Kwame Onwuachi

Celebrity chef Kwame Onwuachi overcame a series of personal setbacks to become one of the top chefs in the United States before his 30th birthday. Born in the Bronx borough of New York City, he was initially exposed to cooking through his mother's catering business. When his family felt that he was going down the wrong path as a youngster, he was sent to live with relatives on his father's side in Nigeria for two years, an experience that would later infuse his culinary career. Upon his return to America, Onwuachi fell into the same bad habits and was eventually expelled from college for selling drugs. He relocated to stay with his mother in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he began cooking professionally. He returned to New York and sold candy in the subway to help finance a catering business, Coterie Catering. He went on to study at New York's Culinary Institute of America, which led to a position with the Michelin three-star restaurant, Per Se. After completing his studies, he moved on to cooking in the kitchen of Eleven Madison Park, frequently ranked as one of the best restaurants in New York. His experience earned him a spot on the popular television cooking competition show, "Top Chef" (Bravo, 2006- ), during its 13th season. He finished sixth, but the exposure proved invaluable. In 2016, when he was 26, he was tapped to create the menu for a new restaurant in Washington D.C. The resulting upscale eatery, Shaw Bijou, opened to mixed reviews and lasted only three months before closing. With his career dealt a serious blow, he agreed to open a restaurant in a new Washington hotel, InterContinental, in 2017. His Kith and Kin featured a menu heavy on Afro-Caribbean flavors, a nod to his family's heritage in Nigeria, Jamaica, and Trinidad. This time the reviews were nearly universally positive. The chef branched out to comfort food as well, opening a small chain of sandwich shops named Philly Wing Fry. He garnered attention outside of just cooking circles with the publication of his memoir Notes From a Young Black Chef (2019), which detailed not only his personal journey but the challenges faced by people of color in the world of upscale restaurants. Onwuachi capped his comeback by winning the prestigious James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2019.