Welcome to the show.
It's great to be here. How are you doing?
Uh, I'm fantastic, man. But congratulations
-on an amazing book -Thank you.
and a really, really fascinating story.
-Thank you. -I mean, you've done everything.
In your teens, you were in a gang.
In your 20s, you sold drugs.
Then you graduated from the Culinary Institute of America.
You competed on Top Chef.
You opened your first restaurant. It tanked.
So now you run a successful hotel restaurant...
-Don't give away the whole book. -I... No, but that's the thing.
It's less about just what happens
and more about how it happens.
That's what makes your story so fascinating.
-When you look back at the book, -Absolutely.
and you look at the life you've lived,
does it feel real? 'Cause you're only 29.
Uh, it's a journey, you know?
I-I would say, like, every part of my life has been...
either extremely difficult or extremely rewarding,
and it's a journey, so, like, you don't really notice it
-until you put it down on paper, -Right.
you know, and you read it through and you see it through.
You sound like you were quite the terror as a young man,
like, within the family, you know?
-I was pretty bad. -You were pretty bad.
-Was pretty bad. -I mean, you were bad enough
that your-your mom sent you to Nigeria,
-where your dad's from, right? -Yeah.
And you thought you were going there for the summer.
Yeah, she told me I was going for a couple weeks.
-Uh-huh. -Um...
I quickly learned that that was not the truth.
-Um... -(laughter)
-H-How did you learn that? -Uh, it was September,
and school starts in September in New York, and I called her.
We had to go to this call center, by the way.
We had to drive all the way. It's a...
In the middle of a village-- it wasn't Lagos.
-Right. -And you drive three hours to this call center.
Have to wait in line till, you know, you even get on the phone.
We'd get there, and I'm like, "So, Ma, like, September?
When am I coming back home?" and she's like, "You're not.
-(laughter) -Not until you learn respect."
-Not until you learn respect? -And then she was like,
"Kwame? Hello? Hello?"
'Cause I just, I dropped the phone.
I was so... I was so crushed.
-So you hadn't learned respect? -No, not yet. Not yet.
How long did it take you to come back to the U.S.?
-Two years. -Wow. That's a long time to not learn respect.
-Yeah. -No, 'cause if my mom, like, left me in Nigeria
and was like, "Till you learn respect,"
I'd immediately be like, "Yes, ma'am, I have learned respect.
-Can I come home now?" -(laughter)
But you've always had this spirit inside of you, where,
like, you've pushed for what you wanted to do and you did it.
Two years in Nigeria, it's a completely different world,
-and then you come back to the U.S., right. -Mm-hmm.
And what was interesting is how you tell the story
of growing up in a world where, you know,
you were lucky enough to go to a private school,
but you lived in a place
-that was basically hood-adjacent, -Yeah.
and you got caught up in gang culture.
You got mixed up with the wrong group of friends.
How did you, like, see your life when you turned--
when you were in a gang?
Like, was that something you, like, prepared?
Or was it something that just happened to you out of nowhere?
It just happened. Um...
You know, I talk about it in the book--
how I really got into it, and I got into a fight,
and then after that fight, I was--
it was pretty much an initiation into the gang.
Um, and, you know, I don't think
it's something that you plan, you know?
Sometimes we're a product of our own environment,
which is unfortunate, but also,
we can get out of that mentality as well.
You know, and, for me, it was a moment
that Barack Obama walked across stage
and he became president of the United States.
And I didn't think that I would see
a black president in my lifetime.
I voted for him and everything, but, you know,
55 years ago,
we couldn't even eat at the same restaurants as,
you know, white people everywhere,
and to see that, it was--
it showed me that I can do anything I put my mind to.
That's really a beautiful part of the book,
is where you're telling the story
about how you're selling drugs.
You're living in this house where, you know,
people are high, you're also high,
and then you see Barack Obama walk out there,
and he's now president of the United States,
and you're like, "Oh, I got to get my shit together."
-Yeah. -That's a powerful moment.
How do you even begin that journey?
-Like, what, you know, you see Barack Obama, -It's one...
-yes, but, I mean, it wasn't easy. -No.
So, for me, it was removing myself
from that environment was the first thing.
So I was selling drugs, I moved to Louisiana.
-My mother moved there after I graduated high school. -Right.
So I started doing the only thing I really knew how to do,
which was working with food.
And I just took it one day at a time.
And I told myself every year I just wanted to be doing better
than I was doing last year.
And, you know, ten years later,
here I am, sitting across talking to you.
Yeah, man, you've done an amazing job... especially...
(cheers and applause)
especially in the cooking space, because, like, it's not easy
-to-to win an award, you know, as a chef. -Yeah.
-It's not easy to be the head chef, you know, -Yeah.
at one of the world's biggest hotels.
That is something that you've achieved.
Do you look at your life as what got you to this point?
Or do you think you got to this point
-despite the life you lived? -A little bit of both.
You know, I think, uh, you-you choose your own path
-most times, you know? -Mm-hmm.
You-you choose how you're going to react to a situation.
Um, but it-it's not easy,
and you just have to take it one day at a time.
You know, when I got the helm of this huge restaurant,
I'm gonna be quite honest.
-I had no idea what I was doing. -Right.
No clue. Um, but it was the same thing.
Okay, we're gonna work on one thing at a time,
and we're gonna get better at this one dish at a time.
Um, and every day, we just try to do a little bit better
than we did the day before.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book
is when you talk about raising money
-to achieve your dreams... -Yeah.
...and how you don't want to sell drugs anymore,
so you decide to go and sell candy
-on the New York City subway. -Yeah.
Right? Which is harder: selling drugs
-or selling candy on the subway? -(laughter)
-They... -'Cause no one pays attention on the train.
They-they have their challenges.
-Both of them have their challenges. -Yeah.
One is extremely more lucrative than the other,
um, to be honest with you.
-I don't know which one, to be honest. -(laughter)
-We're not gonna get into what was sold. -'Cause you made...
-'cause you made a lot of money selling candy. -I did, yeah.
-Absolutely. -You made $20,000 in a few months?
-Mm-hmm. Yeah. -(audience member whoops)
Yeah. Just from selling candy.
What's funny is-- I haven't really shared this story--
uh, I did a dinner...
I did pop-ups around the world, um, and I stopped in Miami.
And one of the guys
that used to sell drugs for me, he lived in Miami.
So, I was like, "Hey, I changed my life around.
You got to come to my dinner."
And I-I talk about my story.
So, we're sitting there, and I get up,
and I'm in front of the whole dining room.
And I'm like, "Yeah, you know, I sold candy
in order to save up for my catering company."
-And he never knew this part of me. -Right.
He was like, "Ha! Candy? Yeah, right!"
Like, in the middle of the dinner.
-(laughter) -I'm like, "Stop. Stop.
G, stop it."
-Um... -Well, when you look
at young people now who may look up to you...
I mean, you know what? It's-it's no... it's no secret
that there are many youths out there
who are products of their environment
who find the allure of selling drugs
or getting into a gang, um, really difficult to resist.
And you are living a life now
which is legal, successful and inspirational.
When young men look at you or when they read your book,
what would you hope that they take away from your story?
Um, that anything is possible.
You know, if you really put your mind to it
and you work and you put in the hours,
um, and you just outwork everyone else,
you can be successful in any field you're in.
-Right. -I don't think this book is just for young chefs.
I don't think it's for black chefs.
-I think it's just for anyone, you know? -Right.
Anyone to really see that if you really want something,
like, if you really, really want it,
you can achieve it.
And that's what I want people to walk away
from reading Notes from a Young Black Chef.
Well, man, it's a fascinating book.
I hope everybody reads it. Great story to tell.
-Thank you so much for being on the show. -Thank you. Thank you.
Notes from a Young Black Chef is available now.
Kwame Onwuachi, everybody.