Chef Kwame Onwuachi dishes to Jalen Rose about learning to cook at 5

His rock star career started with very unglamorous beginnings: child labor in his mom’s kitchen. But peeling shrimp and veggies as a tot sparked something special and tasty for chef Kwame Onwuachi, who is my guest this week on “Renaissance Man.”

“My mom, she was an accountant, and she switched careers and started a catering company out of the house,” he told me. “And very much against the law, she put me and my sister to work. I was 5 years old. My sister was about 10, and she threw us an apron. And then we had to do whatever it takes to keep the lights on. You know, we lived in The Bronx in this one-bedroom apartment, and I was doing everything from like peeling shrimp to packing up for her events to-go. And you know, that chore turned into a hobby, and a hobby turned into a passion, and that passion turned into a career. So that’s the beginnings of my career.” What a career it’s been for Chef Kwame who is only 31. When most folks are just getting started, he’s already got a résumé packed with starry accomplishments. The James Beard Award-winning chef has been a contestant on “Top Chef,” where he is now a judge. He started two big restaurants in Washington, DC, one of which, Kith/Kin, brought his elevated Afro-Caribbean food to a wider culinary world. He’s working on his third book (an earlier memoir is being made into a movie starring LaKeith Stanfield) and is now an executive producer at Food & Wine Magazine. I was excited to interview him because my language is food. Every day of the week I tend to do an around the world trip through my stomach having a different cultural cuisine every day.