![]() Our lives had taken somewhat divergent paths. ![]() I was generally and still very much hustling. In the intervening years, I had written a slew of cookbooks ( The Nom Wah Cookbook, with Wilson Tang Il Buco: Stories & Recipes, with Donna Lennard Vino: An Essential Guide to Real Italian Wine, with Joe Campanale Cooking for Your Kids) and a few children’s books ( The Invisible Alphabet and Solitary Animals). I, however, was still in my apartment in Brooklyn, hustling. He was living in Los Angeles-Hollywood, I think-and was no longer tied to a restaurant. (Who plays me? I wonder!) Kwame was fielding many offers for many projects. The book had gotten picked up to be made into a movie, starring Lakeith Stanfield as Kwame. Notes had been a success and had helped situate Kwame in a broader cultural context. Notes couldn’t help but be more interesting, more human, more relatable, after it grew to include this setback.īy the time we started the cookbook, My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef, Kwame’s life had grown more complicated and expansive. But as his co-author, I was in some ways relieved. Kwame’s story is Kwame’s unique story but it also resonates in a universal way. One reason that book resonated with so many readers is that it didn’t shy away from portraying the self-doubt, the challenges, the insecurities all of us face in one form or another without appending an artificially rosy conclusion to it. Notes couldn’t help but be more interesting, more human, more relatable, after it grew to include this setback. Shaw Bijou closed shortly after it opened under a hail of criticism. I knew immediately one of my challenges would be to help Kwame see-and to admit to and to explore the idea-that a) that smooth line was probably not an accurate representation of his life’s path and b) a compelling memoir a smooth line does not make.Īs it turns out, we didn’t have to work too hard to manufacture a more nuanced arc after all. (The original title was Chasing Happiness.) Naturally, as a writer, I worried about this. ![]() The general trajectory of the narrative was a steady triumphal slope upwards. When we began work on it, Kwame was in the midst of opening Shaw Bijou, his first fine-dining restaurant in Washington D.C. Notes started as one thing and became another. This, the actual seeing of another person, is perhaps the most necessary thing as a collaborator and one reason, I think, why Kwame and I have worked so well with each other for so long. One reason, I think, is because since I’d been around and writing about chefs for so long, I didn’t relate to him as a Bright Up-and-Coming Chef, which he was, but as a human being, as I came to find, a wonderful human and wonderfully complicated human being. ![]() Despite the inherent weirdness of the meeting-it’s like a first date but observed, high stakes and professional-we hit it off. The editors at Knopf and Kwame were looking for a co-author and called me so I met him on a hot Friday afternoon at the PRH tower in Midtown. ![]() For all its pomp and circumstance, there's no dress code at Shaw Bijou, which furthers Onwuachi's goal of creating a comfortable space similar to a dinner party at his own home.I first met Kwame Onwuachi in August 2016, after he had sold what would ultimately become Notes from a Young Black Chef to Knopf but before the book had taken shape. Finally, you're moved to your table in the chic, exposed-brick dining room of only eight tables, where you consume multiple courses of avant-garde international plates inspired by Onwuachi's childhood memories. After imbibing, you're guided through the kitchen, where you can witness dishes being primped and polished, and take photos with Onwuachi if you please (a food blogger's dream). You start off in a luxury cocktail lounge sporting comfy Icelandic sheepskin chairs, where you simply tell the seasoned bartender what flavors you're feeling that evening. Situated in a renovated Shaw townhouse that's hip and homey, it's more of an experience than a restaurant: you're even required to purchase a $185 ticket online for the culinary show (hopeful visitors clamor for reservations as if they were newly released concert tickets they're made available on the first of every month for the following month). Top Chef finalist Kwame Onwuachi's Shaw Bijou has solidified its place in DC's fine-dining scene - and not without a glamorous splash. ![]()
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