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>>Female Presenter: We are joined today by chefs Anita Lo and April Bloomfield. Anita
Lo is the chef and owner of Annisa, which opened in 2000, right nearby in Greenwich
Village. She appeared on "Top Chef Masters," finishing in the final four of "24 Chefs."
And Chef Lo released her first cookbook, "Cooking Without Borders," in October of 2011.
And April Bloomfield is the executive chef and co-owner of the Michelin-starred The Spotted
Pig, The Breslin, and the John Dory restaurants. She released her first cookbook, "A Girl and
Her Pig" in April of this year. Please join me in welcoming chefs Anita Lo and April Bloomfield.
[applause]
Well, thank you so much for being here at Google. I was telling some friends about this
panel over the weekend. And interestingly, a few people asked me, they're like, "Oh,
so you're doing a panel on women chefs." I was like, "Well, no. We're doing a panel with
a few chefs who happen to be women."
And if people are wondering why did we bring you in together, it was a few reasons. I mean,
there's other reasons to bring you in beside the fact that you're both amazing chefs, that
you have incredible cookbooks that have come out that I hope many of you have been able
to buy and enjoy. You also have restaurants in the neighborhood right nearby Google's
offices, which I hope to be able to get a table anytime I want.
So, there's always that secret agenda in all of our charading here at Google. And also,
you happen to be great friends. So, we thought that would just be a really great conversation.
But I thought it really raised an interesting question about gender in the kitchen and the
fact that people would react that way and say, "Oh, it's a panel of women chefs."
Because if we had two guys up here, they wouldn't say, "Well, it's a panel of male chefs." And
I was wondering, well I imagine you get that a lot as two of the women at the forefront
of your industries. How do you react to that when people say, "Well, we'd like you on a
panel on women chefs." If I was calling this panel skirt steak, would that change your
approach to coming?
[laughter]
>>April Bloomfield: I don't know. I don't know. I don't think about the men and women
thing very much. I just do my thing and I just, Anita being here as my friend. I don't
see Anita as a woman. I do, but sorry.
[laughter]
I didn't mean it like that.
>>Anita Lo: She always has these quips about me.
>>April Bloomfield: But I just don't think about it. So, actually when you said that,
I was like, "Oh. Ok." Now I'm thinking about it, but--.
>>Anita Lo: I think I've been forced to think about it. We're constantly being asked like,
about, 'cause we're such a minority. And just constantly being asked about it. And I think
it's an interesting question.
It's something, it's something, it's something to think about. Yes, you always wanna just
be a chef and be recognized as a chef, as a good chef. But at the same time, there is
that discrepancy. And it's interesting to think about why.
>>Female Presenter: Well, I would love to know about how you each got interested in
cooking, if you can just tell us a little bit about that. Sort of, your journey.
>>Anita Lo: You can go. [laughs] I don't know. I came from a food obsessed family. We ate
a lot of Chinese, which is if you're Chinese, pretty much you're food obsessed. We were
always talking about the next meal and traveling just to go eat something. And yeah. I just
always loved food. And I was trying to learn how to cook for myself in college.
And I just became obsessed with it. And I was studying French at the time in order to
immerse myself in the language. I went to France. And I ended up falling in love with
that culture. And ended up going to cooking school there.
>>April Bloomfield: Well, my mother wasn't a very good cook. So, I needed to learn to
cook I think as a way to survive. But my, if your mom's a bad cook, you'll understand.
But I really went to school because I didn't get into my chosen profession, which I wanted
to do, which was to be a police woman in the Metropolitan Police Force.
So, I had to do something to fall back on. And my two sisters at the time were at cooking
school. So, I just, I was like three weeks away from leaving school and my mom sat me
down and was like, "What are you gonna do?" So, I said, "Well, maybe I'll just cook, do
two years, and then maybe reapply for the police force."
And fortunately, that didn't happen. Fortunately, I've had a great journey getting where I am
and yeah. That's how it all started.
>>Female Presenter: So, I'm glad you didn't become part of a police force. I think everybody
here would agree. The Spotted Pig was a much better choice. So, how did you actually find
yourself at The Spotted Pig?
That's a pretty interesting partnership with Mario Batali and Ken Friedman. And I think
a lot of people may not know that--
>>April Bloomfield: Right.
>>Female Presenter: that the three of you are in that together.
>>April Bloomfield: Basically, I was working in a restaurant in England called the River
Cafe--fantastic place. I really enjoyed working there. If I hadn't got this opportunity in
New York, I'd probably still be there now.
But yeah. I was working there. I'd gone as far as I could. And I got this call from a
guy called Ken Friedman, who is now my business partner at The Spotted Pig. And he invited
me over for a weekend. And I came over, met Mario Batali, ate in like, ten restaurants
in two days, wobbled back on the plane after a huge meal.
And yeah, I took the jump. And I'm really happy to be here. I love New York. Love the
people, food.
>>Female Presenter: Well, you have this incredible knack, it seems, for opening these off the
beaten path little places that become real destinations. Can you tell us a little bit
about how that happened?
Was that Mario Batali and Ken Friedman knowing the neighborhoods and deciding this was where
we needed the Gastro Pub in the West Village?
>>April Bloomfield: Well, it helped that Ken lived opposite The Spotted Pig. So, that worked
'cause he knew that area. But we've just opened a restaurant two years ago called The Breslin
on 29th and Broadway.
And that was a risk. So, none of us knew that area very well. But we got this great opportunity
to work with Ace Hotel and Alex, who is the founder of the Ace Hotel brand. And we just
took a leap of faith and we felt like it would work. And thank God it did. And opened another
restaurant right there, too.
>>Female Presenter: What about Annisa? Can you tell us a little bit about how that came
to be? It's been open now over ten years, twelve years.
>>Anita Lo: Twelve years. Well, I had been the chef of a restaurant called Mirezi on
5th Avenue. And it was a restaurant that didn't survive. And I was doing Pan Asian cuisine
there. And I realized that I really wanted to just do Contemporary American. I didn't
wanna be defined by that. And, 'cause that's really who I am.
I've been all over. I grew up in the Midwest. So, and I'm French trained. So, I realized
that in order to get full creative freedom, I needed to open my place. And yeah. So, I
met my partner--my business partner--Jen. Had been my sous chef a long time ago. And
we got together and found this little place in the West Village. Made it happen.
>>Female Presenter: OK. Well, so Annisa tragically suffered a pretty major fire a few years ago.
And during that time, you went on "Top Chef Masters," which is being discussed as, you're
number four, which is pretty amazing. How did that experience change your life or your
cooking?
>>Anita Lo: Actually, we filmed "Top Chef Masters" before the fire. And it actually
aired like, two weeks after the fire. So, it was kind of doubly tragic 'cause I thought
I would miss that whole wave of publicity and driving business to the restaurant. We
were closed for nine months.
I thought I had lost the restaurant on three occasions just because it took forever to
get the insurance money. And then, the insurance money wasn't enough. And also, at the time,
we had to renegotiate our lease. So, yeah. It was really hard. I came back. I don't think
it changed my cooking. I think I'm still cooking the same way.
It made me appreciate my restaurant more. It made me appreciate my staff. Every single
one of my staff came back to open that restaurant except for one. And so, I just was so grateful.
>>Female Presenter: That's incredible. Do you feel that "Top Chef Masters" and being
on that show has changed anything? I mean, you said that you couldn't ride the wave of
that publicity in terms of the actual restaurant.
>>Anita Lo: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I mean, business is, people are still coming in from it. It's
so interesting because it aired so long ago. And I guess it keeps re-airing.
>>April Bloomfield: It's good to get that second wave.
>>Anita Lo: Yeah.
>>Female Presenter: And April, have you ever thought about competing on a show like that?
>>April Bloomfield: No. I'm not a very competitive person. I just, I like to just do what I do
and just hope that people like it. And I don't like that competitive energy that you get.
No. Not really. I did "Iron Chef" once and I didn't know whether I should do it or not,
so I asked my staff. I said, "Look, what shall I do it?"
And they went like, "Yeah. Do it." But when I got there on the day, I was like, super
nervous just like now actually. So, I was a complete wreck and I got to the kitchen
stadium. And it was pretty daunting. But then I saw my staff walk in to sit down. And I
was like, "Oh, I can't do this." I was about to like, run out the door.
Anyway, I managed to focus. It's funny how when you start cooking, it's very natural
so you feel comfortable and you get to this place where you're happy. So, that, as soon
as the timer went off, it was like, it was almost like meditating. It was like, "OK,
this is what I have to do." So, actually, I won. I managed to kick Michael Symon's butt
on olives and he's Greek.
[applause]
But I was very happy after it was finished.
>>Female Presenter: And it just ends on a high note, just to be able to say I won.
>>April Bloomfield: Yeah.
>>Female Presenter: So, talking about the books. You both obviously have these incredible
books that just came out somewhat recently. And I was wondering if you could tell us a
little bit about the inspiration for each of your books.
[April Bloomfield clears throat]
The pig, obviously, for Chef April was a big inspiration since you're swathed in that massive
beast.
>>April Bloomfield: Yeah. I mean, I love everything pork. But the inspiration was pretty much,
there's a lot of people that go through life that don't acknowledge where they've learnt
stuff or who they've been influenced by.
And I definitely didn't want to be or become one of those people. So, it was like a nod
and a thank you to the people that I've learnt from and pretty much inspired me and made
me the person I am and the chef I am. So, that was my vision for the book. And hopefully
that comes across. I didn't wanna just do a restaurant book. So, this was kind of personal
for me to do.
>>Anita Lo: I've been wanting to write this book for almost two decades. I was turned
down by agents. I went to three different agents. And the reason why I wanted to write
this book was 'cause it was about identity and it was about what it means to be American
and how do you define an American cuisine.
And I think a lot of people just didn't understand what that was and didn't understand what Contemporary
American cuisine was. And I think a lot of people see me as just Asian 'cause it's just
obvious. But culturally, I'm very diverse. And I wanted to get that across in this book.
>>Female Presenter: That's great. So, what are each of your favorite recipes in your
books?
[Anita Lo laughs]
You have to pick one of your children.
>>Anita Lo: You have to stand by all of them I think. Yeah.
>>Female Presenter: Is there one that you would recommend that Googlers try in their
tiny New York kitchens? We don't have a staff.
>>Anita Lo: I love my Nannie's chicken paprikash. I grew up with that. I think it was one of
the most delicious things growing up. And it is so easy to make. It's a great, maybe
not now, but it's a great winter dish.
>>April Bloomfield: I think oatmeal, if you guys like oatmeal. I'm very passionate about
my oatmeal, porridge. You should definitely try that. It's super easy actually. And it
takes like 25 minutes to cook.
Just start it on a cold, crisp morning before you venture off to the office. It's like perfect.
And actually, you can make it and then reheat it the next day, too.
>>Female Presenter: Have you cooked with each others books?
>>April Bloomfield: I haven't. No. It's a fallacy that chefs cook at home. I haven't
managed to cook anything yet.
>>Female Presenter: So, Chef Lo, you mentioned your Nannie's paprikash. And I was surprised
to read about Hungarian influence in your cuisine, not because I didn't know about your
global influences, but that was an unexpected influence from my perspective in reading more
about your work. And I'm curious if there's other unexpected influences in your work,
in your cooking.
>>Anita Lo: I think it's interesting that I think Japanese cuisine is probably the biggest
influence from Asia that I have in my book. I know very little about Chinese cuisine.
I'm constantly being asked to represent that.
And I love Chinese cuisine, but it's like a vast country. There's so many different
cuisines within it. And growing up not speaking the language, my parents didn't teach me Chinese
because it was the '60s and they wanted me to assimilate. So, a lot of the names of dishes
are all Chinese and they're really just about the ingredient. So, it's a hard study. Yeah.
I don't know if that's, I have a lot of influences.
>>Female Presenter: What about you?
>>April Bloomfield: I think my influences come from mostly Europe, a little bit of Spanish,
a lot of Italian, 'cause I was very influenced by Rose and Ruth from The River Cafe. So,
I do things that are quite layered and rustic. So, lots of pan roasting and slow roasting,
pot roasting, all that kind of stuff.
>>Female Presenter: So, what challenges you now? I mean, you have three restaurants now
and you've conquered "Top Chef Masters" and you both are at the pinnacles of your career.
What really inspires and challenges each of you in your work now?
>>April Bloomfield: Just to keep pushing, keep motivating myself, learning new things.
Traveling is a big influence on me. So, making sure that I get different flavors and meet
different people and eat different food.
>>Anita Lo: Yeah, managing is always hard. I mean, I think that's probably the biggest
challenge on a day to day basis. You always want your staff to be happy and to be motivated.
I still love to cook.
>>Female Presenter: I guess I have a few fill in the blanks for you. Just gonna give you
a little phrase and ask you just to finish my sentence for me. Ready? Why are you laughing
at me? I haven't even started yet. OK. Ready?
>>April Bloomfield: Right.
>>Female Presenter: Nose to tail eating is--.
>>April Bloomfield: Good for your tummy.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: Fusion cooking is--.
>>Anita Lo: Fusion cooking is yeah, delicious.
>>Female Presenter: Junk food is--.
>>April Bloomfield: Delicious in moderation.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: Food bloggers are--.
>>April Bloomfield: Lovely people.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: My favorite thing about New York City is--.
>>Anita Lo: Diversity.
>>April Bloomfield: The weather. I like the weather.
>>Female Presenter: You're coming out of London. A food trend I hate is--.
>>Anita Lo: There are no food trends that I hate.
>>April Bloomfield: Yeah.
>>Female Presenter: A food trend I love is--.
>>April Bloomfield: Meatballs. I like meatballs. Who doesn't like meatballs?
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: That's kind of like a trend. Food trucks are--.
>>Anita Lo: I'm not answering that one.
>>April Bloomfield: Hey, you guys have a food truck here.
>>Female Presenter: We do. We do.
>>April Bloomfield: And it goes, it drives.
>>Female Presenter: It just drives to the office. No, it doesn't really. It just stays
in one place. It's more cosmetic, but I think it does function.
>>April Bloomfield: Yeah, I think it does, yeah.
>>Female Presenter: But we don't take it on the streets. It pretty much stays here.
>>April Bloomfield: Yeah. It looked very clean.
>>Female Presenter: It's very clean. Reality chef competitions are--.
>>Anita Lo: Stressful.
>>April Bloomfield: I was gonna say the same thing and I haven't done a competition.
>>Female Presenter: Well, you did do one. Iron Chef. OK. So I have a few other rapid
fires and we'll open it up to the audience for questions. So, what do you eat when no
one is looking?
>>April Bloomfield: Chocolate.
>>Anita Lo: An entire bag of Doritos.
[laughter]
Did I say that?
>>Female Presenter: What is your favorite restaurant that people should know about?
>>April Bloomfield: Maialino in Gramercy Park.
>>Female Presenter: What should they order there?
>>April Bloomfield: They should have the lumaconi, the stuffed lumaconi. He does it with broccoli
rabe and sausage. And it's just the most divine thing. And they're like this big and you can
pop the whole one in your mouth. It's delicious.
>>Female Presenter: Nice. What do you eat when you're in the walk-in?
>>April Bloomfield: Fruit.
>>Anita Lo: Yeah. Raw scallops.
>>Female Presenter: Just pop them in like candy?
>>April Bloomfield: To each his own.
>>Female Presenter: If I came to your house for dinner--I'm not angling for an invitation.
I'm free Thursday in case you're wondering. What would you make?
>>April Bloomfield: Pasta. Yeah. With a bit of pig face and a little bit of gravy.
>>Female Presenter: Pasta and pig face.
>>Anita Lo: I don't know. Roast chicken.
>>Female Presenter: What do you cook to impress your mom?
>>April Bloomfield: Anything will impress my mom.
[laughter]
Sorry, Mom. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.
>>Female Presenter: What's in your fridge right now?
>>Anita Lo: Lots of condiments. Lots and lots of condiments. Beer, sake, and--.
>>April Bloomfield: Lots of condiments.
>>Anita Lo: The bottle of wine you brought over last night.
>>Female Presenter: I sense a theme. Well, I would love to open it up to questions from
the audience. And we have two mics set up and we are recording for YouTube, so if you
could go to one of the mics that would be great.
[pause]
>>Male #1: Hi. So, I just wanted to say I do love The Spotted Pig and if there's a special
way to get reservations, I'd love it. So I noticed that both of your cookbooks, you each
had co-authors. I'm curious if you could comment on like how that plays in and where the roles
divide and what it's like writing with someone. Are they professional chefs? Are you getting
them more for the writing? That sort of thing.
>>Anita Lo: I tried to write my own book for two decades and then I realized I didn't have
time. It took me two decades. But I wrote maybe a quarter to a third of it and then
I sat down with my author for, once a week and tap out recipes and etc., and came up
with headnotes for that, for each recipe that way.
It was a lovely experience. Charlotte Druckman is an incredible writer. She is incredibly
smart and is very knowledgeable about food.
>>April Bloomfield: I am the same as Anita. I don't think I would have never attempted
to write a cookbook without J.J. He was a great partner to have. He loved to eat, which
was really a great thing.
He could eat all my recipe testing. But he's a great writer. And he really captured my
voice. We worked well. It was pretty much like a marriage. We spent a lot of time together
and enjoyed it so much, we're gonna do another book, which is great. So, we're in that process
now. And it's just, yeah. We feel really good together and we're like good buddies.
>>Female Presenter: What's the theme of the next book?
>>April Bloomfield: Can anybody guess? Vegetables.
>>Female Presenter: Nice.
>>Anita Lo: That's awesome. I can't wait for this.
>>Female Presenter: You'll be draped in carrots and beets.
>>April Bloomfield: Yes. Yeah. We were thinking of having like, a big beet root or something.
>>Female #1: Hi. Thank you both for coming. So, April, I'm engaged to a man from Yorkshire.
>>April Bloomfield: Oh, you did?
>>Female #1: I did do it.
>>April Bloomfield: Lovely.
>>Female #1: And thank you very much for offering a full English breakfast at The Breslin. We
frequent that very often. So, the times when Russell is really missing home and missing
England, what can I make from the book that might help that?
>>April Bloomfield: That's a good question. What do I have in there that's--? Let's see.
>>Female #1: I flipped through it. I saw a few little English things in there.
>>April Bloomfield: Can you remind--. Devils. Devils on Horseback. Now I've forgotten what's
in my book. But Devils on Horseback, they're very classic English. It's basically a re-hydrated
prune that we rehydrate in English breakfast tea.
Can't get more English than that. And then, it's stuffed with a pickled pear and then
it's wrapped in bacon. And then, you just toast it under the broiler until it gets all
crispy. And caramel iced. The porridge, very English, too. What else? The meat pie, yeah.
The beef and Stilton pie, actually, is a very classic English dish. Delicious, very easy
to make.
>>Female #1: I'll get on it. Thank you so much. And then, real quick, I need--. I don't
know if you know, but Taco Bell came out with this Dorito thing.
[laughter]
I don't know. I haven't tried it yet. It's like your number one thing. So, I need to
tell you about it.
>>Anita Lo: I was intrigued. I saw that. I saw the commercial and I was totally thinking.
>>Female Presenter: It sounds amazing. I'm not gonna lie.
>>Anita Lo: Yeah.
>>Female Presenter: It's tempting.
>>Female #2: Thanks again for being here. It's really inspirational to have you here
and to listen to all of your stories. I was wondering, other than the cookbook for you
April, is there anything else on the horizon for either of you that you're able to share
with us today?
[pause]
>>April Bloomfield: I think there's a few projects in the work but nothing that I can
divulge, unfortunately.
>>Female Presenter: We won't tell anyone.
>>April Bloomfield: Yeah, I know. But yeah. Hopefully, they'll pan out and be exciting.
I'm very excited about the projects.
>>Female Presenter: And you'll come back and tell us all about them?
>>April Bloomfield: Oh, yes.
>>Female Presenter: And then we can put it out there. Anita, do you have anything else
coming up that's on the horizon that you could share?
>>Anita Lo: Not at the moment. I'm focusing on this, I just bought out my partner in the
past two years and I'm focusing on Annisa.
>>Female #2: Thank you.
>>Male #2: Again, thank you for being here. Chef Lo, I know when you were on "Top Chef
Masters" you did that for charity. And I know that you've also done some, you've been at
various charitable events with your cooking, like The Garden Party, which is tonight. Can
you talk a little bit about philanthropy and what motivates you?
>>Anita Lo: I think food is always about sharing. And it's just a shame that it's not being
distributed to everybody. It's, so a lot of the food charities are very important to me.
I was the executive chef for the first year, first two years, of Walk Around Tasting that
we're gonna be doing in September for SHARE, which is a breast and ovarian cancer support
group.
And it's a wonderful event and I hope you'll all buy tickets. It's the third Monday in
September, I believe. And it's at Chelsea Piers and it's all women chefs cooking to
raise money for this.
>>Male #2: Thank you.
>>Female Presenter: Any more questions? Great. Well, thank you both so much for being here.
This is really--.
>>April Bloomfield: Thank you.
>>Anita Lo: Thank you so much.
[applause]