Ann Cashion’s busy Christmas

A tree fell on Ann Cashion’s home in Rehoboth, Del., when Superstorm Sandy slammed into the Northeast coast in late October. But the damage done to the property hasn’t dampened her spirits one bit as she gears up for another busy holiday season. She has much to be thankful for.

Cashion, the chef and owner of Johnny’s Half Shell on Capitol Hill (400 North Capitol St. NW), has been a fixture in Washington, D.C., since the 1980s and is busy preparing for the opening of her new restaurant, Taqueria Nacional on 14th and T streets NW. The new taqueria (her second, she has one next door to Johnny’s, which opened in 2006) will seat 45. 

Meeting Cashion for the first time is like reconnecting with an old friend. She’s warm, personable and easy to talk to. A native of Jackson, Miss., she’s rooted in the culture and food of the South, and it’s there she returns to every Christmas to be with her 80-year-old mother and siblings.

The second of four children, Cashion treasures this annual family tradition. Jackson is not just home. It’s also where her career in the kitchen began.

“It was always there. I think it had to do with the fact that it’s just cultural. I was part of a family where we had dinner together every night. My mother was a good cook.  My grandmother was a good cook.”

With time being precious over the holidays, Cashion and her siblings keep the focus on being in each other’s company and not just working in the kitchen. 

The Christmas dinner menu is simple, wholesome and heart-warming — beef tenderloin, her mother’s rice pilaf, stir-fried brussel sprouts, oven-roasted carrots, lettuces with ripe pears, toasted pecans and blue cheese and her grandmother’s eggnog pie.

“This is a menu that’s evolved in the past decade, replacing the much more laborious roasted turkey with stuffing and gravy that was traditional in my home when I was growing up,” said Cashion.

“It’s so much quicker and easier to produce. The tenderloin roasts in less than a half hour. Yet it’s still luxurious and festive. The next generation is taken into account without allowing them to dictate. They love the pilaf and carrots, but will pass on the mushrooms and brussel sprouts. So everyone’s happy.”

Although Cashion has spent a lifetime in the kitchen, it’s not the career she originally envisioned. This Harvard graduate made a dash for the West Coast in 1976 to pursue a Ph.D. in English literature at Stanford. It was the next logical step at the time, or so it seemed. But something didn’t quite fit. 

“I was really not enjoying it. I started to think about the things that were bugging me about it. There was a sense of isolation,” Cashion said.

When she was just 17, she spent the summer working at the Ramada in Jackson.  What started out as a front-desk job ended up as a summer in the kitchen — and at her request.  

“It was a bit of an odd request at the time. There were no whites in the kitchen back then,” Cashion recalled. “But I kind of got hooked on the kitchen culture and how it works. For me it was very good to be close to the majority-minority culture in my state.”

Cashion came to another realization at Stanford.

“I’m not a specialist. I’m more of a generalist. I felt the weight of that. It wasn’t a good fit for my personality.”

Those memories of that sweltering summer in Jackson came flooding back. She left Stanford in search of a kitchen.

Still, being in California was fortuitous.

“If I had not been in California, it would not have occurred to me to do one of the things I was passionate about, which was food,” she said.

California in the ’70s was a place fully engaged in a conversation about the politics of food, what people ate and what defined American cuisine.  

Although she lacked the necessary skill set at the time to be a professional chef, she embarked on a new journey that would eventually take her back east to the nation’s capital and which continues to this day. 

Now firmly ensconced in the Washington food scene, Cashion says the conversation that started in California all those years ago has continued here among the city’s young people.

“One of the things that’s driving interest in food is farm-to-table and the issue of sustainability,” said Cashion. “These young diners are getting in touch with that. I see that as a positive trend.” 

With the opening of Taqueria Nacional fast approaching, Cashion has a lot on her plate this holiday season. But she’s doing what she loves, and doesn’t view her time with her head in English lit books as lost years.

“I do still love it and don’t regret the time spent studying it. The other thing I loved to do besides cooking was to read.”

Cashion has two books in mind for the holiday season: “Maybe Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth if I want to be entertained. Or if I’m feeling more cerebral, I’d like to read Hedrick Smith’s Who Stole the American Dream?”