And the Winner is...

We have a winner for the Charlie Ayers' Food 2.0 Cookbook and Lunch bag giveaway. Using a highly technologically advanced method involving a small boy and several strips of paper, we've determined the winner to be:



GIZ! Congratulations, to you GIZ, use your book, and your bag in good health! Thanks so much to all who entered. Keep coming back, this is certainly not the end of our contesting.

Charlie! Charlie! Charlie! Book Review and Giveaway

Way back in 1999,Google, in its infinite wisdom, decided they didn't want their employees falling asleep halfway through the day because of poor choices at lunchtime. They wanted fresh, energy producing foods to be prepared for their workers and they hired Charlie Ayers, former caterer for The Grateful Dead, to do it. He did that and more, and when he left in 2005, he was serving up meals to 1,500 people a day and overseeing 10 cafés and 150 employees.

Now on the verge of opening his own restaurant, Calafia Café and Market a Go Go, in Palo Alto, California, Charlie Ayers has also released a new cookbook, Food 2.0 - Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google.

This book is perfect for a Deadhead, food lovin', organic eatin', Internet junkie like me. I totally relate to everything written and feel much more relaxed about my food choices. I always feel like there's a hard line there between vegetarian and omnivore, organic and non-organic, but Charlie has set down a brand new line somewhere in-between it all that just makes SENSE. He urges everyone to "go organic" without beating us over the head with dos and don'ts. There's just common sense and Charlie's own preference, followed up with the reminder that we all need to do what is right for ourselves.

Charlie has a real-life no-nonsense "parent" approach to many things, especially about frozen food - stuff I've been doing for years, but was afraid to share for fear that the hardcore "only from fresh" crowd would shun me. From his feelings on olive oil and his "4 best herbs to grow at home" (the very four I have growing right now) to the section on pasta and his thoughts on why we should eat organic, we are very like-minded. This was almost like reading about myself, except that the recipes are so superior to anything I've created thus far and there were several things I didn't know about food.

I can't think of one person who shouldn't own this book. It's 250 pages jam-packed with all you really need to know about feeding yourself and your family very well.



Now is your chance to own a copy of Food 2.0 for yourself, along with a great-looking insulated lunch-bag. Drop a comment for me here, (including your email so I can contact you if you've won) and let me know what organic foods you've tried and what you love or don't love about organics. Don't forget that last part - a simple, "Hey, how are ya?" won't cut it this time around! I'll give everyone until Friday, May 9th and post a winner on Saturday, May 10th.