Seafood shacks to 'Top Chef': Asheville's Ashleigh Shanti's ambitious culinary journey

Chef Ashleigh Shanti isn't leaving anything to chance. Ambition and unwavering determination continue to push her outside of her comfort zone and to further success.

In recent career-altering decisions, Shanti left a leadership position at an Asheville fine dining restaurant, launched a pop-up company and dared to put her skills to the test for the world to see as a contestant on "Top Chef."

Later this year, she plans to debut her first brick-and-mortar restaurant, an extension of her pop-up fish fry, Good Hot Fish.

Soon, more people will witness the culinary prowess and ingenuity of the chef who comes from humble beginnings working at seafood shacks beachside. And how what started off as a summer job has evolved and become the foundation for an Applachian-grown chef's ever-rising culinary career.

'Top Chef'

On March 3, Ashleigh Shanti will make her reality television debut on a cooking show where any and everything can happen.

Shanti is one of 15 “cheftestants” selected for season 19 of "Top Chef," premiering at 8 p.m. March 3 on Bravo.

The season was prerecorded, allowing Shanti to watch along with the viewing audience and be surrounded by her community of supporters. Shanti will host a fish fry pop-up at 5 p.m. March 3 at Burial Beer Co., 40 Collier Ave., in Asheville. The South Slope brewery will show the episode in the taproom.

Shanti is feeling a new wave of emotions as the episode airing date nears.

“I’m excited. I’ve been waiting in anticipation for this for a long time so everyone can know where I was hiding out,” Shanti said.

The upcoming season was filmed in Houston. The weekly challenges will incorporate iconic regional dishes and embrace the ethnic diversity that’s sculpted the city’s culinary identity. The chefs will explore Nigerian cuisine, and an elimination challenge will call for them to prepare Asian-inspired dishes for crowds at an Asian Night Market. Also, the chefs will be tasked to put their personal flair and flavor into Tex-Mex classics.

More: Asheville chefs, restaurants named 2022 James Beard Award semifinalists

"Top Chef" calls for the chefs to use their unique skillsets to prepare dishes that outshine their peers and wow judges. The high-intensity competition tests culinary artists by throwing them difficult tasks, placing them in unpredictable environments and having their dishes undergo the scrutiny of unknown diners and the professional judging panel.

The chefs are required to adapt to preparing cuisine for diners in traditional dining rooms as well as outdoor public spaces. Also, in the intimate tasting table setting for the judges, which includes head judge Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons.

"Top Chef" is hosted by Padma Lakshmi.

Each week, the contestants attempt to excel at each mission and stay in the competition.

Shanti attempted to prepare to enter the "Top Chef" arena after receiving notification that she was selected to be a contestant. She soon realized she would have to trust her years of classical training and field experience to carry her through.

“I did watch a little more of the show and watched it from a different lens. I found that that actually stressed me out a little bit,” Shanti said. “I wanted to be my authentic self. By overpreparing — doing my own challenges in my kitchen — that would psyche me out.”

Carving her way

Shanti, a Virginia Beach native, began working at seafood shacks on the beaches when she was a teenager. It's where she fell in love with the fish camp style of cooking, she said. At the time, she didn't know the jobs would lead to a profession.

“I had no real intentions of making it into a career because in Black communities, I think we often think of subservient positions in the kitchen," Shanti said. "At that time, 10 plus years ago, there wasn’t a lot of exposure for Black chefs. My parents are big intellectuals, and there was no question that I was going to have to go to a four-year college.”

Shanti earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Hampton University while continuing to work in restaurant kitchens in the summer.

More: Asheville resident heads to reality television cooking competition, 'Top Chef'

“I fell in love with it and finally began to see it as a potential career," Shanti said. "I had to do a lot of convincing and instead of going to grad school, I went to culinary school at Baltimore International College and got to finally get my feet wet in fine dining kitchens.”

Shanti worked her way up the ranks as a dishwasher, line cook and line director before becoming a sous chef at a Spanish tapas restaurant in El Paso, Texas, she said.

Her ambition pushed her to pursue promotion and leadership roles, but she was faced with challenges that delayed her progression, she said.

“I was a line cook for a very long time, even when I knew that I had the capability to be in a leadership position,” she said. “I was finding (my) place and not always feeling incredibly welcome in the kitchen as a queer Black woman. Knowing that I loved food but trying to find a place where I felt that food loved me back.”

Southern eats

Catering presented an opportunity for her to cook the food she believed in, she said. Then, she took her talents on the road.

“I took this six-month journey figuring where I wanted to be exactly in the South. I went to Nashville and to Charleston and cooked at McCrady’s,” she said.

Along the way, she’s gained experience working under renowned chefs in popular restaurants specializing in cuisine styles from Northern Italian to Classic French.

Shanti returned to the Southeast to be closer to family, but it was a thought-out plan to return to her Appalachian food roots.

In 2018, Shanti was recommended as a candidate to lead a new restaurant by John Fleer, an award-winning chef and owner of The Rhu and Rhubarb in Asheville. Fleer was in search of a chef de cuisine for another one of his restaurants, Benne on Eagle, which was opening that fall.

Fleer had interviewed many candidates, but none that excited him, he said. Until Shanti.

“She already had a menu in development," Fleer said. "We chefs tend to write menus for ideas that we have, not necessarily for a specific purpose. She already had a menu she had written that kind of blended Appalachian, West African (and) African American food into a menu. That was a really good sign — that she had already been thinking about the idea of Benne without even knowing Benne existed.”

For two years, Shanti worked at Benne on Eagle. During that time, she was awarded 2019 Eater Young Gun and named a 2020 finalist for James Beard “Rising Star Chef of the Year.”

“John Fleer noticed that I was in a place where I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do,” Shanti said. “I knew I wanted to cook Southern food. I knew that my ties to the Appalachia were very meaningful and that’s where a lot of my fondest food memories lie.”

Launching a vision

In fall 2020, Shanti left the restaurant amid the COVID-19 pandemic to launch her pop-up, Good Hot Fish.

“During the pandemic, I had a moment like a lot of people have where I realized all the thoughts that I had for a restaurant cooking and leadership if I wanted to execute them that I was just going to have to do it in my own establishment," Shanti said.

Good Hot Fish was designed to revive the old school fish camp style restaurant that Shanti calls "a dying breed." She sources fresh seafood from purveyors and fishermen in the coastal Carolinas to present to diners in the mountains.

“I’m making sure we have fresh seafood and preparing it in very simple ways and allowing the amazing product that we have to shine," she said. "I think that in the restaurant world, fish camps were some of the first family-owned restaurants so it’s an homage to that.”

Good Hot FIsh also pays respect to Shanti's family and their experiences in the South Appalachian.

"The men in my family are the storytellers, and my dad and uncles would always tell me how the women in my family would always have a side hustle," Shanti said. "One of the side hustles was the men catching fish in the morning, gutting and cleaning them, and passing them over to the women who would then dredge them, cook them and serve them with sides. You put the fish in paper bags and go around the communities yelling, ‘Good hot fish! Come get your good hot fish!’ and sell them on the streets.

“Stories like that are found throughout Black families throughout the Southern Appalachia and it really resonated with me and I wanted to bring that back," she said.

The menu is under development for her later-to-debut restaurant but will delve more into the seafood and Appalachian foodways, she said.

Rising to 'Top Chef'

Shanti is still figuring out her next moves. Taking chances and forming new, lasting bonds is all a part of it.

Benne on Eagle was a good stepping stone and learning experience, Fleer said. Judging by others' experiences, "Top Chef" could catapult her career further.

“She’s a very talented cook,” Fleer said. “She has a high degree of creativity and I think she’s very adept at blending personal influences with ideas and concepts. Benne is a good illustration of that. … I think she has a real talent for finding her voice within the boundaries of whatever it is that’s required.”

Reality television is a difficult and unpredictable arena, but Fleer believes Shanti has what it takes to adapt and handle whatever comes her way, he said.

The "Top Chef" experience also has delivered other surprises that Shanti values — no matter the outcome of the competition.

“It’s such an amazing franchise, and I’ve had the ability to connect with all these amazing chefs from around the country. One thing I do love about the franchise is that once you’re in it, it really is like a family," Shanti said. "I’m now connected to all these other great chefs who have also been on the show. It’s a cool community to be a part of. I’ve been searching for that sense of community for a very long time. I’m grateful to be a part of it, and I know that while I did not go into this expecting lifelong friendships, I definitely made that.”

How to watch

What: "Top Chef"

When: 8 p.m. March 3

Where: Bravo

Info: Find more information, visit bravotv.com/top-chef. Follow Ashleigh Shanti at @foodordeath_ for updates on the chef and details of Good Hot Fish pop-up dates.

Another chance to taste Shanti’s creations will be March 10 at the Cultura's Cultivated Community Dinner Series, wickedweedbrewing.com/cultivated-community/.

Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter/Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville chef to appear as a contestant on season 19 of the Top Chef