US chef who won a cook-off to be Google employee #53 left with $40M stock options
Published on Aug 16, 2025 at 3:10 PM (UTC+4)
by Henry Kelsall
Last updated on Aug 13, 2025 at 8:31 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
A US chef won a cook-off to be a Google Employee #53, and left the company with $40 million worth of stock options.
Charlie Ayers won a cook-off to become the 53rd employee at the company, and the first-ever chef for Google, which runs the world’s best-known internet search engine.
In 2019, Ayers was interviewed by Jessi Hempel, who posted the interview on LinkedIn, in which the chef discussed how he won the competition.
Plus, they also spoke about how the American walked away with $40 million worth of company stock.
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How Ayers won the cook-off to be a Google Employee
At the time, Ayers had been cooking privately for a family in Silicon Valley.
His then-girlfriend told him that Google needed a chef.
This was in 1988, not long after the company had first been set up.
The interview process was strange, however.
It took weeks for Ayers to hear back from them.
Google co-founder Larry Page had even bounced in on an exercise ball during the interview.
Prior to this, Ayers had sent a care package of his cooking to Google, but to the wrong person.
But Google called him in for a cookout, and he’d gleaned information from an insider as to what people ate at the company.
An eclectic menu with Sri Lankan curry and spicy tofu wowed the employees during his trial.
It took eight weeks for Google to respond to the US Chef
After his tryout, it took Google around eight weeks to get back to him.
Ayers remembered the day they rang.
It was a Thursday, with the company telling him they wanted him to work the next Monday.
In his interview, Ayers described feeling like ‘Homer Simpson‘ working around so many intelligent people.
He was given free rein to work how he wanted before he decided to leave after five years.
After he left in 2006, his stock options were worth up to $40 million.
This was after only five years at the company, and one that was still in the early days of its existence.
Yet while the job did create burnout, it also gave Ayers a great springboard for the rest of his career.
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Henry is a content writer with nearly ten years experience, having written for various publications since 2017. Qualifying with a Sports Journalism degree from Staffordshire University, Henry loves all things automotive but has a particular soft spot for classic Japanese cars and anything Lancia. He also has a curious passion for steam locomotives.
