Akasha Richmond
Gourmet Girl: So where did you grow up?
Akasha: Born in Miami, grew up in Hollywood. I love the Gulf Coast!
GG: Where did your passion for organic food come from?
AR: I grew up in South Florida. My grandmothers and mother were all great cooks, but my mother got into, back then we called them health foods.
GG: I remember health foods (laughter)
AR: When I was in high school I worked in a health food store, in Florida. My mom got into it when I was a teenager and then I got into it. I grew up in that South Florida surf culture. Back in those days the surfers were all into Smoothies, fresh squeezed juices, we used to hang out at those little juice bars on Collins Avenue. Athens Juice Bar, a place called Health Hut and a place called Here Comes the Sun. It was all about clean food, fasting, juice fasting, and all those books by Paul Brad. That was when I got into it. I have been eating 'clean' since I was 16.
GG: So you have that foundation laid for you. When did you make the decision that this is what I’m going to do professionally?
AR: When I worked at health food stores in high school, there was no foodnetwork. I moved to California to go to college to study art because of the surfing, the whole food scene in southern California. I also started studying yoga. I ended up in Los Angeles, studying yoga, working at a vegetarian restaurant for fun. I was not even thinking food career.
GG: Is this the restaurant that went defunct?
AR: Yes, you've done your homework. Temple. Worked there for fun and started meeting all these celebrities. Now, people move to Los Angeles and say I want to cook for celebrities. It wasn’t a thought process back then. I wanted to work for this restaurant. I was having a really good time. I thought, "Wow, I can make a living doing this." I always cooked at home, just for fun, and realized cooking professionally was what I really wanted to do.
GG: You have this love, you go out there, you’re studying something else, but that love continued to be massaged. You like the interaction with the people that you have cooked for.
AR: When I left that restaurant I started working as private chef. There were so many people in Hollywood that want to go on diets, wanted something to keep them healthy. I started doing Rock Tours, cooking for actresses. People would call me up and say, "I’m doing a movie in two months I want to go on a diet." So whatever diet they wanted, I have a talent for taking a challenge when someone says I don’t eat meat or dairy, or I want to eat fat free, or low fat, or I want to go on the Atkins Diet. I like the challenge of a specific diet and making the food taste good. I started cooking privately, people started asking me to cater parties. Little dinner parties for 8 became parties for 40 and 50, 100, 200. I’ve had a catering company for years always with a focus on organic and natural healthy ingredients. I did a lot of consulting, I ended up doing a lot of work, I still do, in the organic food world. Working with companies like Silk Soy Milk.
GG: How, being a celebrity chef, is that enabling you to really revolutionize the way people eat?
AR: What I’ve done with Silk is make recipes using their product. I get emails from people,"My son is allergic to dairy, can you make chocolate pudding with Silk?’ What we’ve done with Silk is put a lot of recipes on their website and a lot of recipes using Silk in my cookbook. It’s not just a dairy substitution because it’s high in protein, low in fat. Soy lowers your cholesterol, it’s very good for you. It’s a good for you product. I’ve done soups, muffins, puddings, sauces.
GG: Now here (Atlanta Cooking Show) what are you going to be doing with that? I know you are partnered with Michel.
AR: Here I’m not doing any soy recipes only because they have a lot of products from Organic Valley, another company that I really like in the dairy category. I’m doing a cupcake with chocolate cream cheese frosting. I thought that would be fun. I wrote a cookbook called Hollywood Dish and in the book it had the history of healthy eating in Hollywood. Every recipe has a story of where it came from, who cooked it, dating back to the turn of the last century.
GG: I’m a tempeh fan myself. Love tofu also.
AR: At my restaurant I do a lot with tofu.
GG: Tell us a little bit about your restaurant.
AR: I always wanted a restaurant and I tried to do one years ago but it didn’t happen. You know they say location, location, location. I have this amazing location in Culver City. The restaurant is called Akasha. A friend of mine said you should open a restaurant. I have this other friend that is a restaurant consultant, who has really good leads on available spaces. He said it would take a year but two weeks later he called and said, "The best space in town in available and you should jump on it." The landlord loved the healthy concept.
GG: It’s a corner location.
AR: Yes, it’s a corner location. It’s big, it’s an historic landmark, it’s all brick. It’s an unbelievable building. We found this location. I always had this concept in my head, what kind of restaurant I would do. It’s always about organic and green and sustainable. If you saw this building, it has a full liquor license, 5400 sq feet. I wanted to do a bakery, the landlord wanted a bakery. It’s a great space.
GG: So how many covers are you doing?
AR: The first night we opened I did 120 covers. By the time we were in business two weeks 2-250 on Saturday night. Our record so far is 420.
GG: Do you want to go that high?
AR: 420 was a lot, I’m more comfortable with like 320, 350. We’re a volume restaurant, we have 150 seats when the patio is open and we seat people at the bakery. It is a large space. We have 20 seats at the bar. We’re an everyday restaurant. We’re not fancy shmancy. Some of our entrees are a little more expensive because of the ingredients. The kind of beef we use, everything down to the salt, even the soap in the bathrooms;it's all organic. Even the soap the kitchen workers use and the cleaning supplies.
GG: You using Seventh Generation?
AR: No, I’m using different things. I like their products, I use them at home. But they don’t do the big, commercial side. For the dish washer I had to find big commercial and I found biodegradable soaps. For hand washing I use something I think it’s called EO, it’s really nice, they have a peppermint soap and I can get gallons of it. We use different cleaning products.
GG: So now if I want to come to your restaurant I have to make reservations how many months in advance?
AR: No, no. Friday and Saturday night you need to make a reservation. For walk-ins, we have our bar, we have our patio, we seat people in the bakery. You can usually get in, but we’re busy.
GG: I like the concept of the medium range, for the middle income person organic is great but it’s a bit pricey.
AR: The turkey burger is organic. It comes with organic fries and organic ketchup. It’s $14.00. The beef burger is $16.00. But we have like the red quinoa bowl with grilled vegetables and tofu, it’s $14.00. We have some entrees that are $19.00 some are $22.00. Our pork chop is $24.00, it’s a Heritage pork chop with white bean puree and a reduction and braised greens. We really try to give value. It’s every day food. After 3 months I already have a lot of regular and local customers.
We still cater parties and now it is so much easier to cater out of the restaurant. Somebody called me a week ago for a party Thursday night for 400. It was for Tesla this new electric car. I get a lot of calls from the green-orientated businesses and people. I do other parties to.
GG: This was a pleasure! Thanks so much.
AR: Thank you.