Playlist: Food's New Story - Changing the Kitchen Narrative

Behind the Kitchen Door

Fine-dining aficionados tend to get a little starry-eyed when Michelin stars and James Beard Awards come up in conversation, and it’s no wonder. The world of fine dining is no playground. Only the best of the best are said to survive the back-breaking, spirit-breaking rise to the top—but when they do, boy, do they have stories to tell. Once a drug dealer, once an abused child, once a Top Chef contestant, Kwame Onwuachi is now Executive Chef of his own successful restaurant (the very hot Kith/Kin in D.C.) and 2019 James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year. He’s also a young Black chef who is speaking up about his experiences, and exposing—and challenging—and changing—a lot of the entrenched industry narratives. Onwuachi joins us to “dish”—not only about his new book, which chronicles his own complex and jagged road to success, but also about the deeply complex and problematic biases and lack of diversity he notes in America’s top kitchens. (Notes from a Young Black Chef, which has been called “a must-read,” is also being turned into a much-anticipated film.)

Cannabis Cuisine for Wellness

Mainstream American culture has come a long way from wink-wink, nudge-nudge jokes about pot-brownie mix-ups on sit-coms. Now a magazine like Kitchen Toke—"the first internationally distributed food magazine teaching people to cook with cannabis for health and wellness”—can be found at Barnes & Nobles and Whole Foods. And although there’s still a lot of confusion around what’s legal and where (in Illinois, for example, CBD is currently legal for medical use, although Governor Pritzker hopes to legalize recreational marijuana by New Year’s) interest in the health-and-wellness potential of culinary cannabis is skyrocketing. Enter a new cohort of chefs, health-and-wellness professionals, and narrative-wranglers—including Kitchen Toke founder Joline Rivera and editor Mike Sula, plus chef David Yusefzadeh—who are inspired not only by the potential of culinary cannabis as part of a path to wellness, but also by the challenge of revolutionizing the way people think about, talk about, and use cannabis in the kitchen.

Fine Dining for the Rest of Us

You wouldn’t have to look too hard at the world of fine dining to conclude that one of its primary tenets—in addition to excellence—is exclusivity. The finest restaurants are often the ones most difficult to access—with palate-challenging delicacies, budget-busting prices, and reservation lists months long. The subtitle of Alison Roman’s new book, on the other hand, should tell you everything you need to know about the narrative she wants to flip. It’s Unfussy Food for Having People Over. While Roman is certainly no make-do home cook (she was a professional chef with stints at Sona in L.A., Quince in San Francisco, and with David Chang at Momofuku Milk Bar in New York), Forbes recently described her food as “straightforward, always delicious, often economical, and just far enough off the beaten path.” Could it be that this much-loved New York Times food columnist, talented chef, and Instagram fan favorite actually wants to invite “regular people” into the world of delicious and elegant dining, instead of keeping them out?

Header Image: Monika Grabkowska | Unsplash