Visiting this page to leave a review of Chef Ashleanna makes me very sad because clearly a lot of people have had a good experience and have enjoyed her food. Unfortunately, that was not the case for me and my 13 friends who booked her for a dinner in Palm Springs this past weekend. I found Ashleanna to have very poor communication and organization skills, which resulted in a very disappointing experience. Despite originally booking our private dinner over three months in advance, Ashleanna sent me an email a month prior to our arrival saying that there had been a cancellation on the day I requested and that she could now accommodate us... the only problem was that I had already paid her the $750 deposit and secured my date. I reminded her and she said that it was a mistake and she mixed me up with someone else and we were confirmed. Well, that should have been my first sign that while she may be a good cook, she is not running an organized business. The day of the event I hadn't heard from her what time she was arriving so I texted her. Not knowing her arrival time was the second red flag. She responded saying she would arrive at 4 PM for a 7 PM dinner. She then immediately responded again saying, sorry I meant to say I will arrive at 7 PM. This should have been yet another red flag but what was I to do the day of? In my experience of planning many private and corporate events, I have never had a caterer or chef arrive AT the time dinner was to be served. At 7 PM, she called me to say that she was running late from a previous event and was it ok if she arrived at 8 PM? My honest answer was, "Not really, but if you cannot be here until 8, then what else can I do?" Clearly she double booked events (as evidenced by the email a month ago) and couldn't make it to me on time. She assured me that she would hurry and that our first course would be served quickly after arrival. At 8:15 PM I had no update. I texted her and called her three times with no answer, which was incredibly frustrating since we were all sitting around waiting for her to arrive. At this point, my guests were snacking on goldfish and chips because everyone was starving. Not exactly the gourmet meal I had planned and paid for. When she finally called me back, she said that she was still another 45 minutes away and would not arrive until AFTER 9 PM. I found this to be completely unacceptable. A 9 PM arrival time means not actually eating until 10 or 11 PM! Most of our guests were leaving the following morning on a 5 AM flight, which is why we had planned our last night in Palm Springs as a relaxing dinner at the house. Ashleanna apologized, but that really did me no good at this point. The group decided that they did not want to eat 3+ hours after the original dinner time. I had to ask for a refund of the deposit and then quickly research a pizza place to order pizza for the group. I am extremely disappointed and embarrassed in front of my guests who had been hyped up for a 5 course private chef experience all weekend and were stuck eating pizza takeout at 9:30 PM. This was supposed to be our one big splurge dinner while we were in Palm Springs and ended up being a huge disaster. We were not dressed for a nice dinner out and had I purchased all the wine for the house, so eating at a restaurant was not even an option at this point. I wish Ashleanna had 1) not double booked events and 2) been more communicative when she knew she was behind schedule so we could have salvaged the night earlier. read more