ChefLaw is what happens when four decades behind the line meets an APOSTC-certified badge. Expert witness, food-safety legal consulting, and high-impact speaking — for attorneys, restaurant operators, school systems, and law-enforcement agencies that need a witness who has actually done the work. Both kinds of work.
Started kitchens at 13. Executive Chef and Culinary Arts instructor by trade. Registered ServSafe proctor and certified ServSafe instructor — the people who write the food-safety standard you're going to be quoting in your filing.
Reserve Deputy with the Cullman County Sheriff's Office. APOSTC certified — the same Alabama Peace Officers' Standards & Training Commission standard your line officers carry. I understand the chain of custody, the report, and the witness stand from the inside.
Four practice areas. One operator. Real stories, real lessons, no fluff.
Foodborne illness, kitchen-injury, slip-and-fall, allergen-mislabeling, and food-handling negligence cases. I read the report the way a chef reads a ticket and the way a deputy reads a scene. Plaintiff or defense, depositions, written opinions, and trial testimony.
ServSafe-grade audits, written SOPs that actually hold up, HACCP plan review, training-record reconstruction, and incident response. Built for restaurant groups, school systems, and insurance carriers who need defensible documentation before they need a witness.
Keynotes and breakouts where law enforcement meets hospitality — food-safety culture beyond the checklist, leadership from 40 years behind the line, building systems that work, and unreasonable hospitality. School systems, conferences, agency in-service days.
Consulting for sheriff's offices, jails, and school resource units on food-service vendor compliance, inmate-meal documentation, and training programs that satisfy both the health code and the courtroom.
Professional development for school systems, agencies, and conferences. Keynotes, breakouts, in-service days. I bring the chef's discipline and the deputy's straight talk to the same room.
1986. Thirteen years old, first kitchen, first burn. Forty years later I'm still on the line — just smarter about where to put the energy. ChefNStaff was born out of desperation and built on trust. ChefLaw is what comes next.
Forty years cooking, forty years training, and an APOSTC-certified reserve deputy badge with the Cullman County Sheriff's Office. I sit at a table that almost no one else can sit at — fluent in both the health-code line and the criminal-code line.
Attorneys hire me because I can read a ticket, an SOP, and an incident report with the same eye. Operators hire me because I built systems the E-Myth way — the work doesn't depend on me being there. Conferences hire me because the room remembers a man who has actually done the work, both kinds.
"Started out of desperation. Turned into a legacy. Now it's about passing it forward — and standing up for the right side when somebody gets hurt."— Chef Chris Villa
Family farm in Cullman County with my wife Kim of 23 years, our daughter Katie, four barrel horses, and Dexter the donkey. Faith, family, and food. That's what drives it.
Fastest way to a real conversation is a text. Tell me one sentence about the case, the engagement, or the date you're trying to fill. I respond personally.
