Now Facebook’s cooking. The social networking upstart has been poaching top talent from Google Inc for months. The catch of the day is executive chef Josef Desimone, who is sure to win hearts and stomachs at Facebook by substituting its steam-heated buffets with the fresh, healthy gourmet fare for which Google became famous.

“Joey has the chops,” said Charlie Ayers, author of Food 2.0: Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google. He hired Desimone in 2003 when Google was growing so fast that they cooked in the back of an 18-wheeler and served meals under tents.

Desimone, one of Google’s top chefs, couldn’t be reached for comment. But in an interview with Fact Company published last month he described Google as “Disneyland” and asked “Where do you go from here?” Answer: To Facebook, which is Silicon Valley’s hottest company. The Palo Alto company had its pick of about 100 food-industry heavyweights inspired by Ayers, who joined Google in 1999 as its first executive chef.