![]() I do know how to have a lot of fun outside of the kitchen, but in the kitchen, I’m very professional. I was very supportive of the other chefs and very humble. How do you think you came out in the final cut? There’s so much that happens and a day gets distilled down to 15 minutes of time. I showed well, and I think I showed America who I am. But I don’t think I’d take back anything, honestly. I know it probably wasn’t the best thing in a cooking competition. It was a fast casual concept and, in my mind, I’m thinking fast casual/fast food, everything is not made from scratch. It would have sucked if they said that it was disgusting and it’s frozen. The challenge I went out on for frozen waffles, it still tasted good. It seemed like you had success early and then had a tougher time as the season went along. Luckily, that happened for me early, and I was able to have some success, pick my head up and perform to best of my ability. And everyone’s like “James Beard semifinalist,” “Food & Wine Best New Chef,” and “Zagat’s 30 under 30.” I was like “shit, what am I doing here, I made a mistake.” But you get through the challenges and show everybody what you’re working with, and you get your confidence back. Especially the first episode, that’s the scariest thing, walking in, there’s a part they don’t show where we’re all introducing ourselves and where we came from and what our accolades are. Of course! I’d be a fool if I said I wasn’t scared. There were people on the show who have been doing it a LOT longer. ![]() I’ve been in kitchens since I was eight, but as a professional, on the line, like five years. I just wished for the best and went out there with my own life experiences and hoped that they would carry me through.įrom your first job in a kitchen to now is about, what, five years?Īs a professional. Every challenge, I was like, “What the hell am I going to do? They put a vending machine here ?” All that stuff just scared me so I did not watch the show. So, I kind of just tried to watch the show and it just made my stomach hurt. There’s like this contract you have to sign that’s a million dollar contract with confidentiality that I didn’t even reach out to people I knew had been on the show. Who did you talk to beforehand? I know a bunch of chefs who have done it immediately seek out others who have gone on Top Chef. ![]() doing a little interview and shortly after that they were like “pack your bags.” I said yes and a week later I was in L.A. I got a phone call asking me if I wanted to go on the show. It was right before I was about to go to Asia on a trip. Had permits gone through, I wouldn’t have been able to go on the show.ĭid you get approached or did you answer an open call? We were pushed back because of permits so I was able to do the show. How much of that factored in to doing Top Chef? You’re working on opening a restaurant and success on the show has been great publicity. Let’s talk about the timing of the season. Kwame talked to the City Paper about his season, how a chef with just five years of experience approached the competition, and how he made Colicchio nearly cry when he left. chefs selected for this season, which continues tonight at 9 p.m. His elimination leaves only Ripple‘s Marjorie Meek-Bradley from the trio of D.C. ![]() Tasked with developing a fast casual concept and serving a dish from the hypothetical menu, Onwuachi chose to use frozen waffles instead of made-to-order ones and got dinged for it by the judges. Indeed, his elimination last week was from a conceptual mistake, not a cooking one. “The hardest part was just getting out of your head.” “I think the cooking was the easy part,” he says. Still, it wasn’t a cakewalk, by any stretch. ![]() Outside of winning, it’s hard to see how Kwame Onwuachi’s time on Top Chef could have gone any better: He acquitted himself well in the kitchen, earning raves from respected chefs like head judge Tom Colicchio his likable personality came through in the editing process (not always a guarantee) and he got tons of publicity for his yet-to-open The Shaw Bijou (still three to four months away from opening). Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. ![]()
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