For chef Kwame Onwuachi, food and style go hand in hand—literally. Known for both his forward thinking cuisine and personal style, the James Beard Award-winning chef (named Esquire’s Chef of the Year in 2019) has never been one to shy away from experimentation. But his newest venture may surprise you: He’s launching a collection of nail polish in partnership with Orly.

For Onwuachi, it all started with his nieces. “I was taking care of my nieces and they begged me to get their nails done,” he remembers. “I got my nails done alongside them. I got all black and afterward I thought, Okay this is pretty cool—it fits my vibe. I just never stopped getting them painted.” Like other male celebrities who have adopted the polished look, Onwuachi sees his manicure choices, like the food he creates, as an act of self expression. “It’s important for me to be able to express myself in any way I want,” he tells me over the phone. Years after his first manicure with his nieces, he still gets his nails done professionally every few weeks. “It’s the whole experience—you go to the nail salon like you go to the barber shop,” he says. “You walk out feeling clean and fresh. I think more men need to embrace that.”

kwame onwuachi nail polish
Riyah Martin for ORLY (@riysnails_)
“You can definitely cook with it,” says Onwuachi of the breathable, crack-resistant formula.

It’s that kind of enthusiasm that led to the unexpected partnership with Orly. The nail brand clocked his polish on an episode of Top Chef on which he was a guest judge, reached out, and the collaboration was born. The first drop, launching on March 15 and available for preorder now, has three colors personally chosen by Onwuachi based on what he actually wears. Chef’s Kiss, a rich black, is “the one I wear the most,” he says. Sauté is a chrome inspired by (you guessed it) a sauté pan, and the metal often found in professional kitchens. He chose the third, Eggplant, a deep purple he was wearing when we spoke, because eggplant is “a super-versatile vegetable, and I’m versatile in my art form and my profession.”

There’s more to these polishes than just the colors. If you’ve ever cooked with nail polish, you know there’s no faster way to chip a fresh coat of paint. To offset that, Onwuachi chose to release his collaborative polishes in Orly’s Breathable formula, which is water and oxygen permeable. “The main reason why your nail polish chips is because water gets under there and has nowhere to go but through it,” he says. This formula prevents chipping and peeling by keeping the polish from getting waterlogged. “You can definitely cook with it,” he confirms. And for someone with hands in so many literal and proverbial pots, that’s important (as well as regular moisturizing, which Onwuachi does often with “edible” moisturizers like shea butter, cocoa butter, and coconut oil).

kwame onwuachi nail polish
Courtesy
The three colors—Eggplant, Chef’s Kiss, and Sautéed Silver—in the lineup.

Professional kitchens are notoriously high-stress, hyper-masculine environments, and in the old days, a dude wearing nail polish might have been looked down upon. These days, however, “nobody really bats an eye,” he says. The people that do notice, particularly TV viewers, think it’s pretty damn cool. “I’ve gotten countless messages from kids, especially young boys, who tell me they wanted to wear nail polish because they thought it was cool and now wear it because if Chef Kwame can wear it, they can wear it. It emboldens me.” That’s also why part of the proceeds from the collection go to Bigs & Littles NYC, a non-profit organization that mentors inner city youth.

So does this mean when Onwuachi isn’t found in the kitchen he’s in the lab cooking up new nail polish colors? When I asked him, he chuckled. “This is just the beginning.”

The Kwame Onwuachi x Orly collection launches March 15 and the waitlist is open now. Individual polishes are $12 and the trio is $36.