Notes From a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi

By the time he was twenty-seven, Kwame Onwuachi had competed on TopChef, cooked at the White House, and opened and closed one of the most talked-about restaurants in America. In this inspiring memoir, he shares the remarkable story of his culinary coming-of-age. Growing up in the Bronx and Nigeria (where he was sent by his mother to "learn respect"), food was Onwuachi's great love.

This was a well-written memoir, with Onwuachi shaping and molding his story to both inform and entertain his readers. Each chapter ends with a recipe, which I found especially cozy. I enjoyed reading about his journey from the streets of New York, to Africa, to serving a prestigious dinner at the National Museum of African American History, to being a chef at his own restaurant. He seems to have an incredible work ethic, a fierce tenacity, and an incredible sense of street wise. His demeanor in his kitchen, never berating or belittling his staff, is very agreeable and makes me like him even more. Overall, I am most impressed, however, with his unwavering refusal to give in to clichéd stereotypes.