If you asked a collection of Southern chefs to name their most beloved and respected fellow chef, odds are that Ashley Christensen would rank very high on many lists. The James Beard award winner for Best Chef in the Southeast in 2014, Christensen has not only excelled in her own smaller pond of Raleigh, N.C., but she has also traveled throughout the region cooking at various benefit events, notably raising money for the Southern Foodways Alliance and No Kid Hungry.
Since opening her first restaurant, Poole’s Diner, in 2007, Christensen has expanded her restaurant empire to seven properties, including one that focuses on burgers and another that features a specialty dish of fried chicken and honey. Why chicken and honey? Because it’s an amazing combination, and Christensen and her staff are particularly talented at working the fryer.
But Poole’s is still her flagship restaurant and the one she features in her first cookbook, Poole’s: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner. Recently released, the book has already received great reviews from The New York Times, Garden & Gun and others. I was tickled when Kaitlyn Goalen, the book’s co-author, let me know on Facebook that Garden & Gun had published Poole’s outrageous mac ‘n’ cheese recipe online. Actually, Christensen usually calls the dish macaroni au gratin, and I’ve been on record for quite awhile with my unabashed affection for it. And her.
So if you’d like the chance to meet this remarkable chef and get her to sign a copy of her book, she’ll be coming to Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint on Fourth Avenue downtown, from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17. Tickets for the event are $25 and include hors d'oeuvres and two signature cocktails from her new cookbook. Your ticket does not include a copy of the book, but you can purchase one on-site from Parnassus Books, or the chef will be happy to sign a copy if you’ve already purchased one.
Tickets are available at this special event website set up for the evening.
