Tampa prepared meals company hires executive chef
December 1, 2020 - Fitlife Foods, a prepared meals business in Tampa, has hired Tampa native Chris Austin as its new executive chef. Austin will oversee all culinary creation across 12 Fitlife Foods locations and the company's weekly home delivery business. He is a James Beard scholarship recipient from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, and previously was executive chef for Whole Foods Northern California Region, where he helped pioneer the nationally recognized “Health Starts Here” program. Most recently, Austin was executive chef at the University of Tampa and catering director for global leader Sodexo. At Fitlife, his focus will be on innovative, flavorful and well- balanced meals that bring the personal chef experience to Fitlife’s consumers, a news release said. The company will release eight meals created by Austin and his culinary team next month. Fitlife Foods is the second largest omni-channel (retail and direct-to-consumer) prepared meals retailer in the country and the largest in the Southeast.