His Filipino mother raised his younger brother and himself by ingraining hardworking values derived from his Filipino and Brazilian backgrounds.
Wesley was very fond of the kitchen at a young age and found himself always being around his mother and her friends while they cooked simple Filipino dishes. At the age of 15 he moved to Jacksonville, Florida with his mom and brother. While there, Wesley attended Robert E. Lee Senior High School and University of North Florida. While in college he worked at a few family owned restaurants but it was not until the birth of his daughter Khloe where he was determined to turn an everyday job of cooking into his passionate career. Wesley decided to drop out of college and pursue a career in the kitchen.
He started working at 2009 in Bistro Biscottis (bbs), a highly established local casual dining restaurant. He worked under the influence of Chef Carlos Ramirez and Chef Josh Agan. In 2014 at the age of 27, he was promoted to Executive Chef at bbs. While at bbs, Wesley has used his platform to bring new age dishes to the Jacksonville area and has worked numerous events with local chefs such as Tom Gray and Matthew Medure.
In May 2017, Wesley started his chef/owned catering company called Khloe’s Kitchen inspired by his daughter. He serves modern-eclectic inspired cuisine obtained from his fine dining knowledge and his upbringing from his Filipino-Brazilian roots.

James spent three years harvesting and honing his skills at the acclaimed Tuscan restaurant, Lo Spiedo di Noble, in Greensboro, North Carolina. By 1999, the next logical step was culinary school, and the choice was The French Culinary Institute in New York City. The culinary Mecca of American provided James with an advanced level of knowledge and skill and prepared him for the challenge of running his own kitchens.

With an honors diploma in hand, James moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2002. After pursuing a position with the Medure Restaurant Group, he was placed at Restaurant Medure, in Ponte Vedra, where he would have to prove his worth. In time, James would take the helm at Restaurant Medure, a position he would hold for three years. The next step within the group would be to become the Chef at the highly honored Matthew’s Restaurant, as well as running the company’s catering arm and a casual cafe, Take Away Gourmet. AAA recognized the restaurants at which James was the Executive Chef with “Four Diamonds” for five consecutive years and “Five Diamonds” for two years.

As his career was building, a new passion was growing stronger: health and fitness. Over the years, James noticed many gym-goers struggling with the diet part of their health. Most either ate a bland, redundant diet or cheated on their diet often. He knew he could create meals that would remedy these issues and allow people to fully reap the rewards of their hard work. In March of 2011, James left his position with the Medure Restaurant Group and started J. William Culinary, a company that produces healthy, organic, fresh fitness meals for active people.
Since, J. William Culinary has grown and diversified, accommodating a wide variety of nutritional needs. Clients include elite athletes from the NFL, UFC, and CrossFit, fitness enthusiasts and busy professionals.

In June of 2014, James’ first cookbook, Paleo Grilling: A Modern Caveman’s Guide to Cooking with Fire, hit bookstore shelves and became available online. It has achieved awards from Paleo Magazine and was the answer to a question on the television show Jeopardy! James has also written for Muscle & Fitness, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Journal, Jacksonville Magazine and other local publications. James is currently working one his second book, The Adventurer Cookbook.

Other projects include Curated Culinary Adventures in Alaska, Thailand, Western US, South Australia, Belize, Aruba and Nicaragua. James also took off “The Fittest on the Planet”, preparing meals for the staff, media, attendees and athletes at the 2015-17 CrossFit Games. In 2018, after years of local television, James took on a national culinary audience as a chef on the Food Network cooking show Cooks vs Cons.

 In addition to her father, she lived aboard and traveled with her three children.  They always made a special effort to go off the beaten path and this is where she made and found special friends everywhere they went.  From these new found friends, they would teach her the local recipes.