Ashbell the Entrepreneur
FOUR STAR CHEF, RESTAURANTEUR, INTERNATIONAL MEDIA PERSONALITY & LIFESTYLE GURU
Ashbell’s story is pure Americana: from humble beginnings as the great grandson of a sharecropper in rural South Carolina, he discovered his gift of spinning down home food and flavors into heavenly ambrosia from his trio of family ‘cooking saints’: Mother Retha Ludd, Great Aunt Laura and Papa Ashbell.
Educated at the Sorbonne, he travelled the world soaking up the ethnic tapestry of culture, tradition and cuisine that binds us all. Returning to the US, he successfully branded and nationally distributed his own food products, while doing stints as executive chef for high profile restaurants and private corporate dining rooms. His talents soon caught the attention of the likes of Robert De Niro, President Bill Clinton, Patti La Belle and other celebrities, who engaged his services. Soon NBC television took notice and Chef Ashbell became on-camera presenter for the WNBC Weekend Today Show. There he cooked with Donald Trump, Matt Lauer, Al Roker and a host of other celebrities, raising ratings and wowing New York’s ethnically diverse community with his larger-than-life personality and impressive knowledge of everything from potato latkes to Cuban pernil.
In 2001, Ashbell took his talents ‘across the pond’ to London, helming Harlem@Saint, a supper club in busy Covent Garden. Ashbell was invited to join the BBC television show Good Food Live as a result of Harlem@Saint.
Also 2002, Ashbell received a commission from the Royal Parks to run an exclusive café for the famed Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion designed by architect Toyo Ito.
In 2003 Ashbell opened his eponymous restaurant in trendy Notting Hill, dazzling AA Gill, the acknowledged ‘toughest restaurant critic in the world’ who bestowed a 4-star rating on Ashbells.
Chef Ashbell is a regular on BBC Cable Food TV’s most popular show, Good Food Live, and appears on BBC Broadcast TV across the UK on Good Food Bites. He is currently launching a new line of handcrafted limited-edition specialty foods, ‘Bespoke Cuisine’, a new beverage product, and is in pre-production for the filming of his show on US Public Television, Chef Ashbell’s Food in America.
