male speaker: so goodafternoon, everyone. and welcome to anotheroutstanding authors@google talk. today, we're really thrilledto host jody eddy in our midst today. i first met jody when i wantedto know more about the cuisine of iceland. and it turns out she's anupcoming expert in that field. but she's done even more awesomethings, as well.
she's a cookbook, a foodblogger, a writer. you can find more of herinformation at jodyeddy.com. so today, she'll be speaking tous about "staff meals," her latest book. and it really raises someinteresting questions. the restaurant world is out toentertain and to feed and to serve the general public. but what do they do fortheir actual staff? and so to that end, jodyinterviewed a wide variety of
chefs and restaurants and cameup with this book, which she will now talk to usmore in detail. so please join me in welcomingjody to google. thank you. jody eddy: so i don't know ifanybody here has worked in restaurants before. but what a staff meal is, iswhat the chefs cook for each other and what they're makingfor the dish washers that are there, for the wait staffthat is there.
and i used to be a chef. and one of the restaurantsi worked at that was a prestigious restaurant did notserve a decent staff meal. and i actually nevereven ate it. i didn't even know what a staffmeal was, because i always skipped it. and then, i went over to cookat the fat duck, heston blumenthal's restaurantin england. and it was a 17-hourday, 6 days a week.
and on the first day, we wentoutside, and there were picnic tables just lined withincredible food. and i asked one of the chefsif it was a holiday. and he said, no, thisis our staff meal. and they did it twice a day. and it was truly the thingthat got me through those brutal days. and so i was the editor at "artculinaire magazine," and i was meeting with a friend.
and we were talking about thepossibility of writing a book. and she had also been a cook. and we were just talking aboutwhat that was in a restaurant that we loved the most. and it was the staff meal. and so we decided that'swhat 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, wereally wanted to find those
genuine staff meals. we didn't want a restaurant tojust put on a show for us when we showed up. and so we just kind of didsome covert research on facebook, through twitter-- we had so many chef contactsin the industry-- just asking, do you havea great staff meal? tell us about it. and we didn't tell them whatthe project was about.
and information just poured inabout incredible staff meals around the world. and so it was really hearteningto realize that it wasn't just the restaurantswe 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 restaurantsin the book.
it was hard to really focus onwhat those 25 staff meals would be, because we werefinding hundreds and hundreds of amazing staff meals. but we focused, andwe found our 25. and it was interesting. when we started writing ourbook, which was about three years ago now, there wasn't alot of research out there on staff meals. you didn't see it mentionedanywhere.
there was a "gourmet" magazinearticle written about the el bulli staff meal. there was david waltuck'sbook. he's a chef who used to run arestaurant called chanterelle. he wrote a really beautiful bookon staff meals about 10 years before. but that was really it. so we had a hard time initiallyjust getting a book deal and finding an agent whobelieved in this concept,
because it wasn't something thatthey were familiar with in the industry. and they thought it was goingto be too obscure. and even when we startedapproaching the restaurants who had great staff meals, theydidn't quite understand why we would wantto focus on it. it was always a tradition thatwas just kind of "back of the house" that nobody reallythought about. it was kind of an afterthoughtfor them.
but then, the restaurants wevisited, when they started looking at what they wereactually doing every day and realizing that the bottom linewere happy employees, they realized themselves howincredible this tradition was. and today, there are mentionsof staff meals everywhere. and even as we started writingthe book, i asked ferran adria if he would be in our book. and he told me he was writinghis own book on staff meals, which really scaredme, initially.
i thought, well, if ferran iswriting a staff meal book, that's going to be thestaff meal book. and then restaurants startedserving staff meals to their customers. and there were food trucksopening up about staff meals. there were restaurants openingup that were serving their so we were initially a littleafraid that it was going to be very over-saturated by the timeour book was released. but a friend in the industrysaid, this is great, it's
creating a genre. and i don't know if you havea lot of staff meal-related restaurants here. do you see it now? are you seeing it mentioned? so that's kind ofhow we began. and i visited every singlerestaurant that's in our book. and it was tricky at first tofigure out how we were going to coordinate photography.
and so we ended up usingregional photographers for every restaurant. so we have 17 photographersin our book. and we were a little concernedthat it might look like a mishmash with all thesephotographers. but i think it actually reallyspeaks to what "staff meals" is about, because each oneis so distinctive. and i feel like itworked for us. and so we also brought alongto every visit a journal, a
sketchbook. and we brought art supplieswith us, because chefs are actually really creativepeople. and so we have these incrediblejournals filled with drawings and artworkabout what staff meal means to the chefs. so if you look throughout thebook, you'll see writing and you'll see drawings. and those are actually elementsthat came from these
staff books. we're actually trying to figureout what to do with all of these staff books that wehave, because we have hundreds of illustrations by some ofthe world's top chefs, and they're not all in the book. and so we're figuring out ifwe should do a book just solely based upon that. so this is a regionalrestaurant, ad hoc. i really felt like thomaskeller, in his "french laundry
cookbook," writes thisreally incredible piece about staff meals. so i really felt like we neededto have a thomas keller restaurant. i was initially thinking frenchlaundry would be where we would land. but he really wanted us to focuson ad hoc, because they actually are serving thestaff meal at ad hoc. they have an incredibletradition there.
every monday-- they don't work on tuesdays-- they have this blowoutstaff meal. they save the wine from theweek, all the leftover wine. they can bring their dogsto the staff meal. and it's this gorgeous feast. and so that's whatwe covered there. and we asked if we could alsocover their daily staff meal, just their regular staff meal.
they're like, well, it's notthat special, but sure. and that, in itself, wasthis incredible meal. so once again, it was them notreally realizing how unique and special this was. and thomas has a chef on staffjust exclusively to make staff meal every day at ad hoc. that's how importantit is to him. and we talked a lot about whatis that bottom line, what does staff meal deliver toyour restaurant.
and there's so many intangibles,really. but ultimately, it's a reallyhappy employee. and i think that's verysimilar to google. it's delivering to you thisquality of life that you can't get everywhere. and when i've talked to chefswho don't have good staff meals at their restaurants, theyfeel really bitter about it, because they know thatthere are restaurants out there now-- with our book, withother books-- that have
great staff meals. and they realize maybethey're missing out. and that photographeris 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 sansebastian, spain. and i don't know if you'refamiliar with arzak, but it's a fourth-generation spanishrestaurant.
and juan mari arzak reallyput avant-garde spanish cooking on the map. it used to be a traditionalspanish restaurant. his daughter, elena, who'sstanding next to him, she was just voted san pellegrino's bestfemale chef in the world. and what was so special abouttheir staff meal is they have this beautiful marble table inthe back of their restaurant. he's always serveda staff meal. and elena said, i've beensitting at this table having
staff meals since iwas two years old. and it's just really incrediblehow 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 busymedian to take the picture. and everyone in townknows juan mari. so it took us hours to get thispicture, because everyone was stopping by to say hello,and he was engaging.
but we eventually got it. and this is au pied decochon in montreal. they do an after-hours staffmeal, which is kind of unusual so at around 2 o'clock, they'rebanging out their staff meal. and it was exhausting, butthey were all really exhilarated by it. and i thought it would belighter food, because it was so late at night.
but it was this heavypork, because they're known for pork. and it was intense. and this is the bristolin chicago. i actually cooked withthe chef there, joe, at the fat duck. so when i asked joe, what's thebest restaurant in chicago for staff meal, he'slike, mine. and i said, come on, tell mewhat the-- and he's like,
mine, i'm telling you. so i trusted him, and itis actually amazing. and i had such a greatexperience with this chef and this restaurant. i'm actually writing abook with him now. so something really positivecame out of this visit. and this is john currence, whois 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, soi thought he would say yes right away. and when i invited him, wedidn't get a response at first, and he kindof 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 10years, and i don't have a
i've never served one. and it's something i've alwayswanted 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 mealtradition because of our book, which i thought, fortheir employees, it was a pretty amazing thing, all of asudden, to add this great perk
to their day. and when i went back on thebook tour, so maybe a year later, i thought, i'm going tofind out if he's still serving and every day, they have anincredible staff meal. so there's john. and this is dill in reykjavikthat actually, i think, cliff has been to. it's how cliff andi connected. i spent a lot of timein iceland.
and this staff meal was reallyunique 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 himfor free for months. and it was really incredible. and his producers supplied free product to him for months.
so this staff meal, it wasthe day after christmas. and he let his employeesinvite their families. so it was a reallyextravagant meal. but it was a real "thank you"to his staff for really sticking with him. and now dill is one ofthe most successful restaurants in iceland. but it was really special. and that's gunnar and hispartner, oli, in the business.
and so i'm now writing acookbook with him, as well. and i have more on that later. and this is the fat duck. and so it was really fun, afterso many years-- and it's kind of where it all started-- to return to the fat duck and toshare in their staff meal. and the head chef, johnny,was still there. and so it was really incredibleto go back. this is fresca in colorado.
and they actually serveda mexican staff meal. and they're known for theiritalian cuisine. and that's something you find instaff meals a lot, too, is that the restaurants aren'tnecessarily serving what they're serving in therestaurants to their guests. but they're an amazingitalian restaurant. and i really wanted anitalian meal there. and so they serveda mexican meal. and i did ask them, could wedo a second staff meal, and
could you do italian? because i really wantedto showcase that. so they did. but it's certainly somethingyou see with staff meals all the time. and this is grace in portland. it's in a church, so it wasjust beautiful to shoot. and this is the herbfarmin seattle. this is actually the firststaff meal i shot.
they invite their producers,their fishermen, once a week to their staff meal, whichthat's something you find, as well, with staff meals. they integrate it into theirlives 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 hiringhis chefs is they have to cook
a staff meal beforethey're hired. and he needs to see thatthey are up to snuff. and he does that by gaugingtheir staff meal. and that's something, certainly,that i think is really special about staffmeal, as well. it's a time for chefs toexperiment, because you're not necessarily going to do thatand put it on the menu, because your guestsmight not like it. and chefs have their own--they're brutal critics with
each other. i've talked to so many chefswhose menu items evolved out of their staff meal, througha lot of experimentation, through a lot of reallyharsh criticism from their other chefs. but it kind of becomes alaboratory for that. and i think that's another greatthing about staff meals. this is morimoto inphiladelphia. the first staff meal morimotoever served when they opened
the restaurant wasa maki roll. this restaurant is huge. it's incredibly long. and he made a maki roll that wasas long as the restaurant and had his staff line up. and they all created itthemselves, and they all rolled it themselves. and that was their first staffmeal, which is a great way to bring people together.
and this is that cochonin new orleans. again, very pork-heavy. and this is the seanbrock, mccrady's. and he, again, has been servinga staff meal that is just incredible forover a decade. and when we interviewedhis staff, they're so loyal to him. so many of them havebeen there with him from the very beginning.
and they cite staff meal, aswell, as a reason why they stick with him, because itreally shows that devotion that the chef hasto his staff. sean, of course, he's allabout bourbon and port. and so he did an elvis presleymilkshake that was certainly the most unhealthy thingyou could ever eat. it was bacon and ice creamand bourbon and bananas. but it was delicious. this is uchi in austin.
and they are also knownfor their staff meal. now, we've talked aboutuchi and how incredible it is, really. and this is mugaritz. this is andoni aduriz in sansebastian, the third best restaurant in theworld right now. and what was really specialabout his staff meal is, a year before, his kitchen hadbeen incinerated by a fire. and they had to close down foralmost an entire year.
and so they had reopened justa month or two before. and i asked about that firststaff meal, when they all came back, because he also is knownfor his staff meals. and he said, you know, it wasn'tanything elaborate, because we were stillunder construction. but they just had a pot of tunastew in the middle of this construction site. and chefs from around theworld, restaurants, had absorbed his chefs whilethey were waiting
to go back to mugaritz. so all his chefs had returnedfrom around the world, and they had this staff meal. and of course, he said it wasthe best one he's ever had. but he takes staff meals soseriously that he devotes an entire station in his restaurantonly to staff meal that two chefs arealways manning. and he has a nutritionist whodevelops their staff meals, because he feels like it's notjust about having a great
meal; it's about gettingyourself through the day as a busy chef. so it was very impressive. and other chefs that i talked toabout this, the nutrition-- and they were like, no way. but he takes it thatseriously. this is ana sortun atoleana in cambridge. i'm from minnesota originally,so i had to cover a minnesota so this is piccoloin minneapolis.
and again, doug flicker-- i expected scandinavianor german, and he served barbecue. and it was a lot of fun butdefinitely unexpected to have a big barbecue blowoutin minnesota. and this is the slanted door. and this is actually at thecommissary, where charles prepares a lot of the food forall the different restaurants. and his aunt, who he calls mama,actually she doesn't do
it as much anymore, but sheused to always prepare the staff meal for allthe employees. and it was just anincredible day. there were about 80 employeesthere 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 "porkand sons." and this is him at his restaurant in asuburb near paris.
and he's one of my biggestfood heroes. he's one of the reasons iwent to culinary school. and so when i got the emailfrom stephane that he was going to do it, i was just-- [gasps]. and this is fergus hendersonand his partner trevor. and again, st. john in londonis known for their offal. and he served a completelyvegetarian meal. it was an indian vegetarianmeal.
it was incredible, but notwhat we expected to have. but he didn't participate withhis staff in the meal. he ate his meal on theside by the bar. it was a slice of caraway breadand a glass of madiera. and we asked, do you alwayseat by yourself? and he's like, no, but sometimesyou just don't want to do staff meal witheveryone there. sometimes you just need a quietspace in the corner. and so that was his solitarystaff meal.
this is ubuntu. it's actually closednow, unfortunately. it's in napa. and again, it's a vegetarianrestaurant, 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 goinginto your menu. and he's like, that'sour staff meal. we're such carnivores here. so for their staff meal, it'susually a blowout meat fest. and then, at night, they'reserving vegetarian. and this is wd-50 in new york. and they, again, had-- just very, very avant-garde. and their staff meal was atraditional french staff meal
that, again, you just neverexpected to come from them. my friend ben is at theend of that picture. and he, again, is a chef iworked with at fat duck. so it was really fun to kind ofintegrate all these chefs i had had these great staffmeals with in england later on. and that's michel bras at hisrestaurant in france. that's him and hisgranddaughter. he has his grandkids come inwhen they have school off.
and what's really special abouttheir staff meal is he's got a slightly avant-garderestaurant. but his mother used to run atraditional french restaurant. and she has been making staffmeal for them for decades. she's in her '80s now. she's not doing itevery day again. but his staff has an incrediblestaff meal, and they eat it in the back. but he has this table in thefront of his kitchen.
and his entire family comes. his son works with him. their wives come, the grandkidsare 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 familymeal, which is something staff meal is always called, just tosee his entire family there. and they come every singleday for the staff meal.
and this is ferran adria. and i interviewed himfor another project. but the interview turned intohim talking about staff meals for, like, two hourswith me, because he feels it's so important. and so i asked him, i understandyou can't be in our book, you have your ownbook, but if you would do our foreword. and so he agreed.
and that was a nice-- so i did a kind ofnontraditional book tour. i didn't really do a lot ofbook signings in cookbook stores or in bookstores. i revisited a lot ofthe restaurants that were in the book. and they served a staff meal toa lot of journalists that came so that people couldreally get that behind-the-scenes staffmeal experience.
and it was a really, i think,fun way to kind of break out of that traditional bookstoresigning mold. and we just had a reallygood time. and it was fun to returnto these restaurants. and so that's elenaand juan mari. and it was exhausting, butit was really rewarding. so that's staff meals. and i was going to gointo iceland, a book i'm working on now.
but does anybody have anyquestions about-- audience: when is thisusually happening? is it before theyopen, or is it-- jody eddy: yeah. yeah, usually, if they do alunch service, then it happens around 3 o'clockduring the day. and often there's somebody incharge of creating the staff meal throughout the day. so that's what they'redoing for the day.
but it's not necessarily thechefs that are preparing it. as a stage at the fat duck, ihad to prepare staff meals. and it's so nerve-wrackingwhen you're new to the industry and you're cookingfor the-- it's much more nerve-wracking than cookingfor customers, actually, because you're cookingfor your peers. but usually, around 3 o'clock. and like i said, a fewof them did do after-hours staff meals.
but that was rare. and if they don't have a chef ontask that's doing the staff meal, it is often prepared,because what staff meal is all about is just using allon your leftovers. so often, a chef has to justto run into the walk-in and find whatever is there on thestaff meal shelf-- there's usually one devoted to it-- andjust 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 thatmost chefs, when they're preparing meals for theircustomer base, they're optimizing for taste andthey're optimizing for presentation and all thosethings that create an experience. jody eddy: yes. audience: what'sthe difference?
what are they optimizing forwhen they're talking about a meal for a staff meal? and in particular,is it nutrition? does that actuallycome into it? jody eddy: does-- i'm sorry? audience: nutrition, like thelongevity of, will this get me through a shift? jody eddy: exactly.
yes, definitely. it's something i heard over andover again from cooks that i interviewed who werenot the head chefs. they really preferredlight staff meals. they wanted something thatwouldn't then send them into service just feeling like theyate thanksgiving dinner. so they really did focus onthat, using all the leftover vegetables. but of course, you're usingyour beet greens, not your
beets that are goingon the menu. but there was certainlya focus on that-- not necessarily to the extremethat mugaritz went. but you're also getting--because of the plating issue, it's served usuallyfamily style. and it's just giant platters. and we really emphasize, don'tplan this ahead of time. just really make it organic. and really let it evolveout of your leftovers.
and we did go to a few staffmeals where the meals were just so beautifully plated,it was like service for their customers. and i'm like, is this howyou really do this? and they're like, no, but youhere, you're photographing. we're like, no, no, no, wereally want the real thing. and then they're like,oh, right. so then it all goes onthe family platter. and i think that really bringseveryone together, that
communal eating. but certainly very differentthan what you're seeing in the restaurants. audience: what's your favoritestaff meal you've ever had? jody eddy: oh, i never answer. i have a few, but i try toremain diplomatic on that one, just because i feelthese chefs really put themselves out. i sound like i'm tryingto be diplomatic,
but they were wonderful. i do, of course, prefer-- withthe fat duck and my connection there, i think they alwayshave a little leg up. because, certainly, often thesechefs are given maybe 10 minutes to make thestaff meal. and so a lot of them would saythat it's something throughout the day, as they're doing theirmise en place, their prep work, for service andthey're chopping off the tail end of a vegetablethat's not going.
or often they're not serving thechicken thighs, only the chicken breasts. or at the bristol in chicago,they use whole chickens, but then they have all theseleftover chicken feet. so they actually did a dish thatwas all the chicken feet. and they said they're alwaysthinking about staff meal and as all of these leftovers arehappening and they're trying to maximize, what dish is goingto transpire out of those ingredientsfor staff meal.
one thing that i also love aboutstaff meal is that a lot of these recipes are coming fromtheir family favorites, their beloved family recipes. what i saw at fat duck, we hadchefs there from all over the world, and often you weregetting the chef from argentina, his favorite recipefrom his grandma. and then you'd have a cheffrom mexico cooking his favorite family recipe. and i loved that exchange alsothat happens between chefs
from around the world reallysharing what they're about, because often that's not whatthey're cooking in the so it's a great learningexperience and a nice way to learn about cooking in otherparts of the world. audience: i was just noticingthe geographic distribution of restaurants that you chose. did you have any idea of whereyou wanted to go versus just choosing really greatstaff meals? jody eddy: no, we just wantedreally good staff meals.
audience: so did find aconcentration anywhere? jody eddy: well, a lot ofchefs you talk to-- like thomas keller will attest tothis-- a lot of chefs who have cooked in europe, they talkabout the incredible traditions of italy and offrance in their restaurants. they have staff mealsoften twice a day. and they're really amazing. so i wasn't necessarily lookingto france or looking to italy, but you certainlyheard that from chefs who had
worked in europe, that itwas very impressive. and a lot of chefs, too, that iinterviewed that had worked there said, when they came backto their restaurants or when they opened a restaurant orwhen they had the idea for the restaurant, they're like, ihave to serve an incredible staff meal, because they wereseeing that in europe. and they're reallyknown for it. male speaker: jody, thank youvery much for stopping by. we'll have some booksigning at the end.
so thank you very much. jody eddy: thanks for coming.
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