After two years of cooking for and serving USF St. Petersburg students, The Reef’s Chef Ashley Morris had her last day on the job Saturday.
She accepted a chef position at Westminster SunCoast, a nursing/retirement home in St. Petersburg. Unlike her job at The Reef, she’ll be serving older retirees. Her job will also deal with nutrition.
Born in Savannah, Ga., Morris always had the desire to become a food chef. Morris graduated from Savannah Tech’s Culinary Art School in 2006.
She also spent four years serving in the Air Force until receiving a medical discharge in 2004. Morris worked as chef at Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah before relocating to USFSP in 2012. She said she was nervous moving to USFSP at first, but soon started liking St. Pete’s scenery and the university.
Morris has been a popular chef at The Reef because she liked to spend time with students.
“It’s fun to talk with the students,” she said. “What I’ll miss most about the job is hanging out with students and looking at the fish tank.”
Morris’ favorite USFSP memories were making different food every night at the HotSpot bar and talking to customers and friends who stopped by. She was also a member of the Video Game Club. She enjoyed last year’s Super Bowl event at the Reef, and she liked to play ping-pong with Matt “Subaru,” who got his nickname “because he drives a Subaru,” Morris said.
Morris also loved cooking for the Residence Hall grill-out weekend last summer. Morris’ favorite foods to cook are soul food, Italian food and food that students request.
The Sodexo staff also enjoyed working with her. Andrea Nguyen, a USFSP senior and marketing intern for Sodexo, said she learned a lot about the food business through Morris.
“She is lots of fun to work with,” Nguyen said. “She guided me on food prices and putting meals together. She’s full of laughs 24/7 and makes a bombing gumbo.”
Sodexo employee Crystal Brinson said Morris is the most “amazing” person.
“She taught me about cooking, work ethics and pretty much everything else,” Brinson said..
Brinson’s favorite memory with Morris was cooking for last semester’s catering event.
Chef Morris will be missed, but she hopes that students will continue to have fun and abide by her favorite saying: “Teamwork makes the dream work”.
