Meet The Chef!

Ashton Lutchman is the only trained international chef on the Island of Tobago, who is the sole owner of a restaurant and cooks in it as well on a nightly basis. Personally he is a quite the paradox, being both a very traditional and edgy character (he rides Harley and Hummer yet also owns a vintage Land Rover), qualities which are reflected in his cooking style, as he is well renowned for putting a fresh spin on Traditional Local dishes by giving them a foreign flair. One of the more well known examples of this being his version of “Crab and Dumplings”, in which he creatively executes a dinner version of curried crab, lobster and dumplings, easy to eat, (very user friendly).
Mr. Lutchman also takes pride in good quality and on his days off he goes to his cottage in the mountains in Trinidad, Tobago’s industrial sister island.
He has two children who he adores; the first born being fourteen year old football player, Yanick who resides in Munich Germany, and his daughter Caramel, whom he worships. She currently resides in the US.
In his younger days Mr. Lutchman worked on the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship out to Puerto Rico and The Trinidad mission to the UN in New York. He also studied both Food and beverage Management as well as Cookery in both Trinidad and England and was undecided as to which field of study to pursue, hence the desire to both own/ manage a restaurant and cook in it.
With all of that said and done, it goes without saying that when dining at both Café Mélange and Caribbean Chula, the Chef’s colourful character and rich heritage is expressed in the cuisine. Dinner at Mélange is indeed a Caribbean experience tailored by Mr. Lutchman, in food, service, décor and ambiance all combined and climaxing into a mélange of experiences.