Notes from a Young Black Chef

In 1955, writer and journalist James Baldwin published a book of essays titled Notes of a Native Son. The title of Baldwin’s work was a direct response to Richard Wright’s 1940 novel Native Son. Wright’s book shares the experiences of a poor Black youth living in Chicago’s South Side named Bigger Thomas. Native Son revealed the destructive power of systemic racism and generational poverty, and it shook the literary world. Wright’s work was a daring one for 1940; it illuminated the way systemic racism had benefited white Americans while oppressing Black Americans. Baldwin acknowledged the novel’s influence, saying of Native Son, “[N]o American Negro exists who does not have his private Bigger Thomas in his skull” (Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son. Beacon Press, 1984). However, Baldwin also criticized Wright’s work for depicting Black characters as caricatures and for attempting to elicit sympathy from white readers rather than condemning their role in the system of American racism.

Both Wright’s and Baldwin’s books connect to Kwame Onwuachi’s journey and memoir. Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son is an indictment of racial discrimination. In the work, Baldwin explores many themes and ideas that also feature in Onwuachi’s Notes From a Young Black Chef. For example, Baldwin shares about his troubled relationship with his father and explores how racism can affect the power dynamics of families, especially fathers and sons, anticipating and contextualizing Onwuachi’s relationship with his father. Native Son shows how poverty can lead to violence, which Onwuachi experiences firsthand in the Bronx.

Native Son is broken into three parts: “Fear,” “Flight,” and “Fate.” Similarly, Baldwin divides his work into three parts. In the first, Baldwin explores how race is treated in literature. In the second, Baldwin traces the effects of slavery through the civil rights movement. In the last section, Baldwin shares his experiences growing up Black in America. Although Onwuachi’s book is not divided into three sections, the model can still be applied to Notes From a Young Black Chef. For example, the beginning of the book details the abuse Onwuachi experienced at the hands of his father and his experiences with violence in the B.A.B.Y. gang. This recalls Wright’s section “Fear.” The middle section of Onwuachi’s book details his movement away from the troubles of his youth and the pursuit of his career as a chef, connecting to the section “Flight.” In the final section, Onwuachi inhabits his identity as chef, embracing his ancestry and sharing his story. This final section aligns with Wright’s “Fate.” Although Onwuachi’s flagship restaurant Shaw Bijou is unsuccessful, he refines who he is and want he wants to be known for—the legacy he wants to build.

Baldwin writes in Notes of a Native Son, “I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am, also, much more than that” (Baldwin xii). Onwuachi’s work reflects this sentiment. His career as a chef is an amalgamation of his past, ancestry, and choices, yet he also defies the expectations of others. He is not keen to align with a preset definition of who he should be or how he should act.