Qualified in London from the esteemed City in Guilds Institute as a chef, after doing his apprenticeship at the Ritz, Ash spent 9 years in Europe honing his skills in various cuisines including Chinese at a restaurant frequented by celebrities and royalty in Mayfair Square.

Upon arriving in Melbourne, he was part of the team that opened Accor’s Novotel on Collins and worked under Garry Meaghan. Ash then moved into café operations with two of Melbourne’s iconic eateries, Blue Train Café in Southbank with then Head Chef Ian Southgate and on his own with Automatic café in Crown during the café culture serge in the 90s under restaurateur Paul Mathis, who had the Midas touch during that time.

Ash’s next venture was setting up his own business in Melbourne’s CBD with his friend chef Southgate. The café called Food Cube was one of the first to gain a gluten free accreditation.

After going back to the hotel scene to run Novotel Glen Waverley’s kitchen, Ash achieved the best costings in Victoria for Accor Group and was trained in procurement and across the Sofitel brand.

2012 saw Ash start with his previous mentor’s Mathis Group, as a procurement manager and eventually took over café and coffee roastery, CoffeeHead in Camberwell. CoffeeHead under Ash was run for close to 11 years becoming an institution of the area, eventually rebranding into 1961 Coffee which still operates out of one section of the Camberwell location.

2022 was spent in Canberra, working for Rick DiMarco, the young gun of the Canberra hospitality scene. Space Kitchen won the Best Breakfast Venue in ACT in the Hospitality Industry Awards along with Best Patisserie in Australia that year.

Coming with proven experience in hotel management, kitchen operations in cafés and hotels and more recently aged care, pre-openings, procurement, mentoring, training, menu planning, costings, customer service, coffee knowledge and staff training, and with knowledge in all types of cuisine, Ash can cater to any of your requirements.

Price and time period required to be discussed after assessment of each establishment.

• Initial custom assessment
• Strategic and operational planning
• Menu planning/ Menu costings/ recipe cards / Menu design
• Cooking methods/ Kitchen operations/ Food Safety
• Coaching/ Mentoring/ Staff training
• Workflow analysis and systems development