7. Chef Ashley Morash

 

Chef Ashley Morash, born and raised in Halifax, is currently a chef at Tart & Soul, where she has helped create a menu that fits a wide range of customers from the surrounding area including students, teachers, and professionals from the surrounding offices.

“When I first joined, the owners [Lisa Brow and Saf Haq] provided me with a lot of freedom to expand the menu where I thought might work for the people in the area. I gradually changed up and developed the lunch menu, slowly adding more offerings to what we provided savoury food wise, making the lunch counter what it is today. Now we're not only slinging delicious, sweet treats but also hearty good eats. I've been here for three and a half years now, which has been great because I’ve gotten to know the customers and have been able to adapt the menu accordingly. I believe people really like change and they really are adventurous as long as you present it in a very gentle way. You have to make it approachable, but you can still provide a fun twist.

It was tricky figuring out what everybody wanted, but it was also exciting because I got to learn since we have an open counter. People can come up and talk to me and often say, “oh, I really like this, can we get this again?” I try to ask people what they want and what they'd like to see as much as I can when we're not busy. I also love picking the brain of regular customers who I’ve built a relationship with as they are not shy of telling me what they like. I’ll admit, once I got in with the regulars, it was a little bit easier because I knew that I could be like, “hey, Michelle, what would you like?” I really enjoy that aspect of working here.”

Ashley experimented with graphic design out of high school, which she also had a passion for, but admits she always had food and cooking in the back of her mind.

“I went into graphic design and did that for a little while and then went on to work as a manager at a coffee shop for five years. It was okay but I always came back to food and cooking. It was kind of like my stress relief after work or a long, hard week. I just loved going back to my kitchen and making something nice. You can control it... If you do this and put that together, it'll turn out well. It was a comforting thing in my life. Finally at 25, I made the decision to go back to school, and I went for culinary arts at NSCC.”

After school and prior to Tart & Soul, Ashley worked at some local favorites including the Canteen, Indochine, and the Watch That Ends The Night, having high praise for those who she worked with along the way.

“I worked with a lot of good people… people that I look up to including a lot of strong women. I was lucky to have worked with mostly female chefs which I think is pretty rare. It is a different dynamic and I feel like I wouldn't have seen the same side of the kitchen under different circumstances. It's really cool to see women in strong roles just doing their thing and not taking any shit and just doing it as best as anybody else can do. My very first chef was Renee Lavallee and she's a force. I learned a lot from her, and I feel like you probably can see that in the way I cook… you can see little things that I’ve picked up from her”.

Ashley has taken many great attributes from her past colleagues and spoke to what she believes is key to running a successful kitchen.

“How a kitchen should be run definitely includes being fair and trying to really work together and support each other. It isn’t going to get you very far if you're in a bad mood all the time and you're  closed off and not working well with your team. It’s important to stay calm and to think about what you need to do a few steps ahead of where you are. If it's busy on a certain day, you know that you might run out of something, so you plan a little bit more ahead. “Okay, I know I might run out of this, but I know that I can go over there and grab that really quickly”.

I’ll also say that being able to communicate any problems with your colleagues is important. I like to do this thing, especially when I was working on the hotline… I'd be like, “okay this is my issue but here is my solution”. You get a lot further with that kind of attitude. Just being really open about the issues at hand and being honest goes a long way in the kitchen.

If you mess up, it’s not the end of the world.”