Chef Kwame Onwuachi on Fast Food, Fatherhood, Top Chef, and the Met Gala

Katie Lee Biegel (0:01)

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Chef Kwame, I am so excited to have you here.

Kwame Onwuachi (0:23)

I'm happy to be here.

Katie Lee Biegel (0:24)

I feel like it's a long time coming that we finally get to sit down and make friends.

Kwame Onwuachi (0:29)

We keep running into each other at events. I drank a lot of your wine.

Katie Lee Biegel (0:34)

Well, you are an early supporter of my wine. We first met at that food and wine event, and I was pouring, and I was blown away when you said that you liked the wine. I was like, oh my God, Chef Kwame likes it. He really likes it.

And then you put it on your menu, which was just the greatest honor. So thank you.

Kwame Onwuachi (0:54)

We have to help each other, you know what I mean?

Katie Lee Biegel (0:56)

That's right. So we have a mutual friend, colleague, Jordan Solomon. Yes.

Our agent. I feel like a broker to friendship.

Kwame Onwuachi (1:05)

Oh my God.

Katie Lee Biegel (1:06)

Yeah.

Kwame Onwuachi (1:06)

He is the reason why I'm at that agency.

Katie Lee Biegel (1:09)

I love that guy. Yeah.

Kwame Onwuachi (1:10)

He's incredible.

Katie Lee Biegel (1:11)

He really is the best. Yeah. And so I was texting with him yesterday because I think I talked to him more than I talked to my mom even. And I talked to my mom a lot. And I said, what's something about Kwame that I can ask him about? And he said, you have to ask him about ice cream.

He said, you make this ice cream with donuts and how incredible it is. Can you tell me about it?

Kwame Onwuachi (1:32)

Yeah. So when opening Tatiana in New York City, I wanted to pay an homage to my childhood in New York. And I just thought about desserts. What am I going to do with desserts? And we did a honey bun. We did a tired rainbow cookie panna cotta. But I wanted a trip to the bodega, like summarize in a dish. And for me, growing up in New York, I was always given a dollar. And then you go out and play all day. And you come back when the streetlights come on. And you had to manage that dollar throughout the day for food, which lets me know that my parents didn't love me. But they did the best that they could.

And I remember always getting some sort of combination. But there was normally powdered donuts in there and a cosmic brownie.

So I wanted to create a dessert that had both of those things. I mean, the cosmic brownie, you can't really touch. Like a good brownie is a good brownie. And you need to leave that on the plate. So we made a really, really great brownie. And then for the donut, I'm like, we got to manipulate that in some way. So we turned the donut into ice cream and then formed it back into the shape of a powdered donut. And we just sprinkle powdered sugar on there pretty much in a very pedestrian manner. So when it comes, it looks like it's just powdered donuts that dropped on the plate with the brownie until you try to pick it up and it's solid ice cream. And you have to use your spoon to eat it. So there's a lot of whimsy in that dessert and playfulness that I really enjoy. And it seems to me like people enjoy it too. So that recipe is actually in the book.

Katie Lee Biegel (3:04)

Oh, that one's in the book. Oh, great. Okay, great. So then I can make it. And the Cosmic Brownie, you served that at the Met Gala, right?

Kwame Onwuachi (3:12)

I did. I did.

Katie Lee Biegel (3:14)

What was that like doing the menu for the Met?

Kwame Onwuachi (3:16)

It was cool. It was cool. Cooking for a lot of important people.

I got to attend the Met Gala, which was awesome. It's really long, though. It's longer than you would think, you know? It's a very, very long ceremony. So, you know, I probably ate and drank a little bit too much, but it was fun. It was really, really fun to be there with that group of people. But also, like, the message that they were, the theme that year was black, you know, black inspiration in the fashion industry. So to be the chef to do that menu was really, really cool.

Katie Lee Biegel (3:49)

That must have been really cool, real experience, especially as a New Yorker.

Kwame Onwuachi (3:52)