Tatiana, Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s First New York Restaurant, Opens at Lincoln Center

This restaurant is named after your sister. What did she do to deserve that?

Yeah, Tatiana: She helped raise me. It was me and my mom and my sister, but my mom’s a chef, so it was me and my sister a lot. I wanted to pay homage to that and how much she’s been an influence to me. We spent a lot of meals together as kids. I wanted to draw from that nostalgia of things I used to beg her for, things we used to eat together in the Bronx.

And what would you eat?

New York is the food of the people that make this city what it is. That’s what I know of New York growing up as a kid. It was so many different cultures on the same block: Everything from Jamaican food to Italian food to Chinese takeout to going to the bodega with a dollar and going crazy. I’m pulling inspiration from all different types of places.

Let’s talk a little bit about the menu.

I grew up eating eskovitch fish in the Bronx. I’m doing an escovitch, but I’m doing it in crudo style. We have kampachi, avocado, and then we add caramelized caramel syrup, in place of the carrots that are normally in it, spiced pickles, and scotch bonnet peppers. The last restaurant I did, I had curry goat with roti; this one, I wanted to do it in a patty so you could eat it all in one bite. I do it with a mango chutney and a green seasoning aioli. Certain places do curry goat inside patties, but it’s not super common. We’re doing a warm honey bun with a scoop of powdered doughnut ice cream, which I’m very happy about. It’s like a trip to the bodega.

Is that a truffle chopped cheese?

It’s totally different than a chopped cheese, really. We put a little bao bun in the shape of a hero, then we stuff it with ribeye, taleggio, and mozzarella, and we steam that. We top it with shredded lettuce, pickled onions, and a mountain of truffles with some house sauce on the side, a roasted garlic puree.

You’re working with the same architecture firm that designed Al Coro and Cote. What were you going for with this space?

There are a lot of elements of New York. There are these steel beams that are kind of like the scaffolding when buildings are going up. You have this iridescent tile that is reminiscent of the oil slick in the asphalt when you put the fire hydrant on. There’s these gold chain links that remind me of the chainlink fences I would hop as a kid in the Bronx. Then there’s these clouds that hang from the ceiling and change color. That’s one thing I wanted to have in this restaurant. Because I’m a dreamer.

This is a great playlist, by the way.

Thanks. I made it. [Editor’s note: The restaurant’s 162-song playlist is made up of “everything you listened to in the ’90s and 2000s,” says general manager Bradley Knebel.]

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.