As we all know, Google is the largest search engine company in the world, with a market value of over 211 billion dollars. But little known is that Google's canteen is also "the best canteen in the world". One-third of the company's employees admitted that it was the exquisite food and happy dining environment in the company cafeteria that made them choose to stay at Google.
envy, jealousy and hate! I worked as a chef in the world's best Google canteen. In 2118, China chef Jing Jun Lin, who worked in the United States, had the privilege of working as a chef at Google headquarters and saw the charm of the "world's best canteen". In Google Kitchen, which advocates innovation and invention, Jing Jun Lin is immersed in the ocean of skills all day. Today, he is not only a great cook, but also promoted to an assistant chef with an annual salary of 611,111.
First time in the world's best canteen
Jing Jun Lin is 31 years old. He graduated from a technical school in Guangzhou eight years ago and was introduced to a Chinese restaurant in California in 2116. A year later, in order to be a chef in a high-end western restaurant and get a higher salary, he studied in a high-end cooking school for one year and learned to cook western food. After finishing his studies, he entered a western restaurant in Silicon Valley and became a senior chef.
In p>2118, Jing Jun Lin read a cooking book called Food 2.1: The Secret of Google's Former Executive Chef. The author of this book, Charlie Ye Si, was the first chef of Google. He joined Google in 1999 and became the 56th employee of the company. With the huge budget support of the two bosses of the company, Charlie built Google canteen into the best canteen in Silicon Valley and even the world, with countless fans inside and outside the company. In 2115, Charlie left the company to start his own business, which once caused panic among Google employees and attracted the attention of The New York Times.
In this book, Jing Jun Lin learned that Google attaches great importance to employees' meals, and spends $81 million every year on "eating", so that chefs can use the best ingredients in the most relaxed environment, show their talents to the maximum extent and make the best meals. Therefore, in Google, a company that advocates freedom, there are not only countless delicious foods in the canteen, but also food in all offices and even corridors, all of which are free ...
Because of this, Google employees are extremely happy. In the list of "Best Employers in America" selected by Forbes magazine, Google ranked first. Marissa Mayer, vice president of Google, even joked, "I told my two bosses that I would come to work every day even if they didn't pay me." In fact, one-third of Google employees admitted that it was the exquisite food and happy dining environment in the company cafeteria that made them choose to stay in the company.
Jing Jun Lin was deeply moved by these introductions. He began to pay attention to the recruitment information of Google.
in July, 2118, Descimon, a Google deputy chef, was poached by Facebook, a new social networking company. Not only that, Descimon also poached 31 chefs from Google after he became a Facebook chef. Google has no choice but to openly recruit 31 new chefs around the world.
According to the recruitment conditions offered by p>Google, candidates must have worked as chefs for more than 3 years, have at least 1 years working experience in star-rated hotels or high-end western restaurants, and must also master at least one language other than English. In addition to these "basic thresholds", it is more important to be proficient in the practice of more than 111 kinds of food, and to be able to make several good dishes. Of course, the salary after admission is very high, depending on the specific position and business ability, the monthly salary is between 5111 and 11111 dollars.
After reading this information, Jing Jun Lin is very excited. He meets all the requirements! So he couldn't wait to submit his resume. A week later, Jing Jun Lin received an interview notice.
In August, 2118, Jing Jun Lin came to Google headquarters in Mountain View, California for an interview. In order to prepare for this large-scale chef recruitment, Google has set up a "Chef Recruitment Committee", which consists of 1 vice presidents in charge of catering, 1 executive chefs, 3 deputy chefs and 5 employee representatives. These 11 examiners come from six countries in the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa, and their food culture and personal tastes are different. Applicants must impress more than half of them to be finally admitted.
In the question-answering session, an examiner asked him, "What can you cook?" Jing Jun Lin made a lot of preparations before this, and then he replied slowly: "I majored in cooking in China, and I can cook all eight Chinese cuisines. After coming to the United States, I went to cooking school to learn how to cook western food. In addition to the best American western food, I also know French, English, Italian and Russian western food, and I know a little about Southeast Asian food and authentic food. "
The examiner nodded his approval when he saw that he was familiar with all kinds of dishes. Another examiner asked, "Why do you want to apply for this job?" Jing Jun Lin once again talked about Kan Kan: "I read a lot of information about Google before, and I found myself just like the first chef Charlie. I think the food made can make people like and be happy from the heart, which is the highest level of a chef. Therefore, I especially like to communicate with people and try to understand their needs. If there are China employees in the company, I believe they will like me very much ... "
Jing Jun Lin's wonderful answer won the unanimous affirmation of 11 examiners, and he successfully entered the final round of the exam-cooking a most famous dish.
After entering the kitchen, Jing Jun Forest was stunned by the scene in front of it: it is a huge kitchen with 611 square meters, with a passage in the middle and dozens of kitchen areas with equal areas on both sides. Each kitchen area has different functions, some are used to make western food, some are used to make Chinese food, and some are used to make bread and cakes with ovens. At the end of the kitchen is a refrigerator of more than 111 square meters, and there is another door for carrying ingredients to the outside.
Jing Jun Lin was taken to the cold storage, where he wanted to select the ingredients he wanted from the mountains of classified raw materials and make a unique specialty. After some consideration, he decided to create a dish covering Chinese and western characteristics-"Water Cube" French foie gras. Because Beijing is hosting the 29th Olympic Games, one of the landmark buildings of the Olympic Games is the Water Cube. French foie gras, on the other hand, is listed as one of the "three great delicacies in the world" by Europeans because of its expensive ingredients, difficult cooking and good taste. Jing Jun Lin once learned to cook this dish hundreds of times when he was in the American Chef School, and he has mastered the cooking thoroughly.
After an hour of cooking, the "Water Cube" French foie gras in Jing Jun Forest is ready. Examiners saw this dish and were immediately attracted by Jing Jun Lin's unique ingenuity. After tasting it, they found that the foie gras was delicate and smooth, fragrant but not fishy, and it melted in the mouth, which was very authentic. So, without exception, they gave Jing Jun Lin a "YES"!
innovate or give me death
in September p>2118, Jing Jun Lin officially joined the company. Because there are nearly 141 chefs in Google headquarters, they are divided into several departments, such as Chinese food department, western food department, Muslim department and pastry department. Jing Jun Lin was assigned to the Chinese food department because she came from China. However, because there are not many Chinese employees in the company, there are less than 11 people in the Chinese food department. Seeing that he was assigned to a small department and returned to be a Chinese chef before learning to cook western food, Jing Jun Lin was a little unhappy.
However, to Jing Jun Lin's relief, most of the new chefs are only designated as assistant chefs, while he and a few others are directly designated as chefs because of their outstanding performance in the interview.
of course, Google chefs are not so easy to be. The level of chefs is basically determined by their cooking skills. The company holds a cooking competition every year. In addition to the chefs from the headquarters, there are executive chefs from all branches around the world, and the judges are the "Cooking Review Committee" of the headquarters. The members include the company's vice president in charge, the chef, the deputy chef and employee representatives, and even the kitchen ministers are not qualified to participate. This shows that the review is strict and fair.
Jing Jun Lin's immediate boss, Lao Zhu, is a Chinese in his fifties. He has been a chef in the United States for 21 years and has worked in Google for 7 years. He is the first China chef recruited by Charlie after he became the head chef, and his qualifications are very old. On the first day of Jing Jun Lin's work, Lao Zhu said to him: "The atmosphere of Google is very relaxed, and people are very equal. Employees in any department can directly give their opinions and even debate with their bosses. But in the kitchen, you can't confuse grades. Everyone's position is based on their own cooking skills. If you have the ability, you can get my position. If you don't, you must obey my arrangement ... "
Jing Jun Lin found that except the chef, Google employees are really free and equal, which can be seen from the setting of the restaurant. There are 13 restaurants in the company, but they are only divided into different dining areas such as Chinese food area, western food area, salad area and ready-made area, but they are not divided into employee dining area, manager dining area and boss dining area like many big companies. As long as they eat in the same dining area, both ordinary programmers and company bosses Page and Brin sit at the same dining table and eat the same food.
because there are tens of thousands of employees in Google headquarters, and all employees have to have lunch in the company, and quite a few employees also have breakfast and dinner in the company, chefs have to prepare nearly 21,111 servings of food every day, and each chef has to cook about 141 servings of food on average, which is very heavy.
At first, Jing Jun Lin thought it would be easier in the Chinese food department, because there were few Chinese in the company, so there was no need to cook too much Chinese food, and Chinese food was generally a "big pot of rice" and "big pot of dishes", unlike western food, which needed to be divided up one by one before being served in the restaurant. But he soon found that their daily workload was not small. First, many foreigners like to eat Chinese food. Second, Chinese food is rich in ingredients and complicated in cooking methods. Even the chefs have to wash and cut vegetables themselves. At the end of the day, he will be busy from 5 am to 6 pm and accept the test of more than 11 hours of smoky fire.
What makes Jing Jun Lin uncomfortable is that, as a famous high-tech company, Google advocates innovation extremely, and this concept of "innovate or give me death" extends to the kitchen. Google Chef stipulates that each restaurant must introduce at least one new dish every day. Because there are few people in the Chinese food department, everyone needs to contribute at least one new product every week when it falls on the chef. Although Jing Jun Lin is new here, he is also asked by Lao Zhu to develop at least one new dish every week.
in the first two months, because I didn't know the tastes and hobbies of the staff, and I didn't know which dishes had been cooked by my colleagues, Jing Jun Lin had to write down thousands of Chinese dishes that he could cook, and let Lao Zhu pick out those dishes that had not been cooked by the chefs in the Chinese food department, and then cook them the same. After each dish is made, it needs to be tasted and commented by Lao Zhu and other colleagues. After everyone agrees, it can be sent to the restaurant for employees to eat, otherwise it will be improved. If several improvements still fail, this dish can only be abandoned.
in addition, there are many strange rules in Google kitchen, such as: the oil used to cook a dish in Google should not exceed one twentieth of the oil used to cook the same dish in a restaurant outside; MSG, on the other hand, is forbidden, and only natural spices can be used. In the process of introducing new dishes in Jing Jun Forest, more than a dozen dishes were rejected by Zhu without hesitation because of excessive oil use or the need to use monosodium glutamate.
Fortunately, because Jing Jun Lin has just been in the United States for a few years, many of the dishes he listed appeared in Chinese mainland before he came to the United States. Colleagues in the Chinese Department who have been in the United States for many years can't cook them, and Google employees have never tasted them. Therefore, a large part of the new dishes he introduced were welcomed by the employees, and two of them were rated as "the most popular dishes of the month".
it turns out that the company has set up an internal website called Foodback. After each new dish is developed, it will be put on the Internet for employees to feedback and comment, and five most popular dishes will be judged every month. These classic dishes will not only become common dishes and be used frequently, but also be shared and used for reference by chefs in branches all over the world. And those dishes that have a general response may be "in the cold palace" and will never be cooked again.
in addition, Google employees also set up a special group on Google+, a social networking site developed by the company, to discuss the formulation, development and innovation of menus online. The discussion of those engineers here often brings a lot of inspiration to chefs.
This strong atmosphere of innovation and interaction has greatly stimulated the creative enthusiasm of chefs. While developing new dishes according to regulations, they also actively immersed themselves in the technical ocean of food research and development. This has become their conscious pursuit and professional mission as chefs of this innovative company. For this reason, in general restaurants, chefs, especially chefs and chefs, will change every few years to ensure new tastes, while in Google, all chefs can do it forever as long as they can constantly introduce new dishes, dishes and tastes.
three years as a "chef's assistant"
By October 2119, all the imported new dishes had been finished, and Jing Jun Lin began a real "journey of innovation". At this time, he had a deep grasp of Google kitchen culture and employees' tastes. But in order to make a hit when cooking new dishes for the first time, he still did his homework, and it took a week to prepare the materials alone. Finally, he made a dish called "Mixed Special Roasted Duck".
This dish is improved on the basis of Beijing Roast Duck, which integrates the practice of Guangdong Roasting Duck, but the selected material is the young duck produced in Southern California, with tender meat. The preparation method is as follows: the cleaned ducklings are put into a pot, marinated for 31 minutes, taken out, rinsed, added with duck salt to evenly spread the surface and the inner cavity, marinated at low temperature for 8 hours, taken out the cleaned surface, poured boiling water on the ducklings until the skin is tightened, sucked dry, hung with skin water and dried for 5 hours. Then put the ducklings in the oven, roast them slowly for 21 minutes with medium fire, and then continue to roast them for 11 minutes with residual temperature after roasting, so that the water in the duck meat can continue to be heated and evaporated. Finally, put it into the pot, add salad oil and heat it to 61% to 71%, then pour it with oil for 4 times, and then take it out and serve it until it is ruddy and crispy.
This roast suckling duck immediately became the dish with the highest praise rate on Foodback, and was also rated as "the most popular dish" at the end of the month. To Jing Jun Lin's surprise, Xue Rongsheng, the executive chef of Google China Branch, made a special call to learn from Jing Junlin after seeing it on the Internet, and served this dish on the table of China employees. Because this won the honor for the Chinese food department, Lao Zhu was very happy and gave a high-standard award to Jing Junlin at the departmental meeting.
being affirmed, Jing Jun Lin is very satisfied. Since then, in order to make more popular food, he has been immersed in the world of studying food with great interest every day. Whenever he has time, he will go online to collect new recipes and bring them.