Ashley Christensen and Audi Team Up To Empower More Women In The Hospitality Industry

[upbeat music]

When I'm cooking I think about how its gonna

make people feel.

There's nothing more richly bonding to

a group of people then to pass

a dish of something over to your neighbor,

and to talk about the day or to talk about

that thing that's in your hands

whatever it might be so,

I love the idea of breaking bread

and how people feel when they're sharing dishes.

It's a wonderful thing to cook

and to experience the joy in the kitchen.

It's also meaningful when it's about,

helping someone with a meal that

you're both gonna need.

I got, started professionally cooking

at around age 18 but before that just

grew up in a home where food

was tremendously important.

Both my parents are just incredible cooks.

My dad was a truck driver when I was a kid,

and he would, go out on the road

for extended periods of time,

and then come home and kind of

recount the places he had visited

by cooking food that inspired him on the road.

Mom's this incredible southern cook

but having lived in Japan and England you know

she just has this sort of unique

perspective on southern food and so,

grew up with that just being such a big part

of my childhood experience.

I got to go to a great school and that's what

brought me to Raleigh the day

after my 18th birthday.

I always like to say about North Carolina

that there's just no excuse not to make

great food here.

Decided to purchase the lease of Poole's,

we opened in December of 2007.

There's something about the American diner

that makes you feel comfortable,

you feel welcome there.

I feel best when I'm cooking,

you know like, sometimes if I get too far away

from cooking that I start to loose my

creativity a little bit,

it is always the thing that keeps me creating

is to cook something that I've never cooked before

or to cook something that I love to cook.

I also really love to go on the road

and tell the story by way of the place

that I choose to call home.

So I've been coming here for years

here in this very special city that is Nashville.

And it's a just really special place

it's been neat to watch how it's grown

and how, incredible the food scene is here

there's a lot of new stuff and there's a lot of

stuff that's been here for so long

and even those things that have been here

changing and evolving in really fun ways.

I love the thrill of opening a restaurant

and watching an empty space come together and be

something and to be something unique.

We do a lot of careful mapping of how

we're gonna execute dishes,

offsite we do some prep at home

and bring it with us and then we go into the

Nashville community and buy great things

that are being grown here to complement

our recipes that are based on

traditions that we love to celebrate

in our restaurants at home.

It's been really neat because there're hand full

of friends from Nashville, some who own

restaurants in Nashville, or you know

riders from here, and musicians and such,

but otherwise the crowd is made up of

this amazing group of true representatives

of the city.

Dinners like this that so much energy goes into

the planning, and the coordinating,

and collaboration and sourcing;

I think I always want people who are

part of such a special meal to think of it as,

you didn't get the opportunity just to have dinner,

you got invited to be a part of a larger conversation,

and I think that Audi has done a really

beautiful job of sharing

the intention of the program,

the reason that Audi supports the program,

and then to have the opportunity to make donations

to the Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Program,

brought to us by the James Beard Foundations.

It's been awesome working with Ann and with Joanne;

Ann and I are old friends and do

collaborate often on different events

and have a great time.

Easy breezy working with her and falling

right into place.

Um Joanne I'd never met before

and it's been just such a pleasure to

watch her work and to hear her tell her story

and her and Ann both to hear them speak of the

WEL Program and what that has meant to

their businesses and their communities as they,

you know, come home from that experience.

My hope is that the folks who are sitting

enjoying the meal are, sharing stories about

their challenges and what it took to

get them in position to be successful entrepreneurs.

I think the most important thing is

to do your work and.

For me I think when they announce that

incredible national scholarship for a young woman

working in the hospitality field

and culinary world, it just sort of like

recharged by batteries about making sure

when I'm in my community that I'm making myself

accessible to young women who need

resources and that we're accessible to folks

who are looking for inspiration

or looking for information on how to take

the next steps.