A childhood obsession with baking was the beginning of Ashleigh Hoeksema’s love affair with food and hospitality. 

She has gone on to pursue a career as a chef, restaurateur and now teacher, and has learned and worked alongside world renowned dessert aficionado, Adriano Zumbo. 

“I won an ‘Apprentice of the Year’ competition when I was 20 and working in Coolum, and I moved to Sydney to work with Adriano,” Ashleigh said. “He put me in charge of macarons and we would make between 5000 and 6000 every day. It was pretty full on, because they are his signature dessert.”

After a year working with Zumbo, Ashleigh was quickly snapped up and offered a position as a sous chef at Sokyo in Sydney, where she created Japanese and French inspired desserts. In 2015, Ashleigh came home to the Sunshine Coast and opened her own restaurant, Nambour Social.

“I chose Nambour to open my own place because it has such a great up and coming vibe,” Ashleigh said. “There is so much happening here, particularly food wise.” 

“It took me a couple of years to fix our building to open and it has been full on ever since. I have never worked in a better town than Nambour. It is insane. People here are amazing and they really want us to do well. The support for what we are doing here is so great,” she said.

Best known for mouthwatering breakfasts, and next level pastries, Nambour Social has made the cut on Urban List, while Ashleigh has featured as one of Urban List’s Three Young Chefs to Watch here on the Sunshine Coast.

“We have regulars who never miss coming for weekend breakfasts, and it is incredibly busy for us then,” Ashleigh said. “We also do lunches, and obviously coffee and baked sweets are extremely popular as well.”