Kwame Onwuachi is the James Beard Award-winning former executive chef at Kith/Kin and owner of the Philly Wing Fry franchise in Washington, D.C. He was a contestant on Top Chef (season 13) in 2015. He has been recognized by Food & Wine magazine, Esquire magazine, and the James Beard Foundation as "Rising Star Chef of the year."

Onwuachi trained at the Culinary Institute of America and has opened five restaurants before turning thirty. A former Top Chef contestant, he has been named one of Food & Wine‘s Best New Chefs and a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes.

He was born on Long Island and raised in New York City, Nigeria, and Louisiana. Onwuachi was first exposed to cooking by his mother, in the family’s modest Bronx apartment, and he took that spark of passion and turned it into a career. From toiling in the bowels of oil cleanup ships to working at some of the best restaurants in the world, he has seen and lived his fair share of diversity.

In 2019, Onwuachi published a memoir, "Notes from a Young Black Chef," with Joshua David Stein. The book tells the story of his childhood in New York and Nigeria, and the opening of the Shaw Bijou.

Celebrity Chef, Food & Beverage, Chefs, Top Chef, Forbes, Forbes speakers, Forbes Top Lists, New York, Washington DC, Entrepreneurship, Business Founders, Restaurateurs, Restaurants & Dining, Food industry, Food, Food & Wine, SXSW, Diversity, Culture, Black Heritage, BLM