Charles David Ayers, Jr. (born July 5, 1966) is an American chef, cookbook author, and restaurateur. He is the former executive chef for

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, from 1999 until 2006. His work there was widely publicized in the media, and David Vise's corporate history ''

The Google Story ''The Google Story'' is a book by David Vise and Mark Malseed that takes an in-depth look at the founding of Google and why it is unique among information technology companies. The book discusses the founders, the company, and the culture that Goo ...

'' contains an entire chapter about him called "Charlie's Place." By the time he left Google in 2006, Ayers and his team of five chefs and 150 employees were serving 4,000 daily lunches and dinners in 10 cafes across the company's headquarters campus in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the population was 82,376 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mountain V ...

Early life and education

Ayers was born on July 5, 1966, in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and Parsippany, New Jersey, where he attended

Parsippany High School Parsippany High School (also known as PHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school, one of two high schools in Parsippany-Troy Hills, in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as part of the Parsippany-Troy Hills S ...

and graduated in 1985.

Career

Ayers worked as a private and personal chef to the rock band

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

in the 1980s. Ayers began his professional career in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

working for

Hilton Hotels Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton Worldwide. The original company was founded by Conrad Hi ...

, at their Meadowlands and Parsippany locations in

. Later he left Hilton to attend

culinary school A cooking school is an institution devoted to education in the art and science of cooking and food preparation. There are many different types of cooking schools around the world, some devoted to training professional chefs, others aimed at amat ...

Johnson & Wales University Johnson & Wales University (JWU) is a private university with its main campus in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded as a business school in 1914 by Gertrude I. Johnson and Mary T. Wales, JWU enrolled 7,357 students across its cam ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

, where he graduated in 1990. He was a chef at several restaurants in the Providence and

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

areas, and then moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, where he worked as a chef at Stoddard's Brewhouse in

Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...

, Left in

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

, and Blue Chalk Cafe and the Peninsula Creamery, both in downtown

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

in the

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. From 1999 to 2006, Ayers worked as an executive chef at

in its

headquarters. He obtained the job at Google after winning a cook-off that was judged by what were then the company's 40 employees. Ayers reportedly earned $26 million (USD) from his Google stock options. On January 20, 2009, Ayers started Calafia Café/Calafia Market a Go Go in Palo Alto. It remained in operation until August 2018. The financing to open Calafia Café came from former Google employees and a couple that worked for

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

Publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayers, Charlie 1966 births Living people American male chefs Cuisine of the San Francisco Bay Area Google people Parsippany High School alumni Writers from Palo Alto, California People from Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey