world of fine dining and all the roads taken to become
a culinary sensation.” —Edouardo Jordan, chef/owner of Salare,
Junebaby, and Lucinda Grain Bar
“With Notes From a Young Black Chef, Kwame Onwuachi
proves that 29 isn’t too young to write a memoir.” —Eater
“Kwame is a chef giving a lot more than notes in this remarkable
story. His candor and refreshing point of view tell a story of guts
and passion from a chef who translates his expertise, where we all
can learn from his stories.” —Joseph “JJ” Johnson, chef/founder,
Fieldtrip
“[A] must-read book that is an honest look at race in the world of
food and restaurants.” —Winston-Salem Journal
“Kwame Onwuachi has lived two or three lifetimes in his journey
thus far and recounts them with humor, insight, and honesty
in Notes from a Young Black Chef. It’s Kitchen
Confidential from a Black point of view.” —Jessica B. Harris,
author of My Soul Looks Back
“Remarkable. . . . [Onwuachi’s] story, told in small bites of
vignettes and recipes, is filled with influences and flavors.”
—Raleigh News & Observer
“You couldn’t ask the universe for a more colorful creative
culinary adventurer than chef Kwame, who blends the stories and
history of his African and African American heritage into a
literary pot of brilliant cultural flavors.” —Alexander Smalls,
coauthor of Between Harlem and Heaven
“Eat this book! It satiates all five taste points. It is a
generational cultural roux; dusky dark, and deeply flavored.”
—Alfre Woodard
“Onwuachi wonderfully chronicles the amazing arc of his life.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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