My America

December 1, 2021

As he's piling up the credentials--for starters, named James Beard Award-winning chef, Esquire's Chef of the Year, and a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes--Onwuachi ( Notes from a Young Black Chef) offers a cookbook ranging widely from Nigerian Jollof and Puerto Rican Red Bean Sofrito to Baby Back Ribs and Red Velvet Cake.

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February 7, 2022
Chef Onwuachi (Notes from a Young Black Chef) brings his ancestry and formal training at the Culinary Institute of America to bear on the flavors of Nigeria, Louisiana, and the Bronx in this inspiring celebration of soul food recipes. He foreshadows the fiery dishes to come with an opening section of spice blends that includes jerk powder with ground habanero, and a “peppa” sauce that calls for 50 Scotch bonnet peppers per quart. Each recipe lists its country of origin, making for intriguing comparisons. A Nigerian chicken in red stew made with a spicy tomato sauce, for instance, appears next to a Jamaican brown stew chicken sweetened with a heavily caramelized sugar sauce, while the amaranth greens in a Jamaican callaloo contrast with the taro leaves of Trinidadian callaloo that are simmered in unsweetened coconut cream. A seafood chapter focuses on the American South, with such familiar cajun and creole dishes as crawfish pie, shrimp étouffée, and seafood gumbo. Meat lovers, meanwhile, can settle back with smothered pork chops, try their hand at homemade Jamaican beef patties, or indulge in a burger inspired by the Big Mac but upgraded via a blend of brisket, short rib, and chuck, then topped with jerk bacon. One man’s unique gastronomic journey proves universally appealing in this hearty collection.

March 1, 2022
Master chef Onwuachi grew up in the Bronx, a node of cultures and culinary traditions, and he also took advantage of opportunities to travel in both Africa and the U.S., endowing him with a deeper appreciation for America's extreme diversity of foods. Then he embarked on the rigorous discipline of culinary school and its tradition of establishment cuisine. Having mastered those techniques, Onwuachi determined to recreate the cooking of his mother and other relatives from Jamaica and Louisiana. In this sequel to his first book, Notes from a Young Black Chef (2019), Onwuachi lays out an exciting battery of recipes that he enjoys making for himself and for any others who might appreciate them, accompanied by photographs that reveal the brilliant colors of his cooking. He concocts special spice mixtures--ginger-garlic paste for Indian, creole seasoning for Louisianan, and berbere for Ethiopian--that transform, for instance, ordinary rice into signature dishes from Louisiana (jambalaya), Jamaica (peas and rice), Nigeria (jollof rice), and more. Some ingredients, such as Jamaican staples ackee and callaloo, may be easiest to find online.

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March 1, 2022

James Beard Award-winning chef Onwuachi follows up his 2019 memoir Notes from a Young Black Chef with this Black diaspora cookbook featuring a wide array of recipes from North, West, and East Africa; the Caribbean; and the American South. In texts sprinkled among the recipes, Onwuachi discusses these cuisines' particular significance to him and recounts visiting the regions from which his family originated. (Onwuachi was himself raised in the Bronx, Louisiana, and Nigeria.) These sections provide context and bring Onwuachi's recipes to life. The cookbook's comprehensive pantry section discusses spice blends and sauces that appear in many of the recipes; Onwuachi's touchstones are a ginger-garlic puree (which he learned from a friend in India) and what he calls a traditional house spice. Among the recipes (spanning rice; greens and vegetables; legumes and tubers; seafood and shellfish; poultry; meat; and breads, puddings, and desserts), a handful (moi moi from Nigeria; Jamaican beef patty; lamb sambusas with shiro wat from Ethiopia; dhal puri roti from Trinidad and Tobago; m'semen from North Africa) include step-by-step photos that will help home cooks assemble the recipes with confidence. VERDICT A beautifully photographed cookbook that will entice readers.--Lacy S. Wolfe

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.