Xavier Bauby

About

Xavier Bauby is an international chef and instructor. His 30 years of experience includes catering to Bill Clinton and coaching students to win national championships. A passion for food began early for Chef Bauby. His father was a professional pastry chef and his mother an exquisite cook. He spent his childhood hunting crabs and fishing along the coast of Brittany, France and remembers proudly presenting his catch to his mother to prepare the family’s dinner.

At 16, he began a culinary apprenticeship in a French bistro. Then, wanting to experience new flavours and cooking styles, he toured France, exploring regions with a reputation for fine dining. He spent many years in Bordeaux apprenticing under Chef Jean Marie Amat at Chateaux St. James before moving on to the luxurious Hermitage Barrière Hotel in La Baule and Hôtel Lutetia in Paris.

An avid traveler, Chef Bauby spent his early twenties exploring Morocco, the Canary Islands, the Cabo Verde Islands, the Ivory Coast, the Congo and Sierra Leone. In each region, he made it a priority to visit local food markets to learn their food culture and expand his repertoire. In 1991, he arrived in Canada, where he has grown his career as a chef and an instructor.

Chef Bauby’s experiences include representing Canadian chefs on an international level, first as caterer for President Bill Clinton at the Russian/US Summit held in Vancouver in 1992 and then as part of a team invited by the Canadian Embassy to promote Canadian cuisine in Shanghai, China. He was manager and captain of a gold-winning team at the Canadian Culinary Federation from 2011 to 2013. As instructor at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa, he coached a post-secondary student to win provincial gold and national bronze at Skills Canada 2016.