After culinary school, she worked for Cindy Wolf at Charleston and Cinghiale in Baltimore, Maryland.

During her travels, she was inspired by her visit to The Grey and a conference in Denmark, where she saw Jeannette Ehlers talk about reclaiming African history.

[6] She worked at minibar, the José Andrés restaurant in Washington, D.C.[2] During a camping trip to Shenandoah National Park, Shanti saw a display at the visitors center about African Americans in Appalachia.

The culmination of the display and her maternal heritage inspired Shanti to begin pursuing Black Appalachian cuisine.

Fleer hired Shanti serve as chef de cuisine and to help create the menu at Benne on Eagle, the restaurant at The Foundry Hotel in Asheville.

[7][9] Shanti was named a semi-finalist for the 2020 James Beard Award for "Rising Star Chef of the Year.

[2] Examples of dishes created by Shanti includes hummus made with black-eyed peas and sesame; okonomiyaki inspired by her mother's salmon and cabbage fritters; buttermilk cornbread soup, the latter based on her grandmother's recipe; collard greens salad with fried plantain and sumac; farro-vegetable hash with chermoula; cornmeal pancakes with strawberry compote; and benne-seed biscuits with local country ham and hollandaise.