6 Questions with Akasha Richmond
You were the personal chef for Michael Jackson. Do you have a favorite memory from that time?
Thanksgiving all over the world was really fun. One year, we cooked Thanksgiving in Perth, Australia, for 200 people. The whole band and all the crew came to the kitchen, and everybody made their favorite dish and helped me cook. They didn’t have turkey, so we roasted an emu.
Your menu at Akasha celebrates global cuisine, with strong local and sustainable influences. How does that work in practice?
One of our best sellers is tandoori chicken wings. I had taken a trip to Nashville for a wedding and we had all these great chicken wings. So I came back and I said I really want to do something different. I don’t want to do just blue cheese and hot sauce. Since I had studied a lot of Indian cooking, I came up with a 20-spice marinade. We smoke them, cool them, fry them to order and serve them with two kinds of chutney.
What’s one reaction you want someone to have when they take their first bite of something in your restaurant?
I want them to really taste the freshness and the flavor because we buy a lot of vegetables from local farmers. You can really taste the difference in our tomatoes, carrots and even the lettuce.
On a trip to anywhere, what are the ingredients to a great itinerary?
Great hotels, great food, friendly people and markets. Lots of markets.
What gets you excited to visit a less traveled place like Morocco?
Part of what fascinates me and gets me excited is getting quite a bit out of my comfort zone with all the busyness, the smells, the sights and the colors.
When you’re not in a kitchen, what’s your happy place?
Travel. Traveling to anywhere.