little. yellow. different. A weblog by Ernie Hsiung

Introducing Rouxbe… now with embarassing alcohol story

Now that I’ve made the announcement that I’m leaving Yahoo!, I think it’s about time to talk about where I’ll be working, complete with embarrassing interview-related story.

I’m going to be working at a food based website named Rouxbe, pronounced “Ruby.” (Get it? Roux, like the sauce? It’s a pun. Yeah.)

Rouxbe connects professional chefs with home cooks: people like you, who love food and are looking to expand their culinary repertoire and improve their skills in the kitchen. We offer online instructional cooking videos that walk you step by step through each delicious recipe. And our video recipes provide what no cookbook can: audio and visual cues that professional chefs use as their guides to preparing great recipes.

The website only recent went live a month or two ago to investors. My official title there is “Lead Community Manager/Developer,” although I’m not a huge fan of titles - my job will be to develop features to compliment their fantastic video recipes and to help manage the community that will be using the product. It’s definitely a website with a ton of potential, and I’m going to do my best to make it an even better product starting the end of January.

Oh yeah, and after my tech interview, I almost passed out from a glass of champagne at a dinner. But that’s for another blog post entirely. Or not, after the jump.

As you may or may not know, I have Asian alcohol red-face syndrome carry a “defective” copy of the gene for aldehyde dehydrogenase. Different pockets of friends have at least one story of me getting plastered off half a beer, me passing out after having a Smirnoff ice on an empty stomach, the tragic story of me “binge drinking” two tequila poppers and then throwing up for three and a half hours on my friends pants. (Sorry, Mel.)

Coincidentally, the night I flew up to Vancouver for my interview with the team at Rouxbe it was also the night of the Rouxbe team holiday dinner. And since Rouxbe is an online cooking website, OF COURSE the food would be fantastic. But first, a delightful glass of blackberry flavored champagne…

See where I’m going with this?

So, I’ve been traveling for the past four or five hours, and I haven’t had a bite the entire day; on the other hand, you can’t NOT have a half glass of champagne, right? To keep up appearances, and everything. And so, we do a delightful toast, I drink the delightful champagne, and we make delightful banter, the kind of banter that one has when you’re drinking champagne.

“Hey, I’m doing pretty good,” I think to myself. My face isn’t red, I don’t feel like I’m going to throw up on any executives. Ten minutes later, I excuse myself to smoke a cigarette outside. I walk outside the house and the freezing air hits my face as I take a drag of my cigarette. “Oh hey,” I say to myself. “I think I’m a little dizzy.”

Three minutes after that, I calmly try to walk into the house. “Oh hey,” I say to myself. “I think I’m going to pass out.”

For the record: no, I did not pass out. I did, however, “turn white while my lips turned black,” according to Ritchie. I don’t remember this, of course, because I’m slowly rocking back and forth with my hands between my knees on the living room sofa, repeating my mantra of “OH MY GOD, I WILL NOT THROW UP IN FRONT OF THE COMPANY I’M INTERVIEWING WITH.” The fact that I’m now dripping in sweat like Bobby Brown in a 20/20 Interview doesn’t help, either.

“Dude,” Ritchie whispers to me. “The washroom is down the hall, eh?” He hands me a glass of water, someone else hands me a piece of bread, and as I come to my senses, I try my best to pretend that nothing EVER happened, and to casually downplay the fact that my shirt collar is DRENCHED WITH SWEAT. And I think I do an okay job at it.

A couple of days later, when I meet up with the company founders for a follow-up interview, Joe starts off with, “So, I guess we should avoid serving you champagne, huh? Ha ha.”

I apologize for the next fifteen minutes. And they still offer me a job position anyway. Good people, these folks are.

Sounds exciting, Ernie. And I really like the website. I love creme brulee but never thought of trying to make it myself. After watching the video, I think I can handle it.

congratulations on your new job! this is exciting. do you cook? will you be learning how to cook?

I concur! You’re going to have a blast!

Lightweight! You’re going to need some drinking practice before you head up to Canada…

i’m loving the design of the site, appreciating all the design details, and it just feels “tight”, very nice! you’re making me considering the founding member account right now.

Welcome to Rouxbe Ernie! Was wondering if you were going to reveal your interview white out! See ya soon!

Congratulations Ernie.

A few years ago, when I was just begining to foodblog, you gave me one of my first significant links. I had just started checking the number of hits I got, and in a single day, I went from 8-10 to a few hundred, I think. (You said, I believe: “This guy writes about food the way other people write about porn” or words to that effect).

Anyway, I’ve been checking back here periodically ever since, and I’m psyched you’re working on something food-related. I’m going to check the new digs at RouxBe out, post some thoughts on my site. From my initial perusal, it looks like a pretty cool site, and specifically something that people like me (who are tired of the “food network” celebrity-lifestyle bullshit) will appreciate.

Congrats on the new gig, Ernie. We’ll be sure to check it out when we need some recipe suggestions.

didn’t anyone ever tell those guys that the pun is the lowest form of pastry?

Hah! Now I don’t feel so bad about my time in Dublin (Ireland, not California) where I had two rum and cokes at 10 pm when I hadn’t eaten since 10 am. I dropped like a sack of potatoes and apparently went white while my lips blue. When I came to, they said I just stared at them and didn’t say anything for two minutes.

The bouncers kept asking what I was on while I insisted all I had to alcohol.

I think they’re getting their first wave of Chinese immigrants over there. I hope I’ve paved the way.

I think Rouxbe was trying to slip ya a rouxfee.

That’s great, Ernie, congrats! I was just talking about you with a Yahoo programmer, who said one of his favorite groups was the web developer group you were in. Best of luck!

(Oh, and also, because I’m a nit-pick, it’s Europeans with the “mutant” alcohol enzyme, not Asians.

I have similar alcohol-related experiences myself, though not in an interview capacity. My most recent adventure was drinking a rum and coke at a friend’s house, on an empty stomach, and using a higher Bacardi:Coke ratio than normal. I broke a footstool of hers when I was sitting on it, smirking and dizzy, and not realizing that the thing was going to fall out from under me. Good times.

I thought the embarrassing sorry was going to be about how you were professing your love for, and singing songs of, Amy Grant all night.

Coincidentally, I was on the Rouxbe website over the weekend (before I read this post). Sign me up to be a beta tester.

Oh Ernie, you and your alcohol intolerance. I’m sure I’ll still be giggling about this next week and in the years to come. (Coincidentally, I was giggling about your Filipino college graduation speech last week. It’s still funny all these years later.) Congratulations!

Wow, i’m proud of you Ern-Dawg! I know you loved Yahoo but you hated it too, all the extra stress and hours…i know you will miss those off the hook x-mas parties. Hey who knows maybe you’re new site could discover the new Rachael Ray, but she’ll be the loudest canadian chick.

Ideas…One segment on “Cooking with Esthero”, Nelly Fertado or any Canadian music celeb that would be willing.

Well if you move out there just dont starting saying aboot…ok? luv ya
Mike

An this is horrible i know but do a segment with Esthero and have her make Wikked Lil Grrrrilled Cheese Sandwiches, lol!
Ok i’ll stop now

I’ve noticed that you have some very entertaining interviewing stories. Heh. Where are the Yahoo interview entries?

I always thought that I was a cheap drunk, until I met Ernie…

LOL

giggles inside, cause Ernie know exactly what I am talking about.

Nice, brother — both on the new gig and on the story. Congrats!

you do realize that French spelling coming into contact with Web2.0 “space” is the Sixth Sign of the apocalypse…

Congrats on the job.

As for Asian alcohol red-face syndrome, try Pepcid AC (one tablet right before drinking or with your first sip). Doesn’t eliminate it, but it helps significantly. YMMV, though.

Wow - I love the concept. As a home-cook, I like the idea of sharing recipes and getting input. I learned to cook from my grandmother and mother, so look forward to the chance to get “professional” guidance.

“Rouxfee”! HAH! Awesome, John.

“The fact that I’m now dripping in sweat like Bobby Brown in a 20/20 Interview doesn’t help, either.”
Ernie, commentary like that *always* keeps me coming back.

The first (and last) time I became intoxicated-to-puking was a night of 10 shots of vodka chased with a couple of Mike’s Hard Lemonades. On an empty stomach. (Yeah, I know!) Within 10 minutes of ingesting said alcohol, I was slurring my speech, dizzy as hell and seeing double. After what seemed like an hour I passed out on the couch only to wake up ralphing my guts out. Thank my British genes for a shitload of aldehyde dehydrogenase.

I am exactly the same way with alcohol. One jaegar shot and sex on the beach equals me throwing up for three hours straight. It’s sick, but I can’t explain it.

I’ve learned that being nervous or anxious in any way and drinking is a very bad combination. I’m guaranteed to get extra drunk, extra fast and not be able to control myself, so I understand the rocking back and forth while muttering “I will not throw up”.

And as a food lover, I’m delighted by what this website holds. A quick glance garnered it a bookmark and when I’ve got more time I’ll go wandering the site and I’m sure I’ll fall in love. Thanks for posting about it, otherwise I might not have seen it.

Congratulations on the new job! And welcome to Vancouver!

Ernie - I’m so glad that you are only leaving yahoo (their loss) and not disappearing off the face of the earth. I totally understand this same situation. My own intolerance to alcohol adventures lasted approximately 30-35 years… then I finally learned that I had more of an allergy to alcohol than anything else and stopped doing so much “product investigation”…LOL… I’m gonna have to tell my mother-in-law (after 20+ yrs or so, she still “doesn’t know” about me and if I’m “ok” for her son) and I just know she will be checking out Rouxbe’s site shortly after I inform her of it and if she likes it (the site) she’ll be telling everyone she knows about it… and she knows A LOT of folks. Thanks for the tip, Ernie - might increase my numbers in the aforementioned mother-in-law’s mind and I can use all the help I can get there. Oh, and hey, I know a couple of folks “up there” who would be willing to introduce you to various areas of “up there”. Just let me know if you are interested.

i really like the concept of Rouxbe. i signed up and think it’s pretty cool. do you think they will add nutritional information on the completed recipes? thanx

Mutant alcohol syndrome is definitely in my genes, and I too have more than enough stories to tell. The red faced thing is enough embarrassment, but waking up to onlookers makes me want to drink another glass!
Congrats on the new job. Do you think they could take a “burns the toast and can’t even make coffee” woman and teach her to make something palatable????
I better check them out. ~peace

It was our 30th anniversary and we were dining at La Fuego in Santa Fe NM they gave my husband and I complimentary champagne which I did not finish,halfway thru dinner I began feeling ill so I decided to go to the bathroom,I made it to the reservation podium and then passed put and had a seizure, or so I am told . It was positively our most memorable anniversary. They called an ambulance. I told them I was fine and I was. Beware! I am of Japanese ancestry.