A 1987 CIA graduate, Chef Barnes has also served as the college’s senior director of culinary education and senior director of continuing education. Prior to joining the CIA in 2009, he was president of GigaChef, LLC and chef/owner of B&B Solutions, providing a variety of operational consulting services over a span of 15 years; he also led several commercial restaurant teams as executive chef. Today he remains an active businessperson as a partner in multiple food businesses across the US.

Brad Barnes is co-author of, So You Want to Be a Chef?, So You Are a Chef, and The American Culinary Federation’s Guide to Culinary Certification. He is the former national Certified Master Chef Committee chair for the American Culinary Federation (ACF) and a former past chair of the ACF National Certification Commission. He is an ACF-certified culinary competition judge and certified by the World Association of Chefs Societies as an international judge.

Chef Barnes is one of 72 Certified Master Chefs (CMC) in the country and was an inductee of the American Academy of Chefs (AAC), the American Culinary Federation’s honor society.

He has received many honors during his career including the President’s Award (2005), President’s Medallion (2004), and Hermann G. Rusch Humanitarian Award (2002) from the ACF for his work during 911. He was twice named Chef of the Year by the Chefs Association of Westchester and Lower Connecticut (1990 and 1993). Chef Barnes earned two gold medals at the Culinary Olympics in Germany and the Saint Michel Gold Medal for Pastry Display at the Société Culinaire Philanthropiqué New York Salon of Culinary Arts. He served as coach and design director of the ACF’s Team USA culinary Olympic teams in 2000, 2004, and 2008.