All the world’s a restaurant to Ashley James, and he really gets around. As executive chef of Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles, James has the enviable task of keeping one of the city’s hottest dining spots sizzling for the entertainment crowd – and everyone else, too. “It took me a while to adapt to LA, but now I love it,” he says, adding, “Anybody who comes to the hotel is treated like a celebrity.”

That’s better than James got working his way up to chef. Born for the kitchen – he recalls baking with his mother as a youngster and cooking beef Wellington for dinner parties as a tween – James crossed the Channel at 20 for a kitchen gig at a French country hotel. “England didn’t have much of a culinary reputation in those days. The attitude was, ‘What do you know?’” James was insulted, pushed, even smacked by the chef, but stayed on just to show he could. He went on to show more, earning spots at Michelin-starred restaurants and winning Young Chef of the Year in France in 1992.

Then he was off – first to Spain, then to Four Seasons postings in Singapore, Mexico and Buenos Aires. “What’s really quite interesting is that every time I leave a country, I adapt those influences to my next destination.” James points to the “flavour profiles” of Asian ingredients, which, though similar to those of Latin American cuisine, are transformed on both sides through distinctive cooking techniques.

James’s turn at Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires provided him entrée into television as well. After being taped for a segment with a local celebrity chef, James was offered a cooking series of his own and banked 12 shows before heading to LA.

So – big on TV in Buenos Aires, big in North America, right? As of press time, James would only hint that he has something in the works for cable on the “culinary culture of Michelin-starred chefs.” Either way, his focus remains on Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles, where his global cuisine just keeps drawing them in.