Taste of Success: Intentional Living from Kwame Onwuachi

That's the music for that one. I'm going to show you the shop-ify. I'm going to show you the shop-ify.com. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of "Mick Unpluged" and today I'm sitting down with someone who I've been a fan of since like 2015 when I saw him race my team. Watchy, pop-share. He is a revolutionary culinary artist and a war-winning author and a visionary, wrestling artist.

“An visionary, restauranteer who was boldly redefining the landscape of modern American cuisine. He is a James Beard Award winner and a cultural force.”

He continuously pushes boundaries so that people like me can enjoy and learn about who. Please join me and welcome me. Be amazing. The shop-ify-made.

You're listening to "Mick Unpluged" hosted by the one-and-only "Mick Hunt". This is where purpose meets power and story-spark transformation. "Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable." I'm Rudy Rush and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get Unpluged.

What's up? What's up? What's up? I'm good, man. Can't complain. I'm honored to have you on. Like I said, I was a huge fan of you. The first time I ever saw you, you pushed my palate too, man.

It was one of those things where you were growing up in the South. You eat what you eat and you get used to it. I saw you for the first time, man. I was throwing in new dishes in the kitchen. I love that. I love how food can do that for people. Absolutely. The first question I usually ask my guests is, "What's your because?" I define your because as that thing that's deeper than your why. It's like your true purpose. It probably changes from time to time.

“So if I were to ask you today in 2026, what's your because? What's your purpose today?”

Man, I mean, my because would honestly be the gift of life. We're giving this gift that we get to get up every day. We get to experience joy, get to experience sadness, fear, excitement, love, the gift of life. I'm fortunate enough to be presented with a lot of opportunities, and that's not really missed on me. So the fact that I'm able to do that, the fact that I'm able to get so many things done, is my because. And you know, then you know, such think of like, okay, that's the root of it. Then, you know, what are you doing with that? What's your why? And I think my why is to leave this place better than I found it, you know, to kind of continue to put my culture at the forefront of everything that I do.

To use my soapbox to amplify and give a voice to the unautable.

And you do an amazing job, man, and I want to I want to hit on something that you said, you talked about always getting things done. And if I were to define.

I made now, again, being a huge fan of yours following you forever. And all of your journey, bro, you get things done, right? Like for those that don't know like Kwame is restaurant here, but there TV segment TV shows here. The things you're doing in communities that they I know you don't talk about because how humble you are, but the things that you do to give back, bro, like I always wonder how much time does Kwame have in a day because I have 24 hours, which seems like you might have much more than that.

All the things that you have going on, talk to us about those things, bro. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I have a lot going on, but I do have I do have that me time and I carve out time for it. It's really, really important for me from my my like recharging and resetting that I have that time to myself. You know, I play a lot of golf. I work out. I watch TV, you know, but the the the the times that I am working, they're very concentrated and it's more like, you know, I have a team. And I would say I'm sometimes I'm the quarterback and sometimes I'm the coach and sometimes I'm the water boy. So sometimes I have to fall back and let my team play the game or let my team run this play.

“So I think when you when you can rely on your team.”

The days and the hours feel multiplied a little bit.

Right. Did you see this version of yourself? I did. I was felt that I was going to be doing something. I didn't I didn't know what it was going to be. You know, my mom is a chef. I grew up in the kitchen. I didn't know that that was going to be my career path.

I always wanted to do something. I remember my dream was to own a McDonald's, you know, when I was younger and I went and I worked at McDonald's and that was my first job.

So like I always I knew that I would be doing something that would be multifaceted that I would be in, you know, have the responsibility of many people. I just didn't know what it was going to be.

“It was amazing, man. Amazing. You know, I got to see a lot of that journey that you had in your memoir, right?”

It notes from a young black chef and one of the things that I truly was inspired by that book was that you talk about a lot of things and I see your entrepreneur spirit all throughout that book too, right?

You're talking about the journey you're obviously aspiring chefs, right? But I also think there's a big part that's just like all entrepreneurs are about to what you're doing.

You need to hear this story or you need to understand how you don't give up on visions and dreams and how obstacles are going to happen. But your mark is really going to be how you respond to those obstacles and what you decide to choose to do. Talk to us a little bit about what motivated you to share your story and inspire others with. Well, you know, I was I was giving.

“I was doing a couple of these keynote speeches where I would tell my story and at one of them that was a literary agent in the crowd and she was like, you know, you need to have a book and I was like, okay, how much is this going to cost?”

You know, me being from New York thinking everything's a hustle and she was just like, you don't get paid until I get paid. And at that moment we started working on it, you know, it wasn't really like a dream of mine to write a memoir, especially at such a young age that would be a crazy dream. But um, I, I, um, I thought it was important to tell that story and be vulnerable. I think vulnerability is is very human and not just talk about the good times. We'll talk about the bad times and the obstacles and, you know, that's, that's the also.

What displays like true defining moments for people like it's not what happens to them, it's it's how they get back up as how they respond to it because that's what you're really in control of. You know, you could be up one year and down one year, you know, are you going to really are you going to respond to that?

“Yeah, and that's what I love taking away from the book, man, because to your point and you reference it in the book to everybody that we know that's great or that's good.”

But something happened multiple things probably happened that they had to overcome to get there, right? But the common thread is they didn't give up and so again, I think everyone regress of who you are, what you do for a living like that book needs to be a staple in your life because there's so much that you give in your journey that transpires and inspires to others. Yeah, I mean, that's the common thread amongst successful people. It's not how successful they are. It's that they didn't give up. That's it, you know, and a successful person's.

Most exciting project is the next project. You know, a true entrepreneur. So so yeah, it's it. I'm glad you said that because I think that that book, you know, the name chef can be swapped out for any any career path and the narrative will range through. True of, you know, the obstacles and the tribulations and the mental dexterity it takes to push through to get to that next level.

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The culinary side from the catering company like all the things that got you to where you are today. Yeah, I mean, it started like I said with my mom, you know, she had a catering company that separated from the house and we had no choice but to help out to keep the lights on. I was more of a chore, but that chore turned into a passion and that turned into, you know, a career and then a profession. But my started working with my mom and catering and helping out, you know, set up events or helping prep dishes or pack up, you know, I learned how to drive on a catering van.

“I pretty much did every job in the catering business, and then my first job outside of my mom's kitchen was in that McDonald's.”

I went to school after that for a business administration. And I ended up dropping out and moving to Louisiana where my mom had moved the Baton Rouge. And then I started working in kitchens as a dishwasher and as a cook, a server.

And then I went to the deep water horizon, oil spill that happened in the Gulf of Mexico has a chef for the cleanup group, the oil, the first responders down there.

And, you know, that really taught me that I, that I really, it showed me that I really enjoyed what I did and I enjoyed the joy on people's faces when they ate a meal. If I was cooking for a crew of 60 people, breakfast, and dinner, I didn't have any internet, you know, this is before Wi-Fi or anything like that. So it was just focusing on cooking and and holding my craft and making these people happy that we're doing pretty tough grueling jobs.

“And after that, I went back to New York City. I started working as a cater waiter and a waiter at some of fluent restaurants and found that I wasn't happy.”

You know, I needed to chase that happiness that happiness that I felt when I was on the boat cooking for people.

So I started my own catering company and I needed access to capital. I didn't have it. So I got on the subway and started selling candy in order to raise money for my catering business. And I started it. It went, it extremely well. And I was able to go to the culinary student of America from from the profits from that company.

“And from there, I got introduced to some of the best restaurants in the world and, you know, went on to work at them and then left to then open my own restaurants.”

And the rest, as I say, is history, right? Or history in the making, at least history. There we go. History in the making. So when your mom started out like, how does your cuisine differ from your mom's? I, what, what are those, the different staples?

I mean, I would say, you know, mind differs in the sense of my training and like the restaurants that I've worked in, the core flavors are still there.

Most of my restaurants run on like four or pillars of Trinidadian, Jamaican, Nigerian and Creole from Louisiana. So I've taken those flavors and, you know, implemented them in different ways based off of like my culinary education. But I would say, you know, the route of it, my mom told me how to season food. You know, so like the route of it all is definitely her and then matched with like my education and my own, my own work history. I think that and then my own creativity, right, we're all individuals. So that, that all plays a role, but it's very different, you know, her cooking is her cooking is more traditional. She definitely gets creative when she's she was a personal chef for a while, so she's able to get real creative there.

But for the most part, it's, you know, her stuff is very traditional, just done the right way and, you know, I think with my cooking rooted in that, that's where I'm able to have some liberty and, you know, create things that are kind of new because I have that foundation in tradition. You know, one of the things that I learned from you, and this is something I'm sure everybody's going to resonate with, you taught me the spice doesn't have to be spicy in the sense that like we normally think of like eat.

And now I, because, and I don't like, but I now understand just, I'm not very technical, but I am more technical now than I was like, how can you, for the everyday, you know, home chef, not even home chef, the dad, the mom.

So all those about spice versus spicy spices are, are flavor additives to your food, whether even heat, you know, heat has different heat has flavor, so you could be using.

But you know, scotch bonnet or a tideshell, there are seronno chili, they all have different levels of heat, like scoval units, but they all have different flavor profiles, and then when you're talking about spices, which are, you know, your dried berries and and seeds and pods, you know, that radiate, you know, flavor, those are things that you use is like balancing acts with with heat. The heat doesn't have to be the driving force, it's like a symphony almost, you know, every instrument has a role in creating this beautiful sound, you know, if it was just the drums, it would, you know, it would sound totally different than when it's like six or seven instruments all together.

So it's, it's that balancing act that, you know, I have to have spice in my food, that doesn't mean it chilies, but it has to be something more than just salt and pepper. Yeah, so I personally thank you for that, man, because I always just, if somebody wanted something with spices, I went to heat and like I'm not eating this dish because I can't do spicy, but I can definitely now do spices because.

Chef Kwame, yeah, yeah, spices are, they're very, very important in cooking, very important in cooking, yes sir, yes sir.

You know, you judge food as well. What's one thing that that we can do at home to just bring a little bit of extra, that little bit of something to a dish?

“You know, you got to start with the basics, I always say, you know, salt is really, really important, I think people under salt their food a lot.”

And then they're like, why does it in this taste good? It's like, well, you didn't really season it to begin with.

And then cooking things properly, you know, searing things properly, making sure that you're like meets our padded dry, make sure you're, you know, padded dry paper towels, so they're, you know, so that there's not this like layer moisture on the outside, you know, your, your pan is really hot, you're going on high heat, so you get a nice, you know, crust on the steak or the chicken or the fish or whatever you're making, you know, playing with the cooking temperatures, you're not cooking everything to, you know,

165 internal temperature, you know, other things they, they lend themselves, depending on what kind of fish it is or what cut of meat it is, like really, really doing research on when you're cooking. And then, you know, balancing acidity acidity brings out a lot of flavor to, you know, that final squeeze of lemon or lime.

“You know, that's what, like, makes restaurant quality food, you know, differ from home food, is that we're really honing in on the basics, letting the food speak for itself.”

But at the end of the day, we're seasoning things pretty well. Yep, I love it, brother. I love it. You know, I hinted earlier that you do a lot in the community, you do a lot for the culture. Talk to us about some of those, I don't even want to call them initiatives because they're not initiatives to me. It's just your way of being Kwame, right? Talk to us about some of the things that you're doing to help elevate the culture and to help elevate community. Yeah, you know, it's important for me for everything that I do to have a philanthropic arm.

“It's, I think it's easy to give back when you're getting so much and, you know, like one thing that we do, we have an event called the family union that we do in Middlebury, Virginia at the Salamander.”

And, you know, we send it that someone to the CIA on a full ride scholarship. That's that's in need. And, you know, we pay for their housing on externship, they have like mentorship by me throughout the entire time. So that's one way, you know, at the restaurant, Tatiana New York City, we have Tatiana gives it back where percentage of each check goes to the public housing behind the consenter to, you know, supply like turkey drives, if demonstrations on, you know, better ways to utilize your groceries.

So, you know, those are a couple of a couple of examples, but, you know, it's important to always think about that.

It doesn't have to be as grand as what I'm saying, you know, anything that you can do to give back is is important to those Saturday because a lot of us are in need. And, you know, I saw that first hand when I was growing up in the Bronx or one, you know, being the one of the biggest food deserts in the biggest financial financial free capital of the world. You know, that that that's just because not enough people are thinking about them and, you know, I want to make sure that like I said earlier, I'm leaving the place better than I found it, you know, and any little way that I can.

And hopefully to inspire others to do the same thing. Amazing, brother. Amazing. And I'd be remiss, you know, because I know how busy you are and I don't want to keep you forever. I could ask you a thousand questions, but I do want to talk about these restaurants that you have.

And break some news on one that's opening up right around the corner, right? Like a couple of days we got one opening up.

Yep. Yep. Maroon and Las Vegas here in Las Vegas. I'm here now. I'm officially resident in Las Vegas, which is cool. It's a Caribbean state house. You know, I thought about what does Vegas like need. And they need that, you know, there's there's not anything like that on the strip and, you know, if I'm going to be involved in something, I'm definitely going to put my culture forward. And it's going to be like Caribbean state house was going to be state house classics with a with a Caribbean twist. And yeah, I mean, it's just going to be a really, really fun dining room. We have a giant jerk pit in the middle of the room.

The design is is meant to feel a little exclusive, you know, depending on where your seats are.

“And yeah, I mean, I want to just give Vegas something they haven't seen before because there's so much richness in the culinary landscape of Vegas, but I think the locals kind of get get lost in that.”

You know, they're always bringing restaurants that are like transplants from other places. So I wanted to restaurant that's from Vegas.

And where is it near on the strip? So it's in the Sahara. Yeah, God is the harer. Yeah. Got it. So here's what I'm going to do because I have several of my friends that host and run events that are in Vegas. I'm going to make sure that we are promoting the heck out of your spot in Vegas. I'm going to be out there this summer, the worst time to go to Vegas. I'm going to be out there this summer. I will go to make sure I come see personally, bro. I'm excited about this one because you're right. It's something.

“No offense to Vegas in the food scene there, but like you kind of see everything, right? It's like you've seen it before. This is something that Vegas can truly say they haven't seen before. And that's why I'm really excited.”

Exactly, exactly. And quite frankly, the country hasn't seen anything like this before either. So that's pretty excited too. I'm going to get you out of here on my rapid fire top. You ready? Yeah. I. If you were not a chef, what career would you have pursued golf? Okay. Yeah. All right. I'm not even going mess with you and golf like I can hit the ball and that's about all I can do. I can't tell the where it's going. Your favorite dish from your childhood and either Nigeria, the Bronx or Louisiana. It would be gumbo, my mom's seafood gumbo. Yeah. It's like, I'll just shrimp and do each chicken. So good, so good.

What's one ingredient you can't live without in your kitchen? One ingredient like to cook. Yeah. Oh, man, steak. Yeah. Everybody for sure. Love it and that it would be salt. I couldn't live without salt.

“So you can't say gumbo because that was your favorite. I was going to ask you, what is your go to comfort food after a long day?”

Go to comfort food after a long day is chicken wings, pork fried rice and spare ribs from the Chinese take out five. Love it. Yeah. As the story of Chef Kwame continues to evolve, in history is being written, what's one word you want to make sure is used to define your legacy. Intentional. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Chef Kwame. Ralph.

Audit to be here with you. I'm going to have links to all your socials.

Okay.

“I'm going to have links to the book as well too because I think everyone needs it and in chef because I love the book so much.”

The first 20 people that message me chef, I'm going to send you a copy of the book. Oh wow. That's amazing man. That's amazing.

Dude, the book is that book because to your point, swap out the word chef doesn't matter.

“It doesn't matter. Like the stories that are in there, the mission behind the book, the intent behind the book.”

Parallels, anyone that's entrepreneur, anyone that's looking for ways to overcome the book should be your blueprint. And I mean that, brother. I really do. Well, thank you. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. And I appreciate the rest of you.

“And to all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.”

That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplug.

If this episode moved you and I'm sure it did, follow the show wherever you listen. Share it with someone who needs that spark and leave a review. So more people can find there because I'm really rush. And until next time, stay driven, stay focused and stay unplugged.