The myth of Silicon Valley is that anyone can land at a tech startup early and strike it rich. But let’s face it: this almost never happens. This episode, as a spate of tech companies prepare to go public, we bring you a conversation with Google’s first chef. Charlie Ayers won a cook-off to become employee #53 at the company. He reflects on the search engine’s quirky founders, how the Google effect shaped his next career move, and what it all means for him now, more than a decade after he left.