Perks are unlimited when working at a Google office - game rooms, scooters, massage chairs, and most importantly, the Google cafeteria. Google employees get unlimited free food and drinks, and it’s not your average cafeteria fare. Everything from miso cod to organic-raw-vegan persimmon salad is served. They also regularly bring in guest chefs to keep the food interesting and promote local businesses.
A friend of mine who works in the New York City Google office suggested that I become a guest chef for a day and serve some Amai treats to the Google team. I was happy to do it, and we set a date for November 14th. Google asked us to make our signature Tea Sweets, and we threw in a special seasonal pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. Amai’s head baker, Jen, and I spent the day serving cookies to the lunch crowd, and afterwards we ate our own free lunch in the cafeteria.
There is a wall in Google covered with posters of all previous guest chefs, and it includes names like Mario Batali, Marcus Samuelsson, Jaques Torres and more. Now my picture is up on the wall right next to the Editor in Chief of Bon Appétit magazine. It was a fun day, and the Google staff was really friendly and genuinely seemed to appreciate us stopping by. The unlimited free food clearly hasn’t gone to their heads.
As a former member of the tech world, I found it very interesting to be on the other side of the cafeteria table. I could have easily been the one working for Google, sitting behind a desk eating too much free food all day, but here I was serving the staff cookies. Life works in mysterious ways.
Check out a few pictures of our day in the New York City Google cafeteria…
Jen gets out of the kitchen and is getting ready to finally talk to customers!
Jen, setting up the table.
The final set up.
Chai Almond, Green Tea (matcha), Pumpkin Chocolate Chip and Lemongrass & Ginger cookies.
Mini pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, the most popular item of the day.
A look at the NYC Google cafeteria.
Seats with a view of Chelsea
Me with my friend/Google employee/former CMU HCII grad school classmate, Janice
Thanks for a fun day, Google!
Wow, what a spread and I know from personal experience that Google employees enjoyed a delicious treat. It sure beats the vending machine cookies where I work.
Looooooooks Gooooooooood! Did you get to take the sign home? I love the picture.
That’s really cool. I envy you that you got to visit Google. What did the people there think of all your sweets?
Oh that’s awesome! I wish I was at the NYC office to see that, and try some of the cakes!
That is so awesome! I wish ValueClick could have you be guest chef too! The set up and chef (you!) look great! Good work
that is so cool! i am so jealous of those employes. lucky ducks.
That is really awesome…another experience to savor! While the “Googlers” got to savor the baked goods! What a great idea!
Hi Kell I Want to come fly me over!!! lol
Those cookies look AMAZING! I think I need to be on the hunt for a job at Google
Just saw this post! Thank you so much for coming, everyone loved it!!!
Oh Kelli…how you never cease to amaze me!! Another wonderful addition to your ever growing fabulous experiences. But, as always, well deserved! Here’s to many, many more in 2009!
What an exciting experience. I miss NYC and I have heard about the goodies at Google also. Well done!
Hi there,
A friend of mine works for Google and he has been in the happily ever after state since then. If I have known that you were a guest chef at Google before hand, I would have him pack a whole box treat for me =)
I’m so jeaulous… In Brazil we don’t have cookies. We don’t have jobs!