Ashleigh Shanti Biography – Ashleigh Shanti Wiki
Ashleigh Shanti is an American chef and sommelier. She is a freelance chef and was the chef de cuisine of Benne on Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina. Her specialty is in African American foodways, including Black Appalachian food. She was named a semi-finalist for the 2020 James Beard Award for “Rising Star Chef of the Year. As of 2022, she is a contestant in Top Chef: Houston, the nineteenth season of the television series Top Chef.
Her cuisine often explores Black Appalachian food, Southern food, and soul food. Her modern interpretations of early Black American food also incorporate West African, Japanese, European, and American cuisine. Some of the dishes created by Shanti includes hummus made with black-eyed peas and sesame; okonomiyaki inspired by her mother’s salmon and cabbage fritters; buttermilk cornbread soup, the latter based on her grandmother’s recipe; collard greens salad with fried plantain and sumac; farro-vegetable hash with chermoula; cornmeal pancakes with strawberry compote; and benne-seed biscuits with local country ham and hollandaise.
Early in her career, she served as a cook and culinary event producer in Virginia Beach, Virginia. After culinary school, she worked for Cindy Wolf at Charleston and Cinghiale in Charleston, South Carolina. She bartended briefly and worked in catering in El Paso, Texas. For more than two years, Shanti worked as Vivian Howard’s culinary assistant. Shanti supported Howard’s work in A Chef’s Life. Shanti appeared alongside Howard in the episode “Dumpling Dilemma” of Howard’s television show Somewhere South. Upon leaving her position with Howard, she began traveling the U.S., struggling to figure out where and what she wanted to do or where she wanted to live. During her travels, she was inspired by her visit to The Grey and a conference in Denmark, where she saw Jeannette Ehlers talk about reclaiming African history. She worked at minibar, the José Andrés restaurant in Washington, D.C.
During a camping trip to Shenandoah National Park, Shanti saw a display at the visitors center about African Americans in Appalachia. Her grandmother and great-grandmother lived in Appalachian Mountain. The culmination of the display and her maternal heritage-inspired Shanti to begin pursuing Black Appalachian cuisine. In October 2018, Shanti met John Fleer, owner-chef of Rhubarb. The two had similar culinary interests: celebrating African and African American culinary traditions. Fleer hired her to serve as chef de cuisine and to help create the menu at Benne on Eagle, the restaurant at The Foundry Hotel in Asheville. The restaurant opened in 2018. In 2019, she was named one of “16 Black Chefs Changing Food in America” by The New York Times. That same year, she was also named one of Eater’s “Young Guns” of the year, and Benne on Eagle was named one of Bon Appetit’s Best New Restaurants.
She is originally from North Carolina. As a young adult, she lived in Nairobi, Kenya for a gap year. Upon return, she attended Hampton University studying Marketing. After graduating from Hampton, she moved to Baltimore, Maryland to attend culinary school. She eventually earned her sommelier certification.
Ashleigh Shanti Age
She was born in 1991 in the United States. According to her bio on bravotv.com, she originally hails from Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States.
Ashleigh Shanti Partner
She is in a relationship with her partner, Meaghan. During her leisure time, she is mostly found outdoors, birding, foraging, or hiking the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains with her pet Vizsla, Roux, and her partner, Meaghan. Shanti loves rap music and writes rap songs in her free time.
Ashleigh Shanti Instagram
Her Instagram handle is @foodordeath_.
