CHEF AKASHA
Akasha Richmond, renowned chef, caterer, and author of “Hollywood Dish,” enjoyed a long success at her popular namesake restaurant, AKASHA in Culver City.The restaurant closed in October 2025, but is still catering and offering ready to eat meals. Along with cooking and catering, Akasha is focusing on her new company Travel By Akasha.
Akasha is always inspired by world cuisine and has traveled across Eastern and Western Europe, India, Southeast Asia, North Africa and Mexico. She has led small group tours to Italy, India, Morocco and Ireland. Along with hosting culinary tours, she is a travel advisor and can plan all types of journeys including custom itineraries, individual and group trips, destination celebrations, wellness escapes, honeymoons, river and ocean cruises, safaris, and more.
Meaning “ether”, one of the five elements in Ayurvedic and yogic philosophy, Akasha settled into the life of a chef quite by accident and has flourished in this role to become one of Los Angeles's celebrated culinary names. An accomplished artist and painter, her career pivoted when she landed a summer job in the kitchen at L.A.’s Golden Temple, a popular vegetarian restaurant frequented by celebrities, and there discovered her true passion for cooking. Soon after, Akasha became Michael Jackson's longtime personal and concert tour chef, developing a deep friendship with the music icon that lasted until his untimely death.
Follow her at
@akasharichmond on instagram. Along with her vast travels, Akasha's cooking is an expression of her upbringing of passionate Russian immigrant grandparents and American parents, who taught her not only how to properly follow the structure of a recipe, but also to embrace personal freedom and respect her senses to create an exceptional dish unique to her sensibilities.