Thomas Kellerdrew closer to the realization ofa longtime dream when hisTeam USA won the silver medal atthe 2015 Bocuse dOr competition in Lyon, France. Of course I didnt have any resources whatsoever. Cooking wasnt the question, but could I lead a team better? And then we have to mentor them not just in their career, but in their lives. Thomas Keller: In 1992 I visited the Napa Valley from Los Angeles. In the same way that our U.S. Olympic athletes represent our country, we feel the same way in our profession. 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). In the spring of 1992 he came upon a restaurant in Yountville, California founded by Sally Schmitt, in a space formerly occupied by an old French stream laundry. It could be as short as two paragraphs. After the failure of Rakel, you persisted with haute cuisine but you moved to Los Angeles. 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. With more than. 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. And to be able to walk into that restaurant as the first American to receive three Michelin stars and be embraced by Mr. Vrinat, who I have until the day he died had such a profound respect for. There was no real technique. And for some reason he said, Okay, Thomas. His New York friend Serge Raoul allowed Keller to stay in his Paris apartment. He is also featured in "My Last Supper" by Melanie Dunea. 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. He grew up in the Depression, was a Marine for 23 years of his life. So when we started to think about Thanksgiving here at our restaurant, The French Laundry, when we first opened, we started thinking about that, serving that kind of meal, which was a meal that allowed you to interact with it. In our country we had very few. I mean caviar and blini. So they do this extraordinary blini there. 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. Yountville, CA: ad hoc, addendum, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, New York: Bouchon Bakery, Per Se, TAK Room (closed), Outstanding Chef: America, James Beard Foundation, 1997. And the success of you as an individual is really based on the success of the team. I believe in you, but I need something. I mean if youre going to go to France which was arguably the best country, had the best food, the best products, the best chefs, the best restaurants thats what you wanted to do. I enjoyed it. You were actually born on the West Coast. There he worked under the French chef Roland Henin, who inspired him to master the exacting art of French haute cuisine. 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. We had some in New York City, mostly in New York I would say. 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. So at that time, cooking wasnt as recognized or as popular as it is today. It had become part of the fabric of restaurants in Napa Valley, and certainly of Yountville. [1], In April 2009, Keller became engaged to longtime girlfriend and former general manager at the French Laundry, Laura Cunningham. 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 had moved to a new community, didnt really know anything about the community, felt very uncomfortable again trying to find a home, trying to find a place I could really embrace and be the chef. 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. Thomas Keller: In the beginning, when Don and Sally Schmitt had the restaurant, there was one menu. In 1994, he set his heart on a converted laundry building in Yountville, in the heart of Californias Napa Valley wine country. FAQs How did Thomas Keller become a Michelin Star chef? But gardening became part of my life. And it was a small kitchen. So the schools that we did have were relatively new. In the American version he plays a cameo appearance as a restaurant patron (the part is played by one of Keller's mentors Guy Savoy in the French version, and Ferran Adri in the Spanish one). In 2011, Keller opened branches of Bouchon Bakery in Beverly Hills and in New Yorks Rockefeller Center. Best Restaurant in the World (French Laundry). Ive had some extraordinary honors in my life. Jerry Della Femina moved down there, opened his offices. Its popularity waned as the stock market bottomed out and at the end of the 1980s, Keller left, unwilling to compromise his style of cooking to simple bistro fare. You had to do different things at different times of the day, which began which were part of the ritual of your job. 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. I learned that doing things that other people do better is not necessarily good just because youre doing it in your own backyard or in your own house. Not just in the kitchen but in the management positions, in the ownership positions, everywhere that I kind of struggled in the past. Thomas Keller: I began my humble career as a dishwasher. What did you learn working at Taillevent? Its been a great pleasure. Never let anybody tell you that you cant do something. 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. The first time U.S.A. is there, Im standing at the pass in Pauls kitchen, Im standing next to him and Im just telling him how proud I am, how much I love what hes done, how much I love him. Very simple. 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 . There was jubilation. 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. And that was the moment, July 1977, that I decided to make this my career and pursued that with determination, with commitment. So for me, there wasnt really a lot of awareness about opportunities outside of learning the trade in a kitchen. And yet you have risen to the highest of stature of culinary greatness. So I said, Yes, chef. And so that began the day of our quest to get on the podium. 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. Pierre was in the kitchen Ann-Marie was in the dining room and I became his sous-chef. 1. Thomas Keller: Its pretty extraordinary when someone with the capacity, with the authority, with the attention that Ruth is able to get says that you are the most exciting place to eat in America. So we were one of the first restaurants to kind of fail. Hes got his cage. And those are his two chefs. It took me quite a while to get there. Thomas Keller: It was a junior college. He recognized a certain talent in me and he wanted to open a restaurant with me so we opened Rakel. Paul Bocuse, who has a great affection for America, hell tell the story. Chef Keller led a team from the U.S. to its first-ever gold medal in theBocuse dOr, a prestigious biannual competition that is regarded as the Olympics of the culinary world. 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. We made an instant connection, and we agreed on a price, and I was going to buy The French Laundry. 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. [24], Keller currently has three online cooking classes at Masterclass.com, pursuing his belief in teaching. And I was working for a chef who was a presence in and of himself. In everything that we do, we have to understand that our expectations have to be of the highest. Theres many ways to entertain yourself without spending a lot of money. Im not sure which one. After The Dunes Club, Keller worked various cooking positions in Florida and soon became the cook at a small French restaurant called La Rive in the Hudson River valley in Catskill, New York. And the last, not any more important than the others, was the idea of teamwork and embracing that. Even though I didnt have a father present, I had some great, great women that helped form and focus my childhood. All these great restaurants were defined by that and so they became the La Le restaurants. Taking his most . 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. I needed to commit myself to doing something I had never done before. And Jean-Louis Palladin came to this country in the early 70s, opened his restaurant at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. And Jean-Louis was baffled because there were no farmers, fishermen, foragers or gardeners that really connected with chefs. It was a very small kitchen, and it was a beautiful experience because it was what I related to from just returning from France. It certainly is very gratifying to see the interest now. It was a daunting task for us every day to produce this menu. And thats something that comes very much from military. Trailer. 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. I should have read that before. Take the lobster, do this, this, and this, and add this and this and you have this is what lobster Bohemian is. He joined forces with his friend Serge Raoul to open a restaurant whose name combined the first letters of the partners last names: Rakel. And I could have him pin the medal on my chest. Thomas Keller: We began of course with caviar. I mean that became the catch phrase. Were they going to be Americans? So I went to Bobs office with this idea of The French Laundry and hoping that he would be my attorney. 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. And if we do those three things right, what happens? The recipe called for a double boiler. We live by them day to day, not necessarily having written them down. 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. I had much more control over 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. I left because I was committed to fine dining and ultimately moved to L.A. And unfortunately Rakel failed or Caf Rakel failed two years later. 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. The owner was more like the owner of the restaurant that I worked at when I was in the Catskill at La Rive. It was an emotional moment. Every day after school hed come home and watch Graham Kerr or Julia Child. There was a friend here in Napa Valley who was a banker turned vintner who helped me with finance, and who helped me with putting together the financial component of the business plan. Therefore you have to pay them. Roast chicken and a salad of fresh lettuces with a simple vinaigrette. I wanted to travel. The owner, Serge Raoul, became a lifelong friend. We have to be that much more determined, that much more committed to what we do every day. With the porcelain manufacturer Raynaud and the design firm Level, Keller created the Hommage collection of white porcelain dinnerware. Success is about giving to our team, our guests, our friends and family and community through time and commitment, advice and mentoring. They had enjoyed several years of modest success but were now looking to sell their business. What an impact that must have had! Thats where the name comes from. [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. It was in watching his. He started his culinary journey young -- at 15, he was already working as an apprentice pastry chef at the Relais of Poitiers hotel. 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. Lets face it, if youre with friends and family, or your partner, and youre having a wonderful time, your experience is going to be elevated because of the time that youre having with the people that youre with. I dont know why, I guess because of the age difference, my brother Joseph was allowed to handle a knife, therefore he was allowed to work with the cooks. And kitchens are run in that way because its all command response. The peas were just so perfect. And of course, I make the critical mistake of only being able to grab one of the hind legs of the rabbit. Chefs use science to develop their food preparation techniques and invent new methods of cooking. Many residents and visitors to the area were lovers of fine wine and well-versed in contemporary trends in fine dining. Thomas Keller: One of our commitments is to make sure that we are consistent. He was the first hotelier to really bring in a great restaurant with a great chef and that was Bradley Ogden. The second cookbook that I received, which was from my mentor Roland Henin, was Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point. We won silver. And I think thats very important, certainly in a kitchen as well as other places in many professions where theres this instant command response. If you could be more efficient than the person next to you, then you could have more time to learn what you wanted to learn, to continue to grow and continue to evolve, continue to progress. The failure of this restaurant did not dissuade you from haute cuisine. And not only that, Ive got to do the other ten. Keller took a $5,000 cash advance on his credit card to retain an attorney who helped him structure a private placement offering. So I had been focused on working in and Ive chosen French cuisine and haute cuisine as my metier. It was poorly lit, and I had to arrive at work the next morning in the kitchen downstairs at 5:30 and they would show me what to do. The more choices you had, the more luxurious it was. Thomas Keller: I think its that way in most classy kitchens. Youll find a job. Theres 12 rabbits in the cage and hes explaining to me in broken English how to kill the rabbit. Chefs understand how cutting, heating and cooling food change its composition. And the kitchen that I was in was nothing like any kitchens that I had been in in America. 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. We changed every day. 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. And I arrived at the front door and a large matronly woman met me and she was very harsh, and she took me up to my room, which was this small cubicle with a window, but the window was covered with dust, which I thought was dust. 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. So sure enough, Paul calls me ten minutes later and asks me to be the president. So that was really the beginning for us of our success in Northern California. We want to make sure that we pay respect to them. The demographics were very important in that process, which we just totally threw out the window, or we just miscalculated. An executive chef would be somebody that would be in a position in a hotel for example, or where there are many different restaurants, and he would be the executive chef over all of the chef de cuisines from each different food and beverage outlet for example. I could only hope for the next 20 years that Im able to continue to dedicate and commit myself on a different level to our profession and to my teams and continue to offer them the ability, the platform to elevate themselves. I spent a little time in college. In 1999, Thomas Keller published The French Laundry Cookbook, which he considers his definitive book on cuisine. Jonathan Benno was our chef at the time. Had they not, I wouldnt be here today. Thomas Keller: Yeah. Thomas Keller was born in Oceanside, California. 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. There werent really a lot of people who had aspirations of becoming a chef. It was familiar to him. And he had great chefs that worked for him. My ignorance, as I said earlier, just continued to motivate me, to propel me forward. From there, he honed his skills at the heart of Thomas Keller's Restaurant Group, rising from a sous chef at Per Se to the executive pastry chef at both Per Se and Bouchon Bakery within a mere two years. I knew I could cook. Then the hard work of attracting investors began. That was at the beginning of that relationship with Serge Raoul. What was school like for you? It was a normal thing and it still is today. Thomas Keller: Yes. I needed to have the knowledge and the skill in order to prepare it. And it really truly is a learning, a place of learning. "[18] He permanently closed his restaurant TAK Room, located in Hudson Yards, during the coronavirus pandemic. So this idea of smoking your own salmon, or this idea of making your own ketchup, which was really popular at this period of time, didnt necessarily result in something that was better than the guy in Scotland whose family has been curing and smoking salmon for generations. How could we be worthy of a Michelin star or two? 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. And he said, Oh, and by the way, Bouchon got one.. Culinary Skills & High Standards He is known for his meticulous attention to detail, which he says is necessary for creating a memorable dining experience. And he agreed to do it. 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. 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. So we had to have a commercial bank loan. Thomas Keller: I know from a personal experience how your expectations can actually diminish an experience. 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. People walking around town, he would just chat people up and, Oh, you know, my son owns The French Laundry. And they would say, Oh, can you get me a reservation? Oh yeah. One last question. I understood that there was a lot of competition, because not only did I want the vegetables, so did the deer and the beavers and any other wildlife that would come into the fray. You learn a lot from your mistakes. What do you say to any chef? But it wasnt about the team that won gold. We sat in their kitchen in their house next door. 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. 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. For movie audiences, a rat with culinary aspirations might be. The rabbit screams. And it just didnt happen. Its an externship, if you will. 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. Teaches Cooking Techniques I: Vegetables, Pasta, and Eggs. 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. So I set my sights high. You have received the high There was a pause. So I was focused on that. Chef Bios: Thomas Keller. No. Somebody will hire you. I wanted to make sure that I had somewhere to go to. It was unprecedented in this country for a restaurant to get three stars from Michelin. 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? And again, a coincidence that Paul Bocuse was going to be in America that March or that April. I was thinking that, I dont know, fireworks. That didnt last long because Bill pretty quickly sold the hotel to a German company, and of course there was a real cultural shift for me and I left, and certainly that became my jumping off point for French Laundry. But no, you went to work in the best restaurants. Cook it by the numbers, following every instruction. 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. Iconic Dishes People become very anxious in those moments. He is one of the most awarded chefs in the world, and The James Beard Foundation has acknowledged him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. I had committed myself since 1977 to make this my career. They didnt want to make the wrong choice, so they would ask the captain, So, what should I eat tonight? Well, we have this and we have this. And so 80 percent of the guests were choosing the tasting menu. 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. In school, were there particular teachers you remember who had an impact on you? One of the most moving little notes on your website is easy to miss, but its just the fact that The French Laundry has had three stars since 2007, and Per Se has had three stars since 2006. He later opened a gourmet Burger Bar in Las Vegas, Nevada, which features a $60 "Rossini Burger" made of American Kobe beef, sauted foie gras, and shaved truffles. Is that hierarchy something that you observed in France? We have to be able to give them options but restrict their initial choice to something that we believe they would enjoy. Philip Tessier, who was a young chef, our sous-chef at French Laundry, formed a team and made the challenge. 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. Thomas Keller: No, not really. Again, just classic but just perfectly done. His restaurant was La Pyramide in Valencin (Vienne), France. What we call a stage in an American restaurant, or a stagiaire in a French one, does that literally mean a stager? My first three-star experience in France was just like that. America had competed since the beginning but never even came close to the podium. So at the time I was born he was stationed in Camp Pendleton, which is right near Oceanside in California. An attorney in Los Angeles named Bob Sutcliffe, who I was introduced to by way of Joachim Splichal, Bob was an attorney who did, on the side, restaurant deals. You got one more to go.. Were cooks. And they would just be, you know, they were 50 years younger than he was, and he would just be telling them stories and theyd just be like listening on the edge of their seats, and that was one of the favorite things that he did. He was always the kind of guy who wanted to save money. It was like it was it just shocked us all. My mother passed away in 1982 so I had gone to France in 1983 but my father was, I have to say. Talk about Rakel. So, we have a sous-chef thats responsible for the meats and the garde manger. I was also developing my relationship with farmers, with foragers, with gardeners, with fishermen from around the area. In the early 70s, when I really started cooking, for me it was really about the process. It was a four-course menu that changed every day. It wasnt a difficult decision for me. I became the first American chef to be at one of the great La Le restaurants in New York City. Soon, he started taking up chef positions at various restaurants in Rhode Island, where he met his mentor and French Master Chef Roland Henin. Every moments important. Cooking and food preparation are applied sciences, and chefs understand them fully to succeed at their job. They were of age. 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. 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. So I went to different banks, several banks. Could you tell us how that came about? 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. 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. Right. I think thats more of what I meant. So typically, artisanal work or work that youre doing with your hands, manual labor, would have a chef. In the late 1980s he opened Rakel in New York, but left for California a few years later. [7] Keller spent nineteen months raising $1.2million from acquaintances and investors to purchase the restaurant, then re-opened it in 1994. Start with your all-time favorite recipe from your favorite cookbook. 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. We had a beautiful foie gras to start, and we had I forget the dessert. Were committed to one another. The following year Michelin was going to launch in San Francisco. 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. [6], Following the split with his partner at Rakel, Keller took various consultant and chef positions in New York and Los Angeles. And I walked on the property. 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.