chefs at google

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Chefs at Google Popular Food Items at Lunch: 1. Made to order Sandwiches / Wraps 2. Anything portable (Wraps, Grab & Go, Salad Shakers) 3. DIY Salad Bar 4. Google Green Seafood Day, especially when Crab is in season 5. Grass Fed Beef BBQ Events 6. General's Chicken or rarely offered fried food 7. Themed menus or events - from Octoberfest to Google Green Seafood celebrations Favorite Cookbooks from some members of the Google Food Team 1. Culinary Artistry - great chef resource of local products 2. Food Lover's Companion - the essential glossary of all food language. Great for newbies in the industry 3. Good Eats Cookbook - Looks at food a different way to achieve better results at times from historical practices 4. At Home Heston Blumenthal 5. Mission Street Food 6. Il Viaggio di Vetri 7. Chinese Gastronomy 8. Simple French Food - Richard Olney 9. Silver Spoon Cookbook Favorite Chefs 1. Ferran Adria - Some call the world's greatest Chef. Most creative, detail oriented, passionate and meticulous 2. Eric Ripert - Commitment to sustainability, perfection to the execution of perfectly cooked seafood 3. Rick Bayless - Sourcing of the best classical ingredients to execute the most flavorful authentic dishes Food Resources (Key to educating people of modern issues in Food Industry)

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Page 1: Chefs at Google

 

Chefs at Google Popular Food Items at Lunch: 1. Made to order Sandwiches / Wraps 2. Anything portable (Wraps, Grab & Go, Salad Shakers) 3. DIY Salad Bar 4. Google Green Seafood Day, especially when Crab is in season 5. Grass Fed Beef BBQ Events 6. General's Chicken or rarely offered fried food 7. Themed menus or events - from Octoberfest to Google Green Seafood celebrations Favorite Cookbooks from some members of the Google Food Team 1. Culinary Artistry - great chef resource of local products 2. Food Lover's Companion - the essential glossary of all food language. Great for newbies in the industry 3. Good Eats Cookbook - Looks at food a different way to achieve better results at times from historical practices 4. At Home Heston Blumenthal 5. Mission Street Food 6. Il Viaggio di Vetri 7. Chinese Gastronomy 8. Simple French Food - Richard Olney 9. Silver Spoon Cookbook Favorite Chefs 1. Ferran Adria - Some call the world's greatest Chef. Most creative, detail oriented, passionate and meticulous 2. Eric Ripert - Commitment to sustainability, perfection to the execution of perfectly cooked seafood 3. Rick Bayless - Sourcing of the best classical ingredients to execute the most flavorful authentic dishes Food Resources (Key to educating people of modern issues in Food Industry)

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1. Food Inc. 2. Eating Animals 3. Supersize Me 4. King Corn 5. Food Rules 6. Fast Food Nation 7. Omnivore's Dilemma 8. Mindless Eating Google Chefteam in Mountain View Google Chefs: Jeffrey Freburg, Scott Giambastiani, Marc Rasic, Quentin Topping and Olivia Wu Also Shown: Program Manager Joe Marcus, Supply Chain Manager Dion Santo, Purchasing Manager Marvin Tse Google Chef Bios: Jeffrey Freburg Google Executive Chef “A chance to work with the very best paints on a huge canvas” I’m a chef because of my mother. More specifically, because of her cooking – it was awful. My siblings and father didn’t seem to notice but I knew it was bad. She was a pretty good baker, though, and some of my earliest kitchen memories are of sitting on the edge of the counter helping her measure ingredients for cookies and cakes. So when I was about 10 I started what I think of as my ‘burn-and-learn’ stage of cooking: I would try making dishes, often burning either the dish or mom’s pot/pan or both. But I learned and improved. In the summer before my senior year in college, my father lined up a job for me working in a local pastry shop. I wasn’t crazy about the

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idea but went along and worked with a professional pastry chef. At the end of the summer we both entered a contest for the State Fair –I won, she came in second. I began to think that I might be good at this – and already knew that I enjoyed it. So I started looking at culinary schools to attend and decided that the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco would be the most fun. A typical day at CCA started at 6am and ended at 2pm. I wanted to get as much as possible out of CCA and my time in San Francisco, so I wheedled my way into an afternoon/evening job at Amelio’s Restaurant – then one of the top two French restaurants in town. I worked there from right after class until after midnight – doing everything from washing dishes to working as the Rounds Man – utility infielder. Towards the end of CCA, I did a two-month externship at Wolfgang Puck’s Granita in Malibu. Puck is known to be an amazing chef, but he’s also a terrific teacher and mentor. The highlight of my two months there was creating a chocolate dessert (dubbed the $5 Kit Kat Bar) that made it onto the permanent menu. My time working with Wolfgang led to my first full-time job after CCA – I spent the next year working at his Postrio restaurant in San Francisco. I left San Francisco and went to Chicago in late ’95 to be the Pastry Cook at Four Seasons Hotel – I’d come quite a ways since sitting on the kitchen counter helping my mother. I stayed in Chicago for five years, working at Spago and then a series of restaurants under the Lettuce Entertain You Enterprise, eventually working my way up to Corporate Chef developing restaurant concepts and helping with openings. I always wanted to get back to San Francisco and the opportunity came in early 2000 with an offer to be the Executive Chef (the youngest in San Francisco) at Kuleto’s where I spent the next year and

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a half. When they closed for a retrofit, I left to open Vahalla, a new restaurant in Sausalito: although the design was good, the timing was bad. Opening day was Sept 11, 2001. We hung on until late 2002 but then closed and for the next four years I worked at the Whitcomb Hotel. And then Google started calling. At first I thought their descriptions of the food scene there must be a joke. It couldn’t possibly be that good. But I finally came and saw that it was real – I was blown away. And still am. I can best describe it with an art analogy (I was an art history major in college): it’s like having the best possible paints and a huge canvas! I can’t wait to come to work every morning and begin creating for the wonderful Google community. I joined Google in November '06 and opened Cafe 5. I later moved to Plymouth - still one of my favorites. More recently, I opened BigTable - that was a lot of fun and very successful. My scope of responsibility has really increased: currently (March '09) I have YouTube, Cafe 7, Plymouth and Lunch Box. I am about to open Crave - which is a new look for Euro: Crave can be described as Lunch Box meets diner. But, since this is Google, I've learned to not get too set in my ways - change is constant. Given the current economic conditions, the culinary team is always looking at how to improve our business operations and keep an eye on our spending, but I think we're still delivering great food to Googlers. And I'm quite proud of the fact that Google is the last company in the U.S. with a completely free food program. There have been a lot of changes since I started, but I feel lucky to be at Google - especially during these times. I'm still having fun and still learning a lot. Many of the things I've learned come straight from Googlers. For example, getting efficient traffic flow in some of the cafes is difficult. Solution? Listen to the engineers that are eating in

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your cafe - they helped me fix one especially difficult flow problem in one of my cafes. So let's all continue to enjoy the great food and share ideas.

Scott Giambastiani Google Executive Chef I’m a local boy. I grew up in Marin County. Beyond traveling and eating my way through various parts of the world, most of my food experience is from this area. I didn’t really come from a serious foodie family. My mother is a good cook and was a fan of Julia Child’s TV shows but she got tired of being the one to cook every day for the family. (My dad’s idea of cooking was to take us all out for a steak dinner.) So Mom started a program of having my sister and me cook one night a week. Soon I took away her apron, once a week, as I began to figure out how to cook for the family. Many of the recipes I used at first were designed to serve mass amounts of people so I sometimes created dishes that we ate for several days, but I eventually learned how to scale recipes down (and later, back up). The ability to scale things up has definitely come in handy here at Google. My first commercial cooking experiences were in fast food - as a teenager wanting to make some extra money. I was always attracted to cooking – if I was getting together with friends, I’d be the one in the kitchen cooking pasta or burgers. It was just what I enjoyed. So not too long out of high school, I enrolled in the California Culinary

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Academy and while I was there I interned at the Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur. When I graduated from the CCA with honors, I was also invited back to receive an Outstanding Alumnus Recognition the following year. I had landed a job at the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco and that’s where I got the chance to work with Chefs Gary Danko and Sylvain Portay. Working under these Chefs, I learned different approaches to cooking. Ogden and Danko’s approach were recipe-based – here are the steps or the road map you follow to get to the result you want. Sylvain’s European approach is more experiential - this is what the result tastes like, the destination. How do we get there? Both approaches obviously work. I think that Danko’s approach is easier and faster to learn while Sylvain’s approach is harder to master but ultimately gives you more freedom – and you learn to trust your instincts. I think I incorporate both approaches in my own cooking. Another very valuable lesson I learned at the Ritz-Carlton that has served me well at Google is the importance of having great staff: you cannot succeed without having talented sous chefs. Cooking at the scale that we do at Google is totally a team effort and the ideas, skills and inspiration that the staff contributes are what really makes it possible for us to deliver the quality and fun food that Googlers have come to expect. After leaving the Ritz-Carlton, I spent about nine years at Viognier, a restaurant in San Mateo started by Gary Danko – it was a terrific experience and gave me a chance to develop my own style. Viognier morphed through several different approaches over the years – from all fine dining to also including casual fare. This is where I learned a lot about myself, my style and how to run a business and restaurant. Working at Viognier and assisting in teaching classes at the Draeger's Cooking School, surrounded me with great talent of guest Chefs coming through the doors. I had the pleasure of working side by side with some of the countries top talent including Jean Banchet, Paul

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Bocuse, too name a couple. I had the rare honor of co-hosting a dinner with Eric Ripert of Le Benardin as well as hosting a James Beard House Dinner for Julia Child with participating Chefs: Martin Yan, Julian Serrano, Roland Passot and Marcus Samuelsson. But when Google came calling, I was open to their pitch. Seemed like it might be time for a change. It took many, many months to make that change (Googlers know how long that process can be – it is even longer for most chefs) but I finally got here in May ’06. The food scene at Google has been going through changes – mirroring changes in other Google teams. For example, we all now need to think about the ‘B” word – budgets. The food team's approach has been to figure out how to deliver the same high-quality, healthy food while still being smart about costs. So we’ve been doing things like reducing the variety of choices while encouraging self-service (hmmm, maybe it wasn’t so efficient to have a person dedicated to tossing individual salads for every Googler– I’ll bet they can figure out how to do that themselves) and discipline - presenting right-sized portions to help Googlers make healthy choices. While I’m on the topic of how the cafes operate, I’ll mention one ‘trick’ that most Googlers don’t notice but that is important to the quality of the food. You’ve likely worked (and/or eaten) at places having a steam table where food sits for hours. Still warm but … ugly. How do we avoid that at Google where we have to serve hundreds of Googlers over a period of several hours? The answer: À La Minute! – translation: to the minute. Although it is usually invisible to Googlers, during the course of lunch there might be as many as 30 repetitions of each dish cooked fresh and then put out on ‘the line’ where you pick it up. Almost never (soups, etc are an exception) are hot dishes cooked ahead of time and put out on ‘the line’ – most often, what you get has been freshly prepared within the last 5-7 minutes or so.

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This approach is one of the many reasons I like being here and working with all of you. I get to work with great people and produce healthy, interesting food. I do have another career that interests me – rock and roll star – but I’m liking this one for now. At Google we truly feed the brightest minds with the best ingredients possible! Marc Rasic Google Executive Chef Marc Rasic, 34, cooks in the way that reflects his training in Europe at a series of at Michelin starred restaurants, under French master chef Michel Guerard, and on several cruise lines. One of his early accomplishments was at the "Best apprentice of Europe" competition in Paris, in which he scored second place; the win jump-started his culinary career. He has cooked as the private chef for Prince Henri of Luxembourg, and worked at the famous restaurant Saint Michel in Luxembourg the only 2star Michelin restaurant at the time in Luxembourg. Marc is used to being in the middle. He was the middle child, raised by a Croatian family that immigrated to Luxembourg. His cuisine represents a middle path that brings together his background as well as training.He draws inspiration from his mother. "We have a huge family with lots of cousins, and she was always cooking," he says. "The way she cooked was Eastern and Southern European - really Mediterranean style, with lots of vegetables. My moms garden is over 3 acres, with our own chickens and a couple pigs.

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Marc came to the United States in 1999 to Restaurant Elisabeth Daniel in the Financial District as a Chef de Cuisine. He fulfilled his 18-month contract just as the dotcom bust closed the San Francisco restaurant. He then hooked up with chef-restaurateur Pascal Rigo. Marc spent time in the kitchen at Rigo's more casual Le Petit Robert on Polk Street until they hit on the La Table concept. The casual elegance of the La Table concept suited the middle child perfectly, especially because his previous jobs were, for him, studies in extremes. He earned a 3 and 1/2 star review from Micheal Bauer at the San Francisco Chronicle and was one of the San Francisco Chronicle's Rising Star Chefs 2003. He got married in late 2003 to Suzanne Stevens, former owner of Annie's a women's boutique on Sacramento Street. He later took the Executive Chef Job at Fringale, a pioneering restaurant in French gastronomy in San Francisco, serving Basque delights. After a change of ownership at Fringale, he turned to teaching. He became a Chef Instructor at the California Culinary Academy teaching Butchery and Restaurant Production. Marc took the helm at American Table Cafe in late 2006 and opened Cafe Euro in April 2007 with a focus on house-made sausages and charcuterie, influenced by all the European cultures across the board and reflecting his personal style of contemporary, seasonal French cuisine. Now proud father of Nikolas Aleksandr Stevens, his 13-month old son, he can't wait to teach his son his first lesson of culinary delight: sweet potato puree. Quentin Topping Google Executive Chef My interest in food and cooking began as a child when I would spend time in the kitchen with my father. He was a very busy surgeon who

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wasn’t home a lot during those days. But when he was home, he was typically in the kitchen, cooking, and that’s what we did together. Despite my interest in cooking, however, I was actually on track to becoming a doctor myself. I graduated from Harvard majoring in anthropology and pre-med. I worked in cancer research at Children’s Hospital Boston for a year and then enrolled at Stanford for post-grad work in Bio-Chemistry, still on the doctor track. I thought I would spend two years in the Bay Area and move back to the East Coast to complete medical school. But two things went wrong (right): I fell in love with the Bay Area, and I realized that a career in food was what I really wanted to pursue. My parents, especially my mother, were not so thrilled. I believe I might have heard "You're throwing away your future!" once or twice. Nonetheless, back to school I went, focusing on a different learning track this time. I graduated from the California Culinary Academy and then worked my way up through the ranks of some of my favorite restaurants: Rialto in Cambridge, MA; La Folie, Beaucoup, and the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco; and 11 different restaurants in France. I was a sous chef for Alain Ducasse at Mix in Las Vegas and - right before I joined Google - I was the Executive Chef/Partner at Tanglewood in San Jose. I’d worked in some tough kitchens, honing my craft for over 12 years. So when I left Tanglewood, all my cook friends up in San Francisco wanted to know: what was so great about Google? It was certainly a question I’d asked myself. I have a personal preference for 'pretty food' - food that looks good on the plate and excites your palate. Why leave fine dining to cook corporate cafeteria food?

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First, Google has the potential to change the way food is sourced, prepared, and perceived, especially in the corporate food service arena. By working closely with local farmers and fishermen, and by making considerations such as sustainability primary criteria for what we cook, we have the potential to change how our employees choose, purchase, and prepare the food that they eat. And since we strive to be the gold standard in corporate food service operations, the opportunity to influence other food service programs across the country was extremely appealing to me. Second, Google is supporting me while I pursue my MBA enabling me to merge together my passions as a small business owner and my interests in corporate sustainability. Third and most importantly, I have two children under 4 years old. Google allows me to have a reasonable work/life balance that I simply wouldn’t get if I were still working in a commercial restaurant. I have been a Google employee at the Mountain View headquarters for 4 years and I love my job! The work that my team does enriches the lives of thousands of people across the company. The procurement and preparation decisions that we make as a chef team are progressive even for the Bay Area. Despite the corporate cafe setting, I still get to make 'pretty food', indulging my sense of beauty and creativity. And best of all, I get to tuck my kids into bed at night. Yep - I’m feeling lucky. Joe Marcus Google Program Manager Northern California

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My mother is a native Texan and my father grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They met and married in Texas, which is where I grew up - in Dallas, TX. Neither of my parents were what might be called foodies - my mother was one of the first General Managers at Sears so she didn't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen and my father's attitude about food was limited to 'You can't have a good meal with a stranger that you don't like'. But when I look back, his attitude has largely shaped my own approach to food - it is all about food as a way of creating community. My grandmother, Oreta Pearl Embry, was a great cook. I spent a lot of time at her elbow as a kid watching her in the kitchen and I suspect that's where the seed of my interest in cooking was planted. While I was still in high school, I started working at Chili's - and helped open the original Chili's restaurant that would eventually turn into a national chain. After high school I attended Stephen F Austin State University for a while but decided to take a break. So I took off with a friend and spent 128 days traveling in Europe - we flew People Express airlines, used Eurorail passes and just explored. I believe I learned a lot more in those four months than I would have by staying in college. I came back with $2.42 in my wallet. Used up every bit that I had to spend. And spent it well. When I got back, I reconnected with folks at Chili's and spent a few years there. I then got connected to TGI Friday when it was just being created. Although TGIF has changed over the years, in the beginning it was all about fresh food cooked from scratch. I started there as a manager-in-training at their flagship store in Plano, TX.

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I spent about 3-1/2 years but the environment had gotten pretty political and, especially at that point in my life, I wasn't too good at politics. I said a few things that weren't too politic and thought - hmmm, maybe I should look at some other options. Happily, that very day I got a call from a recruiter for the Hard Rock cafe and quickly joined that team. I started as sous chef at their Dallas restaurant and then went on to open restaurants in Cancun, Hong Kong, and Reykjavik. Whew, I'm not in Dallas anymore! My next venture was with RUI - Restaurants Unlimited. They operate a bunch of seemingly unconnected restaurants and I worked at a couple in the Seattle area, for example, Cutters, but eventually came to the Bay Area to run Horatios. I stayed there for about 5 years. Then, in 1992, I got a call from Isaac Tigrett - the founder of Hard Rock Cafe who remembered me from my time there in the early years. Isaac had long since cashed out of Hard Rock but had a new idea: House of Blues that he was working on with Dan Aykroyd. They wanted to open the prototype in Cambridge MA and he wanted me to be there in three weeks to begin work. I had a dog and rental home in the Bay Area so I immediately (not so much, but very quickly) said Yes! The original House of Blues was on Harvard Square in a space that was 22 feet wide and 90 feet long. Big (small) fun! The emphasis there, and in all the subsequent restaurants was on what Isaac dubbed 'international peasant fare' - food that was fresh, simple and cooked from scratch. Those were all good values to learn but I believe that the most important thing I learned from Isaac and House of Blues was the importance of corporate culture. Isaac had a somewhat controversial guru in India but the corporate culture that Isaac encouraged, in part because of that guru (but also, I think, because of his own instincts) was one of trust, kindness and honesty. Every company is composed of real, live human beings that do better if you treat them with respect and kindness.

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So, I stayed with House of Blues for about 15 years - the company had a good, nourishing culture. And then, in late 2006, the company was bought by LiveNation. They thought they could buy the culture but there were important parts that they didn't get - a primary missing piece was the 'art of service' that was crucial to House of Blues. The concept that serving customers and people in general is a valuable contribution to society - not just a way to extract money from customers. When this philosophical difference became clear to me, I left. And took that time to be with my young son Joseph Rey and my wife Zarena and I started thinking about what would be the 'right fit' for me. I had some time to think and reflect and when I started to re-engage I used Google search to begin looking for where is the 'fit'. And I found Google's job listings. Then looked at the descriptions of Google's culture (on YouTube) which included massage, the amazing food culture, the amusing campus. I had heard of Google before then but didn't really know anything about their culture or, most importantly, their food culture. So I applied for the Google job and then began the long journey that all Googlers have gone through to get here. But after several months and a few hard decisions (I also had options to go to Australia and open restaurants there) I got here. At a very interesting time. But for me, it is perhaps the perfect time. I like to shape and mold new visions. I think I'm good at operating in 'gunslinger' mode - analyze a situation and then 'pull the trigger'. Make something happen. But of course, as you all know and which I have had to quickly learn, when you pull the trigger in this culture you will likely very quickly get many ricochets headed back your way: Googlers are smart and informed and have opinions that they are quite happy to share. That was a bit of adjustment for me but I am also learning a lot

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by listening to you. The challenge is to listen to the many opinions and see how our culinary team can best serve all of you. We are all going through interesting times. My goal is to keep our team focused on delivering healthy, sustainable, delicious food - efficiently. And, as my earlier quote from my father suggested, doing it in a way that promotes community - our Google community: "you can't have a good meal with a stranger you don't like". Let's not be strangers, let's have many good meals, let's have our food culture continue to strengthen our Google culture. Olivia Wu Google Executive Chef Like many newcomers to the United States, I started cooking because I was homesick. When you miss home, you can fill the void with the smells and tastes of that faraway place; and immediately, home comes alive. Food is something yo physically place inside; it fills you up and re-connects you viscerally. From the time I was a 16-year-old college freshman in Minnesota to the time I fed my students in a university community where I and my then-husband taught, I saw how food and cuisine were transformative. It made home a place you could find inside your belly. It also meant adventure for those who were curious about other cultures and worlds. My perspective was also informed by gratitude for my childhood in Bangkok. The years of sitting at my mother's side as she planned menus with the cook helped me bridge two cultures as well as past to present. I was also grateful for my parents' table which consisted of Bangkok's diplomatic crowd and a collective cosmopolitan palate.

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I was born in China and grew up variously in Thailand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, touching down at times in Malaysia and Taiwan; after graduate school I sojourned in France, England, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. If I had to call any place my hometown, it would be Bangkok. Friends who sat at my table in the U.S. used to say they had no idea that what I put before them was real Chinese, or Thai, or Singaporean food. They'd exclaim, "This is so good." I began to teach cooking, naturally expanding my table, and the center of my home, to the community. This was the fun, side-show for me while I got my Masters in Music and began teaching music. Later I studied French pastries at the Ecole LeNotre in Plaisir, France just outside of Paris, and came back ready to expand my culinary school's curriculum. But my plans took a big side-step when a friend offered to partner with me; we ventured into a business that was a French patisserie. We also catered from the same kitchen. I began putting out newsletters about my cooking classes and that led me to writing. I was approached by Barron's Educational to write a cookbook at the time that the wok-cooking became popular. The Grand Wok Cookbook (a Tastemaker Award winner) was published in 1984, so I was doing "fusion" before the term was ever coined by food journalists. When I traveled, I wrote editorials on food and culture from Europe for my local paper. The cookbook became my passport when I interviewed to become a food editor and restaurant critic. I was in food journalism in Chicago and eventually wrote for all three dailies, the Daily Herald, The Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. It was a great ride: I rubbed shoulders and cooked with, and interviewed the great names in food: from visionaries to chefs to authors: Alice Waters, Jean Joho, Charlie Trotter, Rick Bayless.

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When I came to California in the 90s, I worked as a personal chef and caterer and ran my own business, but was persuaded by the San Francisco Chronicle to go back to journalism. At the Chronicle, I wrote a column on sustainable seafood called Seafood by the Season, created special series such as Rent-a-Grandma, and wrote features and recipes. I also opened the Chronicle's cooking school and taught many of its classes. The highpoint of my time at the Chronicle was a 6-month assignment to China to blog and write features about Chinese life and food. In addition to writing (and eating), the assignment gave me a chance to spend a lot of time in Shanghai, the city where I was born, learning the repertory of contemporary China, adding it those in my cookbook, and the repertory I know from living in this country and all over the world. I won awards from the Association of Food Journalists and was nominated by James Beard Foundation. The San Francisco Chronicle Food and Wine Section won Best Section Awards in both the James Beard Foundation and Association of Food Journalist contests. One of my favorite stories that I wrote while at the Chronicle about the local/national food scene was about the Google Food Program. I was dazzled by the high standards of the environmental, ethical and gastronomic benchmarks of the culinary program. That a corporate food program could reach for the same heights as Chez Panisse or Oliveto and other stellar restaurants made a dramatic statement. I believed such a commitment could affect powerful changes beyond Google. I was also impressed by the intelligence of Google diners and their openness. This, finally, was the place, where I could make a difference with food. Days of interviewing and cooking later, I joined Google in December 2007. Since then, my focus has been Cafe Oasis which, when I first joined, served a variety of cuisines. Gradually, I have moved towards serving authentic Asian fare in small plate format. The dishes we serve are so authentic that most Americans don't recognize them as, for example, Chinese - since most of the Chinese food served in America

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has been adapted or standardized to meet the tastes of non-Asians. I've also introduced the Asian sensibility and practice of dining--a naturally balanced and healthful way to eat. I sit down to eat with 9 or 10 Googlers every Thursday at Oasis' Chef's Table (go:/oasistables). Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle has written about Oasis, as well as Carolyn Jung, of the foodblog, FoodGal. I've had a lot of fun introducing Googlers to some new tastes and traditions from Asia. One of my favorites was the Hot Pot 'experiment'. Hot pot is a fondue-like cook-it-yourself meal with a big pot in the middle of the table and anywhere from 10 to 20 foods--from beef to fish to squid to vegetables to tofu to noodles--to cook in a savory stock, as you sit around with friends. It's communal. When it really gets revved up, we rise in a cloud of steam. It was great fun and a huge success and became an every-Friday event. Eventually, the Mountain View Fire Dept expressed concerns about the burners used for the hotpot, and we created a different Friday lunch event: Asian Street Fare. With cooking classes now starting up again at Google, I return to one of things I enjoy most about being a chef: Leading others to connect to food and the environment by cooking for themselves and friends. That's why I cook. That's why I became a chef.

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Here is some helpful info that is approved by our Communcation Team: Q: Why is food so important at Google? • The reason why food is so important to us here at Google is because we care so much about the health of our employees. Making sure there is plenty of fresh, nutritious food, in combination with easy access to areas to exercise, to fuel a healthy body and mind, is a key part of our culture. Our approach to food stands by the company values of a healthy, working environment. • Sustainability is also one of our key values, so we therefore believe in cooking from a diverse range of high-quality organic food, and not from commercial produce full of artificial additives, pesticides, hormones and GM ingredients. By sourcing locally and supporting sustainable agriculture practice, we also hope to be doing our part to change the system for better.

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Q: How much food is produced at Google? • We have 23 cafes here at our Mountain View campus, and X cafes worldwide, and each one uses sustainably produced, local, seasonal, organic food supplies. We’re committed to making healthy food available free of charge at our campuses across the world, and do our very best to accommodate a wide range of cuisines and dietary options. Some of these cafes serve up to 3 meals a day, and are open from 8am to 8pm. Q: How is it possible that cooking all of that food sustainable? • A critical part of our approach to sustainable food is sourcing locally – which to us means within 155 miles of our offices, or 200 miles for seafood. We seasonally source as much produce from small and local farms – so food not only arrives fresher, and with a smaller Co2 footprint due to a shorter travel distance, but we also help to support local economies. • We make sure to get to know our suppliers really well – how they raise and harvest their stock, to ensure the highest quality of food. Some examples of small, local farms are ALBA, Knoll Farms and Bluemoon Organics, and Marin Sun for beef. and in London?? • In Northern California we’re fortunate as organic produce is abundant year—round, so it makes it easier and more cost-efficient for us to support organic, farm-to-fork dining, but we also work hard to bring the same healthy-eating principles to everywhere we operate around the world. E.g. • We also like that many of these farms educate new farmers how to farm organically. • Approximately 30% of our Mountain View campus-wide produce comes from small and local farms -- from small farms with in belt of the valley-about 150 miles, and 70% from farms within California. A total of 45% of produce purchased is organic. • Items like coffee that aren’t harvested within 155 miles but are, well…necessary, are purchased as responsibly as possible. We purchase coffee from five local roasters all of whom buy from single, Fair Trade certified growers. Each does an artisanal roast just for us. Q: do you have any specific best practices for meat and poultry: • We ensure that any poultry is grass feed and humanly raised, and for beef we....[Campus beef program?] • Never Ever Meats (Never ever hormones or antibiotics) • Google spends 28% more for NE chicken vs. conventional and 32% more for NE beef Q: Do you do anything to test the quality of produce on campus?

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• Something unique at Google is that we recently re-examined and changed the ways we purchase fruit and veg based on our usage, compared to the original FDA DD list-- to figure out what kind of organic policy made sense for our kitchens. The analysis considered how contaminated the produce was with pesticide residue, the seasonal calendar for produce, how much of each type we generally purchase – and the cost difference between conventional and organic produce. Overall we purchase a much higher % of organic produce e.g. we spend 37% more on organic celery vs. conventional celery. Q: Do you produce any food on your grounds? • We actually produce some of our own produce – but mostly to encourage Googlers to learn about farming and fresh produce; at the campus here in Mountain View campus, we grow organic vegetables free for the picking. In addition, we have a CSA – community supported agriculture -- program for Googlers, where they can buy a share in a local farm and in return get a regular supply of fresh vegetables, or a seasonal fresh fish, caught within 200 miles of campus, through our employee CSF (Community Supported Fishery) program. • We’ve also recently started a new gardening program on campus. • And finally, we have our very own Google bee hives.. Q: Do you also educate Googlers about the food that they eat? • We also put a lot of effort into making it easy for Googlers to be as healthy as possible: For the meals in our cafes we code them as much as possible using the HEP nutrition – where red codes for high calorie, low nutrition and green for low calorie, high nutrition. Many of Google’s grab-and-go food and drinks packages are labeled with actual calorie counts. Q: What about food waste? • We match the effort on food procurement and cooking with our approach to waste reduction; firstly we analyse the popularity of certain dishes in our cafes to carefully regulate what we buy and when -- to reduce the amount of waste. • We then have composting and recycling bins across our offices worldwide. All of our grab-and go containers and cutlery are compostable. We end up recycling about 20%, and what doesn’t get recycled gets composted -- and ends up back on our gardens. • Any food waste and products that are still usable go to the local veteran shelters. • Our tallow is sent to a plant that processes oil into biodiesel, which in turn is used in for our shuttle and our menus are digitially displayed rather than printed.