Ash Heeger
5Q’s with chef Ash Heeger, from ASH Restaurant in Cape Town. I first met Ash with her amazing dog Mash outside The House of Machines in Shortmarket Street. Another inspiring Capetonian making the Mother City into a next level destination…
1. Pls describe your line of work?
I’m a chef and one of the owners at Ash Restaurant in Church Street, Cape Town. It’s an ethical and sustainable restaurant focusing on meat by Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants and incredible vegetables from Abalimi. I spend most of my time in the kitchen, running it and also developing new ideas for our menu.
2. What is your passion – what inspires you?
Wow, I feel like everything is inspiring me at the moment. Our terroir in Cape Town is amazing. Anything from indigenous plants to our forests and even the sea side yields all sorts of ideas and flavours. It’s not hard to be inspired when our land scape is so diverse.
3.Cape Town – what do you love about it?
I love absolutely everything about this city. Watching the food scene grow over the last five years has been pretty incredible. We have the whole package. Mind blowing views, lovely beaches, amazing forests. It’s also been enriching seeing my friends blossom into successful entrepreneurs and giving the international market a run for their money. Such a creative place.
4. Name a favourite travel destination & tell us why its amazing for you?
Tough one…. The last city I visited was Copenhagen. What a great place. I found the food and culture extremely welcoming and friendly. Definitely a place I would like to re-visit. I’m pretty desperate to visit Mexico and Japan though. For the food!
5. What is one or a few of your favourite thing/s in life and what is your pet peeve?
Fave thing: My little family and friendships are probably the most important things in my life. As a chef, there is such limited time to spend with the people that mean the most to you so it becomes very precious. I value that time a lot.
Pet peeve… Ha, many. Lazy people. The worst of the worst.
Instagram: @ash_heeger / Twitter: @ashheegs
Until next time, inspirationally yours,