June 13, 2007 FOR someone who works in a restaurant, watching a rat try to become a chef might seem like just another day at work. [1], In April 2009, Keller became engaged to longtime girlfriend and former general manager at the French Laundry, Laura Cunningham. The failure of this restaurant did not dissuade you from haute cuisine. He was a great storyteller. profession evolve as American masters like Thomas Keller rise, and watch the genesis of a "chef nation" as these culinary pioneers crisscross the country to open restaurants and collaborate on special events, and legendary hangouts like Blue Ribbon become social focal points, all as the industry-altering Food Network shimmers on the horizon. My sights to go to France and work in specific restaurants were already defined. I knew I could cook. In 1999, Thomas Keller published The French Laundry Cookbook, which he considers his definitive book on cuisine. To expand his knowledge, he joined Compagnons du Devoir, an artisans' organization that offers technical education through tours and apprenticeships with masters. So our job is to make sure that were choosing those ingredients of the moment. For other people named Thomas Keller, see, Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World, International Association of Culinary Professionals, Restaurant Magazine's Top 50 Restaurants of the World, "Thomas Keller and The French Laundry Awards", "Le chef amricain Thomas Keller reoit la Lgion dhonneur", "MICHELIN Guide Reveals Inaugural Florida Selection", "The Thomas Keller Interview, II: On Benno, Bouchon and Brooklyn", "Prix fixe to the people: Thomas Keller goes populist with his new restaurant, Ad Hoc", "TK SET - Thomas Keller Limited Edition Set", Competing at the Bocuse dOr: Team USAs Unbeatable Recipes, Chef Timothy Hollingsworth Wants to Bring American Pressure to the Bocuse dOr, High Hopes for American Team in Bocuse dOr Cooking Competition, "Chef Thomas Keller:'Preparing myself to let go', "75 notable NYC restaurants and bars that permanently closed since 2020", "French Laundry chef talks about celebrity life", "Who cooked that up? Its not just about going out to dinner. Well offer a four-course menu and a five-course menu. So we started out with a menu that had up to seven or eight choices in each category. So he called his son, who then called his best friend, Daniel Boulud, who called me, and said the three of us are going to form a foundation to support the competition, to support a U.S. team in competing in France. I wonder where that ambition came from to be the best, and why didnt you decide to go to school for that? Theyll pick up Bon Appetit magazine or Gourmet or Saveur or any of the magazines. Who was going to be their inspectors? And I walked on the property. And it was one of those things that you try. Many times the advice was, Well just go. How did you come to take over The French Laundry? With Lena Kwak, the research and development chef of The French Laundry, Keller had developed Cup4Cup, a gluten-free flour. Theyre going to drive right by our restaurant and stop. Apart from his innovative restaurants, ThomasKellers books and above all his dedication and imagination have brought his informed and inventive cookery intohomes from coast to coast and around the world. I mean all these that are part of that repetition was what I learned as a dishwasher. He wrote his social column every day. What did you eat? I mean youre in Paris. Thomas Keller: Rakel. It didnt matter if you were doing fine dining, family dining. I believe the book was called A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price. Not even butter, and then he would buy 20 pounds of it to store in his freezer so that he could have it whenever he needed it. No. One of the first employees to sign on was a young woman named Laura Cunningham, a Berkeley graduate with some experience in the Napa restaurant scene. Another great milestone for you was the Legion dHonneur. Every moments important. And to keep herself busy, and of course to supply some income for the family, she worked in restaurants. You knew when you did a bad job and you knew when you did a good job. And of course that catapulted us to again be financially successful, which allowed us now to commit our resources in so many different ways. An American mega-chef, he is as renowned for his culinary skills as he is for his ability to establish a restaurant that is relaxed, yet refined and exciting. Very simple. And there was another friend of mine in Los Angeles who taught me how to use a computer. America had competed since the beginning but never even came close to the podium. But each day, waking up each day finding some success kept me motivated to the next day. I learned skill, knowledge. Is there a connection between the fact that you got a book of recipes from the worlds great restaurants and then decided to go and apprentice in France, in the worlds great restaurants? We fell to tenth. This dish is featured on both the menus at Per Se and The French Laundry, a dish that has stayed on the menus since it was created and one we fully expect to remain there. Every dish, we have to be thinking about in a way that, when someone comes in, its going to relate that experience to what Ruth said, because now your expectations as a guest have become greater. How do we respond to that? Youll find a job. And he said, Oh, and by the way, Bouchon got one.. I think its discipline. That was going to be something that was maybe decades away. The entire pastry production, the entire pastry service, working with the chef de cuisine on the philosophy of the pastry. It was kind of this magical place, and I just felt an instant connection to it. He has received countless accolades, including The Culinary Institute of Americas Chef of the Year Award and the James Beard Foundations Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Restaurateur Awards. Had they not, I wouldnt be here today. Thomas Keller: We love to do Thanksgiving. We were of course very flattered. Ren and his wife would come to South Florida in the wintertime because they would close their restaurant, and he was looking for a chef for the following summer and Pierre recommended me, so I moved to Catskill. It was my generation that kind of missed that. Pierre ran the kitchen. But nonetheless I built my own little smoker out of an old refrigerator and cured and smoked my own salmon. And of course if you were successful, then it was positive feedback and you knew that you did a good job. So he was very proud to be able to talk to our suppliers and get them to either give us extra or to reduce our price. [8], After the success of The French Laundry, Thomas and his brother, Joseph Keller (currently owner/chef of Josef's in Las Vegas), opened Bouchon in 1998. How did you get started in the restaurant business? Following the failure of the Cobbley Nob, Keller became sous-chef at Caf du Parc in West Palm Beach. After two years, he moved to Rhode Island, working first as chef de partie at the Clarke Cooke House, and the following summer at the Dunes Club in Narragansett. Working on the film Spanglish, Keller designed and taught star Adam Sandler to cook what is often called "the world's greatest sandwich", as a plausible example of what a talented bachelor gourmet might cook for himself. And I came back a bit arrogant, a bit uppity, a bit disrespectful of not my kitchen, but the owner, and so we didnt see eye to eye. Thomas Keller, the master chef behind the Michelin-starred restaurant The French Laundry, is an unlikely champion for business and organizational excellence. And yes, there are some restaurants around the world that would use a stage in an inappropriate way by making him stand in the corner and peel potatoes for three months, but a true stage in a restaurant that has integrity and understands their responsibility and the purpose of a stage gives you a great opportunity to learn. So that was immediate critical feedback. In 2015 we finally reached the podium, the first time the Americans have ever been on the podium in France. We are the first chefs, first American chefs in America to receive three stars. So I thought, What better place to celebrate than Taillevent, my first three-star work experience? So I called Taillevent, and of course Jean-Claude Vrinat said, Please, welcome. Otherwise it wasnt going to be good. At that point you begin overeating because you want to try each one of them. Thomas Keller stands in front of the original exterior wall of the French Laundry in Yountville. I guess it was a much safer position for me around the dishwasher, whether it was at that early age, or more importantly, when I began to realize that I wanted to cook, at the Palm Beach Yacht Club. That same year, the bible of international food connoisseurs, the Guide Michelin, paid its first visit to New York and awarded Kellers Per Se its highest rating: three stars. And he had told me about this small restaurant in Yountville for sale called The French Laundry and I should look into that. I believe in you, but I need something. One of them was off in the Navy. He joined forces with his friend Serge Raoul to open a restaurant whose name combined the first letters of the partners last names: Rakel. I was unsure of my career. At the height of this you had La Cte Basque, La Caravelle, Le Cirque, La Grenouille, La Reserve, Le Perigord. Because cooking wasnt really something that was popular at the time that I became interested. [2] His restaurants currently hold eight Michelin stars in total: three at Per Se, three at The French Laundry, one at Bouchon, and one at The Surf Club Restaurant.[3]. Hes gone. Mr. Keller thinks, at least for him, a change may be in order. Now I think it would be casual fine dining. So I had to go back to Serge because I didnt have any money, and I had to ask Serge to satisfy the tax lien, which my portion of it was considerable. The Spanglish sandwich", "Chef Thomas Keller on Why Food Isn't The Point Of a Restaurant", "Bay Area flavors food tale: For its new film 'Ratatouille,' Pixar explored our obsession with cuisine", "Thomas Keller - Teaches Cooking Techniques I: Vegetables, Pasta, and Eggs at masterclass.com", "Thomas Keller - Teaches Cooking Techniques II: Meats, Stocks, and Sauces", "Thomas Keller - Teaches Cooking Techniques III: Seafood, Sous Vide, and Desserts", "The James Beard Foundation Awards Presents 1996 Winners", "The 1998 Bon Apptit Awards: Chef of the Year", "The S. Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurants in the World, 2003", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2004", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2005", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2006", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2007", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2008", "Winners Announced For 2005 James Beard Foundation Awards", "Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor for Thomas Keller", "American chef Keller to be admitted into French Legion of Honor", "Thomas Keller The S.Pellegrino Lifetime Achievement Award Winner 2012", "Thomas Keller wins Lifetime Achievement Award", "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement", Google Authors: Thomas Keller: May 19, 2009, 60 Minutes: Inside Thomas Keller's Restaurants: November 20, 2011, 60 Minutes: Visiting the Theater of the Mouth: February 11, 2009, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Keller&oldid=1142852191. And some friends of mine, who were very influential in my move, were moving to California and they said, Come to California and try it out. At the same time a gentleman named Bill Wilkinson, who I had a brief conversation with about four years earlier, he was opening a hotel in L.A. called Checkers. Its really, thats where I learned about the idea of being a team as it relates to a sports franchise. If Im going to raise money from a lot of different people so it doesnt impact if Im not successful, its not going to impact their lives. So that was the process with the private placement business plan. And you know what, it was okay, either one. Theres a lot of great chefs out there who can do a lot of great things, but to be consistent 300 days a year lunch and dinner over and over and over and over again is really for me what defines greatness. Did you commit to purchasing it before you raised the money? Its fascinating that theres this underpinning of philosophy beneath the core value of great cuisine, of making it as good as it can possibly be. I said, Jonathan, youre the first chef de cuisine. The highest priority for us is that we are able to reach our own expectations. And that became part of our and it changed, not every day. And one week I thought, Im going to ask him to bring them live, because as a chef I should really know what it feels like and of course how to slaughter an animal, and what better animal to slaughter than something that is relatively small? You know, go out and slaughter a cow or a pig would maybe have been a little more emotionally disturbing, but slaughtering a rabbit may be something that I could handle. And really, they are the true superstars of our profession. He studied briefly at Palm Beach Junior College but knew his real education would come by working at the best restaurants he could find. Out of those 400, 52 agreed to write a check, for a lot of different reasons, for any amount of money. But more than any of that, we realized a great burden of responsibility, because Ruth, who is an expert in her field, somebody who we all look to, somebody who we all respect, has now called us, literally, the best place or the most exciting place to eat in America. The kitchen was my comfort zone, and I was very successful in the kitchen, but outside of that I wasnt so much so. And you know, waste became a really important part of that learning experience, making sure that you know what? The latest restaurant, "ad hoc", opened in September 2006 in Yountville with a different fixed price comfort food dinner served family style every night. Thomas Keller: I think people take it for granted that were just cooks in a kitchen, or youre just servers serving food, or youre just a sommelier serving wine. Jean-Luc Naret was coming to San Francisco himself because he wanted to have an after party to celebrate to introduce the Michelin Guide in 2007. All this was a mystery until the day that you get a phone call. It was him and I in the kitchen with one commis and a dishwasher and of course Anne Marie in the dining room with two or three servers. What the Marines say so much about is that discipline, is that commitment to what youre doing, and more important, the commitment to each other. So when I was doing my research and asking people in the Valley what they thought about The French Laundry, they all loved it. I explained my intentions. Thomas Keller: I learned that I needed to be a lot more responsible to the amount of money I spent on my products and how to use them. Its Jean Luc Naret, who is the director of Michelin. And of course, what does the rabbit do? What are we going to do? He told me. We would have been on a flight so we would have missed the phone call. The chef was highly regarded, three Michelin stars. And we thought this location was just like the perfect location. Thomas Keller is the first American chef to receive consecutive three-star Michelin ratings for two restaurants. Entertainment was going to the Beaubourg and taking a French lesson in the audio class downstairs, or going to the museums or walking around Paris. Expectations do get in the way. The other one was off on his career. It was because of the excitement of working with a team of peers and that physical activity of being on a team. So when I got there, I had a good foundation of technique, a good understanding of classic cuisine, certainly the understanding of the vocabulary in a French kitchen. The following year he added two additional locations of Bouchon Bakery at The Venetian in Las Vegas while continuing to vary his commercial ventures. They served me pigeon and peas with morel mushrooms. Thomas Keller: In 1992 I visited the Napa Valley from Los Angeles. Well, it was covered with dust, but it was covered with soot, with coal dust. You learn a lot from your mistakes. Ill dye it green. So, food color came out, we dyed the pasta green. Yeah. So in reality, from my point of view and the way I interpret this is, it allowed that recipe to be yours and he told you in a narrative how to prepare it. The chef's central focus these days are the final touches on what he envisions as the physical representation of the Keller legacy: a nearly $11 million renovation of the kitchen and property at . Our job is to mentor and train the next generation of superstars, of franchise players, if you will. So sure enough, Paul calls me ten minutes later and asks me to be the president. Per Se, which was designed from scratch and custom-built as part of the overall construction process, was an immediate hit on the New York restaurant scene, with reservations booked months in advance and publications including The New Yorker and The New York Times giving rave reviews. What does the chef think I should choose? For three years he wrote to restaurants all over France. So when they were divorced, that was her path. Had I known everything that I was going to have to do over the course of the next 18 months, I would have given up right away. You want to go there and you want to have an experience. And in San Francisco we had Herb Caen. If youre with somebody you dont really want to be with, or theres a problem going on, your experience is diminished regardless of what I do. You should be thinking about those who youre with. And we thought, Wow, theres 2,000 people there every night. Everybody was doing casual dining. We are only as good as those who come after us. It was part of our culture, part of our philosophy, part of the philosophy that we had embraced from Don and Sally Schmitt. We just received three stars. Even though I didnt have a father present, I had some great, great women that helped form and focus my childhood. With Paul Bocuses son Jerome and their fellow chef Daniel Boulud, Keller founded the Bocuse dOr USA Foundation (Mentor) in 2008 to inspire culinary excellence in young professionals and preserve the traditions and quality of classic cuisine in America. Keller and the Bocuse family hoped to see young American chefs compete successfully in this competition, but a number of years would pass before American chefs would reach the winners circle. Were cooks. We changed every day. Just go. Now Ive got this rabbit thats got a broken leg, and Ive got to kill it and dress it. Right. I think one of my investors invested 500, and the one who invested the most I think was 80,000. Of course, I thought that because of the things that I learned, and because of the ability to execute what I wanted to do, because of my ability to organize a kitchen, I thought that I was invincible. Its an extraordinary event, extraordinary undertaking. And kitchens are run in that way because its all command response. I mean its actually performing, and its a function, and its physical. Thomas Keller: Not really. What It Takes is an audio podcast produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: public service, science and exploration, sports, technology, business, arts and humanities, and justice. Im not sure which one. So we found, I think, a great sense of comfort being in restaurant kitchens, and thats kind of where I found I dont want to say I found a home, but I found a place where I could feel welcomed. Thats where the name comes from. His book, which was extraordinarily inspiring, was a book of stories. Thats what really we want to be able to instill, to teach our young staff is that the person standing next to you is your colleague. It was a very special treat to be invited to lunch with Thomas Keller, the world-renowned chef and owner of the French Laundry, Per Se, and many other award-winning restaurants. We did lunch and dinner. I was four or five years old when my parents were divorced. Trailer. The trio had hoped that their proximity to a sports arena would provide them with a steady flow of business, but the arenas patrons were not interested in the sophisticated fare he was offering, and the restaurant closed its doors. Culinary Skills & High Standards He is known for his meticulous attention to detail, which he says is necessary for creating a memorable dining experience. From the beginning, did you have the idea of doing a tasting menu, rather than a long menu of choices? So the schools that we did have were relatively new. Thomas Keller: Thank you. You learn from the mistake of doing the bad job that you learn that you needed to either stack your dishes differently, rinse them differently, sort the silverware differently, or whatever it was that critical feedback taught you, thats what you needed to do, so you modified your behavior to be successful. And it was really about Marines and their ability to stalk, their ability to be calm, their ability to pounce quickly and seize their prey. Testosterone is raging and youre with all these its a group. Thomas Keller: It was my second failure in a restaurant. And he said, Thomas, I want to be the first to congratulate you. So at the time I was born he was stationed in Camp Pendleton, which is right near Oceanside in California. So living that dream became one of the hardest things Ive ever done, but also one of the most gratifying things Ive ever done in my life. The multiple Michelin-starred chef (The French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon) spent the past five years . It was unprecedented in this country for a restaurant to get three stars from Michelin. Where were you when you decided to make this your career? I was working as a young cook in a private club in Narragansett, Rhode Island called the Dunes Club. So I gave them some and I took some. That year it won three International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) awards for Cookbook of the Year, Julia Child "First Cookbook" Award, and Design Award. Before we get there, Ruth Reichls article, as important as that was, there was an article prior to that which very few people realize. He has won multiple awards throughout his career and is well-known for his rare ability to establish restaurants that are somehow both relaxed and exciting. Just go over there. It was about the engagement with others. Were they going to be Americans? And that really, typically, as much as males have nurturing genes, I think really comes from mostly females and the act of being a parent, being a mother. Keller plans to continue this movement at the art deco-themed TAK Room on the firth floor New Yorks Hudson Yards complex. I had partnered with two male flight attendants who wanted to open a restaurant. The chef de partie is a chef who is responsible for a specific station. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996, and the Best Chef in America in 1997. In the next few years, Keller would pursue his interest in French cooking, developing close relationships with the cooks and proprietors of French restaurants in his own country while applying for jobs in France. It was a restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was like it was it just shocked us all. And the level of the success or the result of the recipe was based on your current ability. And cheese, the cheese cart always comes by in France, and you have so many selections. Very few people in our country even knew that there was an American culinary team representing our country in Lyon every two years at this competition of 23 other nations. And thats where youre there supporting. The second summer I decided to go to New York City to try my hand in Manhattan, and that was when I met Serge Raoul. Not everybody has that much awareness of it, but for our point of view, the sense of national pride that we have in what we do, the commitment that we have during that two-year process of training, choosing and training those young chefs because it takes a year to train them. So if you can give me $5,000, then Ill take on the project, and if its successful, well take our money on the back end. I said, Great. So for the next two weeks I went to the ATM machine, and on my credit card I took out $500 until I got $5,000, and I took $5,000 in cash and gave it to him and he started to modify the business plan and produce a bona fide business plan that I could then present to partners, which we did. Its going into someone elses kitchen and actually becoming part of that kitchen. Its the one hit wonders that are one hit wonders. We made an instant connection, and we agreed on a price, and I was going to buy The French Laundry. That was something that was fascinating. I wasnt doing anything. Today, Thomas Keller and Laura Cunningham make their home in a house behind The FrenchLaundry, while they operate fine dining establishmentsas well as casual bistros, cafs and bakeriesin New York, Las Vegas, Beverly Hills and the Napa Valley. It had become part of the fabric of restaurants in Napa Valley, and certainly of Yountville. Can I send you a copy? Right. Thomas Keller: Those were two of the greatest moments of my life. You realize them on your own and that is really important as well. Thomas Kellerdrew closer to the realization ofa longtime dream when hisTeam USA won the silver medal atthe 2015 Bocuse dOr competition in Lyon, France. And then you have other sous-chefs, which would be responsible for specific groups of chef de parties. They were of age. And that was a wonderful environment, very familiar, very small. Therefore you have to pay them. By living frugally on his savings, Keller was able to undertake a series of unpaid apprentice positions in the citys finest restaurants including Guy de Savoy and Taillevent, Michel Pascuet, Gerard Besson, Le Toit de Passy, Chiberta and Le Pr Catalan. It was a young chef from The French Laundry, Timothy Hollingsworth. When he was hired as chef de cuisine at La Reserve, he was the first American to lead one of New Yorks distinguished French restaurants. So between private placement, commercial bank loan, and an SBA loan over the period, and with the help of Don and Sally Schmitt and Bob Sutcliffe, my attorney, as well as the 52 partners, we were able to put together enough money to buy The French Laundry, and on May 1, 1994 we finally closed on the deal. One of our primary jobs, one of our primary responsibilities is to hire the right people, make sure that the people that were hiring, those individuals, young men and women, are of the right attitude, of the right mindset, have the right skills to enter into our profession. So I had a little bit of savings. And yet you have risen to the highest of stature of culinary greatness. Maybe in Chicago, L.A. a little bit. Thomas Keller: Yeah. And he flies the American flag above his restaurant. The second cookbook that I received, which was from my mentor Roland Henin, was Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point. Of course its such an uncomfortable story for a lot of people that my publisher didnt want to include it in the book and I made her. But the next summer, when spring came around, Ren called me and asked me if I wanted to come back to La Rive, and because that was such a bucolic experience for me, it was so familiar, they were like my second parents, I moved back to Catskill for that third summer.

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