Customer Reviews

Food 2.0: Secrets from the Chef Who Fed Google

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Way back in 1999,Google, in its infinite wisdom, decided they didn't want their employees falling asleep halfway through the day because of poor choices at lunchtime. They wanted fresh, energy producing foods to be prepared for their workers and they hired Charlie Ayers, former caterer for The Grateful Dead, to do it. He did that and more, and when he left in 2005, he was serving up meals to 1,500 people a day and overseeing 10 cafés and 150 employees.

Now on the verge of opening his own restaurant, Calafia Café and Market a Go Go, in Palo Alto, California, Charlie Ayers has also released a new cookbook, Food 2.0 - Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google.

This book is perfect for a Deadhead, food lovin', organic eatin', Internet junkie like me. I totally relate to everything written and feel much more relaxed about my food choices. I always feel like there's a hard line there between vegetarian and omnivore, organic and non-organic, but Charlie has set down a brand new line somewhere in-between it all that just makes SENSE. He urges everyone to "go organic" without beating us over the head with dos and don'ts. There's just common sense and Charlie's own preference, followed up with the reminder that we all need to do what is right for ourselves.

Charlie has a real-life non-nonsense "parent" approach to many things, especially about frozen food - stuff I've been doing for years, but was afraid to share for fear that the hardcore "only from fresh" crowd would shun me. From his feelings on olive oil and his "4 best herbs to grow at home" (the very four I have growing right now) to the section on pasta and his thoughts on why we should eat organic, we are very like-minded. This was almost like reading about myself, except that the recipes are so superior to anything I've created thus far and there were several things I didn't know about food.

I can't think of one person who shouldn't own this book. It's 250 pages jam-packed with all you really need to know about feeding yourself and your family very well.

Charlie Ayers has done for food approach what Google did to the interwebs when Sergei and Larry decided to take information already out there and make it more user-friendly. Thus ends the parallels between this cookbook and Google which, through innovative thinking, gave a talented chef a venue to bring fresh, simple food to hungry people.

This is a brilliant cookbook, but not necessarily for its recipes. What makes it remarkable is Charlie Ayers' holistic approach to dining:

- Buy local when you can because it's the right thing to do (and this is coming from a Conservative with a capital C);

- Eat well but mostly plants because it's good for your body (and, as someone continually struggling to lose weight that's a tip I'm taking to heart);

- Make your own "fast food" by preparing in advance through "flavor cubes" and freezer storage and both your waistline and bottom line will thank you for it (and haven't we all been at the point where a run to McD's seems easier than making something that's actually good for us?); and

- Indulge in the sensations of home-cooked food, from the fun of shopping and preparation to consumption (something which definitely appeals to the foodie in me).

We need more chefs who think like this. Thank you, Charlie. This is truly a masterpiece!

For most Americans the cubical is little more than a prison with bi-monthly paychecks and a nice 401K. They are shabby ersatz rooms of false walls covered in nondescript synthetic fabric with little to differentiate one from the other. Any given cubical could belong to a paralegal, claims adjustor, or travel agent. Not so for the folks at Google, the world's number one Web site.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided way back that their company would redefine the office environment for the 21st Century. Google employees enjoy a very loose (i.e. comfortable) dress code, amazing benefits, and they can even bring their pooches to work. Page and Brin are full of outside-the-cubicle thinking.

Take lunch for instance. The chief Googlers decided that the common model, half an hour to gorge on processed foods, was bad for productivity. The partially hydrogenated, high-fructose diet of the average American is the root of our societal obesity crisis. Fast-food drive-thrus, all-you-can-eat buffets, and chain restaurants are the leading culprits in this epidemic. Again Google would be different.

Page and Brin sought out a chef to custom design the menu at the Google commissary so that workers would not be sluggish. The menu had to be healthy for sure, but it also needed to be more than that, it needed to be empowering. Chef Charlie Ayers's brain food was considered a secret to the early success of Google. And everything that came rolling out of "Charlie's Café" was free to every employee. Those years spent feeding the brains of Google have now manifested themselves into Food 2.0: Secrets from the Chef Who Fed Google.

Ayers's innovative concept for food that not only serves the body but fuels the mind begins with what he calls the "Big O."

No, not her. "Organics are not the only path to clean, smart food. But the Big O still reigns supreme," he writes. A devotion to organic, locally sourced (150 mile radius) foods was but one of the values employed in the Google kitchens. Chef Charlie also incorporated elements of the raw food craze as well. His philosophy is not a strict raw-food diet, which is a good thing.

According to Elizabeth Brown, a dietitian, holistic chef, and sports nutrition specialist who hosts Eat 2 Liv, a purely raw-food diet is not necessarily a healthy diet. She recited a case she recently ran across of a young lady who had contracted candida, a rare thing for a raw foodist. When Brown asked the subject how she developed a condition that usually only stems from overconsumption of processed starches, she informed her that she had recently cleansed her system. "By cleansing she got rid of good bacteria and reduced her defenses," states Brown. "I like that people may be motivated to eat more raw foods but there is no `one way' to eat."

Ayers, too, is aware that raw food alone cannot suffice. Another big element of Food 2.0 is the use of fermented foods. He says yogurt, cheese, tea, pickles, and even beer are good for the gastrointestinal track by fighting microorganisms in food. One particular favorite was the recipe for kimchi that he received ironically enough from a friend named Nina Kim. Since I love this pungent Korean condiment I had to give it a try. It was perfectly bright and tart and zingy just the way it should be, and it gets better every day.

Nina's Kimchi

Toss a large head of napa cabbage, cut in bite-size pieces, with 2 tbsp kosher salt, then drain in a colander for 3 hours. Rinse well, drain, and dry. Mix with 4 sliced green onions (scallions), and a handful of chopped cilantro, 1 tbsp each black and white sesame seeds, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, the juice of a lime, 1 tbsp sesame oil, and a tbsp (or more) sambal oelek (a condiment used in the Far East) in a nonreactive bowl. Cover and let marinate at least overnight (it gets better over a week's time). This makes about 1˝lb (675g).

Other notable staples include Chinese black vinegar, cheese-flavored oils, toasted hemp seeds, "uncured" deli meats, chutneys, and Ayers's custom-made elixir known as special red sauce #2. Special red sauce #1 is ketchup, organic of course. Another favorite on the Google campus is wheatgrass . . . as a shot. In fact they had to hire someone just to trim and grind 20 flats a day.

Ayers has moved on from Google as he is preparing to open his new 4900-square-foot healthy, fast-food restaurant in Palo Alto's Town and Country Village called Calafia Café & Market a Go Go where he will continue to produce his smart food for the masses.

Ayers's new book is revolutionary in its creativity and subject matter. It is more than just a cookbook; it is a guide to a new way of living. With 256 pages and full color throughout it is published by DK Publishing (New York, NY).

Don't read Food 2.0's subtitle -- "Secrets from the Chef Who Fed Google" -- and assume there will be secrets about food or about Google. And don't read the book's description and expect discussions of brainfood or "how the right foods can transform your mind and body." I found little of it.

Rather, the first 100 pages contain mostly common reminders (choose foods locally and organically grown, minimally packaged and processed; keep nutritious snacks readily available). Then there are ~100 recipes for smoothies, snacks, salads and sandwiches, main dishes and desserts -- about half accompanied by photographs. They include a couple dozen dishes I'd sample if set before me in the Google cafe. But with most involving 10-20 ingredients, there are few that tempt me enough to prepare them at home.

And finally, though I love Dorling Kindersley (DK) books, the graphic design of Food 2.0 disappointed me. As shown in the cover image, the photography is somewhat dull (washed-out) rather than DK's usual glossy images in sharp focus. Worse, black text on dark-colored pages provided too little contrast, and reading the text on bright-red pages burned my retinas. Yikes.

If you're new to cooking or want to know how to shop and eat better, this is a great cookbook. It's full of good knowledge for the novice or intermediate home cook, plus several great recipes for easy snacks and eats. A few good 'dinners' are in this book, but it's more so geared to the snacker and web 2.0 eater; which is not a bad thing at all. The first part of the book is great info on how to buy smart at the supermarket, fish counter, and general hints to eating right on any budget. Really a great addition to my collection of cook books.

Food 2.0 is brought to us by chef Charlie Ayers, the man hired by Google to feed all of its employees. Google's founders had a rather interesting goal: they wanted to provide free food to their employees that was so good they wouldn't feel the need to leave the office to eat. They also wanted the food to stimulate and energize those same employees rather than making them heavy and sleepy. To that end they hired Charlie Ayers, who set about creating a healthy, brain-stimulating food menu.

Food 2.0 starts out with plenty of short, interesting sections on Google, various aspects of healthful eating, and ways in which certain foods help or harm the body. This isn't a book for folks who think V8 is something exotic and fear-inducing; it's for folks willing to experiment in the name of getting healthy. For instance, Charlie spends a page talking about wheatgrass, which at Google they got people to try by juicing it and offering it as shots; after doing a shot one rang a bell. Apparently it took off so much that the bell got to ringing all day long, and Google ended up with one kitchen employee entirely dedicated to prepping wheatgrass.

While each little section is brief, attitudes and anecdotes keep them interesting and certainly leave an impression. In addition to the recipes themselves, Chef Ayers's tips and hints provide even more interesting possibilities. For instance, with a little creativity you can look through his list of favorite vinegars and the things he likes to use them on and come up with your own salads and sauces. In addition to the full-bore recipes he also includes plenty of off-the-cuff semi-recipe tidbits, such as his `mystery fondue.'

This isn't a vegetarian cookbook, but you'll find that many of the recipes in it would work for vegetarians (or would be easily adapted to them). This is definitely a cookbook for folks who have a good whole foods store near them. While there are recipes you can make from the ingredients at a normal supermarket, there are also plenty of ingredients you might have trouble finding.


[NOTE: review book provided by publisher]

Bought it. Using it. Love it. The pork chops with fig balsamic and blue cheese potatoes are beyond excellent.

I bought this book for the wrong reason. I've had Charlie's catering. He came to Tattered Cover in Colorado for a reading, and well, I had to be there. Charlie and his sweetie Kimmie are awesome people I wanted to support.
I never realized HOW good a cook (and at heart, I'd rather have a good cook than a bad chef) he was until we hired him for one New Year's shindig in Denver, but I remember the drool-worthy Google menu coming out on a listserv for Zero. As I was living on rice and ramen, I cursed him everyday.
I assumed I'd have a cookbook that was pretty to look at but would not see much use.
Wrong.
This book is a keeper, aside from the above mentioned Red Page of Doom and the inability to get the shots in focus (and what is up with the parsnips page? Every time I flip past it I hear "One of these things is not like the others" in my head).
Get this book for the granola recipe alone. The Google hot sauce is a bonus (and really is good with a peanut butter sandwich)and is easily made vegetarian (the original has fish sauce and Worcestershire sauce).
Then make two dishes each week.
Yes, the photography leaves a bit to be desired, although the journalistic shots capture Charlie's spirit well.
I hope a redesign is in the stars for this one.
Pick it up, pour a handcrafted beer or kombucha and enjoy reading through it a time or two before diving in as a cook.

Ayers make the reader to search outside the box on every day eating with proven dishes and direction. eat close to the source, organic if you can but most of all eat something different!Great colorful photos to show you what it should look like when you are done is very helpful and inpirational.

This is more than a cookbook. It's a different way of thinking about cooking and ingredients. Also, the photography is excellent. I'm sending copies to my kids. That's the best recommendation I can give it.