California Walnuts | Essential Food for Health

Meet Chef Charlie Ayers

For the past 15 years, Chef Charlie Ayers was known to most as Google’s executive chef. Chef Charlie began creating smart meals for the then startup in 1999 when there were only 40 employees! By the time he left in 2005, his team of five sous chefs and 150 employees were preparing 4,000 lunches and dinners a day in the company’s 10 cafés. Chef Charlie wanted to give the employees the right “fuel” to keep their energy up and minds nimble, or as he put it, “fast food for the fast crowd.”

Chef Charlie’s innovative, flavorful and healthful foods are not only good for you, but good for the planet. Inspired by his love of music and food, Charlie has catered bands such as The Grateful Dead, The Other Ones’ and a number of big acts that have passed through San Francisco.

Having just finished his first cookbook, Food 2.0: Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google, Chef Charlie is developing a new restaurant opening soon in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even when he’s not working he enjoys preparing and experimenting with recipes with his friends and family where sometimes the “Smartest” ideas have been known to develop.

Chef Charlie shared some of his culinary insight and experience with us. We hope it’ll inspire your own Smart Salad creations.

How do you approach creating a recipe?

It starts with inspiration. It can be sparked either by having a dish at another chef’s restaurant or reading a trade magazine or simply just messing around in the kitchen at home when I’m surfing through the pantry and refrigerator trying to come up with something for family meal time. Once I have visualized what it is I want to create, I think it out.

After I’ve reviewed the flavor profile in my head, I put it down on paper; tweak that a bit, then move on to actually creating. I usually will have to cook and plate a recipe several times before I serve it to my family or paying customers and clients. Rarely do I want to taste it at that point, only because I’ve been tasting it in my head for a good length of time. Don’t get me wrong, I most certainly eat my own cooking, in the end I do sit down and enjoy the dish with others as well. Mostly so I can observe their reaction. This is all part of my process.

What advice would you give to someone on their first visit to a farmers market?

What I like to do when I visit farmers markets, and I visit a lot every year, is first walk the entire market, look to see what everyone has to offer. Look to see who has something that no one else is selling. Then I’ll talk with the vendors find out where they’re from and if they are actually the growers of what they are selling.

I really like to make a connection with the vendors and try to get them interested in what I’m doing, develop that relationship, which can pay off in the end. These folks are appreciative of repeat business and can often times save the best of what they have for you, if they know you are a loyal customer and frequent their stand.

How do you feel your love of music comes through in your cooking?

I don’t know but it does. I guess its something I grew up with, ever since I was a kid working in the diners in New Jersey their was music in the kitchen, whether it be early in the morning before the chefs go in, or during mind numbing prep time or late at night when the night cleaners came in to clean. The only time I didn’t experience music being played in the kitchen was during service or at some of the really high end places I worked in the past.

Music can be a great way to motivate you or your team, gets the place pumping with lively energy. Its one of those really cool things that brings all races and cultures together, no matter what the language barrier might be.

I often tell people when I’m asked what my personal cooking experience is like. I tell them it’s pretty much a culinary jam session for me, almost every time.

What are your fondest family traditions?

That would have to be spending Thanksgiving at home with really good close friends and spending Christmas with my in-laws in Southern California; you can’t beat a beautiful Christmas day in San Diego!

Listed below are some helpful Smart Salad choices for inspiration.

But don’t limit yourself to just these, Chef Charlie says, “be creative” to help us determine what makes a Smart Salad. And don’t forget the Walnuts!

Sprinkle whole or chopped walnuts on your salad to add crunch, protein and important ALA plant-based omega-3 fats.
Add a rainbow of color! Various colored vegetables offer different antioxidants.
Don’t drown your salad in dressing high in saturated fat and sodium, make your own. Use olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixed with herbs and Dijon mustard in flavorful combinations to create your dressing, and then lightly dress.
Adding legumes and beans is an easy way to make a side salad into a vegetarian main dish providing both protein and fiber.
Control your portions! Too much of a good thing can lead to too many calories.
Adding grains is an easy way to add a unique twist to your salad. Experimenting with foods such as quinoa, brown rice or whole grain pasta add fiber, texture and whole grain goodness.
Adding fresh or dried fruits boosts the nutrition of your salad while providing a unique flavor your palate will enjoy.
Mix it up! Not just the salad, but the ingredients. Change things up to inspire creativity and new flavor. If it’s “the same old salad as always” your family will be less likely to enjoy and want more.