46 pages • 1 hour read
Notes from a Young Black Chef
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Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Standing on Stories”
Content Warning: This section references emotional and physical child abuse, drug use, gang violence, and racism.
The first chapter interweaves details of Kwame Onwuachi’s childhood and experiences with racism in the kitchen with his experience catering an elite event at the National Museum of African American History and Culture while counting down the days to opening his flagship restaurant, Shaw Bijou, at the age of 26. Onwuachi explains that the opening of a restaurant requires him to pull from every source of strength and inspiration. As a boy, he watched his mother, a caterer, cook. As a young man, he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and gained attention with his appearance on the show Top Chef. It seems as if everything in his life has led up to this point—the opening of his restaurant on November 1, 2016.
Despite his training, Onwuachi faces many challenges. Washington, DC’s zoning laws and broken water mains are the first of many problems. The city is accustomed to expensive steakhouses owned by recognizable white chefs. Onwuachi is presenting a completely new concept: eight tables sold via nonrefundable tickets for $185 a person, not including tips or drinks. While Onwuachi rages against the stuffy traditionalism of chefs who suggest he has not yet paid his dues or earned the right to open such a restaurant, he also wonders if there is truth in the criticism. He also wonders to whom he should be paying dues and whether the idea of “paying dues” is rooted in racism, as it ignores the culinary contributions of Black cooks while idolizing white chefs.
At the museum, Onwuachi considers what it means to cook above the History Galleries, a monument on the museum’s lowest level to the “horrors and heartbreak of the American slave trade” (9). The food he serves is endowed with meaning; the ingredients and the dishes represent Onwuachi’s personal history, as well as the histories of the African diaspora. For example, Onwuachi serves gumbo, a dish that connects him to his childhood and to the complex history of Black food in America. Onwuachi puts his own spin on Southern culinary traditions while honoring their complex heritage. He replaces the marshmallows on yams with parmesan foam and tops the gumbo with caviar. It is important to Onwuachi that the food be both accessible and elevated.
The chef’s kitchen team is diverse and inclusive. He describes what it is like to work in a catering kitchen and to account for the many mishaps and unexpected occurrences that come with the territory. When he leaves the kitchen to greet the crowd and introduce the food, he is struck by the two versions of himself: the one in the kitchen and the one in the spotlight. Neither perfectly represents his whole identity.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Egusi Stew”
Onwuachi’s parents met in January 1989 in New York. Patrick, Onwuachi’s father, was a temperamental man from Nigeria. Patrick’s father was an academic who taught at Howard University. Onwuachi’s grandfather moved back to Nigeria with Patrick in 1973 when Patrick was 12, but Patrick later returned to the United States to study architecture, and he met Onwuachi’s mother, Jewel. Onwuachi remembers his mother making a Nigerian stew called egusi for his father; it was Jewel’s way of connecting with her husband. Her pantry was stocked with ingredients that reflected multiple culinary traditions, including Nigerian. Onwuachi remembers standing outside his parents’ door at the age of three, listening to his parents argue, while egusi stew bubbled away on the stove. That day, Jewel left with Onwuachi’s sister. The next week served as an introduction to what life alone with his father would be like.
Onwuachi toggled back and forth between his parents’ homes, and weekends with his father were hellish. Patrick was abusive and demanding. Onwuachi describes him as “cuttingly mean” and unpredictable, beating Onwuachi for the slightest offense. A successful architect, Patrick had exacting standards and projected them onto his son. Although Onwuachi rejects his father’s treatment and abuse, he confesses that some of his own obsession with precision may stem from his father. Jewel did not know Patrick was abusing their son, and Patrick’s girlfriend witnessed the abuse but never spoke up.
Onwuachi’s experiences in his mother’s home provided a stark contrast to time spent with his father and inspired his culinary interest. Food and cooking had a rich history in Onwuachi’s family; his grandfather worked as a cook before opening his own private bar in Texas called the Little House. The Little House was a place of refuge and community for Black Texans in the 1960s. Onwuachi’s mother, Jewel, created a home filled with delicious food, fun stories, and parties. Jewel had developed friendships with influential people in the Black community of San Francisco and attended parties with figures such as Spike Lee and Fela Kuti. Her connections helped her to build a successful catering company. Soon, the family’s apartment was converted into a catering kitchen. Once, after smelling a curry being prepared in another apartment, Onwuachi and his mother knocked on doors to find the source and ask if they could have a taste. Although they did not have much money, Onwuachi was happier with his mother than he was with his more financially successful father.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
These first two chapters introduce three themes: The Discovery of Identity, Anger and Power, and Food as Connection and Story. Onwuachi introduces identity in the first chapter as he prepares to cater an event at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He questions what it means to be invited to cater an “‘African American’–themed” meal at this museum (8), standing on top of multiple floors of stories of survival, endurance, tragedy, resilience, and brilliance. Although Onwuachi knows that he could serve Southern comfort food classics and fulfill the brief, he chooses to prepare a selection of Creole and Southern dishes, explaining that “every dish on this five-course menu is […] a taste of [his] past remade for [his] future” (13). It is important to the chef that his food authentically represent his identity and story, as well as the stories of the men, women, and children whose lives are detailed in the museum. However, Onwuachi is not sure how to best tell his story or whether it in fact aligns with the stories of other African Americans. Throughout the work, he struggles to grasp his complete identity, eventually realizing that both his identity and African American identity broadly are plural rather than singular.
Complicating Onwuachi’s search for himself are the preconceptions of those around him, which racism often inflects. While Onwuachi is working on opening his new restaurant in Washington, DC, other DC chefs question his legitimacy as a chef, writing him off as entitled. They believe he is chasing a dream he has not yet earned. Onwuachi recognizes the racism that underscores this belief. Like many Black cooks whose contributions to the culinary world have been rendered invisible, Onwuachi was, at the beginning of his career, expected to be quiet and keep his head down. Onwuachi hints at his rebellious nature in this section: He is not content to follow the advice of veteran chefs who want to see him fail. Instead, he cooks food that conjures the flavors he grew up with and the wide range of the African diaspora.
Onwuachi’s rebellion reflects the larger theme of Anger and Power. Patrick was a dominating force in young Kwame’s life, wielding his power through violence and instilling in him a constant sense of dread and shame. Patrick was so exacting that he would force his son to mark an “X” on chart paper for every infraction. If the two lines of the “X” did not meet perfectly in the center, he would receive another mark. A certain number of marks led to a brutal beating. Later in the work, Onwuachi confronts his feelings about his father, whose abuse he links to a systemic problem with the way power is understood and exerted—one intertwined with racial inequality and oppression. The chef’s insistence on pushing back against the abuse and moving forward is the positive outcome of his resistance. He is angry, but he is angry at discrimination, oppression, and racism. He eventually finds power, but he learns how to wield in a way that helps rather than hurts.
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