Its reaction is to jump. Yes. As much as I would have appreciated and certainly had deep respect to go to France and to receive it at the lyse, I knew right away that I would prefer to have somebody else pin that medal on my chest. Another great milestone for you was the Legion dHonneur. 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. So we added a vegetable menu, which was seven courses, and we added a tasting menu, which was nine courses. Our job is to mentor and train the next generation of superstars, of franchise players, if you will. What was school like for you? And the kitchen downstairs at 5:30, my first job was to shovel coal into the ovens. Were putting our were composing our dishes in a way theyre going to be compelling for people, but we also have the ability to modify anything we do for somebody who has a dietary restriction or who just doesnt like something. He is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three-star Michelin ratings for two different restaurants. Jerry Della Femina moved down there, opened his offices. I gathered everybody around and I said, I think were going to have a great day tomorrow, so we opened a glass of champagne. 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. I said, Im never going to do that again. And he looks at me with a smirk in his eye and says, Gold. So hes still pushing. Made him a strawberry shortcake for dessert. What better way to start a celebration than that? Armed with his investors contributions, Keller secured a bank loan and a federal small business loan. In a few years, Kellers restaurants would collectively receive seven stars in a single years Michelin Guide. "[18] He permanently closed his restaurant TAK Room, located in Hudson Yards, during the coronavirus pandemic. Thomas Keller: My mother passed away, unfortunately, by the time I went to France. Herb Caen came to dinner at The French Laundry. Keller remained in New York, consulting, but was completely unsatisfied. He had a friend, Ren Macary and his wife, Paulette, who owned a restaurant in Catskill, New York outside of the town of Catskill, New York. A community college in Palm Beach. His grandson is American. If you kept after it year after year after year, that dish evolved into something else. So its not just we relate to chef as somebody thats only in the kitchen, but remember, its chef de cuisine, chef of the kitchen, chef of the electricians, chef of the plumbers. I became a chef there and moved to Los Angeles. The recipe called for a double boiler. He is also featured in "My Last Supper" by Melanie Dunea. I spent three summers there: 1980, 81 and 82. And it really truly is a learning, a place of learning. The chef was highly regarded, three Michelin stars. Saatchi & Saatchi, another huge advertising firm, opened their corporate headquarters down there. I went to move to Paris in 1983 so I had been cooking now for almost a decade. Thomas Keller: I think thats just it. And of course he was the one who took the medal out of the box and pinned it on my chest, and it was one of the most it was the most I think extraordinary moment of my life to receive that kind of recognition from a country that has defined for me what great cuisine is. Start with your all-time favorite recipe from your favorite cookbook. He has established a collection of restaurants that sets a new paradigm within the hospitality profession, including The French Laundry, in Napa Valley, and Per Se, in New York, among others. Kellers mother managed a restaurant in the area, and both Thomas and his older brother Joseph worked in the restaurant kitchen from an early age. And it was just one of those magical moments. I was questioning my ability as a chef. I spent three summers there. Paul Bocuse was a commis at his restaurant. 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. 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. After a third summer at La Rive, he was working at Polo Restaurant in New York City when he finally received a job offer from a restaurant in Arbois in Northeastern France and packed his bags. So I want you to come to my restaurant with the attitude that youre going to have a great time because of the experience youre going to have with those that youre dining with. I wanted to see new things. In my lifetime, in my career, Ive watched it grow from its infancy to where it is today, for good and for bad. I think thats more of what I meant. Under Henin's study, Keller learned the fundamentals of classical French cooking. The Keller empire expanded to Southern California with the 2009 opening of Bouchon and Bar Bouchon in Beverly Hills. He wanted America to have a better representation at the Bocuse dOr. And you never know. It was like it was it just shocked us all. Its always, Oui, chef. Yes. I had only been there for a year, but I was determined. 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. One last question. I came up. So you know, I did different things in different kitchens, because each chef needed a stagiaire in a different way. They feel the responsibility to them. And that was my room. sous-chef. So, our morning sous-chef is responsible for really the beginning of the day and setting the tempo for the rest of the day, which means that he has to work with a lot of the commis, which are typically the youngest, of course the least skilled, the least experienced. The Cobbley Nob has to do with woodworking, because one of our partners was an amateur he was a hobbyist. He relocated to France in . We fell to tenth. They didnt want steak Diane and pommes boulangre. [13] The former French Laundry Chef de Cuisine Timothy Hollingsworth won the Bocuse d'Or USA semi-finals in 2008, and represented the U.S. in the world finals in January 2009 under Keller's supervision where he placed 6th, equaling the best performance of the U.S. in the contest to date. And he said to me one day, he said, You know, Thomas, the reason cooks cook is really to nurture people. And at that moment that really resonated with me and I said, Wow, I want to become a chef.. And Raphael was run just like the restaurants ran in France. So the morning sous-chef is a very, very important position, somebody that typically has had great experience in the restaurant that hes working in. He was the first hotelier to really bring in a great restaurant with a great chef and that was Bradley Ogden. It was here he discovered his passion for cooking and perfection of the hollandaise sauce. So you always had a bread and butter plate in one spot, a service plate in one spot. It changed, whatever the seasons brought, whatever the vegetables were. We had some in New York City, mostly in New York I would say. We made an instant connection, and we agreed on a price, and I was going to buy The French Laundry. Not only did I get a commercial bank loan, I also went to the Small Business Administration because I was still short on money. I caught my breath and I said of course I thanked him very much and I said, One of the things that I want to assure you of is, again, its great to achieve this recognition, but now its our responsibility to make sure that the guests that come to our restaurant have that experience. Thats where the name comes from. Thomas Keller: Per Se opened in 2004. You just never know. You should be thinking about those who youre with. I had committed myself since 1977 to make this my career. How did you come by that vision? You had to get the glassware to the bartenders so they could do their job. With more than 1.5 million copies of his cookbooks in print, he is the author of six cookbooks, including the recently released,The French Laundry, Per Se. So we lasted about 12 months. And so as a young person, my brother and I my brother Joseph, who is 18 months older than I would spend a lot of time in the restaurant and in the kitchen. That was at the beginning of that relationship with Serge Raoul. He opened the restaurant for more days of the week and gradually evolved a policy of offering two nine-course tasting menus, one vegetable-based, and a second based on animal protein. Its been a great pleasure. So we have a sous-chef thats responsible for canaps and fish for example. Thomas Keller: Those were two of the greatest moments of my life. We were of course very flattered. It began in 1985 when I returned from France. Thomas Keller: There was one other a little less-known chef, who also inspired me and I think a lot of my colleagues, and that was Jean-Louis Palladin. I mean an extraordinary chef. We had Johnson and Wales. So thats what we do. But Paul Bocuse, who has been an icon in our profession, someone who Ive always looked up to, somebody who changed the way our profession is perceived, somebody whos changed the way we eat, literally changed the way we eat, started a competition, international competition 30 28 years ago to bring the world together on an international level for a culinary competition that resulted in relationship building, in teaching, in awareness and camaraderie, and helping to expand the awareness of our profession around the world. Keller was full of new ideas he was eager to implement, but he and the owner did not agree, and Keller moved to a smaller restaurant, Raphael, which he found far more congenial. So he worked with a couple chefs in helping them raise money, organize their businesses. It was about Pauls dream realized, America reaches the podium. He said, I just want to tell you, youre going to get a phone call tomorrow and youre going to be really happy. So I went home. So at that right moment, in that right period of time, I was able to put my application in and be approved for an SBA loan. Its just breathtaking to look at, very classic, the aromas, the butter, and of course you have a tin of caviar and beautiful glasses of champagne. Roast chicken and a salad of fresh lettuces with a simple vinaigrette. Many times the advice was, Well just go. Thomas Keller: The first had an odd name, so dont laugh. Thomas Keller: Yeah. One thing that is so fascinating about your biography is your lack of formal culinary education, the lack of a Cordon Bleu certificate. Thomas Keller: No, not really. Thomas Keller: Every morning there was a ritual where I would wake up and I would call my list of people asking them for money. And kitchens are run in that way because its all command response. I learned that organization was really important. 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. A year later your skills your experience were increased, and if you made that same dish, it would be different. All of them loved the idea but turned me down. Thomas Keller: My father was a Marine. It was a wonderful restaurant. We invite those from our veterans home here in Yountville down to experience a meal around a table in a familiar place with food that is nourishing in every way. And I shouldnt say my first job, my first job in a formal kitchen was as a commis. I got in contact with the owners, Don and Sally Schmitt. You had your different areas for your knives, your forks, your spoons, things like that. We built our new kitchen. Again I told him how proud we were of that, and that was our responsibility to make sure that we lived up to the reputation. So efficiency became important, how you lined up the racks, how you put the plates in the racks, or when was the time to wash the glasses, when was the time to wash the silverware so that nothing so that everything became seamless for everybody. I didnt recognize it until much later in my career, but I realized it and I understand that was part of the foundation of why I became a good cook and ultimately was able to become a good chef. Thomas Keller: In 1977 I met my mentor, Roland Henin, who really enlightened me about what cooks do: we nurture people. Many residents and visitors to the area were lovers of fine wine and well-versed in contemporary trends in fine dining. As a teenager, he fell in love with the art of French cooking and learned his craft working in restaurants up and down the East Coast before moving to France to complete his training. Recently, Keller started marketing a line of signature white Limoges porcelain dinnerware by Raynaud called Hommage Point (in homage to French chef and restaurateur, Fernand Point) that he helped and a collection of silver hollow ware by Christofle. So on Thanksgiving day at Bouchon, thats what we do. Which one do I want? Keller loved the location, and thought the little town in the heart of Californias wine country would be the perfect place to practice the fusion of tradition and innovation he had long imagined. Hes that person thats going to support you, thats not going to let you fall and dont let him fall, and really its a team. So between the two of them, they ignited what I believe we have, the resurgence of the farmer, the fisherman, the gardener and the forager. 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. His employers there, Pierre and Anne-Marie Latuberne, recommended him to Ren and Paulette Macary, who operated a restaurant of their own, La Rive, in Catskill, New York during the summer season. Soon, he started taking up chef positions at various restaurants in Rhode Island, where he met his mentor and French Master Chef Roland Henin. And during my time working for him and of course I was just a lowly cook so Im not sure why I was having this kind of conversations with him but the conversations were really about cooks and our career and our profession. And of course if you were successful, then it was positive feedback and you knew that you did a good job. And of course the next morning he called me and he told me that The French Laundry again had received the highest recognition from Michelin Guide, three stars. 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. And to keep herself busy, and of course to supply some income for the family, she worked in restaurants. Those things. I think that is really the essence of hospitality, is that you want to give people something that makes them happy, makes them feel good, nourishes them. I remember she served me on that day. We converted the restaurant into Caf Rakel. Were committed to one another. I dont want to say the art of repetition, but the ability to respect repetition and embrace it. Before we get there, Ruth Reichls article, as important as that was, there was an article prior to that which very few people realize. Feedback was the third discipline. And typically in the day she would work at the Officers Club as a hostess or a waitress, working her way up to understanding how to manage a restaurant. And it was a small kitchen. He thought that would be the perfect kind of place for me, small, manageable, in a beautiful community here in Napa Valley. And that training goes on not for two weeks or two months, but that training goes on the entire time that theyre with us. The story of The French Laundry for me is an incredible story, because everybody who was part of the process, who was part of the evolution, was part of that project, has impacted it in so many different ways. 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. Keller still believed that to become the chef he wanted to be, he needed to study French cuisine at the source by working in Frances great restaurants. And that was a wonderful environment, very familiar, very small. Our money ran out and I left and went to work at Caf du Parc, and the poor guys had to kind of lick their wounds and go back to being flight attendants. For movie audiences, a rat with culinary aspirations might be. And we thought, Wow, theres 2,000 people there every night. Thomas Keller: I wish I could say there were, but no. Today we have executive chefs as well. Roasted chicken, thats a simple thing to do, but its very hard. Talk about Rakel. It was part of our culture, part of our philosophy, part of the philosophy that we had embraced from Don and Sally Schmitt. Now, before I went to see Bob, you have to realize that I had worked on this business plan, right? 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. It was about the engagement with others. They had saved their money and they opened a restaurant called the Cobbley Nob. I became the chef of Raouls, which was, at the time an outpost in what became SoHo on Prince Street, and it was a classic, classic, French bistro in every way, and it was wonderful. So I set my sights high. You want to go there and you want to have an experience. It was on West 45th Street in West Palm Beach, right next door to the jai-alai fronton. How did you come to take over The French Laundry? Its always been an important part of our culture, that consistency. On February 16, 2004, Keller's much-anticipated Per Se restaurant opened in the Time Warner Center complex in New York under the helm of Keller's Chef de Cuisine, Jonathan Benno. Im looking at this rabbit hanging on the side of the barn, and 11 rabbits in the cage. And I always say my biggest asset at the time was my ignorance. So he reached in the cage, pulls a rabbit out, both legs, has one of those little baseball clubs, knocks it on its head, pins the rabbit to the side of the barn, slits its throat, dresses the rabbit in about five minutes. You had to change the water in the dish machine every two hours. So during the Korean War he was there for two and a half years. And the success of you as an individual is really based on the success of the team. Now our core values can be related to a lot of different people some of them defining the same way, others not necessarily but they understand them. You never say no to the chef, right? And of course as a white, middle-class, educated American, I wasnt on the top of the list of somebody the SBA was going to give money to. 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. I had been fired from another. Not necessarily. We went to the local markets all the time. On the other hand, we look at it as a sports franchise as well. Theres many ways to entertain yourself without spending a lot of money. It does. Were they going to come from France? And hell tell the story that he is part American because he has American blood running through his veins. I thought, If Im going to do this, I need to do it now. And I went back to Los Angeles. It was such a daunting task, the things that I went through. 3. Every day after school hed come home and watch Graham Kerr or Julia Child. Kon Tiki, things like that. I believe in you, but I need something. Iconic Dishes I learned how to share with them. The job in Arbois turned out be far less promising than he had imagined, and he headed for Paris. Youre working in a restaurant and in France you work in a restaurant Monday through Friday and you work both services, lunch and dinner so you get to work at 9:00 in the morning. You know, learn how to cut brunoise, learn how to peel an onion, learn how to slice. And I thought that was just brilliant in the way he wrote that book. Thomas Keller: Fortunately, for those three years I was trying to find somebody to commit to giving me a job, I was also saving my money. Thomas Keller: I began my humble career as a dishwasher. Where I ended up having the commitment from was a one-star Michelin restaurant in Arbois which is in the Jura, which is in eastern France just below Alsace a place I had never heard about before, a restaurant I had never heard about. We did everything from the pats to the desserts, and he taught me a great deal. And thats something that comes very much from military. So when you go into a restaurant like The French Laundry and you have to make a choice, its like, What do I choose? Right? And certainly receiving the Legion of Honor from President Sarkozy was beyond anything I could ever dream of. And luxury to me is not having to make a choice, having somebody guide me through an experience thats going to result in something that is memorable. And those are his two chefs. And about midnight he finished about midnight and he came back to the kitchen and I was standing in the box in our little office in the kitchen, the chefs office, and I was cleaning, doing my nightly cleaning rituals. They become better than you. And now Im left, because now I have to without his help or his guidance is butcher these other 11 rabbits. And I walked on the property. 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. Kellers 2012 cookbook,Bouchon Bakery, was on The New York Times bestseller list for nearly two months. The multiple Michelin-starred chef (The French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon) spent the past five years . Thomas Keller, who was named "America's Best Chef" in 2001 by TIME Magazine, among countless other accolades, has taught a generation of restaurateurs how to not only be like him, but to be even better. But each day, waking up each day finding some success kept me motivated to the next day. And it was my expectations that got in the way of my experience. And that became part of our and it changed, not every day. He combined his thorough knowledge of French tradition with his own flair for humor and imagination, offering his guests a seemingly endless series of exquisite small plates, such as a miniature ice cream cone of salmon tartare, or a small serving of oysters and caviar resting on a bed of tapioca. In 2003, Richard Capizzi became the first pastry chef (not to mention the youngest) to ever sweep the awards at the U.S. So I was focused on that. That truly defines our success. Its like, Wow, I can choose any one of these pillows. But which one really is the best? What does the American Dream mean to you? Somebody will hire you. I wanted to make sure that I had somewhere to go to. Raoul and Keller, R-A and K-E-L. No problem. So we were always trying to fill the books in with his reservations. You have received the high There was a pause. So we chose to stay in Paris because the phone call would have I mean to miss a phone call as being one of the first Michelin starred restaurants in America, being one of the first American chefs to receive potentially a Michelin star would have been too much of a I think of a moment in my life that Id want to give up.
