Renowned chef Kwame Onwuachi talks about his highly anticipated return to the U.S. capital restaurant scene, New York reservation culture, and his personal approach to fine dining.&nbsp;

Photography ALINE VELTER

There&rsquo;s no one like Kwame Onwuachi. The famed <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/hot-chef-summer-sexiest-chefs">chef</a> is a household name for food obsessives around the world thanks to his splashy Top Chef debut and subsequent successes, which run the gamut from being a published <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/summer-2024-books-author-interview">author</a> to a James Beard Foundation &ldquo;Rising Star Chef of the Year&rdquo; in 2019; he even launched his own line of nail polish. And yet, Onwuachi feels like he&rsquo;s just getting started.
Onwuachi&rsquo;s childhood was split between the Bronx and Nigeria. After returning from Nigeria to graduate high school and working as the head chef on a boat providing for crews cleaning up the Deepwater Horizon spill, he returned to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/best-fall-2024-museum-exhibits">New York</a> to work at various spaces in the industry, including Per Se and Eleven Madison Park. At Washington, D.C.&rsquo;s Kith/Kin (pronounced Kith and Kin) and New York&rsquo;s Tatiana, Onwuachi has constantly defined and redefined what Afro-Caribbean cuisine is. This year, the famed chef returns to D.C. for the opening of a new space, Dōgon, which opened September 9. Named after the West African tribe from which Benjamin Banneker&mdash;an 18th century naturalist, mathematician, astronomer and almanac author&mdash;originated, the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/new-york-fashion-week-dining-restaurant-bars">restaurant</a> will come to the Salamander Hotel in the midst of the buzzy Wharf area, which already includes restaurants helmed by well known chefs, such as Fabio and Maria Trabocchi, Philippe Massoud, Nicholas Stefanelli, Philippe Chow, and others. At Salamander, Onwuachi will partner with Sheila Johnson, cofounder of BET. Since 2021, Onwuachi has served as a leadership council member for No Kid Hungry, a nonprofit organization working to solve hunger and poverty in the U.S. and around the world.
Ahead of Dōgon&rsquo;s opening later this year, Onwuachi sat down with L&rsquo;OFFICIEL to talk about a wide array of topics, including the depth and breadth of the District&rsquo;s food options, why he picked now to make a return, the hotly contested reservation wars, his fashion sense, and much more.&nbsp;

Chef Kwame Onwuachi for L'OFFICIEL's October 2024 Issue.

L&rsquo;OFFICIEL: Why do you think now is the right time to come back to the District?&nbsp;
KWAME ONWUACHI: The right opportunity presented itself: Partnering with someone that I believe in, and that really knows me, Sheila Johnson. I'm a huge fan of her work and what she represents. I knew I always wanted to come back to the District when it was time. I have a story to tell, and I'm really excited to be able to share it with people.
L&rsquo;O: How might that story differ from how it was last time? Do you see it as a continuation?
KO: It's a continuation, for sure. The last time, I was tapping into my heritage, my Afro-Caribbean heritage. I'm doing the same this time, but explaining it in terms of Washington, D.C., and how there wouldn't even be a capital without West African science, taking from the Dōgon tribe in Mali, their practices. It was passed down through generations to Benjamin Banneker [an 18th century African-American naturalist, mathematician, astronomer and almanac author], who helped define the borders of the District. It's more of a continuation than anything else.
L&rsquo;O: What&rsquo;s your go-to restaurant for a memorable meal in D.C.?
KO: Chercher. It's an Ethiopian restaurant in Shaw [a neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant]. I think it's a really good representation of Ethiopian cuisine, with really great cooking methods. I like Los Hermanos; it's a <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/luar-spring-summer-2025-nyfw-looks-runway-madonna">Dominican</a> restaurant. That&rsquo;s a really, really good one&mdash;especially being from the Bronx, having a strong Dominican and Puerto Rican influence, and my upbringing&mdash;that's very special. I really enjoy Albi. It's a really, really great restaurant, showing that type of cuisine [hummus, fish &amp; meat plates] from the Middle East.
L&rsquo;O: What excites you about the D.C. culinary scene right now?
KO: When you're opening a restaurant, it is pretty much like head down. I'm not there to eat at other restaurants. I'm there to provide a restaurant for people. For me, what's exciting about it is the base of supporters that I have [in the area]; I cut my teeth there and opened up my first restaurants there. I have&hellip;I wouldn't even call it a following, but a family of people who really believe in what I'm doing. I'm excited to give them something that they can feel at home. That's what I provided with Kith/Kin, having an Afro-Caribbean restaurant where people can celebrate their culture while celebrating a special experience. People of color, we don't really have that around the country. So, [I] give them something that fulfills some sort of purpose that I feel I have on this earth.

&nbsp;"For me, it's about conveying my culture, [and] creating, essentially, a cultural equilibrium within the food space."

L&rsquo;O: Is that what you're trying to cultivate with Tatiana?
KO: Yeah, absolutely. And [to] tell a story. Intentionality is key with opening restaurants. You can easily put a burger on the menu and claim to have the best burger in the city. But telling a story with cuisine is really important.
L&rsquo;O: When you're telling that story and thinking about how you're going to present it, what does that creative process look like? Where do you start?
KO: I start with the land and let that speak to me. For Tatiana, this used to be old San Juan Hill, [an] Afro-Caribbean, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/the-latinx-designers-who-shaped-american-fashion">Latin</a> community, and I knew I wanted to honor that. Dōgon is on L'Enfant Plaza, so I looked at who [Pierre Charles] L'Enfant was&mdash;he was the mapmaker for D.C [designed in 1791].&nbsp;&nbsp;
L&rsquo;O: What do you want your food to say or represent at this stage of your career?
KO: I want my food to still be delicious. That's first [laughs] and foremost before anything else. It needs to be very, very, good. It's about conveying my culture; creating, essentially, a cultural equilibrium within the food space. The way that sushi and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/max-mara-resort-2025-runway-show-venice-see-all-the-looks">Italian</a> food are synonymous with fine dining, I want that to be the case for Afro-Caribbean cuisine as well, and not have people bat an eye at it. It's a long, arduous road and journey I'm on, but it's what I've been doing, seemingly since the beginning of my career. It's something that's really, really important to me.
L&rsquo;O: Do you think telling that story has gotten easier as you've continued through your career?
KO: Yes, [the] process has gotten easier, but I don't think that's because of anything besides my journey. It's hard for anybody to be doing that. If I was making burgers and fries, my process would be easier now, because I've been doing it for so long. So I would say yes, but I don't want you to take that into meaning that the road is easier for other people right now.
L&rsquo;O: Sure.
KO: You know what I mean? Like, shit is [not] all fucking gravy. "We had <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/black-lives-matter-fashion-beauty-brand-donations-movement">Black Lives Matter</a> [and now] we're all good." No. It is still very, very tough for young black chefs to get funding, investors, and people to believe in their concepts. Because of the journey that I've been on, yes, technically, it is easier for me to sell myself. It's a testament to what I did to get here, not where the current state of the world is right now.
L&rsquo;O: Do you have a perspective on the reservations wars in New York restaurants and what that means for you as someone who&rsquo;s in this on a daily basis?
KO: It's pretty annoying that people are creating bots to steal reservations, and then resell them. It&rsquo;s not like there's a lack of people trying to eat at the restaurant. It should be a level playing ground. We&rsquo;ve thought about going &ldquo;no reservations,&rdquo; but then that means people are waiting outside and can't plan their day. We don't really have the answers. I'm helping to get a bill signed where [creating bots to make reservations] is a criminal offense. [I&rsquo;m] working with Resy and Amex to get that bill passed. Honestly, it's annoying. It&rsquo;s a nuisance. It's not that deep. We&rsquo;re serving dinner. People should be able to have access to it. It's kind of like first-world problems? I don't know. It&rsquo;d be one thing if we were a soup kitchen and people were stealing our reservations, but it&rsquo;s all privilege-based at the end of the day.

&nbsp;"Feeling good, eating good, [and] looking good are important."&nbsp;

L&rsquo;O: I never thought we&rsquo;d be in a position where we&rsquo;d be treating restaurant reservations like a <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/supreme-airstream-trailer-collaboration-spring-2022">Supreme</a> drop.&nbsp;
KO: I guess it's flattering that people want to eat at restaurants like mine, and other restaurants so badly that they're actually scalping tickets like we're <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/beyonce-renaissance-tour-fashion-looks">Beyonc</a><a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/beyonce-renaissance-tour-fashion-looks">&eacute;</a> or something. It's interesting. Honestly, if I had to sum it up, it's just fucking annoying. The guests complain about it. It's hard. I'm not a computer programmer. I don't know how to put a bot thing on the reservations. We also don't even control the reservation platform; it's done by someone else. It's annoying that we're even talking about it right now.
L&rsquo;O: What skills from Top Chef did you take away from your time there that still continue to benefit you?
KO: Taking feedback. I've been better at that since.&nbsp;
L&rsquo;O: Does that, in turn, change how you are providing feedback to contestants in a judging capacity, or even in terms of how you&rsquo;re interacting with other people in your restaurants?
KO: When I'm judging on those shows, I feel like it comes from a place of empathy, because I'm asking, &ldquo;Okay, how much time did you have to make this? What were the parameters of the challenge?&rdquo; I've been there. I try to be pretty straightforward when I'm giving feedback on those shows because that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re there for. If you&rsquo;re not, then you&rsquo;re doing a disservice to that person.
L&rsquo;O: What does your fashion look like these days?
KO: I like to wear what feels good. I wear a lot of functionable fashion [so] I can jump into the kitchen at any point in time with whatever I'm wearing, but it still can be pretty fly. Anything from <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/rick-owens-most-over-the-top-runway-moments">Rick Owens</a> to Daily Paper to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/puma-and-rhude-announce-a-genderless-capsule-collection">Rhude</a> to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/gucci-campaign-we-will-always-have-london">Gucci</a> to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/prada-womens-fashion-show-spring-summer-2025-collection-photo-look">Prada</a> to Kid Super. All of those things that border the line of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/anok-yai-street-style">streetwear</a> plus luxury. It's functional fashion; I can do a lot of things and not feel like I'm so dressed up [to] where I feel uncomfortable, but I still feel good and look good.
L&rsquo;O: Has a brand ever approached you about a partnership?
KO: Yeah, nothing. Honestly, I would love to do that. I did an apron line with Tilit, but that&rsquo;s something on my list. Doing a collaboration with a big brand would be really dope. Feeling good, eating good, [and] looking good are important. Even the uniforms at the restaurant I designed to look like something I would wear. They&rsquo;re Y-3&ndash;esque, black shirts and aprons. I would love to do that.
L&rsquo;O: What do you see as an overlap between clothing and food?
KO: The true relationship is that restaurants are public spaces, so people tend to dress up when they go out to eat. It's a moment for a lot of people. In terms of design, when you're serious about food, all the details matter. The same thing applies in fashion. That's how those things live in harmony. There's the tangible side of visual representation, dressing up to go out to eat, and there are actually the details behind it. Anything high-end, it's all in the details.

How Chef Kwame Onwuachi Returns to the District

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