This week's guest is Ashley Horr, a personal holistic chef and owner of Real Roots Kitchen. Ashley always loved to cook since she was young, Ashley went to school for a holistic nutrition. When she graduated, a family friend asked if she was interested to cook for her family. Ashley took that opportunity and then that person told a friend and that person told a friend, and so on and so on in the business crew from there.
Ashley describes her style of cooking as chef inspired and elevated just everyday whole food made from scratch. Make sure you check out Ashley on Instagram at Real Roots Kitchen or check the show notes for the link. Enjoy the show. Okay, this is the industry podcast and we are coming to you live from Dan's studio here.
I'm Kip. This is Dan. What's happening, buddy? Oh, you know, it's going well so far yourself.
Well, it's great. I just saw our listeners know how far we go to make sure that you have an episode to listen to. Both of us got an access this in the last three days. Dan on his way to the recording got rear-ended on the highway.
How was that fun? At least the guy was nice and easy to get along with and very quick to deal with and we got it all sorted over in a couple of minutes and it happened to be a mechanic as well, which was kind of handy because... They fixed your car right there in the highway. That part was fairly pain-free so no big damage other than new bumper and something else.
I was like, what about your accident? Yeah, I was driving, I was home visiting family on the weekend in Kingston and yeah, I got hit by a deer. It's crazy driving down the road and about nine o'clock on Sunday night caved in the whole side of my car much more significant damage than yours unfortunately but it's all inded deductible. Yeah.
Yeah, so interesting weekend for sure. But we're still here. We're still recording and yeah, we have we have an amazing guest as usual. Ashley's going to be joining us in just a minute here.
Before we get to her, we should mention that if you like what we're doing here on the show and you appreciate us coming to your hot-off motor vehicle incidents, then you should follow us, subscribe, rate, review. That helps a great deal. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, then you can email us at info at theindustrypodcast.club or it's at theindustrypodcast. Instagram.
The artwork on the Instagram feed is done by zakana.co. He's doing great stuff with his graphic arts business so check out everything he's doing there. And if you're in the kitchen or Waterloo area, come check out one of my places, a business, should or run, downtown kitchen or that's at should or run bar on Instagram or uptown Waterloo. It's Babylon Sisters, at Babylon Sisters bar on Instagram to find out all the things we're doing there.
And one of my bartenders from Babylon Sisters actually this weekend scored very highly at the cocktail competition held at Allure Distillery. Oh nice, that's good to hear. Yeah, she did great. So shout out to Amanda Pierce.
Thanks for your entering and thanks for cooking up a great cocktail. And while we're on the topic of Allure Distillery, we should mention that we're proud to be sponsored by Allure Distillery here at the industry podcast. They are a small distilling company in Allure doing handcrafted premium product grain to grass spirits. They source everything, all the grains from local farms in Waterloo and Wellington counties, which is pretty amazing.
They've also provided us with some product to talk about here, which we always appreciate. For instance, right now we're trying the Royal Rum Spiced Black, which is, well, let's check it out then. Cheers. Here's to you.
Oh, delicious. That is delicious. And we're not just saying that because they pay us to here's how they describe themselves dark smooth with hints of vanilla and warming spices. And it's aged in new Oak Chard number three Kelvin Cooperidge barrels for at least a year, gets some smoothness from a mixture of three distillations.
And after it's aging, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg are macerated to add a spice bouquet. It's available now for wholesale and restaurant and bars. And it's going to be coming to the LCBO in the summer of 2024. So look forward to that.
But it is really actually an amazing sipping rum, wouldn't you, sir? I do actually. I got to admit, I do like this quite a bit. Try this for the first time of the week.
And it goes down smooth. That's just neat or just a little bit of nice or a little bit of mix. Yeah, they are. They're quite sipping it though.
It's a great sipping rum. You can obviously make cocktails with your favorite mix as well, although I would recommend drinking on its own. They also provide us with a great expectation gin, which is a homegrown Ontario craft gin. And it's their flagship brand made with locally forged botanicals that they grow less than 10 minutes away.
So you should check that out as well. That is available in the LCBO right now. Great expectations gin from allure distilling. If you want to contact them about getting some of this rum that's not yet available, you should follow them at allure distilling co on Instagram or check out allure distilling company dot com.
Yeah, I know if you go on their website, you can if you live in Ontario, you can order directly from them as well, which is super handy. You can check out a lot of their selection of operatives, whiskeys, rums, and believe us all about it as well. Yeah, absolutely. So and they also have an app or a Tivo that's come out as well.
So amazing. I know I've had a great time at their cocktail competition. You can visit this still there in allure. And it's a great time.
Go check them out and please enjoy the hit them up for the spice to black rum and check out great expectations gin at the LCBO that's at the glory of distilling co on Instagram. Perfect. And as always, I'll put the links to that in the show notes. Okay.
Well, great. So once again, thanks to allure distilling for sponsoring the show. And now let's get to the show while you're all here. We are pleased to be joined by Ashley Hor from Real Roots Kitchen.
How are you Ashley? I'm good. How are you? Well, right.
You know, thanks very much for joining us. I'm sure definitely for you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited.
I said the interview. I've only done this once before. Oh, really? Yeah.
And you reside in Hamilton. Is that and that's where you operate the business center? I reside in Hamilton, but I'm mostly in Toronto. Yeah, that's all I'm talking to knowing.
With a gardener being closed right now that Lane is killing me. Yeah, it's brutal. It is the worst thing in the world. But yeah.
Okay. Well, let's I want to talk get into Real Roots and what you do there. But let's first talk about how you got into cooking to begin with because I know we were sort of talking over Instagram before the interview and you're saying it wasn't really something you were looking to get into in the first place. So describe how it all happened for you.
Yeah, I, I've always loved to cook since I was really little. I would come home from school and throw on the food network and blew my eyes there for hours. And then I would go and make an S on my mom's kitchen and she'd have to clean it up. But yeah, I just was always passionate about it.
And then in being in high school, I just got made fun of being like the girl that would bring all these like weird selling things in her lunch and everyone's like, why aren't eating it subway or coming to pizza pizza? And I just did it. I just loved food and good food. So I applied to culinary school and then I got in and I was like, oh, I just, I checked into it and I went to school for holistic nutrition.
So I'm a nutritionist by trade. But I just immediately like once I finished that to your program, I'm like, no, I got to be cooking. And then I had an opportunity to come up where a family friend knew I loved to cook and was good at it and knew about nutrition. So she asked me, will you come cook for my family?
And I'm like, yeah, sure, whatever that meant. I didn't even know like the private personal chef world existed back then, like this is 12 years ago. I had no idea. Because I also would have probably went to culinary school if I knew you could do a career like that.
I just didn't want to be the only woman in the kitchen working till 2am at a restaurant and getting paid like 20 bucks an hour. I just was like, no, I can't do that lifestyle. I like to be in bed early. I'm really like, it's just not my lifestyle.
And I just couldn't do it. I couldn't picture like being yelled at by some guy in the kitchen screaming me like if I wasn't doing anything right. So I took up Juni and then she told a friend, she told a friend and yeah, I started doing this full time. Yeah, 10, 10, 12 years ago.
That's amazing because most people we've had a couple other people who've done private chef work on the show previously and most people get into it after a long career working in kitchens. In culinary industry, yeah. Because they're so sick of that 10am till 2am life, right? And it's so stressful.
And honestly, I will say other than like just hard work, my job is not stressful. I work with the most lovely families. And I just go in, it's like my own home, listen to my music and just cook them good food and they're like, stay for dinner. And it's really not stressful.
The drive is stressful. Yeah. So how many like clients do you currently have? I like regulars.
I have about like 10. But on my like, I don't know my roster, I guess you could say I have like people that will just text like randomly actually like I need you this week of June or July. I don't know like regular ones I talked to probably 30. I'd say like 30 people.
And so those are like more like they come in and out of my life. Like there'll be weeks like I'm sure you guys know like some weeks you're at home, eat more and you really need to help and like when people have kids and work life and it's I don't know bitty times of work and stuff like that. They really need my help. But in the summer, people are more relaxed.
They're eating out more barbecuing stuff like that. But I still have my like diehards that are like every week. Same people. Yeah.
So like do you go there and then cook that like food for them for like a full week or you're going to their house every day? Some people it depends on the person. Some people are picky. They hate leftovers.
They have me there three times a week. Others just love when I come on a Monday and cook them stuff for like yeah, five, six days. They'll freeze some things. They'll have people over for dinner.
Some people will have me there on a Friday afternoon and cook their whole dinner party and then they'll have people over on the Friday or Saturday. I don't typically do like, I don't typically do like service. Like I like what I like is doing dinner parties. Like I'm just not the type of person to hire if you want to have like a fancy six-course meal and I'm serving you and explaining.
That's just not my thing. I'm more so family-style, relaxed. I kind of like the behind the scenes stuff. I love chatting with people when I'm at their party, but I just love serving things family-style and having like a kitchen party and having people talk to me and hang out and help if they want.
Like that's just more my style. I'm just not like a fancy small-plates person. Like that's just not my thing. So I just love, I love a kitchen party and just being in someone's home and feeling welcome in it.
So it's kind of interesting because most people again who get into their private chef work started sort of doing it for these private like functions and these dinner parties. So it's kind of interesting that were you surprised that there was a whole angle of people who just wanted a private chef and weren't doing like crazy dinner parties all the time but just wanted like food for regular living? Yeah, I wouldn't say I was surprised. I was more so just, I guess, well yeah, actually yeah, I'm surprised that I can keep up with it.
Like sometimes I wake up and I'm like, oh my god, I don't even understand how my schedule is filled like a month in advance of people that just want meal prep. But I mean, I get it because I'm in that situation right now where I want to hire myself. Man, I'm very constarting. And I'm like, I just wish I had stuff cooked.
And when you're wanting to eat healthy food throughout the week, there's nothing more annoying than going somewhere and paying like $30 for a shitty salad and protein, right? Like it's just, I get why people hire me. I'm great at cooking healthy food and making it taste good. Like I'm very confident in that.
What I'm not so confident is throwing dinner parties with six courses and making these fancy Michelin star style plates. I love going out and doing that myself. But my work just translates better into like, yeah, just healthy every day food that's elevated and like sheppy inspired, I guess you can say, but in the day, it's just good food, cooked properly, like how a chef would, but it's just simple food. Yeah, like I make things exciting, but it's more so just that every day food.
And when you try to get that out, it's just never as good. So in terms of pricing, like I'm not asking for prices or like that, how do you figure out what works like in terms of like just multiplying like the food costs, essentially, and figuring out your choice? So I do things so differently, actually. That's why I always take client calls before I get a client because I'm just not your average private personal or such personal chef.
Like I just charge hourly my own rate clients by all their food. I don't overhead costs other than driving, obviously, to people's houses. But I show up with my apron, my knives, I use your kitchen, I use your appliances. If you have a shitty frying pan, not my problem, like I obviously recommend stuff.
And also by going to someone's house for the first time, I kind of know like, okay, this is gonna be a really great client. I'm gonna love working here. Or sometimes I just, I let people go because it's just not the kind of environment I want to cook in, right? But I'm looking enough that now I can like choose those clients who are food people who have the great appliances and wolf ranges and everything and all that nice stuff.
But yeah, I'm simple. I just show up with my knives, my apron and I let clients pick out their food. I give recommendations or all of them sometimes have their Instacart logins and I'll do that for them. But I send out like a PDF file, I want to give a new client, I tell them how to shop before I come and how to stock your pantry and we'll have like a really detailed conversation about what their family likes to eat flavors, if they're open to trying new things.
And then yeah, I just come in and I love like a fridge full of surprises. I love when people just buy random things and that they normally wouldn't buy like, actually, we got you ground lamb and we got for peeniness week and like a head of cabbage and just ran on stuff they would never touch. And that's my favorite just showing up on like a Tuesday morning and I have no idea what's in their fridge and I just show up and I'm like, oh, surprises. Okay, let's go.
It takes the stress out of people's life. Because I'm sending them on goosechades to go to the store and buy all these random cut to me and veggies and stuff. And it's just too stressful for people. And it's also too stressful for me to go into the store every day and shopping for a client.
I've tried it. I just didn't like it. It makes my day way too long. And I just have too many clients where I'd rather go to two people's houses in a day rather than one, if that makes sense.
Yeah. So do you have a couple of buddies or contractors who have a very similar approach. They buy the stuff and we just show up and do the work. They kind of steer them in the right direction saying, I mean, I want to look at this kind of material versus this.
But yeah, a lot less stress because then they just show up and work with what's there. And it works for the people for years. So you have like a set of like sort of Ashley recipes that you've got in the sort of in the hopper that you can pull out or anything or is it sort of literally you just are trust that you know how to combine flavors and make them taste good and you show up and go to work? Yeah.
I mean, how do I? Yeah, I mean, I have clients who have favorites and they'll request stuff like they I mean something a week or two ago like can you make this again? I bought the chicken thighs again for that or whatever you made. But people are easy.
Like they I find a lot of the people I work for, they just love food. They love good food. They just want to come home on like a Wednesday night and have something good in their fridge. So I just yeah, I cook and the more I get to know people, the more I know their flavors too, right?
Like of course, a new client, you don't know what they like or if their kids are going to be picky with what you made or their husbands just like a meat and tail guy but she loves curries or stuff like that. So yeah, and also reheating comes in fact or two. So I try to make a lot of things that do reheat well. Like I'm not cooking a ton of seafood or perpachos for people are like, crudos like that's just going to go gross, right?
So I try to make a good mix of things where they can eat that that night and then stuff that sits better in the fridge throughout the week like soups and like really good salads and yeah like basic stuff. Well, I mean, balls like all those things. People really love right stews, curries, people love Thai curry and like Indian dishes, which like reheat really well. Yeah, I make a lot of salads.
I make a lot of snacks for people like muffins and desserts for their kids and protein bars and yeah. Have you ever shown up at house and saw what they purchased and been like, what the fuck am I going to do with this? Oh my god. Yeah, right too many times.
And then they text me that night and they're like, this is amazing. And I'm like, that was the worst thing I've ever seen. Because you really don't have control. Like most I'd say 80% of people are buying really good food.
Like they go to a butcher, they get good cuts in me. They buy nice veggies, they have good pantry stuff but like I've shown up where someone I mean, I'm not judging anybody but like they'll have like the worst cut to me and like table salt and I'm like, oh my god, no, like they'll have free ground pepper and I'm like, I mean, I do there are some things around picky but I'm like, I need good salts. I mean, like good olive oil. I need you to have fresh herbs so we can't do all dry.
Like if you want your food, you're hiring me for a reason. Like not just everyone's going to hire a private chef. So most people get it but I have had some people who are hiring just for like meal prep like the Jimbo guys. Oh, that's kind of entertainment.
You don't need to hire me. They're going to broccoli please. Just order back. That's funny.
But the key to what you're doing is making things easier for people and you know who else is making shit easy for people is our good friends at Civil Pores. Yeah, Civil Pores is the brainchild of the Bar Civil Liberties in Toronto and they have their own distillery now where they are making pre-crafted cocktails and bottling and kegging them. Oh really? I can tell us what some of the flavors are?
Yes, I certainly can. I do have to drink some other just in cocktails. Yes. The classic cocktails that you expect, the old-fashioned, the espresso martini, we have a margarita, a jalapeno margarita, a whiskey sour and now a cosmopolitan as well.
Oh, yeah. So all the classics and what's great about this is how it helps you specifically if you are a high volume cocktail bar like mine are where you know like people are coming in, they want to try your signature cocktails and you're already overloaded with stuff like that and then somebody wants you to bang out an espresso martini real quick. Well now that's usually me. Yeah, exactly.
Hot off the keg or out of the bottle, 750 millibaudle, 20 liter kegs, you can get a perfectly crafted espresso martini or whiskey sour or an old-fashioned directly from the keg or from the bottle and you just put them in your stirring glass or your shaker and you're off to the races, a quick stir, a quick shake and it's a perfect cocktail. And I've mentioned this before on the show but I'm just amazed by how perfectly the foam comes out with the espresso martini and the whiskey sour. It's like you crafted the whole cocktail yourself and they are delicious. They taste exactly as they are supposed to.
I have tried several of those at your bar at Babylon Sisters. Those are pretty good. They enjoy them. Yeah, and they're also great.
Like specifically, I think an amazing product for a high-end high-volume cocktail bar but they are also great if you're hosting a dinner party and maybe you're not a very good bartender. Yeah, or like as I've brought up in the past, if you're in Ontario, a special occasion permit and you're hosting like say a wedding baby shower or a anniversary party or just some other party, it's an easy way to ensure you got cocktails ready at the go. Yes, absolutely. It's a fantastic product.
I stand by it. I use it at my bars and again, it's great for bars or for personal use. The cocktails come out exactly as you expect them. They are also a save you an amazing amount of time at the bars.
I mentioned but also they are priced so that you can make your margins. So if you mark them up at a reasonable amount at your bar, you are still making your profit margins and that's how they price them. Yeah, so if you want to get in touch with them, that's sales at civilpores.com. To find out all of their great products and to talk to one of their amazing reps who can help you get started down the road to efficiency with civilpores.
Sales at civilpores.com. All right. And as I always keep on mentioning, I won't put those links in the show notes as well for anyone interested in contacting it. And then we talk about there will be links in the show notes too.
Exactly. Okay. Back to our friend Ashley here. One thing I wanted to ask you about is so you started this out.
Like you said, you had one family that you knew who kind of asked you about it and then word them out to start growing at what point in this sort of growth and development for you. Did you realize, wait, this is maybe what I do now and maybe I can make a business out of this? Yeah, I would say tough because when I first started doing this, I was actually living abroad half of the year up until two, three years ago now, three years this summer. So I would say like three, four years ago is when I was really like, oh, okay, this is going to be my full-time job now that I'm home for good.
Like I moved back to Hamilton after being away for so long. And because I was really only doing this in the summers, I was only home for summer. So I was just doing this for four months. And I had like a few families.
I worked full-time like, or 30 hours a week, probably like four or five days a week. But yeah, I really think it was a thing until I officially moved home and I'm like, okay, I'm moving back to Hamilton for good, at least for now. And I got to grow this. So I got more clients.
And then yeah, that was it. And now I can't keep up. I'm trying to hire people to cook for me. But it's as you know, it's like you own a bar, right?
Of our restaurants? Yeah, I own two bars. Okay. Yeah, it's hard finding people you trust to work for you and run your business for you.
Not that I want to get out of it, but just I need help. Yeah. And it's a lot of times go that I don't want to let go, but I wanted to take on new work and new exciting opportunities. So I would love to hire somebody to take on some of my older clients.
Yeah, it would be specifically difficult. I would imagine in your business because you're taking your like the amount of trust that people have to have to bring you into their homes. It's like, for me, it's like, okay, where's thing that can happen to someone steal some booze from me or maybe take some money out of the safe? Like this is someone's home, which is like their sanctity, right?
So there's a certain amount of trust that goes into just having you in their home to begin with. Now you're outsourcing that to someone else. Well, that's a whole other thing. Exactly.
And they like, they got a taste for my food. It's like you grow up with your mom's cooking and then you marry your wife. You're like, oh, no, it doesn't treat like my mom's, right? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So I had people like where they're like, no, I don't want anyone else. I'm like, well, my rate is increasing to this.
And I started with you eight years ago. So like, I don't know what to tell you. Like, right. It sucks.
So I feel I'm the person that's a people pleaser. So I've had to make some big booms in the past like six months to a year that have been really hard because I was stagnant for so long doing this with the same people because it's like, I would go away for the winter and spring, come back in the summer. I knew I was leaving and I had like the same people. But just in the past two, three years, my business has evolved a lot.
And it's gotten, yeah, I've had to have some really hard conversations and growing pains. Yeah, because like, you're, there's only so much you can do as one person juggling all these different families. And if you don't increase your rates, then how you can't keep possibly can keep it going first. No, you just can't.
And just, yeah, it's really speaking of like juggling families. Like, I try as hard as I can to keep track of like what I use up in someone's house. I'll be like, least taking notes out. So I can be like, Hey, use up all your red, white vinegar.
You need to get it next time. But I have some clients, love them dearly. They'll be like texting on a Sunday. Hey, Ashley, do I have vanilla?
And I'm like, I don't even know what colors are going on today. Like, I don't know vanilla. Like, that's funny. So as this is developed, you started off, you're just like, okay, I think I could probably do this.
Like, whatever family A that hired you, like, okay, I have some things I can put together for them. How do you feel like your cooking or your style of cooking has developed since you started taking on more and more clients? Yeah, definitely the more I go to Toronto, there's like the more culture I've worked for families that are rarely families that are Egyptian. So I love that when they give me recipes, like I've had clients give me recipes they want me to make.
And I do that for them. So that's really great. That's help. And then I've had some cool experiences over the past couple of years.
I went to Costa Rica for a few weeks and to help a client's friend develop the restaurant menu. So that was really cool. What else? Yeah, I've been on a cooking show.
That was great. What was the show? Tell us about that. Yeah, I was on Food Network.
I won, oh my gosh, almost five years ago now, I won this show called Wall of Chefs. It was for amateur cooks and I was super young at the time. I was what 24, 23 maybe? So I applied and then I did that and I won that.
That was great. Okay, well, we want to hear more about that. That's something to say. Yeah, I tell us about the process of like, okay, so you get accepted to be on the show and then what happens?
I don't even, I never heard the show, so tell us how it works now. Yeah, it was a new show. They put a commercial on like summer of 2018 or 2019 and my mom's like, you should apply to this. And I was like, okay, so I applied.
And then I sent in a home video and then they emailed me like, hey, can you send another one like a 10 minute long video of cooking something? So I did that. Didn't hear from them for a couple months. I moved to Germany in August and I was literally on a walk one day and I had this phone number call me and I'm like, hello, and I'm like, hello.
And they're like, hi, Ashley. Like this is so and so from whatever production from Food Network and we just want to let you know, like you've been casted to be on the show. We're filming next Thursday, the 10th, I was like 10 days away and I'm like, I'm in Germany. And I was fine.
They're like, we'll fly you home. You live in Toronto, right? And I was like, uh, yeah. And then I went home and yeah, we filmed it like that next week.
So what was the process? Yeah. Yeah, well, how does the show work? Like what was the like, what was the, yeah, the show is just like, there was one season, it was 20 episodes.
So I was just one episode, episode 19. So it was just like a whole day thing. Like we filmed from five AM till 11 o'clock at night. Like it was just one day.
It was kind of like chopped, but for amateur, essentially. So the first round, like we got to cook our favorite dish the second round, they wheeled down a fridge and opened it up and like made us on the spot pick what we were going to make. And then the third round, we had to make a favorite like pasta dish of one of the judges that owned a Italian restaurant. So yeah, it was so cool.
It was kind of perfect for you considering that's what you do for a living is go to people. So actually they had a hard time getting me on. Because I was, I told them I was a holistic nutritionist, not a private chef. Like they knew that I did meal prep for people, but they did say to me, they're like, well, we've seen your work and we think you're a little bit overqualified for this.
I was like, we think you're going to win. And then I ended up winning not to sound coffee, but it was for home cook. And like, well, we're on the fence about having you, but they're like, well, you can come on anyway. And so you did win.
So what do you win when you win? Or are you not? I want 10 grand. Oh, yeah.
And did you find that that helped with business as well? Because people saw you on the show or was it? Honestly, no, it didn't. I got maybe like 50 Instagram followers from that.
I don't know. I barely anything. So I was shocked about that. I don't know why.
And then, yeah, sure enough, like as of recently, like what six months ago, I posted a reel and then that went viral. And that's what me to get like 40,000 Instagram followers. Oh, what was the real that did that? Because I'm always fascinated by this.
Yeah, it was a real that was come with me as a private chef in Toronto. It was like the most like simplest video like I just showed what I did in a day. Oh, I saw that on your screen. Okay, I know when you're talking about it.
I don't know how you found me. I don't know how to found me off of that. It was crazy. It was crazy.
But that's an idea, right? Because a lot of people like us too are fascinated by the life of a private chef because it seems so interesting. Like, and just it's a very unique job even within like a giant industry that we're all familiar with, right? Like it's a very unique.
I'm finally realizing that because that's what you do. I do it. I'm like, I go to people's houses. I'm like a glorified cleaning lady, not cleaning with like I just go in, I clean up, I clean up, I leave like, I don't know.
But I guess it is very exciting. I love my job. I guess I've more so recently gotten reinspired and have started a little bit more just because I'm taking on like new opportunities and brand deals with people. And I've done like some menu consulting for restaurants, but I really love doing that.
I want to do more of that just because I do love restaurants. I love being behind like in a kitchen. I just couldn't do that day in and day out, but it is fun to do that occasionally. Yeah, that's it's so doing the menu consulting because that's a whole different scenario than targeting something directly for a family.
So when you're now focused on creating a menu that has to appeal to a number of different people from all different walks of life, how is that different for you? Yeah, I just I find that I'm so I love it so much because especially nowadays people with like food allergies, which I work a lot with people with food allergies and some nutrition. So a lot of my clients are gluten free or dairy free or sensitive to nuts or whatever. So I love getting into restaurants and doing that just because so many restaurants don't cater to people with allergies.
Right. It's just the way it is, right? So I like going in and yeah, showing people how to create a menu that will appeal to people that are into this way of eating or a healthier lifestyle or candy this, can't eat that and actually make it appealing on the menu and taste good and also make it so the kitchen isn't stressing out about this dish that is like gluten free, dairy free, like a lot of chefs that aren't trained in that they get overwhelmed and they don't understand how to do that or they order like things from Jeff S and let's go right that are like that and I'm like, no, you can actually make it from scratch and it's easy. I mean, minus the cross contamination for the gluten stuff, but yeah, like someone's just gluten free and not silly acting.
That's fine. But yeah, I love doing it. I think it's yeah really important to have those. Yeah, what does chef usually are like, are they get fucking pissed off and they're just like, oh fucking glute.
And it's just like just because we're like the fucking vegetarian. I'm like, you're just showing your lack of ability as a chef because yeah, I've had some chefs where people have brought me into the restaurant and they just are like not having it or like, why is she here? And I'm like, why are we doing your new salad on our menu? I'm like, because your seat or salad sucked.
Yeah. Yeah, like believe me, the owners wouldn't be bringing me in. Yeah, exactly. Because people like nowadays they want to go out of your pay 30 bucks for a salad.
Like it needs to be interesting. It needs to be trendy needs to be Instagramable. It needs to be all these things for a restaurant. If that's like what you're going for, which most restaurants unless it's a restaurant that's been around for a long time, you need to be on social media doing those things by fine.
So you need these trendy dishes and these food that are trending, right? Yeah. So that's actually an interesting thing that you brought up there because there's a major difference between what you do sort of in your regular day gig and now doing these menu consultations is the need for something to be Instagrammable because if they're just eating it at their house, they're probably not posting it to their Instagram. They're just eating it.
Yeah. Right. But like, we all know that a restaurant, that's all people do is post. So it has to look good enough to be worthy of Instagram.
So how do you shift that from like something you didn't have to worry about sort of in the private chef world to something that you do have to worry about in a menu console? Yeah, you know what? I think that is an issue that I, not that I get lazy, but when you're cooking at some of course everything I make, it looks nice when I put it away. You're putting it in a storage container.
Right. I'm not waiting for people and I still garnish and stuff like that. But I've had a lot of clients that be like, don't even bother. We don't care.
Right. So I'm like, I'm like, I don't care. I like to be here. So I'm like, well, I can make the like the candy pecan on the side or whatever.
They're like, Oh, no, it's fine. Don't worry about it. And I'm like, Oh my God. But I want to.
So yeah, when versus yeah, doing that at someone's house versus going to a restaurant and doing that, I need to like get on my day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It's a different thing, right? Like it's totally different. Yeah. Yeah.
When you do the menu consulting at a restaurant, if you ever looked at the restaurant, the kitchen staff went, Oh man, there's no chance these guys can pull this off. Yeah. I'll go in and I'll eat the dish that's on the menu. Oh, yeah.
Anything. It doesn't taste bad, but it's just gonna be a lot better. It could be a lot better. And also when I test things at home, I buy really good ingredients and I totally understand.
You have to order from these suppliers, right? You're not getting the best olive oil. You're not getting the best feta cheese that's like sheep and goat's milk from Greece. Like you're just not you're getting stuff from like, you have to make money.
I totally understand it. I mean, I wish I understood it more, but because it makes me like, it's just like you have to just get transferred under the guest, right? Like it's just like if I at my restaurant, I'm going to buy a higher end ingredient. Well, then that means that dish costs more.
That's the only way to do it. But yeah. And you have a clientele for that that are willing for their food. If it's just bar food, that most people aren't there for that.
They're just there to have a good time, have good drinks, and it's good food, but it's not they're not going and critiquing every little ingredient, right? Like I know my restaurant that I am going to go and do that because I'm expecting that event. But if I'm going to see chicken wings somewhere, I wouldn't say shit because I'm like, I'm happy this is what I gave here for. That's right.
Like pop it up, pop it up. Like that you go to like the whale in the whatever to eat like chicken wings. It's gonna taste like what's the weirdest allergy, food allergy you've had to deal with that client says. Okay, I need a second to think about that.
I have had some. I have a client right now who his wife, he can eat it, but she can't do any onion or garlic. And that's a tough one. Yeah.
So much. Those are the number one ingredients to make food taste good. I know. Okay, actually here's this isn't a weird one, but this is an upsetting one for me.
People who can't have salt because of medication. Oh, right. I just I've said to you, I'm like, I can't cook for you. I love salt so much.
It is so important. And I don't even believe that it will mess up. People think it's unhealthy, which I totally find against. I don't think it's unhealthy at all.
I think table salt is, but you need salt. When I tell people this all the time, I'm like, you need to eat salt. It's so important, especially if you're cooking foods from scratch all the time, right? Like pre-packaged food, you don't need an adult, but you just have raw meat and raw vegetables.
You need salt to make it taste good. So that's been a tough one for me. I mean, I've worked with people like that just because like, are there parents that are elderly that are on meds doing that? And they just can't have it.
And I've done it and they said it tastes fine, but I taste it. I'm like, this is terrible. Well, and it's just like anything else, right? It's not that salt is necessarily bad for you.
It's too much salt to bad for you. Yeah, just like anything else. Like you can't have everything in moderation. Like, it's like, if you have a little bit of butter, you're not going to die probably.
If all you eat is butter, probably not a good plan of attack. So how would you describe your style of cooking? I mean, or the real roots kitchen style of cooking, if somebody comes to you and says, okay, what is it that you do? Yeah, honestly, what I said in the beginning is how I explain myself to people all the time now.
Like, chef inspired and elevated, but just every day, full foods, just everything from scratch. Like, I don't like, I make every dressing sauce, all that stuff from scratch, but just simple food, like just back to basics, honestly, like that's how I describe it, but it just elevated. So it's not your boring meat, potato, veg, it's getting fun, getting creative, different flavors. Yeah, I love following trends.
Like, I watched TikTok videos and I'm like, oh, that's cool. I want to make that for a client. And yeah, you learn a lot of stuff off the internet. And just by going out to eat a lot, I learned a lot of things and traveling so much.
But yeah, at the end of the day, just real food, cooked properly. I think that's my biggest thing. Some people will have these beautiful ingredients. And if you're not cooking it properly, it's just not going to taste good.
I think it's interesting. You mentioned that too, but watching a TikTok video or whatever, see that is something I think that this speaks to the way that you came at this profession, which is not going to culinary school and sort of just figuring it out on your own long way. Like, there's so many fucking culinary school and whatever, there's amazing chefs all the world who graduated from culinary school, but so many of you could be too snobby to watch a TikTok video and be like, oh, I can learn something from that, right? Yeah, you can.
And sometimes the simplest things are what people want. Like, I've realized that I've gotten really fancy and they'll tell me like, you know what, we actually liked what you made last week. And I'm like, okay. So that's just what I do.
I just do what I like as well. Like, I know what I like and to come home to and to eat throughout the week. And yeah, I just and I read people. I you kind of know based off when you go in someone's kitchen, if they're what they want, just by looking at their ingredients, I have some clients where I go in and they have like really cool ingredients.
I'm like, okay, I got to impress these people. And then other people I'm like, okay, it's an easier day today. And that's just that's just what it is. Some people just aren't as into food.
That makes sense. Yeah, like they might see food more as energy source versus. Yeah, rather than I think like a foodie or whatever. Yeah, food.
Yeah. I mean, I think that very much. So food has experience versus food as an energy. Yeah.
And they just want to eat. They want to taste good and they just want it nicely in their fridge and their kitchen clean and maybe be healthy because they don't know how to cook healthy. Yes. And exactly.
They want to be healthy and they just trust my guidance on telling them what they should eat and everything and how to reach their goals. Like, I help a lot of moms lose pregnancy weight. I help a lot of people. Yeah, reach their goals.
So it's kind of like integrating where you can reach your goals and eat healthy, but you're not going to come home and be like, Oh, I just don't want to eat this again. Like you're sick of it and it's boring. So I like to meet you in the middle and show people that that's what you can do. That's amazing.
That's a perfect way to end this. So tell our listeners where they can find out all about Real Roots Kitchen. Yeah, Instagram is where I'm at. I mean, I just talked about TikTok.
I don't really focus on there. I just creeped it off. Instagram at Real Roots Kitchen or if you type in my name, Ashley Horro, come up. Yeah, I go in spurt some posting and then getting so busy that I can't.
So yeah. Right. Well, it was a super pleasure talking to you. This was a really interesting conversation.
And I think it's actually quite amazing what you've been able to accomplish with starting with just like, Oh shit, maybe I'll cook for this family who asked me. Yeah. So it speaks to your work ethic but it also speaks to your personality in developing the whole program. So continue success to you and thanks so much for doing the show.
Thank you guys. I appreciate that. That was dumb.