Asheville Chef Ashleigh Shanti Brings Home a James Beard Award | Eater Carolinas
"Run by Asheville-based chef Ashleigh Shanti, this restaurant fuses traditional fish-camp ideas with Black Appalachian and Southern cuisine to craft a menu rooted in regional, community-driven ingredients and flavors. Shanti's cookbook, Our South: Black Food Through My Lens, is a deeply personal exploration of the communities that shaped her culinary perspective and earned her the 2025 James Beard Award in the U.S. Foodways category; in accepting the honor she thanked her team and noted that food and food stories can be powerful unifiers during turbulent times." - Erin Perkins
