Community Highlights: Meet Ashley Hotchkiss of Fibonacci Food

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Hotchkiss.

Hi Ashley, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am what some would call a restaurant “lifer”. I began my career in 8th grade decorating cookies for a family friend’s bakery on holidays and working at a local burger joint all through high school. I was a hostess, a waitress, a bartender, a manager, a dishwasher-I’ve done every job in restaurants possible. It was here in Austin while managing a local Tex-Mex restaurant that I was sent to the back of the house for kitchen training. I had always been fascinated with the way cooks could orchestrate and come together to put out beautiful food in such a chaotic environment. I was in love with all of it, the camaraderie, the hard physical work, the sense of pride after a super busy service, the food, and the entire culture of restaurant life. I worked my way through many kitchens in the early 2000s and finished culinary school at the same time.

I decided to fulfill a lifelong dream to get away and travel. I was offered a sous position in St. Thomas from a chef I was working with in Austin. He was leaving to become the executive chef of a historic hotel in Charlotte Amalie, USVI.

I joined him there two months later. I arrived in the Caribbean with no plan, no place to live, and no friends. As beautiful as it was, it was such a shock to be alone. I had been surrounded by good friends and family in Texas for my entire life.

I worked in the hotel for a season and took off for my first week-long sail. I was hooked. I was hired on a charter yacht and worked for a season on the same boat. I quickly figured out that I could work on different boats with different folks every week as a freelance chef. I hung up my card in marinas all across the Caribbean. I jumped from boat to boat. I spent 8 days without seeing land on a beautiful wooden sailboat cooking for a crew that I met the day we departed. I spent a magical week on a passage through the Bahamas with some folks I met on the beach. We bbq’d on the beach swam in caves and caught a 40#. wahoo in the Turks in Caicos.

I worked on the beach grilling burgers and bartending for a food truck on Water Island. I cooked in vacation villas for tourists and snowbirds. It was incredible, but I missed Austin and feeling like I had a home. I was tired of living out of a backpack, and I missed being close to friends and family.

I returned to Amarillo, my hometown to figure out my next move. While there, I was approached by a dear family friend who wanted to open a restaurant, so we did! The restaurant was open for about a year and it was a huge learning experience. Ultimately, we decided to shut the doors and I took a job offer in East Texas to help build a restaurant and music venue near Tyler, Texas.

I left Tyler for Ft. Worth where I joined Consilient Hospitality to work in one of their concepts in Dallas, and help to open American Food & Beverage. I think I learned the most at Consilient. I worked with some really great chefs and saw a stellar hospitality operation where I saw the power of the experience and how making people feel taken care of is just as important as the food.

I ultimately left Consilient to move back to Austin. I worked in a few kitchens line cooking and re-setting for a few months and then went to work in the kitchen of a big tech company. That was not for me. I started doing meal prep for a few folks on the side from my apartment and it quickly became a legitimate business by word of mouth. In 2/17, I quit my day job and rented a commercial space where I was extremely busy until COVID. I worked with a handful of personal chef clients during the pandemic and launched the catering business in August 2021.

It’s incredibly rewarding to look back and see that all of these experiences are now coming together in Fibonacci Food.

I moved into my own space, and have already outgrown it and will be moving into a larger kitchen at the end of May. Pinch me moment for sure!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The hospitality industry has always been challenging as a whole. Long hours, hard physical work and at the moment-staffing seems to be the biggest challenge.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Fibonacci Food is a catering company with a focus on corporate catering, we provide a personal chef service to busy professionals and athletes. We work with your trainer, coach, nutritionist, or doctor to formulate a meal plan to help support your fitness and health goals. Fibonacci Flight is our newly launched in-flight catering service for private and chartered jets departing from all Austin area airports.

We are available for private caterings and events. For more information visit our website and submit a food questionnaire to get started with personal chef services, or to book an event!

What are your plans for the future?
We have just expanded to a larger kitchen space to accommodate our growing number of corporate clients. In March we officially launched Fibonacci Flight, catering to the private aviation and hospitality industry servicing all airports in the Austin area.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fibonaccifood.com
• Instagram: @fibfoodeatyourveggies
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fibonacci-Food-1033446316731491