Kwame Onwuachi of Kith and Kin is nominated for Rising Star Chef of the Year.

The nominee is an “up and coming” chef who demonstrates exemplary talent, shows leadership and promise for the future.

At Kith/Kin, Onwuachi reimagines his earliest food memories through a bold, innovative fine-dining lens.

“Have you been to Kith and Kin lately?” is the question making the rounds on the food circuit now.

He sources the two- or three-pound snappers from the Florida Keys and marinates them in spices before dredging them in cornstarch to create the audible crunch.

“As I got older and had to provide for myself, it taught me to really appreciate things like electricity, and how precious it was just to go to your tap and drink cold water,” he said.

Tapping into his cultural roots in Jamaica, Trinidad, Nigeria and Creole Louisiana, it’s a natural fit for Chef Kwame Onwuachi, who rose to fame on Top Chef, and recently shared his talents at the famed James Beard Foundation.

The Kith/Kin bar team draws on two types of dark rum for its Manhattan-style riff

The mastermind behind the themed culinary pairings is Chef Kwame Onwuachi of the hotel’s Kith/Kin, a 96-seat dining room with a menu inspired by Onwuachi’s background, combining flavors from Nigeria, New Orleans and the Caribbean.

At his new digs in the InterContinental Hotel, he’s serving Afro-Caribbean cuisine like curried goat with fresh roti, wagyu short ribs coated in suya spice, and a seafood plateau with bigeye tuna kitfo.