From aristocrats to movers and shakers

Society hostesses in capitals the world over would throw themselves into a brawl for David Ashwell’s address book. The executive chef of the recently opened Brasserie Beck has worked for composer and musical impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, the Sultan of Brunei, and Boris Berezovsky, the United Kingdom-based Russian billionaire who regularly entertained former Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Oh, and he’s also worked for the stepmother to Diana, the late Princess of Wales, the Countess of Dartmouth, and her husband, the Earl of Dartmouth.

“The day Lady Di died in Paris was quite an emotional day at the house,” Ashwell said. “The kids grew up with her.” Then the Earl of Dartmouth had a heart attack, “and died right in front of me.” After almost nine years of cooking privately, Ashwell felt it was time to return to restaurant kitchens, where, on the other side of the world, he had begun his career.

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Ashwell now couldn’t be farther away from home, physically and culinarily. Brasserie Beck features Belgian food. Even the mussels for Belgium’s national dish, Moules Frites — a ragout of mussels in a shallot and wine-reduction broth, served with french fries — are different for him; they are small mollusks, instead of New Zealand’s finger-sized Green Lipped variety, which are said to cure rheumatoid arthritis.

His mother must have been a terrific cook. She inspired not just Ashwell, but his brother too. He is also now a chef. “She made special dinners once a week,” Ashwell said. “I’d always be there just to taste the bowl. She’s particularly good at desserts.”

His stepfather is from Yorkshire in the north of England and liked to take his young family traveling — and eating. After high school, Ashwell inscribed into a two-year culinary degree course. His first job was in Sydney, Australia, in a fine-dining restaurant. But after a year, the family travel bug itching away, he decided to leave and go backpacking.

He toured the United States and Canada, finding restaurant work as he went — including one job at Ontario’s the Inn at Manitou, in the Canadian Rockies. That location provided nine months of heaven. A surfer and a skateboarder back home, in the mountains he could spend his time off snowboarding.

In Canada again, he worked in Toronto at the Four Seasons, in Ottawa at Novotel, then back to Toronto at a tennis club restaurant. In 1990, he had decided to try for a job at the London Four Seasons. But with the start of the Gulf War, the hospitality industry was suffering, “And it was all go to get a job.” Then Ashwell saw an ad in a catering  magazine looking for a private chef to the Earl of Dartmouth.

“I’d been working volume till then. I thought I’d try to do something different. A private chef is more on demand — it’s a close relationship ... .”

When the earl’s death sent Ashwell looking for a new job, he heard from a friend in Washington that chef Robert Wiedmaier was looking for assistance alongside him at Marcel’s, his acclaimed French-Belgian restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

And there he stayed, until Wiedmaier opened Brasserie Beck in April this year, installing Ashwell as executive chef.

He’s had almost a decade now to observe Washington dining. What are his impressions? “After first arriving, it was clear it obviously was not London. But food has changed immeasurably for the better. It’s not New York and it’s not London. But more important, it’s the capital. Diners here are movers and shakers. And it’s certainly on the up.”

He and his American wife go everywhere to eat, he says. “I never eat at home! Never, never!” he emphasizes. He loves Indian food, but is not impressed with it here. “It’s not good — I lived in London.”

On his one day off a week, if he’s not out eating, he’s gone in search of a TV set somewhere near his home in Arlington showing an English football game, preferably with the team from Liverpool he follows, Everton. “All my grandparents were British. The love of my life is football!”

Brasserie Beck (202-408-1717; http://www.beckdc.com) is located at 1101 K St. NW. Main courses cost $16 to $24.

This article by Julia Watson first appeared in the NorthWest Current newspaper. 

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