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>>Barry Salzman: Good afternoon. For those of you I've not met before, I'm Barry Salzman
and I have to say I've not filled TechTalk like this in the year I've been at Google.
So, note to self, Mario, you are invited to every one of our media platforms or hands
meetings from here on forward. So, I first met Mario in 2001 and at the time, a reservation
at Babbo was the toughest reservation to get in New York City. At the time I think he had
three restaurants-- is that right?-- and had published two books. Ten years later, Babbo
is still the toughest ticket in town, which in and of itself is no small feat in a city
known for fickle foodies, but in addition, Mario has, I think, 15 restaurants today.
I'm getting the thumbs up. Fifteen restaurants today, published eight books, television shows,
vineyard, charitable foundation and the latest addition to-- I think the latest addition,
unless I'm out of date-- to the Mario Batali empire has been the Android App, and that's
what he's here to talk about today. As a tribute to Mario, I think everybody knows that all
chefs at Hemispheres are doing a set of Mario Batali inspired dishes for lunch. So, after
this, be sure to head up there and join us for lunch. I just wanna read you something
from Mario's official bio. And it says," At the root of Mario's success is his passion
and respect for all of the great tastes and traditions of Italian cooking, combined with
an insatiable desire to experience and experiment. This magical combination of passion, education,
and chutzpah is on display every night at his extremely popular restaurants, and evident
in his books and TV shows."
Well, last night I watched Mario's last appearance at Google on YouTube and I want to say that
Mario, you have broken a Google record. He was on record as being the outside speaker
to have used the f word more than anybody else in a 45 minute presentation. So, I'm
certain he's not gonna disappoint this time. Mario, I have to say it is f-ing good to have
you back.
[laughter]
Please join me in welcoming Chef Mario Batali.
[applause]
>>Mario Batali: Good afternoon, everybody. I'm sure you'll be slightly disappointed that
with a 12 year old and a 14 year old, I've changed my rating from R to PG.
[laughter]
So, I only say "fuck" when it's really essential, which sometimes is and sometimes isn't. I'm
here today in support of the launch of the Android App that I have. It is, if you've
ever watched the old Food Network's show called "Molto Mario", which is on now on the Cooking
Channel I think at 4:30 in the morning.
[laughter]
Maybe it's 4:42 just to challenge you. No, I think it's like 7:30 or 8:00. What it is,
is a straight-forward, very direct demonstration of what really good Italian technique, how
simple it is, how much it's based on shopping. And, as opposed to a lot of the other Apps,
which are virtually cookbooks translated to the page, this I actually walk through each
of the dishes, just as if I'm in the kitchen with you. And the idea is to empower you to
feel that you can actually watch it. There's a thousand features which we're gonna demo
in a few minutes that describe and display how you can use it in the very complicated
world of multitasking, how we can use all of the tricks and treatments to make it happen.
But what it's really fundamentally about is understanding that people, in addition to
wanting to go out to be entertained by food, that what they really wanna do is understand
their food, they wanna love their food and they wanna know about their food.
Thirty years ago, you became a cook, not a chef, right after you got out of the military
and some time before you went to jail.
[laughter]
And that's because cooking at that time was the lowest common denominator job. Anybody
could peel a potato, anybody could start in a kitchen, and effectively work in a diner
in any town or in the military-- or in prison--cooking food. Our fascination with food came as a
result of our fascination with our health, our understanding of our health, our fascination
with the things that give us pleasure. And I must say, I'm quite pleased to say that
whereas 30 years ago you might go out to get a bite and then go to the game or go to the
opera and then get a bite, or go to a concert or a museum and get something to eat on the
way, at this point now amongst many of the people in this room, the bite is actually
the central part of our evening or our afternoon. And it's our obsession and our pride and our
understanding, as well as our internationalization in our super Suave' Bolla way that we travel
around the world and look for things that make us happy, that food has come to the center
of the plate, as it were. Subsequent to that, of course, cooks became a little bit more
successful. And it's in no short, it's not to short it, but I think that although cooks
have enjoyed a certain little bit of fame, eventually the next rock stars aren't gonna
be cooks. It's gonna be farmer's [looks to the left and sighs] and fishermen because
eventually you'll realize that no matter how much technique there is and how many bams
there is or how many squirt bottles there is, or all of those other things, effectively
what really is the biggest decision is you're going to make are going to be on what you
buy and how you source it and where you get it. So, there's also shopping parts in this
app, but I think the real understanding is to make something delicious, you really have
to buy something that has a point of view. And it's that kind of slow-food mentality,
that kind of searching for biodiversity that is what I really try to represent at this
point. I don't know if any of you have heard about this little grocery store I opened up
called Eataly on 23rd Street. But if you walk in there there's a, there's a huge component
of it is slogans. It's allowing people to understand that it's one little bite of information
that will allow you to really get your hands on what a great tangerine is, or why you eat
this kind of spaghetti or what kind of oil this is. And it's not really about Italian
food. It's about the micro-regional components of Italian food and American ingredients as
well, cooked into that world that make it so satisfying to do and so delicious and also
nutritious for you. So, this app has all of that rolled into it and what it really is
about is empowering you to understand that you can cook just like I can, almost as good
as some of the great grandmothers from Italy. And that's the objective behind this is to
remove a little bit more of the veil, to look a little bit behind the curtain, but effectively
watch and learn how to cook the kind of things that I do, as well as use it just for entertainment.
I mean, it's just kind of fun to watch someone who seems to know what they're doing, doing
what they do pretty good. And that's why I'm here to do it. Now, I'm gonna introduce Matt
Bardin, who's my partner in this, who understands all the technology of it. Basically, I stood
up in front of a camera for about five days and we shot 85 videos, which is a good little
clip, and we had a good time. So, Matt, why don't you show us about how to use this Android
App?
>>Matt Bardin: Ok. So, let's, this is the home screen of the app. Actually, maybe we'll
start with -- no, that's good. And the main feature, navigationally, is this--
>>Mario Batali: Hold on. Lemme interrupt one second. If there is any questions at all time,
it can be, we can just go right ahead and say or ask. Bring up what you want. If you
see something that looks incongruous or you just wanna say that you love Led Zeppelin,
I mean, just bring it on. [laughter]
>>Matt Bardin: So the nav-, main navigation features this dial, which is inspired by a
stove dial and basically, we give the users a lot of ways to navigate and drill down and
look at the recipe. So, you can go by region, by course, by season, things kids love cause
Mario's into kids. You can bookmark your favorites.
[laughter]
>>Mario Batali: "Mario has kids," is what he meant to say. I have kids; I like their
friends, we hang out. I'm not so into kids.
[laughter]
>>Matt Bardin: No, I haven't heard that.
>>Mario Batali: I'm childish is what he meant to say. I'm childish, that's what he meant
to say.
[laughter]
>>Matt Bardin: And he hasn't used the f word once.
>>Mario Batali: Not yet, just the fucking introduction.
[laughter]
>>Matt Bardin: So, let's look by category and let's look at the pastas. And I didn't
bring my glasses up, so I don't know what this is.
>>Mario Batali: That's Bucatini All'amatriciana. One of my personal favorites.
>>Matt Bardin: So, if you look at it this way, you can scroll through and just quickly
look at all of the steps. You can also hit the--not the back button--whoops. You can
also hit the menu button and this custom designed navigation bar lets you see the ingredients,
which you can also move to your shopping cart. It lets you see all the videos that would
relate to this particular app and I mean--
>>Mario Batali: Meaning that as you use an olive oil, if you wanna understand a little
bit more about olive oil, right then and there you stop, you put a little bookmark and say,
"All right. Lemme find out a little bit more about olive oil, maybe before I use it or
before I purchase it." So then you go to that and then if in the middle of that, for some
reason, you wanna understand a little bit about how to zest a lemon, you can go right
back to that and say, "All right, lemme show you, lemme see how to zest a lemon." And then
go back to the recipe and then continue through.
>>Matt Bardin: And since you mentioned going back, this tab right here is for bookmarks
and as soon as I touch that it's automatically bookmarking this recipe. So, that's how I
jump around and can cook several things at once. So now if I wanna cook this recipe,
I would turn it this way, in landscape mode and this gives me the steps, either in text
form or in images. So, I can scroll through and just look at all the images. A lot of
chefs are visual people and they can kinda look at this and get a sense of what they
wanna do, but then it also gives you the text and you can toggle back and forth. This one
doesn't -- oh, there's a timer. If Mario calls for a timer, we've built them into the app.
And--
>>Mario Batali: So, say simmer ten minutes, for example. Or, cook pasta--
>>Matt Bardin: Whoops! Was there a timer here? There it is.
>>Mario Batali: There you go.
>>Matt Bardin: So, if I tap this bar, there's my timer and I set it and it's now running
behind all of these. It's good, right?
>>Mario Batali: Perfect. Nice, huh?
[laughter]
Bravo, Matt.
[clapping]
Now, if at that same time, you went to another recipe of a salad that you were making to
serve with this and there was a timer on that, you could run concurrent timers going at the
same time. It will also warn you when your spaghetti should be coming out of the water,
in case you're busy on the phone or liking kids or whatever else you do.
[laughter]
>>Matt Bardin: Which Mario is known to do apparently. So, just in terms of -- Mario
mentioned the other kinds of videos there. There are not just recipes in this app. There
are also two other kinds of videos. There are kitchen basics, which -- do you wanna
talk about that a little, Mario?
>>Mario Batali: Sure. I'll describe how and what you should look for when you're buying.
Or, what you should be aware of. We'll talk about different kinds of salumi, what salumi
is, where you can buy it, what the good ones are, what the ones that aren't so good are.
I generally don't talk poorly about anything, but if I find something I find that I don't
like, I'll mention a way to avoid it and that's just about going to the right stores.
>>Matt Bardin: Umm.
>>Mario Batali: Like, if you wanna know about salt, I talk about salt for like, four minutes.
[laughter]