Charlie Ayers


Charles David Ayers, Jr. is the former executive chef for Google. 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, CA.

Background

Ayers was born in Chicago and grew up in Brooklyn, New York and Parsippany, New Jersey; he graduated from Parsippany High School in 1985. He 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 in Providence, RI at Johnson & Wales University. He graduated from Johnson & Wales in 1990. He cooked at several restaurants in the Providence and Boston areas, before moving to California.
Charlie started Calafia Café / Calafia Market a Go Go. The first restaurant opened 20 January 2009 in the Palo Alto, CA Town & Country Village shopping center but closed in 2018.

Compensation

Ayers reportedly earned $26 million from his Google stock options.