Most Productive People – Kwame Onwuachi – Chef and owner, Tatiana, and author, Notes From a Young Black Chef

"I've been head down. I've been working."

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There are many things I have my hands in, but my new restaurant, Tatiana, is at the forefront. I moved back to New York from D.C. to make sure the restaurant is running exactly how I want it to be. I go in in the morning, check in with the team, then taste through whatever needs to be tasted. From there, we start opening up and getting to service. With this restaurant, I wanted to pay homage to my sister, Tatiana [Steed, who is a chef in New Orleans], and dive into food I used to eat when I was a kid [in the Bronx and Nigeria]. We have egusi soup dumplings, braised oxtails with rice and peas, and truffle chopped cheese buns with taleggio and dry-aged beef. I’ve been working with my team for a long time. It’s important to trust the people around you. A big change was realizing that I can’t be in every single place at the same time. Tatiana is not just me, it represents all of us. At my last restaurant—Kith/Kin in D.C.—I would pull from my past and put a dish together, and that was prety much it. This is more collaborative. I love being back in New York, too—it’s where I’m from— I’m walking past places I walked by as a kid. Now with Tatiana,