A Conversation with Chef Charlie Ayers, Author of Food 2.0: Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google

Charlie, how did you start working at the Google cafeteria?
I’ve been in the business all my life, started out as a dishwasher in diners all throughout New Jersey and then worked all over the United States.  I’ve always had a passion for food and a love for making other people happy and have always found it to be very rewarding.  This has led me to a lot of great, different places to work and cook at, and eventually brought me to Google.  I started working at Google in 1999—I was the 53rd employee—and working for those guys was like working at a frat house, an on-going party, a brain trust.  It was the most amazing and weird place I have ever worked.

You worked at Google for 6 years.  How did it change the way you cook?
Working at Google really influenced and forced me to think outside the box and realize I had a broader-scoped audience I had to make happy on a daily basis, because it was a repeat clientele that really had no other choice but to come down stairs and have lunch.  It was like cooking for your family everyday, learning everyone’s like and dislikes, and what they would and would not accept, and the different surprises I could pull on them, and the Googlers being very accepting of what I was doing and knowing that I only had the best intentions for them.

You talk a lot about buying locally in Food 2.0.  Why is this important?
I’m a huge proponent of always purchasing local products.  It helps the local economy, it helps keep your vendors in business—I just really like to keep the dollars local.  I think it’s very important; it’s a hug part of being sustainable.  I’m not necessarily inclined to purchase something organic from the other side of the planet just because it’s organic; that’s just how I feel about it.  I worked for Whole Foods for a number of years and really had learned to appreciate and understand the importance of organics.  When I first started getting interested in organic foods, it really never occurred to me what organics were; to me, it was just good wholesome food that had a minimal amount of pesticides or chemicals in contact with them.  Then it was explained to me by the vice president: “Think of organics as this: it’s simply foods without the interaction or relationship to petroleum distillants, because that’s where all pesticides come from.”  And so he said, “Do you want that in your food?” “No, I don’t want that in my food at all.”  So it’s what I learned to be the best way to go.  I’m always going to search for something produced organically, not something that has all kinds of chemicals that I can’t pronounce, or that I’m afraid to be near or around, so working at Google was just trying to serve the very best foods that weren’t going to be harmful to the body.

In the book, you write about the benefits of eating raw and fermented foods.  Why do you emphasize eating these kinds of foods? 
Eating raw foods like apples and nuts does not deplete your body of the natural digestive enzymes you have.  If you eat cooked foods all your life and you never eat raw foods, you’re depleting your body of digestive enzymes.  And if you eat certain raw foods that have certain digestive enzymes already in them, like papaya, mango, ginger or pineapple, it actually helps and adds to the longevity of your life.  This sounds gnarly, but the microorganisms that live within fermented foods are really custodians to the body.  Basically, you want to eat fermented foods like yogurt, kimchi and miso, because they help to digest foods properly, and your body metabolizes foods more quickly and keeps you healthy.  Sauerkraut with a hotdog; they weren’t paired together just because they taste good.  History has shown that many cultures that practice eating fermented foods have longevity in their lives—Korea, Japan, Russia—all these cultures have fermented foods, which help you to live longer and healthier.

What’s next on your plate?
Calafia Café and Market-a-Go-Go is slated to open up in August of 2008, in Palo Alto, right across from Stanford University.  A large part of the concept for the restaurant is the foods that I’ve prepared here in Food 2.0.  It promotes eclectic flavors, primarily consistent of a vegetarian menu, with the inclusion of minimal meats in an Asian cooking style, i.e. where the meat is a component and not a main ingredient.