T H E   T E A M

K I M B E R L E Y    A S H L E E  

 "I recall the juncture when food became more than just a living necessity.  I was sitting nose-length from the television watching the Two Fat Ladies a television program on the BBC starring Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson.  The two of them traveled across the United Kingdom in a Watsonian double-wide sidecar cooking for different people and basking in their satisfaction with a cigarette.  I was enthralled with the entire cooking process.  I knew that I wanted to do that for people.

Being of Filipino decent, cooking has always been much more than a familial past time but was a way to support a very large family.  Both my grandmothers, single mothers, cooked to earn a living.  It was what they knew.  So, they cooked out of their homes to collect a small profit.  Today my dad owns his own restaurant in Toronto. Needless to say, food continues to unite our family.

I was unlike most children my age.   I spent my summers cooking my way through cookbooks and experimenting my creations with my parents who spent long days at the office. I worked in both independently-owned and chain restaurants, as well as in the the catering department of an international hotel chain.

Now I spend even more time in the kitchen cooking with my husband who is a sommelier, and restaurant consultant who shares the same affection for the industry as I do. Together we have grown Kimberley Ashlee Catering and we remain humbled by each opportunity.

Over the past eight years I have had the honor to meet and cook for some beautiful people who have chosen to make me and my team a part of their special events. For this I'm forever grateful and for this I will continue to always strive for perfection."