MALE SPEAKER: So good
afternoon, everyone.
And welcome to another
outstanding
Authors@Google talk.
Today, we're really thrilled
to host Jody Eddy
in our midst today.
I first met Jody when I wanted
to know more about the cuisine
of Iceland.
And it turns out she's an
upcoming expert in that field.
But she's done even more awesome
things, as well.
She's a cookbook, a food
blogger, a writer.
You can find more of her
information at jodyeddy.com.
So today, she'll be speaking to
us about "Staff Meals," her
latest book.
And it really raises some
interesting questions.
The restaurant world is out to
entertain and to feed and to
serve the general public.
But what do they do for
their actual staff?
And so to that end, Jody
interviewed a wide variety of
chefs and restaurants and came
up with this book, which she
will now talk to us
more in detail.
So please join me in welcoming
Jody to Google.
Thank you.
JODY EDDY: So I don't know if
anybody here has worked in
restaurants before.
But what a staff meal is, is
what the chefs cook for each
other and what they're making
for the dish washers that are
there, for the wait staff
that is there.
And I used to be a chef.
And one of the restaurants
I worked at that was a
prestigious restaurant did not
serve a decent staff meal.
And I actually never
even ate it.
I didn't even know what a staff
meal was, because I
always skipped it.
And then, I went over to cook
at The Fat Duck, Heston
Blumenthal's restaurant
in England.
And it was a 17-hour
day, 6 days a week.
And on the first day, we went
outside, and there were picnic
tables just lined with
incredible food.
And I asked one of the chefs
if it was a holiday.
And he said, no, this
is our staff meal.
And they did it twice a day.
And it was truly the thing
that got me through those
brutal days.
And so I was the editor at "Art
Culinaire Magazine," and
I was meeting with a friend.
And we were talking about the
possibility of writing a book.
And she had also been a cook.
And we were just talking about
what that was in a restaurant
that we loved the most.
And it was the staff meal.
And so we decided that's
what we would focus on.
And so it's a little tricky,
because a lot of restaurants
have terrible staff meals.
And as we did our research, we
really wanted to find those
genuine staff meals.
We didn't want a restaurant to
just put on a show for us when
we showed up.
And so we just kind of did
some covert research on
Facebook, through Twitter--
we had so many chef contacts
in the industry--
just asking, do you have
a great staff meal?
Tell us about it.
And we didn't tell them what
the project was about.
And information just poured in
about incredible staff meals
around the world.
And so it was really heartening
to realize that it
wasn't just the restaurants
we had landed at that had
incredible staff meals,
but they existed
all over the world.
And so that's how it started.
And it was really difficult.
We had 25 restaurants
in the book.
It was hard to really focus on
what those 25 staff meals
would be, because we were
finding hundreds and hundreds
of amazing staff meals.
But we focused, and
we found our 25.
And it was interesting.
When we started writing our
book, which was about three
years ago now, there wasn't a
lot of research out there on
staff meals.
You didn't see it mentioned
anywhere.
There was a "Gourmet" magazine
article written about the El
Bulli staff meal.
There was David Waltuck's
book.
He's a chef who used to run a
restaurant called Chanterelle.
He wrote a really beautiful book
on staff meals about 10
years before.
But that was really it.
So we had a hard time initially
just getting a book
deal and finding an agent who
believed in this concept,
because it wasn't something that
they were familiar with
in the industry.
And they thought it was going
to be too obscure.
And even when we started
approaching the restaurants
who had great staff meals, they
didn't quite understand
why we would want
to focus on it.
It was always a tradition that
was just kind of "back of the
house" that nobody really
thought about.
It was kind of an afterthought
for them.
But then, the restaurants we
visited, when they started
looking at what they were
actually doing every day and
realizing that the bottom line
were happy employees, they
realized themselves how
incredible this tradition was.
And today, there are mentions
of staff meals everywhere.
And even as we started writing
the book, I asked Ferran Adria
if he would be in our book.
And he told me he was writing
his own book on staff meals,
which really scared
me, initially.
I thought, well, if Ferran is
writing a staff meal book,
that's going to be the
staff meal book.
And then restaurants started
serving staff
meals to their customers.
And there were food trucks
opening up about staff meals.
There were restaurants opening
up that were serving their
staff meals.
So we were initially a little
afraid that it was going to be
very over-saturated by the time
our book was released.
But a friend in the industry
said, this is great, it's
creating a genre.
And I don't know if you have
a lot of staff meal-related
restaurants here.
Do you see it now?
Are you seeing it mentioned?
So that's kind of
how we began.
And I visited every single
restaurant that's in our book.
And it was tricky at first to
figure out how we were going
to coordinate photography.
And so we ended up using
regional photographers for
every restaurant.
So we have 17 photographers
in our book.
And we were a little concerned
that it might look like a
mishmash with all these
photographers.
But I think it actually really
speaks to what "Staff Meals"
is about, because each one
is so distinctive.
And I feel like it
worked for us.
And so we also brought along
to every visit a journal, a
sketchbook.
And we brought art supplies
with us, because chefs are
actually really creative
people.
And so we have these incredible
journals filled
with drawings and artwork
about what staff meal
means to the chefs.
So if you look throughout the
book, you'll see writing and
you'll see drawings.
And those are actually elements
that came from these
staff books.
We're actually trying to figure
out what to do with all
of these staff books that we
have, because we have hundreds
of illustrations by some of
the world's top chefs, and
they're not all in the book.
And so we're figuring out if
we should do a book just
solely based upon that.
So this is a regional
restaurant, Ad Hoc.
I really felt like Thomas
Keller, in his "French Laundry
Cookbook," writes this
really incredible
piece about staff meals.
So I really felt like we needed
to have a Thomas Keller
restaurant.
I was initially thinking French
Laundry would be where
we would land.
But he really wanted us to focus
on Ad Hoc, because they
actually are serving the
staff meal at Ad Hoc.
They have an incredible
tradition there.
Every Monday--
they don't work on Tuesdays--
they have this blowout
staff meal.
They save the wine from the
week, all the leftover wine.
They can bring their dogs
to the staff meal.
And it's this gorgeous feast.
And so that's what
we covered there.
And we asked if we could also
cover their daily staff meal,
just their regular staff meal.
They're like, well, it's not
that special, but sure.
And that, in itself, was
this incredible meal.
So once again, it was them not
really realizing how unique
and special this was.
And Thomas has a chef on staff
just exclusively to make staff
meal every day at Ad Hoc.
That's how important
it is to him.
And we talked a lot about what
is that bottom line, what does
staff meal deliver to
your restaurant.
And there's so many intangibles,
really.
But ultimately, it's a really
happy employee.
And I think that's very
similar to Google.
It's delivering to you this
quality of life that you can't
get everywhere.
And when I've talked to chefs
who don't have good staff
meals at their restaurants, they
feel really bitter about
it, because they know that
there are restaurants out
there now-- with our book, with
other books-- that have
great staff meals.
And they realize maybe
they're missing out.
And that photographer
is Eric Wolfinger.
He photographed "Tartine Bread."
So I work with him on
several different projects,
and he's a
great guy to work with.
This is Arzak in San
Sebastian, Spain.
And I don't know if you're
familiar with Arzak, but it's
a fourth-generation Spanish
restaurant.
And Juan Mari Arzak really
put avant-garde Spanish
cooking on the map.
It used to be a traditional
Spanish restaurant.
His daughter, Elena, who's
standing next to him, she was
just voted San Pellegrino's best
female chef in the world.
And what was so special about
their staff meal is they have
this beautiful marble table in
the back of their restaurant.
He's always served
a staff meal.
And Elena said, I've been
sitting at this table having
staff meals since I
was two years old.
And it's just really incredible
how much it was a
part of her life.
That shoot was a nightmare.
We have over 100 cooks.
And we had to stand in a busy
median to take the picture.
And everyone in town
knows Juan Mari.
So it took us hours to get this
picture, because everyone
was stopping by to say hello,
and he was engaging.
But we eventually got it.
And this is Au Pied de
Cochon in Montreal.
They do an after-hours staff
meal, which is kind of unusual
in the industry.
So at around 2 o'clock, they're
banging out their
staff meal.
And it was exhausting, but
they were all really
exhilarated by it.
And I thought it would be
lighter food, because it was
so late at night.
But it was this heavy
pork, because
they're known for pork.
And it was intense.
And this is the Bristol
in Chicago.
I actually cooked with
the chef there,
Joe, at The Fat Duck.
So when I asked Joe, what's the
best restaurant in Chicago
for staff meal, he's
like, mine.
And I said, come on, tell me
what the-- and he's like,
mine, I'm telling you.
So I trusted him, and it
is actually amazing.
And I had such a great
experience with this chef and
this restaurant.
I'm actually writing a
book with him now.
So something really positive
came out of this visit.
And this is John Currence, who
is at City Grocery in Oxford,
Mississippi.
And what was really, I think,
interesting about this is I
really respect John as a chef,
but when we invited him-- and
I've worked with him before, so
I thought he would say yes
right away.
And when I invited him, we
didn't get a response at
first, and he kind
of put us off.
So I finally said, you know,
if you don't want to do it,
that's fine.
And he's like, you know what,
I'm just so embarrassed.
I've had a restaurant for 10
years, and I don't have a
staff meal.
I've never served one.
And it's something I've always
wanted to do, but I just have
never gotten around to it.
And he said, so this book--
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to start.
And so he started the staff meal
tradition because of our
book, which I thought, for
their employees, it was a
pretty amazing thing, all of a
sudden, to add this great perk
to their day.
And when I went back on the
book tour, so maybe a year
later, I thought, I'm going to
find out if he's still serving
staff meal.
And every day, they have an
incredible staff meal.
So there's John.
And this is Dill in Reykjavik
that actually, I think, Cliff
has been to.
It's how Cliff and
I connected.
I spent a lot of time
in Iceland.
And this staff meal was really
unique and special, because
when this restaurant started,
the Icelandic economic
collapse happened.
And all of the chef's investors
had pulled out overnight.
So his staff worked for him
for free for months.
And it was really incredible.
And his producers supplied free
product to him for months.
So this staff meal, it was
the day after Christmas.
And he let his employees
invite their families.
So it was a really
extravagant meal.
But it was a real "thank you"
to his staff for really
sticking with him.
And now Dill is one of
the most successful
restaurants in Iceland.
But it was really special.
And that's Gunnar and his
partner, Oli, in the business.
And so I'm now writing a
cookbook with him, as well.
And I have more on that later.
And this is The Fat Duck.
And so it was really fun, after
so many years-- and it's
kind of where it all started--
to return to The Fat Duck and to
share in their staff meal.
And the head chef, Johnny,
was still there.
And so it was really incredible
to go back.
This is Fresca in Colorado.
And they actually served
a Mexican staff meal.
And they're known for their
Italian cuisine.
And that's something you find in
staff meals a lot, too, is
that the restaurants aren't
necessarily serving what
they're serving in the
restaurants to their guests.
But they're an amazing
Italian restaurant.
And I really wanted an
Italian meal there.
And so they served
a Mexican meal.
And I did ask them, could we
do a second staff meal, and
could you do Italian?
Because I really wanted
to showcase that.
So they did.
But it's certainly something
you see with staff
meals all the time.
And this is Grace in Portland.
It's in a church, so it was
just beautiful to shoot.
And this is the Herbfarm
in Seattle.
This is actually the first
staff meal I shot.
They invite their producers,
their fishermen, once a week
to their staff meal, which
that's something you find, as
well, with staff meals.
They integrate it into their
lives and into what they do
and who they're working with.
This is Annisa in New York.
That's chef Anita Lo.
And this is Craigie On Main,
Tony Maws's restaurant.
One of his criteria for hiring
his chefs is they have to cook
a staff meal before
they're hired.
And he needs to see that
they are up to snuff.
And he does that by gauging
their staff meal.
And that's something, certainly,
that I think is
really special about staff
meal, as well.
It's a time for chefs to
experiment, because you're not
necessarily going to do that
and put it on the menu,
because your guests
might not like it.
And chefs have their own--
they're brutal critics with
each other.
I've talked to so many chefs
whose menu items evolved out
of their staff meal, through
a lot of experimentation,
through a lot of really
harsh criticism
from their other chefs.
But it kind of becomes a
laboratory for that.
And I think that's another great
thing about staff meals.
This is Morimoto in
Philadelphia.
The first staff meal Morimoto
ever served when they opened
the restaurant was
a maki roll.
This restaurant is huge.
It's incredibly long.
And he made a maki roll that was
as long as the restaurant
and had his staff line up.
And they all created it
themselves, and they all
rolled it themselves.
And that was their first staff
meal, which is a great way to
bring people together.
And this is that Cochon
in New Orleans.
Again, very pork-heavy.
And this is the Sean
Brock, McCrady's.
And he, again, has been serving
a staff meal that is
just incredible for
over a decade.
And when we interviewed
his staff,
they're so loyal to him.
So many of them have
been there with him
from the very beginning.
And they cite staff meal, as
well, as a reason why they
stick with him, because it
really shows that devotion
that the chef has
to his staff.
Sean, of course, he's all
about bourbon and port.
And so he did an Elvis Presley
milkshake that was certainly
the most unhealthy thing
you could ever eat.
It was bacon and ice cream
and bourbon and bananas.
But it was delicious.
This is Uchi in Austin.
And they are also known
for their staff meal.
Now, we've talked about
Uchi and how
incredible it is, really.
And this is Mugaritz.
This is Andoni Aduriz in San
Sebastian, the third best
restaurant in the
world right now.
And what was really special
about his staff meal is, a
year before, his kitchen had
been incinerated by a fire.
And they had to close down for
almost an entire year.
And so they had reopened just
a month or two before.
And I asked about that first
staff meal, when they all came
back, because he also is known
for his staff meals.
And he said, you know, it wasn't
anything elaborate,
because we were still
under construction.
But they just had a pot of tuna
stew in the middle of
this construction site.
And chefs from around the
world, restaurants, had
absorbed his chefs while
they were waiting
to go back to Mugaritz.
So all his chefs had returned
from around the world, and
they had this staff meal.
And of course, he said it was
the best one he's ever had.
But he takes staff meals so
seriously that he devotes an
entire station in his restaurant
only to staff meal
that two chefs are
always manning.
And he has a nutritionist who
develops their staff meals,
because he feels like it's not
just about having a great
meal; it's about getting
yourself through the
day as a busy chef.
So it was very impressive.
And other chefs that I talked to
about this, the nutrition--
and they were like, no way.
But he takes it that
seriously.
This is Ana Sortun at
Oleana in Cambridge.
I'm from Minnesota originally,
so I had to cover a Minnesota
restaurant.
So this is Piccolo
in Minneapolis.
And again, Doug Flicker--
I expected Scandinavian
or German,
and he served barbecue.
And it was a lot of fun but
definitely unexpected to have
a big barbecue blowout
in Minnesota.
And this is The Slanted Door.
And this is actually at the
commissary, where Charles
prepares a lot of the food for
all the different restaurants.
And his aunt, who he calls Mama,
actually she doesn't do
it as much anymore, but she
used to always prepare the
staff meal for all
the employees.
And it was just an
incredible day.
There were about 80 employees
there that
she was cooking for.
And it was really amazing.
And this is Stephane Reynaud,
who wrote a book that is one
of my favorites, called "Pork
and Sons." And this is him at
his restaurant in a
suburb near Paris.
And he's one of my biggest
food heroes.
He's one of the reasons I
went to culinary school.
And so when I got the email
from Stephane that he was
going to do it, I was just--
[GASPS].
And it was just an
incredible day.
And this is Fergus Henderson
and his partner Trevor.
And again, St. John in London
is known for their offal.
And he served a completely
vegetarian meal.
It was an Indian vegetarian
meal.
It was incredible, but not
what we expected to have.
But he didn't participate with
his staff in the meal.
He ate his meal on the
side by the bar.
It was a slice of caraway bread
and a glass of Madiera.
And we asked, do you always
eat by yourself?
And he's like, no, but sometimes
you just don't want
to do staff meal with
everyone there.
Sometimes you just need a quiet
space in the corner.
And so that was his solitary
staff meal.
This is Ubuntu.
It's actually closed
now, unfortunately.
It's in Napa.
And again, it's a vegetarian
restaurant, really incredible.
But I covered them for
"Art Culinaire"
maybe two years before.
And when I was leaving,
I saw a giant
pork loin on the counter.
And I was like, what is that?
It's obviously not going
into your menu.
And he's like, that's
our staff meal.
We're such carnivores here.
So for their staff meal, it's
usually a blowout meat fest.
And then, at night, they're
serving vegetarian.
And this is wd-50 in New York.
And they, again, had--
just very, very avant-garde.
And their staff meal was a
traditional French staff meal
that, again, you just never
expected to come from them.
My friend Ben is at the
end of that picture.
And he, again, is a chef I
worked with at Fat Duck.
So it was really fun to kind of
integrate all these chefs I
had had these great staff
meals with in
England later on.
And that's Michel Bras at his
restaurant in France.
That's him and his
granddaughter.
He has his grandkids come in
when they have school off.
And what's really special about
their staff meal is he's
got a slightly avant-garde
restaurant.
But his mother used to run a
traditional French restaurant.
And she has been making staff
meal for them for decades.
She's in her '80s now.
She's not doing it
every day again.
But his staff has an incredible
staff meal, and
they eat it in the back.
But he has this table in the
front of his kitchen.
And his entire family comes.
His son works with him.
Their wives come, the grandkids
are there, the
mother comes.
And he said, as a busy chef,
this is often your only time
to see your family.
So it was really a real family
meal, which is something staff
meal is always called, just to
see his entire family there.
And they come every single
day for the staff meal.
And this is Ferran Adria.
And I interviewed him
for another project.
But the interview turned into
him talking about staff meals
for, like, two hours
with me, because he
feels it's so important.
And so I asked him, I understand
you can't be in our
book, you have your own
book, but if you
would do our foreword.
And so he agreed.
And that was a nice--
So I did a kind of
nontraditional book tour.
I didn't really do a lot of
book signings in cookbook
stores or in bookstores.
I revisited a lot of
the restaurants
that were in the book.
And they served a staff meal to
a lot of journalists that
came so that people could
really get that
behind-the-scenes staff
meal experience.
And it was a really, I think,
fun way to kind of break out
of that traditional bookstore
signing mold.
And we just had a really
good time.
And it was fun to return
to these restaurants.
And so that's Elena
and Juan Mari.
And it was exhausting, but
it was really rewarding.
So that's staff meals.
And I was going to go
into Iceland, a book
I'm working on now.
But does anybody have any
questions about--
AUDIENCE: When is this
usually happening?
Is it before they
open, or is it--
JODY EDDY: Yeah.
Yeah, usually, if they do a
lunch service, then it happens
around 3 o'clock
during the day.
And often there's somebody in
charge of creating the staff
meal throughout the day.
So that's what they're
doing for the day.
But it's not necessarily the
chefs that are preparing it.
As a stage at The Fat Duck, I
had to prepare staff meals.
And it's so nerve-wracking
when you're new to the
industry and you're cooking
for the-- it's much more
nerve-wracking than cooking
for customers, actually,
because you're cooking
for your peers.
But usually, around 3 o'clock.
And like I said, a few
of them did do
after-hours staff meals.
But that was rare.
And if they don't have a chef on
task that's doing the staff
meal, it is often prepared,
because what staff meal is all
about is just using all
on your leftovers.
So often, a chef has to just
to run into the walk-in and
find whatever is there on the
staff meal shelf-- there's
usually one devoted to it-- and
just grab the ingredients
and prepare it in 10 minutes,
which, again, is very
nerve-wracking.
But it's a real test, too,
to who you are as a
cook and your talent.
AUDIENCE: I'm guessing that
most chefs, when they're
preparing meals for their
customer base, they're
optimizing for taste and
they're optimizing for
presentation and all those
things that create an
experience.
JODY EDDY: Yes.
AUDIENCE: What's
the difference?
What are they optimizing for
when they're talking about a
meal for a staff meal?
And in particular,
is it nutrition?
Does that actually
come into it?
JODY EDDY: Does--
I'm sorry?
AUDIENCE: Nutrition, like the
longevity of, will this get me
through a shift?
JODY EDDY: Exactly.
Yes, definitely.
It's something I heard over and
over again from cooks that
I interviewed who were
not the head chefs.
They really preferred
light staff meals.
They wanted something that
wouldn't then send them into
service just feeling like they
ate Thanksgiving dinner.
So they really did focus on
that, using all the leftover
vegetables.
But of course, you're using
your beet greens, not your
beets that are going
on the menu.
But there was certainly
a focus on that-- not
necessarily to the extreme
that Mugaritz went.
But you're also getting--
because of the plating issue,
it's served usually
family style.
And it's just giant platters.
And we really emphasize, don't
plan this ahead of time.
Just really make it organic.
And really let it evolve
out of your leftovers.
And we did go to a few staff
meals where the meals were
just so beautifully plated,
it was like
service for their customers.
And I'm like, is this how
you really do this?
And they're like, no, but you
here, you're photographing.
We're like, no, no, no, we
really want the real thing.
And then they're like,
oh, right.
So then it all goes on
the family platter.
And I think that really brings
everyone together, that
communal eating.
But certainly very different
than what you're seeing in the
restaurants.
AUDIENCE: What's your favorite
staff meal you've ever had?
JODY EDDY: Oh, I never answer.
I have a few, but I try to
remain diplomatic on that one,
just because I feel
these chefs really
put themselves out.
I sound like I'm trying
to be diplomatic,
but they were wonderful.
I do, of course, prefer-- with
The Fat Duck and my connection
there, I think they always
have a little leg up.
Because, certainly, often these
chefs are given maybe 10
minutes to make the
staff meal.
And so a lot of them would say
that it's something throughout
the day, as they're doing their
mise en place, their
prep work, for service and
they're chopping off the tail
end of a vegetable
that's not going.
Or often they're not serving the
chicken thighs, only the
chicken breasts.
Or at the Bristol in Chicago,
they use whole chickens, but
then they have all these
leftover chicken feet.
So they actually did a dish that
was all the chicken feet.
And they said they're always
thinking about staff meal and
as all of these leftovers are
happening and they're trying
to maximize, what dish is going
to transpire out of
those ingredients
for staff meal.
One thing that I also love about
staff meal is that a lot
of these recipes are coming from
their family favorites,
their beloved family recipes.
What I saw at Fat Duck, we had
chefs there from all over the
world, and often you were
getting the chef from
Argentina, his favorite recipe
from his grandma.
And then you'd have a chef
from Mexico cooking his
favorite family recipe.
And I loved that exchange also
that happens between chefs
from around the world really
sharing what they're about,
because often that's not what
they're cooking in the
restaurant.
So it's a great learning
experience and a nice way to
learn about cooking in other
parts of the world.
AUDIENCE: I was just noticing
the geographic distribution of
restaurants that you chose.
Did you have any idea of where
you wanted to go versus just
choosing really great
staff meals?
JODY EDDY: No, we just wanted
really good staff meals.
AUDIENCE: So did find a
concentration anywhere?
JODY EDDY: Well, a lot of
chefs you talk to-- like
Thomas Keller will attest to
this-- a lot of chefs who have
cooked in Europe, they talk
about the incredible
traditions of Italy and of
France in their restaurants.
They have staff meals
often twice a day.
And they're really amazing.
So I wasn't necessarily looking
to France or looking
to Italy, but you certainly
heard that from chefs who had
worked in Europe, that it
was very impressive.
And a lot of chefs, too, that I
interviewed that had worked
there said, when they came back
to their restaurants or
when they opened a restaurant or
when they had the idea for
the restaurant, they're like, I
have to serve an incredible
staff meal, because they were
seeing that in Europe.
And they're really
known for it.
MALE SPEAKER: Jody, thank you
very much for stopping by.
We'll have some book
signing at the end.
So thank you very much.
JODY EDDY: Thanks for coming.
