Whipping up breakfast at home in Shaw, Kwame Onwuachi is focused on another kitchen nearby. The Shaw Bijou, his highly anticipated restaurant, has just opened in a row house within view of his apartment’s gleaming white kitchen, where the sleep-deprived chef is savoring a rare morning off with fiancée Mya Allen and their puppy, Clove.
The couple’s spice collection, which ranges from Calabrian chilis to Ethiopian berbere, hints at Onwuachi’s global approach to cooking. “My mother is Creole and my dad is Nigerian and Jamaican. I grew up in the Bronx, a melting pot of all different cuisines,” he says. “I tell my story with food.”
So far, his crowd-pleasers include Alaskan king crab in garlic sauce with grated uni bottarga, and a play on steak and eggs combining wagyu beef with soubise and a pickled quail egg. “Flavor and spices translate over different continents,” he says.
Before moving to DC in 2015, Onwuachi launched a catering company, studied at The Culinary Institute of America and survived 12 episodes on Bravo’s “Top Chef.” He created a series of pop-up restaurants around the country, Washington investors came calling and The Shaw Bijou was born.
The couple hasn’t set a wedding date yet, but Onwuachi has a wish list for his dream kitchen in a future home: an island with refrigerator and freezer drawers, a French-top range with gas burners and a combination oven (heat and steam).
For now, his sights are set on The Shaw Bijou, where a 13-course meal starts at $185 per person and where, Onwuachi says, he wants guests to feel as though they’re dining in “a very nice house.”
ALWAYS ON HAND: "Chilis, garlic, ginger, lime and sambal for something spicy and acidic. And leftover Chinese food."
MUST HAVES: "My Vita-Prep blender so I can make a sauce on the fly. And my handmade Japanese knives."
DINNER AFTER HOURS: "After a long day, I’d probably sear a piece of steak, straight up. That’s it."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Following the publication of this article in December 2016, The Shaw Bijou announced its closure on January 15, 2017.
The last two years have been very good to chef Jamie Leeds of Hank’s Oyster Bar. Following a whirlwind romance, she and then-girlfriend Tina McDaniel purchased a house together in Chevy Chase. They married last spring and on November 30 welcomed their newborn daughter, Hazel, who joins half-brother Hayden, Leeds’s 16-year-old son.
At home, Leeds and McDaniel, a marketing consultant, share cooking duties. “Tina is not intimidated by cooking for a chef,” Leeds remarks. “She’s a pescetarian, so we eat a lot of fish and vegetables.” On the stove during our photo shoot: a colorful fall vegetable medley.
For Leeds, the kitchen was one of the home’s draws. “I like the openness,” she says. “It’s the perfect size kitchen. You don’t want to have to make a lot of movements when you cook. Everything is within arm’s reach.”
Indeed, the kitchen gets a workout, as the couple enjoys entertaining around an adjacent farmhouse table that seats 12. Recent dinner-party menus featured squid ink paella with shrimp, calamari, scallops, clams and mussels; and a bouillabaisse of lobster and shrimp in saffron-tomato broth. “I tend to make too much food when I’m cooking at home because I’m used to making such large batches,” Leeds laughs. “There’s always leftovers.”
Named for her late father, Hank’s brand includes Hank’s Oyster Bar—with locations in Dupont Circle, Capitol Hill, and Old Town Alexandria. During the past year, Leeds launched Hank’s Pasta Bar, also in Old Town, and Hank’s Cocktail Bar, a casual outpost in DC’s Petworth neighborhood serving burgers and small bites. Another Hank’s Oyster Bar will open in The Wharf on Maine Avenue in 2017.
ALWAYS ON HAND: "Potatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil, pasta, tomatoes, prosciutto, lots of cheeses."
MUST HAVES: "Good knives are key. Wooden spoons, a zester, and a garlic press. And I have to have a couple of copper pots."
DINNER AFTER HOURS: "A baked potato with all the toppings—broccoli, cheese, tofu, sausage. We have Baked Potato Night once a week."
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