We were open Monday through Friday. He said, No matter how good of a cook you are, unless theres people in your seats, youre going to fail. Of course I read that after we failed. Did you commit to purchasing it before you raised the money? We have to give them training. The important thing, he said, is to make sure to give to young chefs the right things, the right mentoring because "if we're not truly working to raise the standards of our profession, then we're not really doing our job. Thomas Keller: Not really. And he would always tell me he would save me a dollar on a basket of strawberries, or he would be able to get an extra couple quarts of milk. I understood that if I was going to cook a recipe, I was going to produce a recipe, I needed to have the correct ingredients. Herb Caen came to dinner at The French Laundry. Or we could stay in Paris, maybe get a phone call, but miss the celebration in New York. Hubert Keller - Wikipedia That was at the beginning of that relationship with Serge Raoul. 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. 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. This was my first three-star restaurant, and I walked in there thinking that I dont know what I was thinking. Thomas Keller: No, not really. They feel the responsibility to them. Hes gone. Keller has written five bestselling cookbooks, starting with The French Laundry Cookbook, and has received Best Chef honors from TIME magazine, the James Beard Foundation and the Culinary Institute of America. So we added a vegetable menu, which was seven courses, and we added a tasting menu, which was nine courses. Its an extraordinary event, extraordinary undertaking. So if you dont want to be repetitive in what youre doing, you probably dont want to really be a cook. Thomas Keller: In the beginning, when Don and Sally Schmitt had the restaurant, there was one menu. Whats so great about that? Right? This was kind of at the end of the era of the La Le restaurants. I learned six disciplines at the dishwasher which have, I think, become a foundation for my career, and I think for many people who aspire to have success in their careers. You come back at 5:30. Cooking and food preparation are applied sciences, and chefs understand them fully to succeed at their job. I was a semi-well-known chef with, I guess, a checkered reputation, and now I needed to go out and raise the money to buy this restaurant. Following the failure of the Cobbley Nob, Keller became sous-chef at Caf du Parc in West Palm Beach. Not only on our profession, but on the consumer, and now beginning to have an impact on the way our food is being produced, is being grown, is being delivered, and thats a very important thing for us all. So when I went to see Bob Sutcliffe, I had a 300-page business plan and a bottle of olive oil. Of course his son went to school here in the Culinary Institute of America and now lives in America. So he worked with a couple chefs in helping them raise money, organize their businesses. You were actually born on the West Coast. I spent three summers there. I had already closed two restaurants. 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. Returning to Florida, he opened his first restaurant, the Cobbley Nob, with two partners in West Palm Beach. Its that social engagement, that interaction around a dinner table that to me is the most important. Thomas Keller: I think that was in 1977. In the process I did really I wasnt really privy to the process that you go through but I remember receiving the letter from the President of France telling me that he was proud of the work that I had done in my field and that I deserved to be recognized by the people of France and to receive the Medallion de Legion dHonneur was their way of expressing their gratitude and asking me if I would like to be hosted at the lyse Palace in Paris later that year to receive the medal from him, or to receive the medal from an officer of the Legion dHonneur that was of a higher rank than I was. Theres two ways of looking at it, and I look at it both ways. You opened your own restaurant in New York in 1986. Interview with Chef Thomas Keller - Institute of Culinary Education It was really about price points. French Laundry's Thomas Keller, an exacting chef at a crossroads The rabbit story was a profound moment in my life where I learned that really deep sense of respect for everything that we have coming through our back doors. We all learned a great deal from it. So for us we just started to focus on the tasting menu, and it became the two tasting menus, the vegetable and the menus with the proteins. Over the next few years the restaurant earned numerous awards, including from the James Beard Foundation, gourmet magazines, the Mobil Guide (five stars), and the Michelin Guide (three stars). It was a daunting task for us every day to produce this menu. It was the Americans on the podium. The chef was highly regarded, three Michelin stars. Yes. I had been reading about this restaurant for years. All this was a mystery until the day that you get a phone call. 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. A community college in Palm Beach. Its Jean Luc Naret, who is the director of Michelin. Its so repetitive. Youve mentioned the value of consistency, but nothing says it like that. Come over. And we went and it was an amazing moment to be able to walk into Taillevent, which had such a profound impact on my career, on my philosophy, on the culture that we have, on my skills, on everything in my life. Thomas Keller: When my parents were married, my father was typically stationed somewhere else. We just received three stars. I was committed. [14][15][16] On describing his reasons for accepting the Bocuse d'Or Team USA presidency, Keller stated, "When Chef [Paul] Bocuse calls you on the phone and says hed like you to be president of the American team, you say, Oui, chef. Thomas Keller: Interpretation is a very, very important word. Testosterone is raging and youre with all these its a group. And this olive oil was a small olive oil company I began to kind of keep me solvent in some ways, but also keep me motivated and keep me busy and have kind of I wouldnt even call it plan B. Theyll pick up the food guides. 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. Our job is to mentor and train the next generation of superstars, of franchise players, if you will. Very simple. The new restaurant got off to a good start, but the stock market crash of 1987 cut deeply into their business. Turned me down primarily not because there wasnt value in the property, but because I had a tax lien in New York City, and this tax lien was based on our failure at Rakel. 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. I had left Checkers. Thomas Keller: I think its that way in most classy kitchens. It was a new restaurant with a chef named Pierre Latuberne and Pierres wife, Anne-Marie. And it was a small kitchen. Maybe in Chicago, L.A. a little bit. I said, Jonathan, youre the first chef de cuisine. So there was just the three of us and then along came my younger sister when she remarried. And then going to France and in a five-and-a-half hour period producing those two proteins and serving it to 24 international judges. Of course we want to make our restaurants better, but our overarching goal is to elevate the standards of our profession, and we do that by training, by mentoring, by giving the skills and knowledge to those next generations, so that they can not only help us in our restaurants but then go out and be impactful in other restaurants, and of course hopefully one day open their own restaurants. People become very anxious in those moments. 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. I stopped to see him, say hello, see how he was doing. As important as Ruths was, Herbs was the same, the Schmitts. We respond to that by notching up our game. Kwame Onwuachi's Memoir Reveals Kitchen Abuse at Thomas Keller's Per Se All About Chef Thomas Keller - Restaurants, Awards & More The idea of service is so pertinent to both worlds, military and culinary. It was a perfect meal to celebrate a perfect moment with the best people in the world. 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. The failure of this restaurant did not dissuade you from haute cuisine. [4] Four years after his parents divorced, the family moved east and settled in Palm Beach, Florida. AllRightsReserved. So we had a gathering at the Per Se in New York where we invited the ambassador from France who came, and I thought of my colleagues of course, Daniel, Jerome, Alain Ducasse was there, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and it was a great celebration. And Rakel was in an area that wasnt really supported by a community or a neighborhood around it. Located down the street from The French Laundry, it serves moderately priced French bistro fare, with Bouchon Bakery opening next door a few years later (in 2006 Keller opened a branch of the bakery in the Time Warner Center in Manhattan). A typical person who wants to be a chef might think, Im going to go study with a really good person in Chicago or New York, or even a really good person in Paris. At The French Laundry, Keller applied everything he had learned from his years as a chef and his own previous ventures. Saatchi & Saatchi, another huge advertising firm, opened their corporate headquarters down there. 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. Were all in it together, and we all have to support one another. We try to limit the choices, relieve the anxiety, and give somebody an experience that then, when they leave the restaurant, its memorable. 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. You know, working with a group of other young men in a line, in a high-stress environment where its very intense and youre cooking food. I was a year-and-a-half younger, therefore I had to be set in front of the dishwasher. I was questioning my ability as a chef. My oldest brother was here at the same time. So the lobster Bohemian came out the way you interpreted it at that time. Talk about Rakel. So typically, artisanal work or work that youre doing with your hands, manual labor, would have a chef. We want to make sure that we pay respect to them. 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? Everybody did. How did you come by that vision? And although I was very young, one of the things I do remember about Camp Pendleton is one of the regiments had for a mascot a tiger. They had saved their money and they opened a restaurant called the Cobbley Nob. So thats where I chose to go. Theres a chef de partie in every different station thats in a kitchen. So as a young boy, this tiger was in this massive well, I dont want to say penned-in cage. We sat in their kitchen in their house next door. Keller's mother was a restaurateur who employed Thomas as help when her cook got sick. Daniel said, Pauls going to call you in ten minutes and ask you to be the president. Were they going to come from France? I had much more control over it. Born in America in 1955, Thomas Keller is a restaurateur and cookbook author, but first and foremost, a chef. The latest restaurant, "ad hoc", opened in September 2006 in Yountville with a different fixed price comfort food dinner served family style every night. You knew when you did a bad job and you knew when you did a good job. Why Thomas Keller's Michelin Stars Make Him Unique - TastingTable.com Thomas Keller Teaches Cooking Techniques - MasterClass Thomas Keller: Its funny. The following year he added two additional locations of Bouchon Bakery at The Venetian in Las Vegas while continuing to vary his commercial ventures. It was here he discovered his passion for cooking and perfection of the hollandaise sauce. Its very much like going into somebodys home. The owner, Serge Raoul, became a lifelong friend. Its really, thats where I learned about the idea of being a team as it relates to a sports franchise. I didnt have a job. That sounds wonderful. French kitchens are very delineated, arent they? Could you tell us that story? My first culinary disaster was a recipe from this book, and it just goes to show you the lack of availability of ingredients in our country at the time. The entire pastry production, the entire pastry service, working with the chef de cuisine on the philosophy of the pastry. Paul Bocuse said it very well. 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. And he looks at me with a smirk in his eye and says, Gold. So hes still pushing. It was a Frenchman, and he would bring me 12 rabbits beautifully dressed every week. [1], In April 2009, Keller became engaged to longtime girlfriend and former general manager at the French Laundry, Laura Cunningham. Its an externship, if you will. And if we do that, if we do that every day, then thats the best we can do, and we can feel comfortable that we have given you the best. It certainly is very gratifying to see the interest now. Visitors to Napa brought word back to San Francisco, where favorable mention in the press drew interest from even farther away. Thomas Keller: The first had an odd name, so dont laugh. We went to the local markets all the time. Keller began his career as a professional cook at the Palm Beach Yacht Club in 1974. So there were five of them. Its going into someone elses kitchen and actually becoming part of that kitchen. I wanted to travel. How did you come to take over The French Laundry? 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. Its this whole process, which has really kind of made it really difficult for us to have a proper stage in the kitchen. I mean that became the catch phrase. At this time newspapers still had a social columnist. When Thomas Keller says he's built a better chocolate bar, it's worth tasting the results. As you mentioned earlier, the 1980s and 90s were a fascinating time for great food in California. 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. It was a four-course menu that changed every day. I became a consultant, which paid me more money than I ever made before, but which was so unrewarding to do that that I was just miserable. After World War II the men came back and the women stayed at work and that spawned the convenience food generation, which was us. And he had told me about this small restaurant in Yountville for sale called The French Laundry and I should look into that. When Keller returned to the United States, he was ready to take on the world, but the world still had a few bumps in store for him, including an economic . And he said, Thomas, I want to be the first to congratulate you. To be there for a long time, to be impactful for a long time, to have a team that continues to evolve, to have guests that continue to come to your restaurant, to have that relationship with your partners or your suppliers, those are really, really important things for me in a restaurant. Not just in the culinary profession, not just in the hospitality profession, but in anything. Were dedicated to one another. We all learned that we had to be aware of the demographics and not just what we wanted to do, but what those around us really wanted to eat. So he wrote a check to the New York tax authorities to clear us up, which allowed me to get a bank loan. He is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three-star Michelin ratings for two different restaurants. You set up for dinner, then you have dinner. The restaurant was Per Se, in New York. Chefs understand how cutting, heating and cooling food change its composition. How could we be worthy of a Michelin star or two? All these great restaurants were defined by that and so they became the La Le restaurants. 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: I was working at a restaurant. Its not just about getting something to eat. So Bill is then taking his expertise and skill to L.A., bought a hotel downtown, renamed it Checkers, and brought in me. It began in 1985 when I returned from France. I was unsure of my career. His New York friend Serge Raoul allowed Keller to stay in his Paris apartment. It had been here for a long time. It was such a moment for us because we represented our country. What gives you that idea? Before we get there, Ruth Reichls article, as important as that was, there was an article prior to that which very few people realize. So that was really the beginning for us of our success in Northern California. So you have chef electricians. Then I think thats what makes our culture so strong. 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. 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. Serge was my only investor (in Rakel) so his life was impacted by the failure of Rakel. But Gourmet magazine picked it up and they thought it was very important. A sports franchise kind of mentality as well as a militaristic kind of mentality, because we do have and the same in the military you have hierarchy. There was that true connection to our suppliers, to those people who produced our food. Start with your all-time favorite recipe from your favorite cookbook. It would seem Chef Thomas Keller would have reason to be satisfied. Again, just classic but just perfectly done. You have dinner. So I gave them some and I took some. Keller started out young in the field of cooking and culinary skills - in fact, his love for cooking surfaced when he once worked as a chef at his mother's restaurant in Florida. That was a Sunday supper, and we had a beautiful time. When I started to cook, the first cookbook that I received was from my mother, and she gave me a cookbook called A Treasury of Great Recipes. And I always say my biggest asset at the time was my ignorance. So we have a sous-chef thats responsible for canaps and fish for example. I wanted to have a large group of people, because of my experience at Rakel. So I was shuffled between very loving, dedicated, committed women, and it was really a wonderful childhood, if you will. And I thought, Wow, this may be a great opportunity for me. At the same time, be able to do my homework when needed, be able to function as a young person and still keep busy. Michelin came in 2006. It changes your life of course. Every day after school hed come home and watch Graham Kerr or Julia Child. Best Restaurant in the Americas (French Laundry), Best New Restaurant (Per Se), James Beard Foundation, 2005, Outstanding Restaurant (French Laundry), James Beard Foundation, 2006, Michelin Guide Bay Area, 3 Stars for The French Laundry, 2006 Current, Michelin Guide Bay Area, 1 Star for Bouchon, 2007 Current, Michelin Guide Bay Area, 1 Star for The Surf Club Restaurant, 2022 Current, Gayot Top 40 Restaurants in the US (French Laundry) 2004 2010, Gayot Top 40 Restaurants in the US (Per Se) 2010, Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor, presented by Chef Paul Bocuse on March 29, 2011, in NYC, Lifetime Achievement Award (French Laundry), This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 18:37. But of course there was no recipe for the spinach pasta. We did so many different things. He studied briefly at Palm Beach Junior College but knew his real education would come by working at the best restaurants he could find. It was about Pauls dream realized, America reaches the podium. 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. So it just became a natural evolution for us to do away with the five-course menu because 80 percent of our guests were choosing the nine courses, and 20 percent were choosing the 40 others. Sample. So thats what we do. They were of age. You're science-oriented. I mean an extraordinary chef. The restaurant is a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World. Theyre working on the same preparation, the same compositions, the same dishes, the same recipes day in and day out for that entire year period. 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. Now people who are interested in food and wine, theyll read the food section of The New York Times or the Chronicle or the L.A. Times or any newspaper. The success has motivated me and propelled me forward. In France, Keller formed a friendship with the legendary chef Paul Bocuse, sponsor of the Bocuse dOr competition, the Olympics of international cooking. Acclaimed Chef Thomas Keller Joins Hestan Culinary as Brand Ambassador We are only as good as those who come after us. I believe the book was called A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price. In 1994, Keller closed the deal and set about renovating the facility. The California-based chef has won nearly every culinary award imaginable; his cookbooks line the shelf of other chefs and passionate home. The peas were just so perfect. And those are his two chefs. I needed to have the knowledge and the skill in order to prepare it. Those were things that he was familiar with so and just telling stories. We changed every day. All of them loved the idea but turned me down. And thats something that comes very much from military. Thomas Keller: At 4:00 in the afternoon, we were on the West (Left) Bank, in front of one of the department stores over there I think Samaritaine or some one of the great department stores of Paris and the phone rings. FAQs How did Thomas Keller become a Michelin Star chef? Thomas Keller: There was a recipe in there, and I cant remember the name of the recipe, but it was a recipe from a very famous restaurant in Italy and it was, I believe, spinach pasta with prosciutto di Parma, parmesan cheese and butter. 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. I was in an area in California I was in Los Angeles I didnt really know that area that well. Thomas Keller: Yeah. Chef Keller led a team from the U.S. to its first-ever gold medal in the Bocuse d'Or, a prestigious biannual competition that is regarded as the Olympics of the culinary world. And if you appreciate it, great. Oh, what difference does it make? Its always been an important part of our culture, that consistency. Youve done a lot of beautiful service for veterans here in this area. Thats a beautiful analogy for how one grows as a chef or as an artist, that youre always going to have a slightly different interpretation later in life when youve learned more. So that was a mistake I made that I never made again, and I learned from that. Thats what he wanted. I think the single most important thing you can do the single most important decision you make when youre making a reservation to a restaurant is not what restaurant youre going to, but who youre going with.