{{Short description|American chef}} {{Infobox person | name = Charlie Ayers | birth_name = Charles David Ayers, Jr.<ref name=jwu /> | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1966|07|05}} | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | education = Johnson & Wales University | image = File:Chefcharlieayers.jpg | caption = Ayers in 2006 }} '''Charles David Ayers, Jr.''' (born July 5, 1966)<ref name="jwu">{{cite journal|date=Spring 2014|title=JWU's Honorary Class of 2014|url=http://203.130.243.185/data/eBook%20MULTIMEDIA/JWUMagazineSpring2014.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Johnson & Wales University Magazine|publisher=Johnson & Wales University|page=3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170220010800/http://203.130.243.185/data/eBook%20MULTIMEDIA/JWUMagazineSpring2014.pdf|archive-date=2017-02-20|quote=Charles David Ayers Jr. ’90 / Chef and Owner - Calafia Café/Blue Chalk Café Corporation / Doctor of Culinary Arts|accessdate=2017-02-18}}</ref> is an American chef, cookbook author, and restaurateur. He is the former executive chef for Google, from 1999 until 2006.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk">{{Cite web|last=Lusher|first=Adam|date=2008-03-23|title=Chef lifts lid on Google's recipe for success|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1582494/Chef-lifts-lid-on-Googles-recipe-for-success.html|url-status=live|access-date=|website=www.telegraph.co.uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605025339/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1582494/Chef-lifts-lid-on-Googles-recipe-for-success.html |archive-date=2011-06-05 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Gold|first=Amanda|date=May 7, 2008|title=Google chef serves up food for thought|url=https://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/Google-chef-serves-up-food-for-thought-3216293.php|url-status=live|website=SFGate|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805163604/http://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/Google-chef-serves-up-food-for-thought-3216293.php |archive-date=2012-08-05 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web|last=Craig|first=Elise|date=June 18, 2009|title=The man who fed Google|url=http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-man-who-fed-google|url-status=live|website=Market Watch|publisher=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090623080113/http://www.marketwatch.com:80/story/the-man-who-fed-google? |archive-date=2009-06-23 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=McCarthy|first=Caroline|date=May 12, 2008|title=Bringing Google into the kitchen|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/bringing-google-into-the-kitchen/|url-status=live|website=CNet|publisher=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731013301/https://www.cnet.com/news/bringing-google-into-the-kitchen/ |archive-date=2017-07-31 }}</ref><ref name="GoogleNoodles">{{cite web|last= Alexander |first= Karen |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/business/businessspecial/20alexander.html|title=From Google to Noodles: A Chef Strikes Out on His Own|date= 2005-09-20 |accessdate= 2017-02-18 |work= The New York Times}}</ref> His work there was widely publicized in the media, and David Vise's corporate history ''The Google Story'' 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.<ref name=":0" />

==Early life and education== Ayers was born on July 5, 1966, in Chicago.<ref name= GoogleNoodles/> He grew up in Brooklyn<ref name= GoogleNoodles/> and Parsippany, New Jersey,<ref>{{cite journal|last= Epstein |first= Nadine |title= The Google Seder |journal= Moment |year= 2008 |accessdate= 2017-02-18 |url= http://www.momentmag.com/the-google-seder/}}</ref> where he attended Parsippany High School and graduated in 1985.<ref>{{cite web|title= Parsippany High School: Class of 1985 |date= 2009-04-16 |accessdate= 2017-02-18 |website= Class Creator |location= Ann Arbor, Michigan |url= https://www.classcreator.com/Parsippany-NJ-1985/class_profile.cfm?member_id=674665 |quote= Charles (Charlie) Ayers}}</ref>

==Career== Ayers worked as a private and personal chef to the rock band Grateful Dead in the 1980s.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last1=Hollbrook|first1=Stett|last2=Pulcrano|first2=Dan|date=2009-10-14|title=Five Chefs That Matter|url=http://www.metroactive.com/metro/10.14.09/five-chefs-0941.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-23|website=Metro Active|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091017080032/http://www.metroactive.com:80/metro/10.14.09/five-chefs-0941.html |archive-date=2009-10-17 }}</ref> Ayers began his professional career in New Jersey working for Hilton Hotels, at their Meadowlands and Parsippany locations in New Jersey.

Later he left Hilton to attend culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he graduated in 1990.<ref name="jwu" /> He was a chef at several restaurants in the Providence and Boston areas, and then moved to California, where he worked as a chef at Stoddard's Brewhouse in Sunnyvale, Left in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Blue Chalk Cafe and the Peninsula Creamery, both in downtown Palo Alto in the Silicon Valley.<ref name=":2" />

From 1999 to 2006, Ayers worked as an executive chef at Google in its Mountain View, California headquarters.<ref name=":0" /> He obtained the job at Google after winning a cook-off that was judged by what were then the company's 40 employees.<ref name=":0" /> Ayers reportedly earned $26 million (USD) from his Google stock options.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk" />

On January 20, 2009, Ayers started Calafia Café/Calafia Market a Go Go in Palo Alto. It remained in operation until August 2018.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|last=Kadvany|first=Elena|date=August 26, 2018|title=Calafia closes in Palo Alto: 'The costs were greater than the take'|url=https://www.paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2018/08/26/calafia-closes-in-palo-alto-the-costs-were-greater-than-the-take|url-status=live|website=Palo Alto Online|publisher=Palo Alto Weekly|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208082054/https://www.paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2018/08/26/calafia-closes-in-palo-alto-the-costs-were-greater-than-the-take |archive-date=2019-02-08 }}</ref> The financing to open Calafia Café came from former Google employees and a couple that worked for Cisco.<ref name=":1" />

== Publications == * {{Cite book|last=Ayers|first=Charlie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4W6JDfkbausC|title=Food 2.0: Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google|publisher=Penguin|year=2008|isbn=9780756643409|series=DK Cookery General}} * {{Cite book|last=Ayers|first=Charlie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d8qdXaYWTo0C|title=Eat Yourself Smart: Power up your day with recipes from the chef who fed Google|publisher=Dorling Kindersley Limited|year=2008|isbn=9781405336178}}

==References== {{reflist}}

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