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Kwame Onwuachi Takes the Fight Against Coronavirus Very Personally

The Bronx-raised chef wants to be a voice for independent restaurants and the communities that are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

经过Kat Kinsman Updated April 10, 2020

Chefs and restaurant workers take great care of everyone else, but often they need a little help themselves. Each week,亚搏电竞食品和美酒亚搏电竞高级编辑凯特·金斯曼（Kat Kinsman）与酒店专业人士谈谈他们长期管理业务，大脑和身体。您想了解更多有关或您想听的客人的话题吗？告诉我们fwpro@foodand亚搏电竞win亚搏电竞e.com或推特推文@kittenwithawhip，并订阅每周亚搏电竞食品和亚搏电竞葡萄酒专业通讯。Subscribe to theCommunal Table YouTube pageand never miss an episode.赶上以前的情节。

Episode 66: Kwame Onwuachi Talks About Restaurant Recovery and Representing Inaudible People

On arecent press callwith the独立餐厅联盟, Bronx-raised chef Kwame Onwuachi pointed out the painful truth that a tiger at the Bronx Zoo was able to get a COVID-19 test, and yet the human beings in his home borough don't have access to that care and are getting sick and dying at a rate much higher than those in Manhattan. The2019 Best New Chefspoke with亚搏电竞食品和美酒亚搏电竞about the work the IRC is doing tosave restaurants，他为保持漂浮而做的事情，以及为什么有色社区受到这一大流行的影响不成比例。

编辑的成绩单如下：

你现在好吗？如果您不介意的话，真正的答案。

现在我有一个情绪的过山车,I try to stay positive throughout it all. I'm worried about my team, worried about the industry. Some days are better than others. Most of us in the food and beverage industry are task-oriented, so it's like, "All right, maybe I can get through something if I know when this thing will be over with—but I have no idea when." That hasn't given me a lot of hope.

My colleague, Margaret Eby, has a great tattoo that says, "If you can't find the mayor, you must be the mayor." And I think you became a mayor really quickly.

I appreciate that. That's a heavy crown. I have great people around me, great leaders to follow as well. So I'm just trying to do what I can with whatever platform I have. I just want restaurants to be representative and I want to do something useful with my time.

在本周与也是独立餐厅联盟一部分的行业领导人的电话会议上，您说的是对我来说突出的事情，这是您的目标是“代表听不清”。您是布朗克斯（Bronx）的骄傲儿子，被冠状病毒击中。你能谈谈你在那里看到的东西吗？

It's the number of cases, and the number of fatalities within those cases. For me, it equates to incarceration levels. There's a lower population of African Americans, but a higher population of them in prison. There's a lower population of African Americans or minorities, but there's a higher population of them dying. I think in Chicago, I think it's 70% of all the deaths have been African American, or minority. It is three times more likely for someone in the Bronx who's contracted coronavirus to perish than it is for someone just across the river in Manhattan—but you have tigers getting tests and we don't have enough tests for people.

I don't know if those numbers are because it's easier for people to social distance when they can work at home in these other areas, or there不是提供医疗保健对于大多数这些人，当他们发现为时已晚。我不是科学家，但我可以看数字，并看到存在某种虚假陈述。

我在读书a piece by Charles Blowin theNew York Timeswhere he was saying that fewer than one in five Black workers has a job that can be done from home.

上次我在这个播客上, we talked about my childhood friend who passed away from gun violence. I've stemmed a relationship with his son and I recently talked to the son's mother. She has to go to work every single day. She's in healthcare and her job is to watch the children of the doctors so she cannot say no. She can't work from home. And then she has to then go home and be around her son, which is problematic for obvious reasons. Kudos to her, she's on the front lines making sure that these doctors can go out there and perform and do God's work. But she's a representation of a lot of people in the Bronx with jobs that cannot be remote. They're like the restaurant industry; we can't work from home. It's deeply personal to me. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but I will talk about it, and then hopefully I'll make people think.

It's zero secret that the restaurant industry and its access to health care are beyond screwed up. Are you seeing talk of money being allocated for current and future health care for workers?

Right now we're just trying to focus on making sure the restaurants open up. There are definitely things within that we're trying to include for the longevity of restaurants and restructuring the business model and making it more livable. Part of that comes with changing the perspective of the restaurant industry and making it OK to charge a little more for something so that the workers get what they deserve. We are overtaxed and over-regulated by people who don't run our business. Part of the razor-thin margins comes from all the taxation that happens on our profits.

I don't think the Independent Restaurant Coalition is going to go anywhere. I like to think of this as The Avengers of the restaurant industry. I definitely feel like the Spider-Man in this, because I'm like the young guy trying to come in here and show that he can contribute in any way that he can, and he's just happy to be there. There will always be more battles to fight and things to advocate for. I think it will graduate into something bigger and more lasting within the industry that we can just all use our platforms and our connections to make change.

什么是“独立餐厅”？

这是一个餐厅,利用小供应商,helps with the local economy, something that isn't a large corporation. We're not talking about McDonald's, we're not talking about Wendy's, we're not talking about these chain restaurants. I'm not saying that they don't need their own help. I'm just talking about restaurants that feed our communities in a different way.

I've been trying to weigh the ethics of ordering food from restaurants right now because I want to support them, but I don't want to put anyone at risk.

没有正确或错误的答案。这是一个全国大流行，每个人都在自己弄清楚。我们关闭了Kith/Kin，因为我们有60名员工。我们的员工处于危险之中，我们有老年人，外卖对我们不起作用。但是我不能看不起那家流行车的商店或那家移民经营的餐厅，他们在那里度过了自己的美国梦。也许他们一直在整个时间进行交货，或者这是他们继续生存的唯一途径。我们正在努力为我们的员工和长寿做出最佳的业务决定。无论您做出什么决定，您都坚持下去。

Where should people be putting their attention to make the most impact?

显然，我与独立餐厅联盟在一起，这是所有人的伟大旗杆。但是所有这些联盟或运动都代表着同一件事。这可能是您的本地类型 - 所有类型都不同 - 他们试图确保我们仍然在这里。无论您感到舒适，都可以去做。只要它引起积极的态度并实现团结，以便我们可以在这一切时就拥有一个行业，我就全力以赴。

When this money comes down and restaurants reopen or rebuild, what do we need to do to ensure that communities of color are given a fair slice of the pie? Historically, it's been really, really hard for immigrants, women, people of color to get money to open restaurants. Do you think there's going to be a shift of that existing paradigm and how can diners make sure that that is the case moving forward?

I don't think there'll be a shift, quite frankly, because the parameters that are put in place to even attain some of these grants or loans—they favor the people that have lots of support. If you have all of your taxes in line and you're current on pretty much everything, then you're eligible for all of this. I'm not saying that minorities and women and people of color aren't current on all of that. But I just feel that it's going to be harder for the smaller family-run places to provide all of that and be eligible for the whole package.

Moving forward, I don't have the answers, I also don't have the money. We need to start directing some of this to the powers that be, that have the access to capital or access to providing lots of platforms and backing to direct their efforts and to spread their efforts across the board so everyone is represented. We're going to have to really think about our business models and make sure that we do have funds kept away so we don't run into these situations where we are on the brink of a destroyed industry. I think we need to be more prepared as business owners for unfortunate situations.

除了您自己的餐厅外，您附近的一些地方是您想获得成功的地方？

El Rinconcito，位于多米尼加地方的洛斯·赫曼诺斯（Los Hermanos）位于DC的El Salvadoran小地方。我真的非常喜欢这家埃塞俄比亚餐厅，彼得·普里姆（Peter Prime）的甘蔗餐厅，卡莉·斯坦纳（Carlie Steiner）和庞姆·庞姆（Pom Pom）和埃里克·布鲁纳·杨（Erik Bruner-Yang），他的所有餐厅。我希望看到这些餐厅以及无数其他餐厅。小移民经营的地方在我心中靠近和珍爱，因为这些地方是我喜欢吃的地方。这些是养活美国的餐厅，即美国的脉搏。

您正在做什么来照顾自己？

我有一个GoFundMe对于我的团队，他们可以看到一线希望，并让他们知道我们正在考虑他们。锻炼对我来说非常冥想。我确实有我的日子很紧张。我的未婚夫会听到我叹了口气，她说：“发生了什么事？”我会想，“我只是不知道什么时候结束，就像我要回来的时候，我需要和人在一起。”这些时刻来了，我们需要让他们通过并认识到它们的本质。因此，我现在尝试将锻炼作为冥想。

I'm talking to a lot of chefs. Some of them for the first time in their entire working lives are having time to sleep and connect with people. But other people are saying, "What does it even matter any more? The world is ending, everything is over. Why don't I just engage in some really self-harmful behavior." Many of them have given up everything else in their lives to go and work in restaurants, and all of a sudden, they don't have their support systems around them because they didn't have time to foster them. They're sitting at home and worried about money and they don't have that usual routine. Do you have some words of hope for them?

Find someone you can talk to. I have a friend that's going through it. He's in Hong Kong and they've been dealt a really bad hand starting with the riots, then coronavirus went through and came back. Their food and beverage industry is hit really, really hard. I check in, and he checks in on me and make sure that I'm OK. Just having that one person that you can just talk to—just say hey to once a day and see what they're doing. Remind yourself that us as human beings, we are extremely resilient and we will get through anything. We talk on cell phones and go to the moon. We're going to get through this.

It's hard to see the future or even have just a moment of understanding that this will be OK, but just take it one day at a time, let emotions pass, take care of yourself. You don't have to come out of this with a new skill or newfound purpose—don't have that kind of pressure on yourself.

不知道接下来要做什么，因为这不会经常发生。在餐饮业中，我们非常注重任务，我们确切地知道接下来会发生什么。当我们辞职时，我们已经在另一个地方开始。

There's a beauty in not knowing what you're doing next and letting the universe take control and know that you're not in control. You don't have to be religious because I am not, but man plans and God laughs. Just be OK with that and take a day at a time and know that we're all in this together—the whole world—and we'll get through this.