Faculty and Staff Profile
Xavier Bauby
Faculty/Departments:
Trades and Technical
Positions/Titles:
Faculty
Area of Expertise:Professional Cook
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, 2011-2013. 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.