I had an interesting day at work yesterday. First, Mario Batali was a guest chef at the cafe. One of the stations was serving out his dishes. The line was huge, but I had to get some famous grub, right? Here's what I had:

Pollo alla Cacciatora

Free range chicken thigh meat, organic Portobello mushroom, onion, celery, roma tomatoes, red chili flakes, rosemary, bay leaf, extra virgin olive oil, white wine and pancetta.

Pappardelle with Boar Ragu

Pappardelle pasta cooked al dente, organic onion, celery, carrot, rosemary, red chili flakes, wild boar, red wine and extra virgin olive oil.

Gnocchi with Fresh Tomatoes

Potato pasta, fresh organic tomatoes, garlic, smoked mozzarella cheese, green olive and extra virgin olive oil.

I'd never eaten wild boar before, and it was all really tasty. Would have been better with a glass of red, though.

When I was heading out to try to find a place to eat (there were more people walking around with visitor badges on than I've ever seen; I'd say there were just as many as folks with Google badges) I noticed that there was another line formed up. At the head of it was Mario himself, signing copies of his new book Molto Italiano. I was about to head over to the cash machine when I heard someone say that they were giving away the book. Super cool! So I went up and got a copy. Even had it autographed.

Mario is a hoot in person. He was really hoarse, and looked pretty tired out (this was at like 1:30pm, and lunch starts at 11:30) but he seemed like he was genuinely having a blast. He was cracking jokes and such the whole time. When I got up to the signing table I said "Wow, I never met an Iron Chef before. You're really holding up well!" He chuckled then puffed up a little, turned up his chin, stuck his hands on his hips faux-Superman style and said "I'm a finely oiled and well-tuned macccchhhhhiiiiinnnne..." After we both cracked up, he said that he never gets tired at signings, and that the funnest part of being a well-known chef is meeting people and getting he recipes out there so people can try them. So I said I'd definitely be trying some of his food, and he said thanks. Looking back at that, it sounds smarmy and contrived, but I think he really feels that way. Anyway, as best as I can tell from a 20 second conversation, he seems like a super cool guy.

I was thumbing through it a little and it looks like it's got some great recipes in it. Some really easy stuff, too. I wanted to find the recipes for the lunch I was eating and read along as I chewed, but I didn't get a chance. (I didn't get to read much of it at lunch because an engineer I've never met before named Johnny sat down in front of me and wanted to chat. That "Hey, I don't know you... let's chat!" thing is going to take some getting used to, but Johnny really cool -- and he and I work on similar projects, so we're going to hook up next week some time.)

After lunch, I was coming back from the mini-kitchen and a co-worker was telling someone that he got his picture taken with Robin Williams, who happened to be in the building for who-knows-what reason. So I went down to take a gander. Sure enough, there he was along with his entourage and the founders. I didn't talk to him or anything, I just sort of hung back and listened along with the rest of the crowd. He was cracking jokes and taking a keen interest in the way things work. He's not a very tall person. IMDb says he's 5' 8", but I think he may have been wearing boots when they measured him.

And then at the end of the day, I heard that NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman was speaking in the cafe, and signing copies of his new book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. I arrived too late to get a signed copy, but I did hear him speak. Very interesting stuff, mostly in a "wake-up call for America" sort of way. The thing he said that sticks out most was when he was talking about how opportunity is now at everyone's doorstep. He said "25 years ago, if you had a choice, you'd much rather be born a B student in Northern California than a genius in Bangalore. Now that B student has got no chance at all because the genius in India can plug in directly with his talent." The Internet has made the world a pretty small place, and smart is going to get used no matter where it is. I started reading some of his book but haven't gotten very far. I'll definitely finish it. I bet my dad would like it, too.

Anyway, I actually managed to get a little work done yesterday in between famous people. But it was a fun day.