About Chef Ahmed Azizy

Born and raised in Mohammedia, Morocco, Ahmed took a circuitous route to the world of 'chefdom.'  He graduated from the University Hassan II in Casablanca and became a professional soccer player.  In 1985, his athletic expertise and interests brought him to Denver, Colorado, where he enrolled in Loretto Heights college in pursuit of his degree and the opportunity to become a physical education instructor/coach.  There, he met and married his wife, Suzannah.  Her New England roots pulled them back to the East Coast...and Vermont...where Ahmed decided to follow his passion for the culinary arts.

Following his 1991 graduation from The New England Culinary Institute, Chef Ahmed accepted a position at Chicago's Ritz-Carlton and The Four Season's Hotels, along The Magnificent Mile, where he quickly worked his way up the fine dining corporate ladder.  In addition to the hotel industry, he exercised his innate talent, formal education, and experience as a private chef for a number of Chicago's Gold Coast notables.  He has shared his working knowledge and expertise with Dean & Deluca and most recently, Charlotte's South Park Suites Hotel, where he was both Executive Chef and Director of Food & Beverage. 

His extraordinary credentials include, but are not limited to his 1996 first place win in the US Division of the Grand Prix Auguste Escoffier Competition and in Nice, France, as the first place winner and the sole US representative, he placed second overall in the 1997 Auguste Escoffier World Competition.  His US and French triumphs were followed with another when, in 1998, he placed first in the US Division, Bocuse d'Or Competition.  In 1999, Lyon, France, he went on to win Best Fish Platter, another win in the World Division Bocuse d'Or Competition, and eighth place overall in that world culinary event.