Last summer, I blogged from the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival, and on one of those days, I talked about a cooking demo with Google Chef Scott Giambastiani. His food was amazing!

So yesterday, we drove down to Mountain View to the Google headquarters to visit Scott. Cat Toth & her boyfriend arrived earlier that morning and came with us (so check out her blog)!

Scott took us to Big Table, one of Google's newest cafes of 18 on this campus. We were blown away to learn that they've designed the cafes so that every employee is within 150 feet of food (so if you can't get to a big cafe, you can access one of over 100 microkitchens). Since this is in the engineering building, there's an engineering theme. But wait, there's more! You see, the employees get to eat free at any of their cafes. And these aren't just any cafes.

Cat has pics, I have a longish video: Google's food is comprised of products that are organic, locally grown when possible, and made fresh daily. They try to give employees creative, healthy options in the food that they provide, so you won't find fat-laden sodium fests here. Aside from the salad bar, you can find a sushi station, an Indian food station, and other tasty offerings.

Employees can send in suggestions for foods and can then vote on new menu items. Some people write a script so they can track down their favorite foods every day.

Google's healthy living philosophy must work. The employees all seem happy, healthy, and excited to work there. These are, after all, the top 2 percent of the brain power in the country...maybe the world.

I took a variety of items to get a taste of Google. Everything had pops of flavor--bright, fresh, savory, tart, sweet--and various kinds of textures. You would easily pay at least $35-40 per person for this kind of buffet at home!

I tried ceviche from the salad bar. I'm shamelessly salivating as I write this.

What do you put in a cafe themed for engineers? Lego sets on every table. They can talk shop while they eat, and instead of doodling, they can build on their thoughts.

Clean plate, happy smiles.

Afterward, we went outside to take goofy pictures with the sign. I don't know what the heck I'm doing in this picture!!

Anyway, it was a short but amazing experience just to see and learn about one aspect of Google's operations. Mahalo to Chef Scott Giambastiani for the tour!

One of the most anticipated workshops at the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival was the Organic Experience with Google Chef Scott Giambastiani. He specializes in using local, sustainable, and organic ingredients, all buzzwords in today's foodie society.

But wait!! Before I could enjoy the day's festivities, I had to pay penance for last night. The Kapalua Resort has a beautiful two-mile coastal trail, right outside my door. Most of it is like a trail run, but a short portion looks like this boardwalk. It's very scenic and you can see a lot of people on it throughout the day.

And now, back to our regular programming: Sonya Mendez took this photo of me & Candy Suiso as we eagerly awaited the lunch to start. Note how we got the Google logo in the photo to thank the sponsors?

Hello, lover! That salmon medallion in the upper left corner was fabulous. We wished we could have eaten a whole filet instead of just a medallion, but...such is life. I could have eaten that duck breast bacon all day. And the goat cheese ice cream was a unique and delicious contrast to the zesty berry gazpacho. Heaven!

After lunch, we got to meet wine grape grower Gary Pisoni, "the new face of American Pinot Noir." He is quite a wild man and essential to any wine festival.

To clear our palate, we went on a wine "tour" but ended up staying at only one tour station! These ladies remembered us from the Grand Tasting last night, where they saw us gorging ourselves shamelessly on the brie. They didn't say those exact words, but mentioned the brie. Ooops!

I love blends. Vintner Greg La Follette of Tandem Winery makes some nice ones, and after tasting his wine I got to talk story with him. Cool!!

From there, Candy & I went to a workshop called "Raising Reislings from the Dead," in which we tasted six different reislings from around the world. My favorite, as always, is the honey-flavored Kabinett Reisling and Spaltlese, both from Germany. They did have some off-dry Reislings that were almost chardonnay-like. This is a great way to dispel preconceived notions about reislings and think about new ways to pair them.

After a quick disco nap, Candy & I went to a special media dinner at the Banyan House at the Ritz Carlton. However, the lighting was not conducive to food photos, so I can't share dinner with you here. Just take my word for it, it was fabulous!

We found the crew from KGMB9 on their own table. These guys can eat! I don't know if I saw them with wine glasses in hand, but I always, always saw them with a plate of something good.

Next: The seafood extravaganza.