My Story
Chef Danae McLaughlin’s passion for cooking is rooted in her childhood. Growing up in San Francisco, California, in a mixed heritage family of Filipino, German, Italian and Hawaiian, exposed her to a variety of dishes and flavors and fueled her passion for cooking from a young age. Her multicultural roots, along with global travels to Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Africa and Peru (just to name a few) are infused in the flavors of her food.
Her culinary career began at a little neighborhood gem, where she held the roles of owner/operator, executive chef, dishwasher and everything in between. She then graduated culinary school at the top of her class and was awarded the Burt Cutino Award, won Gold at the San Diego Fancy Food Competition and won Best in Show at the West Coast Fancy Food Show.
After joining the Harker School as the Executive Sous Chef, where she ran six kitchens on four campuses serving a total of 3000 meals a day. She continued her education achieving the distinguished credential of Certified Executive Chef with the American Culinary Federation (ACF).
She opened her own catering and event company Affaire Culinaire, and was extremely successful until Covid forced her to close her doors but it also gave her the opportunity to create a new product of small batch artisan spice blends called Life of Spice. When she’s not in the kitchen, she cameos as a judge at the Annual Gilroy Garlic Festival and even finds time to volunteer at Job Train teaching and coaching culinary arts students.
