After growing up around the restaurant and catering business, Jim graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY in 1977. From there, he held many prestigious culinary jobs, including chef, consultant, and executive chef for such establishments as Crabhouse Seafood Restaurants (south Florida) and Lou Malnati's (Chicago, IL). In his roles, he has been instrumental in the concept expansion, menu creation, kitchen operations and purchasing. He has been the Executive Chef for Lou Malnati's since 1987 and has received many accolades for his work. He is now a partner in the business which he helped grow from 6 locations in 1987 to 30 locations today. He also established a catering business for the company, and has been in integral part of developing a successful mail order division for Lou's, which ships more than 250,000 pizzas a year across the country.