Audio slideshow: Former Google chef's search for brain food
Chef Charlie Ayers, who brought a whole new approach to corporate cooking, talks about opening his own restaurant.
- 2021 Graphis Photography Awards, Gold Award, Journalism, 'The Doorway' Graphis Photography Awards, Silver Award, Portrait, 'Cast of film '1917'' Graphis Photography Awards, Silver Award, Environmental, 'Upper Lola Montez' ND Awards, Architecture, 'Taj Mah
Ten years ago, Charlie Ayers met Larry Page at a bike shop in Palo Alto, Calif., to interview for a chef position at an Internet search start-up called Google. He was hired soon after as employee number 53. Ayers spent the next seven years redefining the idea of the corporate food environment, growing the Google cafe from a kitchen that served 50 people a day into a legendary network of cafeterias inside the Googleplex that serves thousands of meals daily, with organic ingredients sourced largely from local farmers.
In January 2009, after spending a few years traveling the world exploring how other cultures eat, Ayers has returned to open Calafia Cafe and Market a Go Go in the Town and Country Village in Palo Alto.
Listen as I sit down with Charlie Ayers, the chef whose food fueled the minds at one of the most ubiquitous companies in the world and redefined corporate cooking.