Gail Simmons in conversation with Frank Bruni. As many of you Gail Simmons is perhaps best

known for her role as a judge on Bravo's Top Chef, an Emmy Award winning show. As well

as her hosting role on Bravo's Top Chef Just Desserts and she is today releasing her new

memoir called Talking with My Mouth Full, which chronicles her role, her evolution from

amateur eater to a professional eater. A role I think many of us envy here at Google. We

are lucky enough to have her in conversation today with the legendary critic of the New

York Times, Frank Bruni.

Please welcome Gail Simmons and Frank Bruni.

[Applause] >>Gail Simmons: Hi Frank.

>>Frank Bruni: Hi Gail, how are you? >>Gail Simmons: I'm good, thanks for coming

today. >>Frank Bruni: I'm honored to do it. If you

guys have not picked up a copy of Gail's book, I recommend it. You, if I can begin with a

compliment- >>Gail Simmons: Sure

>>Frank Bruni: -I read a lot of memoirs- >>Gail Simmons: Yes.

>>Frank Bruni: -and I think one of the hardest things is to write in, with a sort of conversational

allure of the way you speak. And I saw you in the book and it's a delightful breezy read

and- >>Gail Simmons: Thank you.

>>Frank Bruni: -we'll talk a little about that now.

>>Gail Simmons: Yeah, thank you. >>Frank Bruni: Since we're here on the day

of the book's publication, what made you decide to write the book?

>>Gail Simmons: You know it's a funny thing, and actually Frank has written his own memoir

too, so I'm sure you will understand the angst involved? When I set out to write a book,

I wanted to write a book, I wanted to tell my story and my first instinct in doing that

was to write a cookbook because in the food universe, or in the food landscape, that's

sort of what everyone goes to first. But when I started thinking more about it, I thought

the story I wanted to tell, I couldn't really do that way.

There are so many questions that always come up. First of all I don't cook on television,

I eat on television and so the questions I get I think are slightly different than most

people who are chefs on television or who are cooking for a living as opposed to eating,

publicly. Which sounds crass but that's what I do. So I started sort of thinking, well

there's about 20 to 25 questions that I always get. From people on the street, from strangers,

from my family and from my friends, from journalists and I started answering them. Sort of writing

them down and answering them over a series of a few months and realized that the best

way to answer them, for the public, was to tell the story of how I got here in the first

place.

So that's what I decided to do.

>>Frank Bruni: Now you just said people know you as a public eater-

>>Gail Simmons: mmm hmm >>Frank Bruni: - not as a cook. But one of

the things that, I knew this about you, but I was reacquainted with it when I read the

book; you have serious cooking chops. You have education. Tell people a little about-

>>Gail Simmons: I do. >>Frank Bruni ñ the path before you ended

up at Food &Wine Magazine. >>Gail Simmons: Well, you know and it's interesting

because as much as I eat on television, also one of the questions I get so often is really

like, what do you know? Like how made you- you just woke up one day and decide to eat

and be mean to people? >>Frank Bruni: Right.

>>Gail Simmons: For a living? [Audience laughs]

>>Gail Simmons: Which is not true. I'm actually relatively nice most of the time-

>>Frank Bruni: And you'd already been mean to people before.

>>Gail Simmons: Right. Yes, exactly- >>Frank Bruni: Yeah, so you-

>>Gail Simmons: Exactly, I've been mean to people for years. But I do, I used to cook.

I was a cook. I would not ever call myself a chef. I did not lead a kitchen, but I cooked

in kitchens and I went to culinary school. I was in college trying to figure out what

we're all trying to figure out when we graduate from college and feel kind of hopelessly lost

and disappointed in myself that I couldn't get up the strength and energy to write my

LSAT's and be a layer like my family wanted me to. But realized that I really loved to

write and I really loved to cook and so I got a job in journalism. I was living in Canada,

I grew up in Toronto and I got a job as an intern at a magazine, at the city magazine

of Toronto called Toronto Life. It's actually a award winning publication,

great writing. You know somewhat of a New York magazine. But it's a monthly and I was

an intern there and that's when I realized, wow people write restaurant reviews for a

living and write about food and there's so much going on in the city, the energy that

I had never known before, when I was young. And I realized that food was sort of the beat

that I wanted to cover. But I was 22 years old and there was stiff competition for those

very coveted jobs. So I went to my editor and sort of asked you know how do I do this?

I want to be a food writer. Food writer, big dream. And he said you know, that's all well

and nice Gail but any writer, no matter what you want to cover, you need to be the owner

of that craft, you need to be an authority, an expert, or else what makes you different

than the other you know, thousands of people who want to be a food writer as well?

Now, at the time the Food Network was very new, I just got an email address that same

year, so now I'm dating myself but you can imagine, like that's where we were, imagine

where we were in the world of technology? Yes, there was Google, in its infancy I guess

and I had just got an email address, there were no blog, no one knew what blogs were.

There just wasnít the proliferation of writing and media around food. So there were very

few jobs available. And he really suggested, if you want to write about food you need to

learn how to cook. You need to learn about food. There's kind of no way to do it, you

need to be an authority.

So I packed up my bags and left Canada and I moved here and went to culinary school.

And I then, from there went to work in kitchens, because I thought when I graduated culinary

school that I would just snap my fingers and get a job at Gourmet Magazine and be a food

writer and the world would be perfect. But my career counselor at culinary school brought

it to my attention that just because you've done everything once, doesn't make you a chef,

doesnít make you an expert. Same as you know, you graduate medical school, I donít want

you performing open heart surgery on me. It's kind of dramatic but you know, you still arenít,

you don't know it enough. So he convinced me to go work on the line. So I cooked here,

in New York, for a little while. At two very extraordinary, high quality restaurants where

I got my butt handed to me.

>>Frank Bruni: Very different restaurants- >>Gail Simmons: Very different restaurants-

>>Frank Bruni: -from each other. >>Gail Simmons: Right, one was sort of very

classic four star, it was at the time four star you know Le Cirque, which in its day,

in its heyday at sort of the end of the 90s was really the kind of power dining restaurant

in New York. And it was an extraordinary place to cook because it had an open kitchen. So

I could stand on the line every night and watch really like the leaders of industry

and of the country and movie stars and you know, all these extraordinary people eat the

food that I would make them. Which, you know I was 23 now, was really an amazing kind of

moment to be cooking in New York. There was, you know money was flowing like water. Remember

those days? So and then from there I went to work at Vong,

which is no longer open sadly, but John-Georges Vongerichten's Thai fusion restaurant, which

at the time was ground breaking. It really was one of the first restaurants in the country

that really highlighted Southeast Asian cooking. With, you know, very classic technique and

it was an amazing place too because of the ingredients I got to use. I had otherwise

never seen before. And from there I went back to writing, because I knew all the time when

I was cooking that I didnít want to be a chef. I needed to just learn how to just speak

the language. >>Frank Bruni: We'll come back to your Jeffrey

Steingarten experience. >>Gail: Yes. Yes.

>>Frank: But before we go there- >>Gail: Yeah.

>>Frank: - you say in the book, a big conversation ongoing in the culinary world all the time

is why there aren't more female chefs. And in the book, you say you got a little bit

of an insight into that ñ >>Gail: Yes.

>>Frank: -from your time in those kitchens. Talk about that.

>>Gail: You know, it's a just interesting and delicate conversation because, obviously

people get very upset and rightfully so, at last check, and I donít want to be quoted

on this position, and maybe I shouldn't say this, because this is being recorded. But

you know, there is no denying, it is a fact, it is a scientific fact, it is a mathematical

equation that there are less women in kitchens, cooking in professional kitchens, than men.

I'm not being sexist by saying that, it's known. And so people are always asking why

why why, is it that women aren't as good cooks as men, are women not as strong and as you

know, able as men? You know we get that on Top Chef all the time. Why haven't more women

won Top Chef than men? And the answer I think is a lot simpler than people want to make

it. And I am simplifying things; I understand it's a massive topic and a huge conversation.

What I found working in restaurants is really, it's biological and in a lot of ways, over

simplifying it it's the same reason that there are a lot less women who are plumbers than

men. That's not to say that women wouldn't make great plumbers but itís a very physically

demanding job. And it's demanding in ways- >>Frank: In crude ways.

>>Gail: In crude ways. I mean it's really, it's physical manual labor. Until you are

the chef, meaning the head of a kitchen you know, the word chef really means boss, so

until you are the boss you are a line cook, you are a cook. And you are really executing

someone else's vision and you are doing manual labor. You know, you're not really using your

own creative skills; you are executing something for someone else's menu that needs to be exactly

the same hundred times a day, every single day of the year, 7 days a week. And so it's

very physically demanding, you're on your feet in front of fire using knives. Women

can do all that stuff, there's no question, I think actually a kitchen really is a meritocracy

in terms of skill and ability. What I think comes into play when you think about women

at high levels in kitchens is that lets say it takes 10 years to be a chef, to really

become the head of a kitchen. You know, by the time you go through culinary school and

work your way up the line as you need to do to really become a professional chef at that

high level. So let's say you started around 20-22, biologically until we as women can

figure out a way to have men nurse and carry, physically inside, our babies, you know when

you- After 10 years of working in a kitchen it's

very hard, it's very hard to have to be a mother and work evenings weekends and holidays

as chefs need to do cause that's when the kitchen is open. You know, the shop is open

you have to be there. That's not to say that women don't do it, but much less women are

able to sustain it than men. It doesnít mean we're not bad ass and it doesnít mean we're

not hardcore and awesome and strong and there's some amazing female chefs. But if you kinda

look at New York, and obviously New York is the toughest restaurant town, we all know.

Frank knows better than anyone. And the restaurant world, which makes me sad but if you can think

of five, I ask this in the book and it's always a test and I'd love someone to prove me wrong.

Name five women who run New York City kitchens, who run more than two New York City kitchens.

It's almost impossible. I can tell you 12 men in New York who run 5 or more kitchens

all over the world. And I don't think that's because men aren't- women aren't as good as

that. I think it's just because it's physically very difficult for women to be in 5 places

and still have the responsibilities that we still have at home.

>>Frank: You- How many people here know who Jeffrey Steingarten is? Most people? Ok, so

good. How many of you knew that Gail worked for him for a couple years?

>>Gail: And did [unintelligible]. >>Frank: Wow, they're pretty good.

>>Gail: There we go, yeah. >>Frank: You guys are good Gail-ologists.

>>Gail: Thank you. Yes, that's a major- >>Frank: What you don't know until you read

the book is what the experience of working with him is like. So let's first talk about

his chocolate and diet Coke habit. >>Gail: Oh yes. You know, it's funny I really

wrote this as a love letter to him. It really remains to be seen if he will-

>>Frank: Love letter?

>>Gail: - take it that way. You know, working for Jeffrey was the greatest education I could

have ever asked for. Yes, culinary school taught me how to cook but Jeffrey taught me

how to read, how to do research. And there's no question I think, it's no secret that you

know, he has a lot of eccentricities that- >>Frank: Talk about your interview for the

job. >>Gail: Yes and he has a diet Coke and chocolate

habit. Which you know, the chocolate part I'm all for, diet Coke is a personal preference.

But he ñ the interview process kind of says it all and rightfully so. Everyone wants to

think that he is sort of this mad scientist, which he is in a lot of ways. But after working

for him for a long time I came to realize it's much more calculated than that. You know,

he's the food critic for Vogue and he has this long line of women who have been his

assistants over the years. We all last about 2 years, some a little more a little less

depending. And I came to him because I'd never read Vogue in my life, until I went to work