Lessons from ex-Google chef

By Kate Shatzkin | Sun reporter Food 2.0: Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google By Charlie Ayers DK Publishing / $25 / 2008 Along with the many perks offered employees of the juggernaut that is Google, you've probably heard about the fantastic food - healthful, plentiful and free - that's offered at the search engine's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. The theory: Engineers will be less likely to take time to leave campus for lunch and more full of brain power to boost Google's billions. Charlie Ayers was the chef who started it all, signing on when Google had fewer than 100 employees. (His online bio says he won the job in a cook-off.) He's since left the company, cashed in some stock and made plans to open a restaurant. Meanwhile, he's written his first cookbook of "smart recipes." The first part of the book is wildly... [read full story]