John Ash, the celebrated chef and founder of John Ash & Co. restaurant, died Aug. 7. He was 83.
Ash had been suffering from a heart condition and died last week following a brief illness, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.
Ash’s namesake Santa Rosa restaurant originally opened at Montgomery Village in 1980. His innovative use of local-sourced ingredients to pair with regional wines was a culinary game changer for California menus, and he became known as the father of Wine Country cuisine. “Wine is food, food is wine,” he said.
Born in Colorado in 1942, Ash was one of four children to Agnes and John Ash. He picked up an early interest in cooking from his grandmother; as a young adult he earned a bachelor’s in fine arts from the University of Arizona and later studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
Relocating to the Bay Area in the 1970s to establish a career in the food industry, Ash worked at Russian River Vineyards, Del Monte Foods and then began making a name for himself at the Courthouse Café in Santa Rosa.
It was the opening of John Ash & Co. in 1980 that finally put him on the map, earning accolades in national press and upscaling the restaurant in 1988 with a move to its longtime current home at the Vintners Inn, which recently rebranded as Vinarosa Resort, at 4350 Barnes Road in Santa Rosa.
After selling his interest in the restaurant to Vintners Inn owners the Carano family in 2000, Ash established himself as an educator and passionate advocate for simple home cooking, local ingredients, sustainable seafood—and for sharing his knowledge with others. For years he co-hosted “The Good Food Hour” with Steve Garner on Santa Rosa’s KSRO 1350 AM, highlighting local chefs and restaurant trends, and wrote the monthly “In the Kitchen with John Ash” column for NorthBay biz magazine.
Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant and host of “At the Table” on KSRO, describes Ash as a definitive figure in bringing Sonoma County’s reputation as a foodie destination to national attention.
“John was a cook, a chef, a teacher, an author and a storyteller,” Wolf told NBb this week. “In many ways he was the face of Sonoma food and wine to scores of people all over the world… He’ll be missed by many.”
Ash also published several books, including From the Earth to the Table (1995) and, most recently, The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood (2023). He was a two-time James Beard Award winner for Culinary Birds (2014) and John Ash Cooking One-on-One (2005).
Ash also appeared as a speaker and educator at various classes and events through the Culinary Institute of America, the Chefs Collaborative and others, often espousing the knowledge he learned from such influences as Julia Child, ag writer Wendell Barry and longtime Sonoma Valley food author MFK Fisher.
In his later years, Ash took up their mantle, embracing his role as a mentor to the next generation of advocates for local food and sustainability. “What do I do now?” he once asked an audience at the Valley Oaks Ranch in Redwood Valley. “I mentor, that’s what I do.”
He said his lessons are those of food and sustainability, the same lessons he learned from his grandmother when he was a boy.
“Food is life,” Ash said. “It is one of those great gifts from God—whoever he or she is—and you have to honor and love it and appreciate the fact that it’s there.”
Ash is survived by children Emily Ash Lamb of Santa Rosa, Tyler Ash of Orange County, John Ash of Arizona, and seven grandchildren. He is predeceased by a daughter. A service in his honor is planned, but not yet announced.
