Ann Cashion

Ann Cashion is a James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur in Washington D.C.

Ann Cashion
Born (1954-10-30) October 30, 1954
Jackson, Mississippi
EducationHarvard University
Culinary career
Current restaurant(s)
  • Taqueria Nacional
Previous restaurant(s)
  • Cashion's Eat Place, Johnny's Half Shell
Award(s) won

Cashion is a native of Jackson, Mississippi, and she graduated from Harvard University in 1976.[1] She enrolled in graduate school at Stanford University for two years before dropping out to pursue a culinary career, starting in a bakery in Berkeley, California.[2] She apprenticed in Italy and France before coming to Washington, D.C. in 1984.[3] Cashion worked at Restaurant Nora, was head chef at Austin Grill, and was executive chef at Jaleo, where she hired José Andrés.[2]

In 1995, she opened her own restaurant, Cashion's Eat Place, in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of D.C.[4] The restaurant was voted "Best New Restaurant" by the readership of Gourmet and was listed in The Washington Post food columnist Phyllis Richman's 50 favorites.[1][5] Eat Place had many prominent patrons, including chefs Jean-Louis Palladin and Ferran Adrià, and President Bill Clinton.[2][6] In 1997, Ann Cashion was honored as the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington's "Chef of the Year,"[1][5] and she was invited to cook at the James Beard House.[7]

With partner John Fulchino, Cashion opened a second restaurant, Johnny's Half Shell, in 1999.[2] The small 35-seat restaurant in the Dupont Circle neighborhood was recognized by Gourmet as one of “America’s best new restaurants.”[2][5] In 2004, Cashion won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.[1][8]

Cashion and Fulchino sold Cashion's Eat Place in 2007 to two of its longtime employees, after which it continued to operate under the same name until 2016, when it closed.[2][9][10][11]

Johnny's Half Shell relocated to the Capitol Hill neighborhood in 2006; the new space could seat over 400, and it became a popular restaurant for Congressional fundraisers.[2] In 2007, Cashion opened Taqueria Nacional next-door to Half Shell, and Bon Appétit named it one of the five best Mexican restaurants in the United States.[5] Taqueria moved to the Logan Circle neighborhood in 2013, and Johnny's Half Shell moved to Adams Morgan in 2016, taking over the space originally occupied by Cashion's Eat Place.[2][5] Taqueria opened in Mount Pleasant in 2019, and the Logan Circle location closed in 2020.[12][13] Johnny's Half Shell closed in 2020, when indoor dining was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[13]

Cashion was one of the chefs featured in the 1997 book, Women of Taste.[1][14] When Bon Appétit named Washington, D.C. its 2016 restaurant city of the year, Cashion was identified as one of the city's "incredible chefs."[15]

References
  1. "Ann Cashion's Biography". StarChefs. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  2. Spiegel, Anna (October 4, 2016). "Inside Johnny's Half Shell Reopening: One of DC's Great Restaurant Comebacks". Washingtonian Magazine. Cashion, 61, is more reserved. A Harvard alum, she left Stanford University's graduate program in American Literature for a gig at a Berkeley bakery that paid $3.25 an hour. She never looked back.
  3. Bialecki, Marissa (August 1, 2012). "Capital Chefs: Ann Cashion of Johnny's Half Shell". We Love DC.
  4. Richman, Phyllis (October 8, 1995). "Metropolitan Down-Home". The Washington Post.
  5. Greeley, Alexandra (February 27, 2018). "For Chef Ann Cashion — An "Eat Place" and More". Food Service Monthly.
  6. Annie Groer; Ann Gerhart (July 18, 1997). "The Reliable Source". The Washington Post. Out from under the watchful eye of his wife, President Clinton escaped from the White House Wednesday night and slipped over to Cashion's Eat Place in Adams-Morgan, where he devoured ricotta-and-spinach ravioli with meat sauce. And two grilled pork chops. And lemon-caramel tart. (Urp!) The president joined former commerce secretary Mickey Kantor and his wife, Heidi Schulman, and Cokie and Steve Roberts.
  7. Sagon, Candy (August 13, 1997). "4 Chefs, 250 Miles, 1 Bottle of Advil". The Washington Post.
  8. Sietsema, Tom (May 12, 2004). "And the Winners Are …". The Washington Post. p. F7. It was a good night for women -- and Washingtonians -- at Monday's 14th annual James Beard Foundation Awards, which bestowed numerous top honors on those groups at a ceremony at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City: Judy Rodgers, chef-owner of San Francisco's Zuni Cafe, was named Outstanding Chef; Ann Cashion of Washington's Cashion's Eat Place and Johnny's Half Shell was named Best Chef/Mid-Atlantic; Allison Vines-Rushing of Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar in New York City was given the Rising Star Chef honor; Emily Luchetti of San Francisco's Farallon was named Outstanding Pastry Chef; and Karen MacNeil, a wine writer and instructor at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley, was named Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional.
  9. Sidman, Jessica (9 May 2016). "Landlord Sued to Evict Cashion's Eat Place (UPDATED)". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  10. Carman, Tim (9 May 2016). "UPDATED: Cashion's Eat Place to close, Johnny's Half Shell to take over the space". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  11. "Cashion's Eat Place :: Closed". Cashions Eat Place. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  12. Hayes, Laura (20 September 2019). "In a Mount Pleasant Switcheroo, Taqueria Nacional Replaces Taqueria Los Compadres". Washington City Paper.
  13. Sietsema, Tom (January 15, 2021). "We lost Johnny's Half Shell to the pandemic. After 20 years, it deserves a farewell toast". Washington Post. Johnny's Half Shell, the beloved Chesapeake-influenced seafood restaurant that was opened by James Beard award-winning chef Ann Cashion and business partner John Fulchino in Dupont Circle in 1999, relocated to Capitol Hill in 2006 and moved to Adams Morgan in 2016, served its last dinner March 14. Fulchino, who announced the restaurant's permanent closure on Facebook on Oct. 30 — by chance, Cashion's birthday — said the decision to shutter was based in part on the impracticality of operating the restaurant as he and his best friend conceived it. Sure, they could have sent seafood out in boxes, but as Cashion put it this month, "Johnny's is an experience," and she wasn't inclined to deliver less than the "total package."
  14. Russell, Beverly (September 25, 1997). Women of taste : recipes and profiles of famous women chefs. Wiley. ISBN 0471179434.
  15. Knowlton, Andrew (August 10, 2016). "Washington D.C. Is the Restaurant City of the Year". Bon Appétit. Adam and I both know that D.C. has had its fair share of incredible chefs: the late-great Jean-Louis Palladin, Michel Richard, José Andrés, Ann Cashion, Nora Pouillon... the list goes on.
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