Google’s original chef Charlie Ayers claims in a new book that much of Google’s success comes from free beer and sushi.
He argues that Sushi made Google’s engineers work better: “The fat found in fish helps make the cell membranes round the brain more elastic and more able to absorb nutrients easily.”
[Ayers] started easing the computer engineers into the long hours culture with innovations including free beer and fortnightly “big-ass” barbecues. To introduce computer experts fresh out of university to early mornings, he developed breakfast specials, such as “French toast with coconut, macadamia and rum”. The rum, beer and barbecues provided perfect cover for converting the “googlers” to a diet that ensured they kept working after lunch, weaning them off pizzas and on to salads…..
“He was hired by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google’s founders, in the belief that like a Napoleonic army, an internet giant marches on its stomach.”