![]() It was a response to COVID-19 and the lack of response from the government, and we really wanted to mobilize a unit of like-minded individuals that are also in the same boat that needed answers and solutions during this tough time. The coalition was formulated to provide a voice for independent restaurants. ![]() You’ve taken on a lot with helping to found the Independent Restaurant Coalition. So, yeah, I mean it’s been five weeks trying to figure it out, stay busy, stay positive, stay motivated, and stay healthy throughout this timeframe and stay connected so my staff. Kwame Onwuachi: I mean it’s been tough - it’s been a tough process for sure, not being able to do what I love every single day. InsideHook: How has it been for you and your restaurant, Kith/Kin, since the start of the pandemic? We also wanted to hear what the chef has been cooking and eating since this all started, and where he’s most excited to drink and dine when it’s hopefully all over. By contrast, his next venture, Kith/Kin, continues to be a success, and in 2019 helped Onwuachi claim the coveted title of Rising Star Chef of the Year from the James Beard Foundation.Īs part of our new series First Meal Back, we caught up with Onwuachi to find out more about the Independent Restaurant Coalition, a group he recently helped found to give a voice to small restaurants across the country. This meteoric trajectory was halted once again when he opened his first restaurant in DC, the Shaw Bijou, which closed after just 11 weeks - highlighting just how difficult it is to keep the doors of a fledgling restaurant open and profitable in the best of times. He eventually scraped together enough funds to start his own catering business, leading to an unparalleled upwards journey that involved culinary school, working at some of the top restaurants in NYC and competing on Bravo’s Top Chef. Growing up in the Bronx in New York, Onwuachi contended with plenty of financial hardship, at one point joining a gang, selling drugs and getting expelled from college. The coronavirus pandemic certainly isn’t the first time Chef Kwame Onwuachi, owner of DC Afro-Caribbean restaurant Kith/Kin, has had to deal with a little adversity. It's joyful food, infused with memories of home, a generous dash of love, and the soul of a young chef out to change the world, one dish at a time.In honor of all of the restaurants we dearly miss and can’t wait to get back to, we’re asking some of the country’s most decorated chefs to tell us about the meals that will be at the top of their list when Stay at Home orders finally lift. The restaurant's cuisine honors family and legacy, with dishes that celebrate his ancestors and resurrect the histories of the Black and brown communities displaced in the 1950s when the construction of Lincoln Center razed the neighborhood known as San Juan Hill. Tatiana is named after Kwame's big sister, who looked after him at home in the Bronx while their mother was at work. When Lincoln Center invited Kwame to open his own restaurant last year in the newly renovated David Geffen Hall, his expression was given free rein. ![]() There, his execution of an autobiographical Afro-Caribbean menu was rewarded with the James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year award. The economic model didn't work and the restaurant closed after only 11 weeks, but he brought the same inspiration to his next gig, a restaurant he named Kith and Kin. His vision was radical: an elevated, high-end tasting menu of the cuisines that shape his identity and his roots in Nigeria, the bayou and the Bronx. ![]() Kwame's big break came in 2015, when he competed on Top Chef and won the hearts of the television audience, the media and backers who helped him open his first restaurant, the Shaw Bijou, in Washington, D.C. Amplify With Lara Downes Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard's unexpected path into the opera house ![]()
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