Charlie Ayers

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

Chef Charlie Ayers lives by the creed “eat, drink, and be merry.” For the past 15 years, he has embodied this ideal as a chef, zealously providing eclectic gourmet inspired food and drink in an ambiance of music, fun and sustainable living.

Growing up in New England, Charlie attended culinary school in Providence, Rhode Island at Johnson & Wales University, and then cooked at several restaurants in the Providence and Boston areas before desire to travel, learn and experience new flavors led him to California.

Charlie is known best as the former executive chef for Google, a job he won in a cook-off in 1999 that was judged by the company’s then 40 employees. He toured the information superhighway with Google for six years taking the company from infancy to serving 4,000 daily lunches and dinners in 10 cafes at the company’s headquarters.

"Blessed with a bounty of clean, sustainable foods in California, Charlie believes everyone should be able to eat delicious, innovative and fast cuisine that is healthy, good for the community and good for the earth."

Honoring a long-standing dream of his own restaurant, Charlie opened Calafia Café & Market A Go Go in Palo Alto, California to do just that. His concept epitomizes the idea that “being green” is good for the consumer, producer, environment and local community.

Marrying an environmental conscious in the food industry with high-tech savvy and business reality, Charlie is an expert in the field. He was invited to speak at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:Nomics forum in 2012 and has published a cookbook, Food 2.0: Secrets from the Chef that Fed Google. He continues to serve on the board and support multiple charities including Rock the Earth and Adolescent Counseling Services