Ashleigh

Ashleigh Shanti is one of the most important voices in American food right now. A queer Black woman and

acclaimed chef rooted in Appalachian and Southern Black foodways, she has spent her career preserving

and elevating the culinary traditions of the communities that shaped her. Raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia,

she shelled boiled peanuts in her great-aunt Hattie Mae’s kitchen, pored over food and travel magazines in

high school, and marvelled at how her mother never failed to put a hot meal on the table. After a gap year in

Nairobi, she graduated from Baltimore International College culinary school in 2013 while working under the

Foreman Wolf Group.

Ashleigh’s professional path runs through some of America’s most respected kitchens. She staged at José

Andrés’s Minibar in Washington, DC, worked as culinary assistant to Vivian Howard, then became chef de

cuisine at John Fleer’s Benne on Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina, where she became the voice of

Affrilachian foodways - the intersection of African American and Appalachian culinary traditions. The New

York Times named her one of 16 Black Chefs Changing Food in America in 2019. Eater named her a Young

Gun the same year. She was a finalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2020 and

competed on Top Chef Season 19 in 2022.

In 2024, Ashleigh opened Good Hot Fish in Asheville - a quick-service fish fry concept named for a phrase

her ancestors would shout to draw in customers. It was named one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants in

America and one of the New York Times’ Greatest Places. Her debut cookbook Our South: Black Food

Through My Lens (2024) won the 2025 James Beard Media Award for US Foodways and was named one of

the best cookbooks of the year by the Washington Post, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Forbes. In 2025,

TIME named her to the TIME100 Next list. She lives in Asheville with her wife, Meaghan, and their dog,

Roux.