cookiesinheaven

....It's the newest and bravest frontier of fine dining, where the Bay Area culinary trinity of sustainable/local/organic has passed to the corporate cafeteria.

With its dedication to providing free and largely healthful, organic and artisan-produced meals three times a day to its employees, Google may well be leading the way in corporate food-service programs in the same way it has set the bar for search engines.

By the sheer numbers of its employees -- Google is mum, but estimates put it at 4,000 and growing -- and its purchasing power, the company will likely affect the survival rate of local, small, organic farms as well as what ingredients appear in local markets and, down the line, how much agricultural land is saved from development.

Besides the impact on the local economy and food producers, Google is creating a new model for how corporate cafeterias serve their employees, both by the wide variety of offerings and the creative freedom allowed its chefs.

"We are not a typical food service group, flipping burgers and cranking out volumes of food,'' says John Dickman, Google's food service director. "We create menus with a thought and purpose in mind. Whether it's your health, conservation or incredible flavors, we have become a purpose-driven culinary team." - SFGate