Top Chef favourite brings taste of the Caribbean and Creole to Test Kitchen
Kwame Onwuachi, who has cooked at the White House for Barack Obama, revisits Hong Kong for a pop-up where guests can enjoy his dishes that recall his Nigerian, Trinidadian and Jamaican roots
Chef Kwame Onwuachi is happy to be back in Hong Kong, ready to cook a taste of home for diners on his second visit as guest chef at Test Kitchen from February 7-11.
The last time the 28-year-old Bronx native was here, in March 2015, he was getting ready to open his restaurant Shaw Bijou in Washington DC.
Hong Kong dining: food industry veteran’s favourite restaurants, from Cuisine Cuisine to Mak’s Noodle
But just before he did that Onwuachi, who previously worked at places like Eleven Madison Park and Per Se, was a contestant on Top Chef season 13, and quickly became a fan favourite because of his story of spending part of his childhood in Nigeria and opened his own catering company at 20.
“I never really watched the show so I didn’t know what to expect. It looks easier than it is,” he recalls. “I was the youngest on the show and everyone had way more experience than me. I was a line cook competing against executive chefs.”
Onwuachi kept his head down and was very pleased to finish a semi-finalist. This led to a cooking demo at the White House for then US President Barack Obama, and opening his restaurant in August 2016.
