Asheville NC Dinner

host chef

Avenue M, Asheville, NC

Andrew is an artist type personality. Inquisitive, obsessive, creative (sometimes) and eager to share these things with others. Early in life visual art was his path. His grandfather was a painter, his sister is a designer, his father and grandmother were in stage craft. In adolescence, music was his obsession, then ultimately food. There are certain parallels that all of these share. Chief among them is how much value is added when you’re able to share with others.

Andrew started cooking in Asheville at the Grove Park Inn and very soon afterward fell far down the rabbit hole. This is also where he met and befriended Ralph Lonow. He was fortunate enough to be a part of the opening team at Curaté with the wonderful Katie Button and Felix Meana.

From there he did his Internship through A.B. Tech at McCrady’s in Charleston with Sean Brock (Joyland, The Continental, Audrey: Nashville TN) and Jerimiah Langhorne (The Dabney* : Washington DC). It was here, he saw what and who he wanted to grow to be. After graduation he moved to San Francisco to work at Saison**(Joshua Skenes). The fanaticism of Northern California produce and the importance of live fire cooking were pivotal lessons for him at that time, as were the rigorous standards of the Michelin system. From there he went to Quince*** (Michael Tusk) where he learned another level of product fanaticism and all about Italian sensibilities including fatto a mano pasta. After leaving California he ended up back with Sean Brock at Husk Nashville, primarily focusing on their butchery and charcuterie programs, bringing them to national acclaim. Additionally he helped open the expansions of the Husk Brand to Greenville SC and Savannah GA respectively .

After this Andrew traveled back to San Francisco to help open Angler* Skenes first restaurant after Saison, then Verjus, Tusk’s first restaurant opening since Cotogna in 2010.

At Avenue M, Andrew is focused on supporting local producers and creating a refined and approachable neighborhood restaurant. He’s excited to be putting down roots at home and giving back to the hospitality community that gave so much to him when he was starting out.

best chef Southeast 2016

City House, Nashville, TN

It all began with cornbread, no recipe, just a story in a game of “telephone” from his mother, her mother before that and so on. These are the women in his life who cultivated Tandy Wilson’s appreciation for food at an early age, igniting the fire that has become the backbone to his “heart and soul” cooking philosophy.

While attending the University of Tennessee, Wilson landed his first restaurant job at The Orangery in Knoxville, TN. Quickly transitioning from crushing the dish pit to working on the line, he realized that his love of cooking could—and should—turn into a career. Chef Kevin Fults gifted Wilson On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals, leading Wilson to seal the deal on his decision to attend culinary school.

With a degree in hotel and restaurant management under his belt in 2000, Wilson headed west to attend Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Arizona. One year later SCI placed him at the highly acclaimed Tra Vigne restaurant in Saint Helena, CA where he first met Chef Nate Appleman, who became a good friend and mentor for Wilson. Appleman’s enthusiasm for Italian cuisine intrigued Wilson so much that it lead him to take a two- month tour of Italy.

In 2004, Wilson came back home to his roots in Nashville, TN seasoned with Italian travel and eager to advance his culinary confidence. It was while working as a sous chef for Chef/Owner Margot McCormack at Margot Café that Wilson’s dream to open his own restaurant developed.

That dream came to fruition in a nineteenth century brick building that once housed the workspace for local Nashvillian artist and sculptor, Alan LeQuire. Located in historic Germantown, City House opened its doors in December 2007. It is here where Wilson showcases his love for fresh, local ingredients as often as possible while creating what he calls, “blue collar Italian” and Southern cuisine.

Wilson was a finalist for the James Beard Award “Best Chef Southeast” in 2013, 2014, 2015, taking home the award in 2016. Wilson is an avid supporter of local and national charities, such as The Nashville Food Project and No Kid Hungry. He is also on the board of the historic Nashville Farmers’ Market and a longtime member of the Southern Foodways Alliance.

At the heart of it all, Chef Tandy Wilson is a true Southern boy with a passion for good food and the humbling ability that it has to bring folks together. Whether Wilson is cooking at City House, doing a charity event or throwing a yard party—rest assured, there will be thoughtful food and you will feel like you are a part of the City House family.

@bravotopchef Season 19

Good Hot Fish, Asheville, NC

Chef Ashleigh Shanti brings a unique culinary voice rooted in African American foodways, including Black Appalachian food, to the food industry and Southern Cuisine. Ashleigh grew up in coastal Virginia, where she learned to strip collard greens before she could walk. After earning her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing at Hampton University, Ashleigh studied Culinary Arts at Baltimore International College and went on to hone her skills at a variety of restaurants with a culinary range from Northern Italian to Classic French. She went on to serve as culinary assistant for chef Vivian Howard, including supporting Howard’s PBS show, A Chef’s Life. In 2019, Shanti was named one of “16 Black Chefs Changing Food in America” by The New York Times and was named one of Eater’s “Young Guns” the same year. In 2020, Ashleigh was a finalist for the James Beard “Rising Star Chef of the Year” award during her tenure as Chef de Cuisine at John Fleer’s Benne on Eagle, which was included in Bon Appetit’s and Thrillist’s 2020 Best New Restaurants lists. In 2022, Ashleigh competed in Top Chef: Houston. Currently she is opening a quick-service fish fry concept in Asheville, NC called, Good Hot Fish.

Hickory, Inn at Nicewonder,

Bristol, VA

Hailing from rural Southwestern Virginia, Travis Milton spent his childhood in a true Appalachian kitchen, learning the tried and true techniques for shucking beans, preserving and canning, and planting gardens. From his early teens, Milton fostered a deep love for cooking, learning through various restaurant roles from Todd Gray’s Equinox in Washington D.C. to Chris Cosentinos’ Incanto in San Francisco. Milton soon realized the magic he was able to create when marrying the memories of his family’s kitchen with the techniques of his mentors, and embarked on his dream journey of running a genuine Appalachian restaurant. Most recently, Milton opened the Inn at Nicewonder’s signature restaurant, Hickory, in Bristol, Virginia, where he has the stage to further explore, reimagine and elevate Applachian cuisine using approachable ingredients. Milton’s cooking is not replacing original Appalachian techniques, but instead introduces the cuisine in a fresh way that he hopes will build upon the cuisine’s heritage. When not in the kitchen, his favorite place to be is sitting on his front porch in one of his 680 pairs of Nikes kicks, enjoying his whiskey collection and listening to Whitney Houston.