Every office needs a happiness manager who’s responsible, friendly and outrageously organized. Our own Karen Ko has a serious knack for handling a ton of moving parts. Karen’s various responsibilities include keeping our office well-stocked with supplies and snacks, making our space welcoming to all and planning fun team activities. She goes above and beyond those things of course, doing lots of design projects and other tasks as well.

Today we appreciate Karen and other office managers, administrative assistants and operations folks because it’s Administrative Professionals’ Day. Our company wouldn’t be half as successful without you. Thanks for choosing ZeroCater to feed your people - we love taking catering and all food-related worries off your plates.

If you’re an admin, we invite you to join us this evening at Spring Fling: It’s an Admin Thing!, an event presented by Office Ninjas Tech and Organization Organizers.

The event is at Jillian’s tonight at 6:30, and there are still some tickets available HERE.

We’ll be raffling off some prizes, including a $50 gift certificate for Mission Minis and sweet ZeroCater coffee mugs.

Hope to see you there!

It’s that time of year again. That’s right, it’s Pi Day! Or if you prefer, Pie Day. Either way, today we celebrate our favorite irrational number with every rational person’s favorite dessert.

Want to send something to your sweetie pie? How about this nerdy-chic illustration by Nicole Martinez:

When it comes to pie, there’s something for everyone. If you’d like to create your own, here are some ideas - both savory and sweet:

Pizza Pie Recipes (YumSugar)

An All-Pie Menu (Serious Eats)

Best Pie Recipes (Saveur)

Feeling competitive? Enter the annual Serious Eats Pi Day Pie Contest, which yielded some incredibly creative winning pies last year.

We’ll conclude this post with an elaborate sushi pie on Instructables that caught our eye (WOW that’s a lot of wasabi):

We’re proud to have hired a crew of dedicated foodies from all walks of life, and we want you to get to know us! This post is the first in a series of ZeroCater employee profiles we’ll start posting here on the regular. It seems fitting to begin with the amazing Gabi Moskowitz, who is known through her nationally acclaimed blog and cookbook as BrokeAss Gourmet.

So why did you join ZeroCater?
Gabi: I believe that food is a cornerstone of positive culture and I like that ZeroCater allows people to enjoy eating good food together. I wanted to be in the food industry but preferred to keep my recipes and writing separate. I didn’t know that jobs like the ones at ZeroCater existed, so when I heard about the Vendor Outreach position, it seemed like a great fit.

What’s the most surprising thing about ZeroCater so far?
GM: I’ve only been here a few weeks but I was surprised to feel comfortable right away. It’s a relaxed and friendly environment.

Tell us about what inspired your first book, The BrokeAss Gourmet Cookbook.
GM: My first job was teaching kindergarten. I wasn’t making a lot of money and since I refused to go the ramen route, I found cooking to be pleasurable, easy and less expensive than eating out. I wanted to make cooking as accessible as possible and share something that would be of value both to long-time cooks and people starting out.

So good food doesn’t have to be expensive?
GM: Exactly, but the emphasis is on good food. My blog is not “howtoavoidstarvation.com,” it’s about how good food doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated, but it should ALWAYS be good. I grew up in Sonoma Valley, where good food is king.

How should one get started being a BrokeAss Gourmet?
GM: It all starts with stocking a $50 pantry — that’s fifty dollars worth of non-perishables that you should always have on hand to build your meal around. If you have a basically stocked kitchen, going out to get a few fresh ingredients should be the only thing between you and a good meal. You can feed a lot of people for not a lot of money if you just do the work and you’re willing to learn a couple techniques.

Is there a recipe of yours that’s a clear fan favorite?
GM: Definitely the Brown Butter-Pumpkin Mac and Cheese (mentioned by the New York Times) and also my pizza dough recipe. In fact, pizza dough is the basis of my second cookbook, which will be out this fall.

We’ll conclude with what’ll henceforth be known as “The Same Six Questions We Always Ask” because, well, we’ll ask these questions of everyone from now on!

1. What would be your last meal?

A vegetarian burrito from El Castillito or El Farolito with pinto beans, rice, sour cream, avocado, hot sauce, onions and cilantro. It may not be fancy, but it tastes like comfort and like home, and that would be the last thing I’d want to taste.

2. What were you doing before ZeroCater?

I was (and still am!) a food writer. I’ve been writing my blog, BrokeAssGourmet.com since 2009. It focuses on high-quality food that can be cooked at home inexpensively. I published a cookbook in May and I have a second one coming out in Fall 2013.

3. What’s the most delicious thing you ate in recent memory?

A beef taco from Nico’s Tacos! We had them in the office and they were just outrageous. I haven’t been able to get the combination of the smoky flavor of the beef and the cooling sour cream, plus the crunch of the cabbage slaw out of my head. Just a perfect taco.

4. What neighborhood do you live in and what do you love about it?

I live in the Mission, right by Dolores Park. I love just about everything about it, but if I had to narrow it down, I’d say the trifecta of sunshine, great food and the park!

5. How do you get to work?

The J-Church, and/or occasionally my Toyota Prius.  

6. If you were a condiment, what would you be and why?

I would be harissa, a Tunisian hot sauce made of chilies, garlic, spices and oil. It’s an unexpected delight, just like me :)

The article is by April Dembosky and the title is “A byte to eat in the Valley.”

Unfortunately the FT site requires registration, but here is the link to the article: http://on.ft.com/XXyy17

The ZeroCater mention:

Like the hot sauce chefs, several food-related tech start-ups are turning to Silicon Valley for their first customers. ZeroCater, set up by 26-year-old Arram Sabeti, co-ordinates orders from local restaurants for tech start-ups that want to provide free lunches to staff but are not big enough to hire their own chef to serve meals on-site.

The concept has gone over well with start-up employees, who only think about lunch orders in between managing product development and recruiting and do not have the time to vet local businesses. Restaurants love the large sales and the exposure to a new set of potential customers.

Mr Sabeti says ZeroCater has an advantage over other tech start-ups that have turned to the increasingly hard-pressed restaurant industry to implement their business plans. Local restaurants and businesses, already operating on tight margins, have been bombarded by the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial pitching the promise of new customers with steep discounts. Others have come knocking selling software for making reservations or creating electronic waiting lists or offering rewards for listing on their mobile food app. “[Restaurants] are pretty jaded from people trying to sell them stuff,” he says. “Once they realise we’re trying to make them money, rather than take it away, they’re willing to talk to us.”