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PDF Notes from a Young Black Chef A Memoir eBook Kwame Onwuachi Joshua David Stein

Product details File Size 2408 KB Print Length 273 pages Page Numbers Source ISBN 1524732621 Publisher Knopf (April 9, 2019) Publication Date April 9, 2019 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B07DT1KYYY

Notes from a Young Black Chef A Memoir eBook Kwame Onwuachi Joshua David Stein Reviews

• Really enjoyed reading about my favorite Top Chef contestant. Kwame epitomizes what it takes to succeed as a black man in this world. He takes us on a journey from a toddler cooking with his Mom, to his time with an abusive father, living with his grandfather in Nigeria, being a head strong teenager in the Bronx, to a drug dealer in college, to resisting racism in fine dining kitchens in NY, to finding himself as an innovative chef cooking the food of his ancestors. Resistance, resilience and survival!
• What an interesting story! He clearly has an ego, and he’s clearly worried about it. Maybe he shouldn’t worry too much - this is an almost brutally honest autobiography, that some how leaves me wanting very much to try his cooking.
• Inspiring.
• Well written and an awe-inspiring story. Look forward to cooking through Chef’s recipes that are included in each chapter.
• Most readers likely know Kwame Onwuachi from Top Chef (season 13) and may be interested in the book because of that show. However, his chapter on the Top Chef experience is perhaps the least-interesting part of this fascinating memoir. Onwuachi focuses largely on his culture and the role it plays in his professional life, explaining that he is typically asked to cook either southern comfort food (he's from the Bronx) or African cuisine (his heritage is Nigerian, though he was asked to cook a meal from Senegal because "You know, it's Africa"), but his passion is fine-dining. He shares experiences working in a variety of cooking environments--catering, the galley of a Deepwater Horizon cleanup ship, Mexican restaurants, Per Se and Eleven Madison Park, culminating in his own restaurant, the Shaw Bijou in DC--and provides a personal look at what he experienced in each of those environments.
  
  But Onwuachi's focus throughout is on his race, his experiences growing up, and how those continue to influence his life. His parents divorced when he was young, his father was (is) physically and emotionally abusive, he was a troublemaker in school (resulting in his being sent to live with his grandfather in Nigeria for two years), and he became a drug-dealer who was expelled from college. Onwuachi tells his story matter-of-factly, without excuses or pulls for sympathy, allowing the reader a glimpse of the challenges he faced. When Onwuachi has his wake-up moment--watching Obama's inauguration after a night-long bender--he then shows how his experiences to that time helped him successfully matriculate from the CIA while owning his own catering business (largely funded by selling candy bars instead of drugs), work his way up the chef ladder while confronting implicit racism, and eventually open his own restaurant. He shows why this restaurant failed after only three months (to the delight of much of the DC restaurant community), and the story is unfair and heart-breaking to the reader despite Onwuachi not asking for our pity.
  
  While Onwuachi's story is fascinating, the writing itself is workmanlike clear, direct, easy to follow, but without a strong voice or sense of style. Despite his youth (the entire story happens before he turns 30), there's so much here I wanted to learn more about trying to attend a private school when your home life is chaotic and falling apart, living in Nigeria when all you've known is the Bronx, successfully passing challenging courses at the CIA while simultaneously running a business and working on the side, and so on. The apparently-required recipes after each chapter reflect this dynamic of sharing some but not enough they're basic examples of dishes related to the chapters that preceded them, with little evidence of what Onwuachi would do to elevate them.
  
  In summary, Onwuachi shares a glimpse of his rich and dramatic experiences and demonstrates that we can learn from--and overcome--the most challenging circumstances in our lives. Highly recommended (even if you're not a fan of chef memoirs).
• Overall this was a good read, and worth your time if you love food and its preparation. I think the overall reason I gave this three stars, though, is because it feels like the full story hasn't been written. Most people wait until their later seasons in life when they can look back at the journey and have it all make sense, whereas this book left me feeling unfinished.
  
  I'd recommend this to readers who've felt pushed down or ignored all their lives despite their talent and abilities. It takes a drive like Kwame's to get past people's obstacles of seeing who you really are, of seeing how you can be a strong asset to a team and a family and a great leader. In the end, you just have to swallow your disappointment and try again. And again. And again. And that attitude has not let him down.
  
  Big shout-out to Kwame's mother too -- what an amazing woman!
• This fine book traces the complex history of Kwame Onwuachi on his journey through a number of restaurants with a focus on his experiences because of his race. Fascinating reading, but I love trying the recipes -- and this one was a triumph for this mid-level cook with some training at the Culinary Institute of America -- three one week courses to be precise.
  
  Bastilla by Executive Chef/Owner Kwame Onwuachi of The Shaw Bijou in Washington, DC.
  Serves 4 people
  
  INGREDIENTS
  3 pounds Australian Lamb Shoulder, deboned
  Salt to taste
  1 cup + 4 tablespoons Ras el hanout
  4 + extra for frying tablespoons canola oil
  3 Yellow onions, diced
  1 head Garlic, minced
  2 cups Leeks, sliced
  1 tablespoon Tomato Paste
  1 ½ gallons Chicken Stock
  3 tablespoons Coconut Sugar
  4 inches Feuilles de brik, 2 x 5 inches
  1 cup Egg wash
  2 tablespoons Button Mushrooms, dehydrated
  2 tablespoons powdered Sugar
  
  DIRECTIONS
  1. Season lamb aggressively with salt and one cup Ras el Hanout.
  
  2. In a large pot on high heat, add canola oil. Add lamb and sear on all sides until dark brown, about two minutes per side. Remove lamb and set aside. Next, add onions, garlic, leeks and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add 4 tablespoons of Ras el Hanout and tomato paste. Mix until combined and cook until the tomato paste has a dark rusty color, about 5 minutes. Place lamb back in pan. Cover with chicken stock and turn heat low. Simmer for 3 hours, covered.
  
  3. Remove lamb and shred it. Reserve two cups of shredded lamb. Place the rest in the fridge.
  
  4. Strain the braising liquid into a bowl and place back in the pot. Add coconut sugar and reduce on medium-high heat until the liquid is syrupy, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
  
  5. Place the shredded lamb in a half hotel pan and place another half hotel pan on top. Weigh it down and place in the refrigerator for one day.
  
  6. Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the lamb from the pan by flipping it over. Portion into one and a half inch by 4 inch pieces. Season with salt. Place in a large, oven-safe sauté pan on high heat. Sear until crispy on one side, about 5 minutes. Place in oven and warm through, about 10 minutes.
  
  7. Wrap the feuilles de brick around a metal tube and seal the edges with egg wash. Fill a large pot one quarter full with oil. Place on high heat until oil reaches temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Add wrapped fueilles de brick and fry until crispy, about 5 minutes. In a large pot over high heat. Let cool and remove metal tube. Stuff with shredded lamb.
  
  TO ASSEMBLE
  Place seared piece of lamb on the plate and place the pastry next to it. Place a spoonful of the braising liquid next to the lamb. Dust the pastry with powdered sugar and mushroom powder.
  
  Robert C. Ross
  February 2019