James Koskiniemi

Who is James Koskiniemi?

James Koskiniemi is an American chef who is the recipient of the San Francisco Chefs Association 2010 Chef of the Year. James worked as the Executive Chef of The Bellevue Club in Oakland, California and as of 2011 owns and operates Chef James SF - Bay Area Culinary Services. He is a writer for the Culinarian Magazine, and served three terms as President of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Chefs Association - Chefs Association of the Pacific Coast ACF. He appeared on the cover of the February 2008 issue of the Culinarian Magazine.

When Chef James was six years old he won first place in a men's cooking competition and a culinary award from Alice Waters. At an early age he was introduced to Traditional French cooking by his father Ken who studied under Master Chef Ken Wolfe, and baking and pastry from his mother Peggy.

Chef James has an Associate of Occupational Studies in Le Cordon Bleu degree from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, California, and was the only one to graduate with full honors at the top of his class out of almost 700 students. In June 2007 Chef James was invited by the Adopt a Ship Program as a Chef Instructor on the Navy’s USS Boxer to train Culinary specialists in traditional techniques and help oversee the production of over 1200 meals per day.