May 11, 2008

Googleplex chef going to a Go Go

Local author to open his cafe in Palo Alto

By Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writer

When he started as the chef for a fledgling Mountain View company called Google, Charlie Ayers cooked for 40 people out of a tiny kitchen.

By the time he left - six years later in 2005 - Ayers supervised seven cafes daily serving 5,000 employees, plus guests. Inside his kitchens, cooks rocked out to the Grateful Dead and Phish, blasted out on a Bose sound system.

"We cranked the hell out of that thing," Ayers said on Friday, back at Google to talk about his recently released cookbook, "Food 2.0: Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google."

These days the San Carlos resident still draws quick parallels between music and his cuisine.

"I consider the way I cook like a culinary jam session," said Ayers, who describes his style as focused on fresh and local ingredients, prepared in healthy ways.

Non-Googlers will soon get the chance to taste his food when Ayers opens the Calafia Cafe and Market a Go Go in Palo Alto's Town and Country Village. Though originally slated to open this spring, the prepared foods shop and adjoining cafe with a technology spin will now likely open in November, Ayers said.

He chose to start his own restaurant in Palo Alto because more than a few locals have tasted his cuisine.

"This is where my fan base is," he said.

Before landing the job as Google's first chef in November 1999, Ayers worked as a private chef for a wealthy family in Woodside. He often put in 40 days in a row while traveling with the family, he said.

"It was hell on Earth," he said.

A friend told him a new search engine company was looking for a chef and Ayers applied for the job. He was the 25th chef to try out for the position.

The night before his audition, Ayers called in sick to the family and chopped vegetables on an ironing board in his tiny apartment. The next day he served five-spice cashew tofu lettuce cups, curried chicken with roasted pumpkin, mushroom and steak quesadillas, and flourless almond chocolate torte, among other dishes.

Unlike previous chefs who had tried to impress with exotic game like venison and boar, Ayers cooked for a company of recent college graduates.

"They were looking for sushi, Indian food, burritos - the stuff they were sending out to Whole Foods for every day," he said.

But though the feedback from his meal was positive, Ayers said it was two months before he heard from Google again. Late on a Thursday night, he got the call: Could he start on Monday? He could.

In his six years at Google, Ayers said the company quickly felt like family.

Aside from a latke rush during a "hellish Hanukkah meal," life in Google's kitchens was relatively orderly, despite a steady stream of celebrities and politicians stopping by.

"The only time I was ever nervous was when Queen Noor (of Jordan) came in, because she's royalty," said Ayers, who insisted on water being served in real glasses for the occasion.

Once he got a 4 a.m. call that Gwyneth Paltrow and members of the band Coldplay would be arriving the next day, expecting sushi. He was on the phone with his fish supplier within minutes.

Mirit Cohen, hired as a prep cook by Ayers and now an executive chef at Google, said Ayers "definitely ruled the kitchen" without being an ogre.

"He was always the tempter, trying to get people to eat, but he also cared about their overall health," she said. " He only served french fries once in a while."

Ayres said several recipes from his time at the Googleplex have made it into his book. His most popular dishes at Google included mahogany salmon, tofu lentil terrine and Southern-fried chicken, he said.

"People would line up out the door (for the chicken) like they were waiting to hear The Who," he said.



E-mail Kristina Peterson at kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com.