At an early age, Executive Chef of Elegant Events Catering, Inc., Jacques Hayes fell in love with the culinary arts. He credits this passion to growing up in his mother's kitchen, attending culinary school, watching cooking shows on TV, and reading many cookbooks.

 

Recognizing the value of a formal culinary education, Chef Jacques attended the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and graduated with honors.

After graduation, Jacques accepted a Chef's position for the Native American Indian co-ed House at Stanford University on the contingency that he be allowed to use their kitchen for his own catering company, La Bonne Vie, "the good life". In May of 1994 he purchased Elegant Events Catering, a 17-year-old company with a small but steady client base.

 

Chef Jacques' experience covers a broad span. In addition to teaching numerous cooking classes, he has worked in restaurants, country clubs, and catering companies, as well as a stint as food stylist for Tri Star Motion Pictures. Jacques also served six years as Executive Chef for the international publication “Epicurean Magazine” and previous to that, the same title for the “Food and Beverage Journal”, a California trade magazine.

 

Recently, Chef Hayes accepted invitation to be a member of the advisory board at The Professional Culinary Institute, sitting along side of some of our nations leading culinary visionaries. http://www.pcichef.com  Chef Jacques also teaches weekend hobby classes as well as corporate team building events at the school.

Being of French descent, Jacques has been fortunate enough to travel to Europe on several occasions as well as numerous other international destinations such as the Middle East, the Caribbean, Mexico, the South Pacific, Canada and most of the United States. On these journeys, he was able to sample some of the world's finest cuisine, the source of his ability to capture the authenticity of regional flavors. Jacques strongly believes in using the finest, freshest ingredients and serving generous portions all with special attention to presentation. "I feel fortunate to be a chef in Northern California where I have access to a wide variety of outstanding local products that include wine, produce, cheese, meat, herbs and seafood. What my team does with these products is what sets us apart from our competition.”