Ash Valenzuela-Heeger

The Climb

Silwood School of Cookery gave Ash Valenzuela-Heeger the first formal grounding in technique and discipline. She has described that training as “a really solid foundation in technique and discipline,” and the phrase fits the kind of discipline that matters in professional kitchens: repetition, accuracy, and the habit of working cleanly under pressure. The pot wash station is where the trade often teaches its first hard lessons, and Ash Valenzuela-Heeger began there. That role sits low in the hierarchy, but it is close to the rhythm of service, where timing, heat, and throughput are felt immediately. From there, she moved through The Ledbury and Dinner by Heston in London, kitchens that further tightened her technical range and service discipline. Ownership changes the work from execution to responsibility. When Ash Valenzuela-Heeger opened and ran her first restaurant in South Africa (2015–2020), she was no longer only cooking within someone else’s system; she was carrying the operation as a whole. In 2020, Carters of Moseley in Birmingham became the next stage of that practice, and from 2024 she became chef-owner of Riverine Rabbit.

Today

She has said, “We felt a kinship to Stirchley,” and that line places the restaurant within a local context rather than a remote ambition. The result is a room that reads as part of its neighborhood, with the work inside it shaped by place as much as by menu. Live-fire cooking and local produce are the named markers of Riverine Rabbit (2016). Taken together, they point to a kitchen built around heat, immediacy, and proximity to source. The craft here is in balancing flame with ingredient character, keeping the cooking direct enough to register the produce rather than cover it.

Signature

Ash's signature dishes include Riverine Rabbit. The name keeps the focus on the restaurant itself, which is where her current cooking identity is most legible.

In Their Words ““The classical grounding I received there gave me a really solid foundation in technique and discipline.””

Recognition

Ash's honors include Michelin Young Chef Award (2025) and Bib Gourmand. Those recognitions place her work in view from two angles: individual achievement and the wider appeal of the cooking at Riverine Rabbit.