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Ashley Mincey ’11 loves to cook. 

Before launching her own culinary brand, she worked as a server, bartender, corporate chef and even competed on season nine of MasterChef, where she was mentored by Gordon Ramsay. 

A French major, dancer and member of the women’s tennis team at Davidson, Mincey never intended to stick to a single interest. She cooked meals for the Black Student Coalition in her free time and became known for handing out free homemade food to friends and classmates. 

“My senior year, I cooked my first full Thanksgiving meal for a charity event on campus,” she said. “I was always able to use Davidson’s resources and amenities to explore my passion for cooking. What I originally thought would remain a hobby grew into something much larger.”

The puzzle pieces began to come together during her year studying abroad in France, where Mincey poured herself into culinary classes and cooking with her host family. She knew she wanted to continue studying food but wasn’t sure how to approach a culinary career.

Instead, she earned her master’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and planned to teach high school French. Today, through her brand, Envie by Mincey, she’s able to use her education degree to teach others about cooking.

When she isn’t teaching, Mincey speaks at events, freelances as a private chef, creates educational content for social media and continues her own culinary education. Davidson helped her learn how to balance it all, she said. 

“If I could talk to my college-aged self, I’d tell her to quiet the noise,” she said. “There can be so much external pressure to follow a specific career path, but it’s so important to listen to your internal voice and figure out what it is you really want.”