Kwame Onwuachi

Check out Chef Kwame at Recipe for Innovation Live, presented by Invesco QQQ, Official ETF of NYCWFF at the Festival Culinary Demos

Recipe for Innovation is a gastronomic tribute to the innovative companies within the Invesco QQQ ETF, where chefs are inspired to rethink possibility through the universal language of food. Invesco QQQ is bringing this culinary exploration of innovation to life in a live demo with Chef Kwame Onwuachi. Celebrated Chef Kwame will discuss the dishes he created for her Recipe for Innovation series and the Invesco QQQ companies that inspired them – including a live demo of one of her recipes.

Kwame Onwuachi is a James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur, and author. His impressive career includes being named a Food & Wine’s Best New Chef, Esquire Magazine’s 2019 Chef of the Year, a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes, and he was recently announced on Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025.

Raised in New York City, Nigeria, and Louisiana, Onwuachi’s culinary journey began in his mother’s modest Bronx apartment and eventually he trained at the Culinary Institute of America. By 30 he had opened six restaurants, including the groundbreaking Afro-Caribbean eatery Kith/Kin in Washington, D.C.

Kwame created The Family Reunion, in partnership with Sheila Johnson, an annual event celebrating diversity in the hospitality industry. He hosted the James Beard Awards twice and frequently appears as a judge or talent on various TV shows. Onwuachi is a member of the Culinary Collective by The Centurion Lounge, he curated the menu for the 2025 Met Gala, and is a Lexus Culinary Master and Executive Producer for Food & Wine.

In addition to his memoir, Notes from a Young Black Chef, he released his first cookbook, My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef.

Onwuachi’s restaurant, Tatiana in Lincoln Center received multiple accolades, including the “#1 Restaurant in New York” by the New York Times for two consecutive years and “The One to Watch” by World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

His DC restaurant, Dōgon earned a spot as #2 on Washingtonian’s list of Best Restaurants in D.C., and is on Condé Nast Traveler’s Best New Restaurants in the World: 2025 Hot List.

Onwuachi’s most recent venture, Patty Palace by Chef Kwame, is in Citi Field, was at Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City, and will debut at Timeout Market this September.  In 2025, Onwuachi’s restaurant portfolio expanded to Miami with Las’ Lap at The Daydrift and will debut on the West Coast with Maroon in partnership with SAHARA Las Vegas.