-Welcome back to "Late Night."
We're here with James Beard Award winner Kwame Onwuachi!
-What's up, what's up? [ Cheers and applause ]
-And, Kwame, before you even tell us what we're making,
we have a pre-made cocktail. Can you tell me about this?
-We're cheers-ing. -cheers-ing, man.
Thank you very much. What are we drinking?
-Ahh! We're drinking success.
-Yes! Thank you. -That's what we're drinking.
-It's very lovely. -So, it's a gin and tonic
with elderflower and, like, lime and honey.
It's one of my favorite cocktails.
And it goes great with a crawfish boil.
-Crawfish boil. All right, this is fantastic.
And, now, are these live crawfish right now?
-You tell me. -Oh, my goodness!
Look at that! If that's CGI, it's very good.
-The budget on this show is amazing.
-Yeah, you're holding up a rubber crawfish,
and we're making its arms move in post.
-There you go. -So, you grew up in Nigeria...
-Yep. -...Louisiana, and the Bronx?
-And the Bronx. Shout-out to the Bronx.
-All right, there we go. Now, this certainly,
of all of them, this seems like maybe
the most Louisiana-inspired. -Yeah.
This is what we -- you know, we got together as a family,
we made the crawfish, and dumped it on the table.
And the more skilled you are at eating crawfish,
the more you eat. -All right, there you go.
-So I'm gonna teach you how to eat crawfish today.
-So what are we starting with? What do we do first?
-So, why don't you cut that garlic in half.
-Okay, great. All right, I'm happy to do that.
-We're gonna cut it lengthwise so we can expose all the cloves.
-Okay. I was -- You should have said that before
I did it the other way. [ Laughter ]
-And just -- -I think it'll be fine!
I think it'll probably be fine.
Should I throw it in mine or yours?
-Throw it in this one. We're gonna work out of
this one today. -Okay.
-And then, you're gonna cut some of these lemons in half.
-Okay. Do you want to tell me beforehand how you want it?
-No, no, no, I want to see what you do.
I want to see what you're made of.
-All right, here we go. I cut it perfectly in half.
-Okay, yeah, we'll use that there, and we'll just do that.
-All right. A couple of these?
-Yep, there we go. -So, lemon's a big part.
I wouldn't have guessed that for a crawfish boil.
-Yeah, so we have a lot of citrus in there,
so I have some lemons, some oranges.
You can cut that corn in half. -All right, great.
-And you can also cut the sausages in, like, thirds.
There we go. Just a little strength.
-There you go. "Strength" -- that seems
a little passive-aggressive. [ Laughter ]
So, Kwame, you've written a memoir.
-Yes. -This is your first cookbook,
but there are some memoir elements to this.
You told the story of a lot of these recipes.
-Well, it's important to give a voice to the inaudible.
I don't think you can talk about American cuisine
without talking about West African food.
And, you know, everyone has their different version
of what they ate growing up in their house.
When you're 6 years old and you're eating food,
you're not asking like, "What nationality is this, Mom?"
You're just eating your food. And when you go out
and you go to sleepovers, then you realize, like,
not everybody is eating the same way.
-Yeah. -So I thought it was important
to tell these stories so people really understood.
You've got to keep cutting the sausage while I'm talking.
-Okay, great. [ Laughter ]
-People understand, you know,
American cuisine in all its glory.
-Okay, that's fantastic. Now, you dedicated
both the cookbook and the memoir to your mom.
You were telling me, she runs a catering company,
and you started working for her at a young age.
-Yeah, yeah. Very much against the law.
She threw me in an apron at 5 years old.
-That's against the law. -And, you know, I learned
how to cook, and I learned how to season my food.
-Now, are you concerned about the fact that
a bunch of these are, like, trying to get out of here?
-No, you got to be quicker than that.
They're all right. [ Audience "Aws" ]
Oh, don't be "aw"-ing me. All right?
[ Laughter ]
-These are all death-row crawfish.
[ Audience groans ]
They all committed terrible crimes.
-Let's give it up for the crawfish, everybody.
-Crawfish, everybody! [ Cheers and applause ]
-So, we have the crawfish in there.
I'm gonna add some potatoes to this.
Now, this is special. It's my mom's house spice.
You can get it online at Spiceology.com.
-Now, when you went to her and said,
"I want to sell your spice," was she at all against this idea?
-No, she doesn't know at all. -She doesn't know, all right.
-Yeah, she goes to sleep at 9:00, so she's fine.
[ Laughter ] She's fine.
-You're selling her secret spice mix.
She has no idea. -Hey, man, I take care of mom.
Okay? -Nobody would say otherwise.
-So we're gonna let this simmer.
And normally, you would throw the crawfish in last.
You would let the potatoes cook for a while, throw it in last,
cut the heat off, and then just let all of that flavor soak in.
I've got a Louisiana hot sauce, I've got ginger,
I've got garlic, I have thyme... -Okay.
-...lots of chilies, and the house spice.
-How hot are we talking? -It's not --
How hot can you take? -I can take pretty hot.
-All right, then, it's pretty hot.
-All right, great. I'm ready to go.
You were gonna lie to me, otherwise.
You were fully gonna lie to me about that.
-"Lie" is a strong word, Seth, all right?
So, luckily for you, we're not gonna wait for that.
We've got some crawfish over here, ready to go.
And, you know... -I feel like I should roll up
my sleeves. Is that accurate?
-Yeah, roll them up. Or, yeah, push them up.
We're gonna just put that right on this newspaper here.
-And this is how you'd serve it?
You'd just throw it on a newspaper?
-That's it, yeah, that's it. -All right.
All right, show me technique here.
I know how to eat sausage, so I'm gonna just do that
right now. -There you go.
[ Laughter ]
Now, you can finish this with a little bit more
of this house spice.
-I have a bigger bite than I thought.
[ Laughter ]
-That was a big sausage, there.
[ Laughter ]
-Ha ha ha ha. [ Laughter ]
-So, what you do is, you twist it like this.
-Okay. -All right, twist it.
-Yeah. -Then, you pinch it.
-Uh-huh. Just off the tail, right?
-Yeah, perfect.
-Do I do that? Was that wrong?
-Come on, man. Just follow instructions,
all right? -Let's start over.
Pinch it? -Yeah.
-All right, wait, no, twist it.
-Twist it. -Twist it.
Bop it. [ Laughter ]
-Twist it off, then pinch it like this.
-Mm-hmm. -Yep, and then you're gonna
pinch the bottom. -Okay.
-Hold on. Pinch the bottom like this.
-That's what I'm doing. -All right.
And then you're gonna take off the first layer like that.
-Okay, great. I don't feel like I did
a great job, and I'm still -- -You got it.
And then all you do is...
and it comes out, and that's it. -That is really delicious.
-That's it. -That's really delicious.
Thank you, crawfish. -So this dish, you know,
reminds me of getting together, like, family,
and I have an event called The Family Reunion,
as well, that highlights, you know, black and Brown
contributions to the food industry,
and it's a four-day food festival
at Salamander Resort & Spa in Virginia.
-That's fantastic. -And we'll have crawfish.
We'll have all this stuff there. -All right, thank you so much.
We really appreciate it. Kwame Onwuachi, everybody!
"My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef"
is available now. We'll be right back.