His grandson is American. And his house was right next door to The French Laundry, where he lived and it was a common thing to go over there after work in the afternoon, at four or five oclock when the morning team would be finishing up, and theyd be over there on his front porch drinking beer out of cans, because he really liked canned beer as opposed to bottled beer. Certainly the profession that I chose, cooking, allowed me to do all that. The success has motivated me and propelled me forward. 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. So we were producing if it was five, we were producing 40 items, 40, 45 items a day. Were dedicated to one another. We want to make sure that we pay respect to them. So you have chef electricians. But each day, waking up each day finding some success kept me motivated to the next day. The second cookbook that I received, which was from my mentor Roland Henin, was Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point. Were they going to be Americans? Originally intended to be a temporary project while Keller planned his lifelong dream restaurant for the location, serving hamburgers and wine,[9] he decided to make ad hoc permanent and find a new location for the hamburger restaurant due to its popularity. 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. Theyll pick up the food guides. We sat in their kitchen in their house next door. I needed to have the knowledge and the skill in order to prepare it. 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. Thomas Keller: We opened Bouchon. So I didnt have rent to pay. The more choices you had, the more luxurious it was. 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. He thought that would be the perfect kind of place for me, small, manageable, in a beautiful community here in Napa Valley. Mr. Keller thinks, at least for him, a change may be in order. 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. Weve reached an interesting crossroads in the stagiaire program because the labor departments need to get involved, and if you have somebody in your kitchen, its not a learning experience, theyre actually working. We were able to expand our staff. I think that kind of sums up my life and what Ive been doing. [17], In 2012 he announced he was at the point of his career when it was time to step away from the kitchen. And that was the moment, July 1977, that I decided to make this my career and pursued that with determination, with commitment. We are only as good as those who come after us. 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. The chef de partie is a chef who is responsible for a specific station. So I passed by out of curiosity. And I shouldnt say my first job, my first job in a formal kitchen was as a commis. And it was interesting, because at the time of the announcement, Laura and I were in France for I believe it was a Traditions et Qualit conference, which is a French association that we belong to. 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. They feel the responsibility to them. With more than. Thats where the name comes from. And I went to his restaurant, had lunch on my way to Arbois and I left thinking, Wow. The two would work so closely together that within a year she had moved in with him in the house behind the restaurant, and the couple have become partners in life as well as business. And of course if you were successful, then it was positive feedback and you knew that you did a good job. He enjoyed the teamwork of a restaurant kitchen and resolved to become a professional cook. You realize them on your own and that is really important as well. 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. So they do this extraordinary blini there. Working with a list of everyone he could think of who might have an interest in a restaurant or fine food venture, he called 400 prospects and finally attracted seed money from 52 individuals, one paying as much as $80,000 and some as little as $500 for a share of the business. But of course there was no recipe for the spinach pasta. So at La Rive, which was a beautiful old farm on the side of a small creek, I planted my first garden. And theres no choices on the menu, so its a problem for us. So I thought, Well, when I open The French Laundry, well extend hours of operation and well offer choices in each category. There were no quantities. In our country we had very few. 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. After his second summer at La Rive, he decided to try his luck in New York City and was hired as chef at Raouls. So everybody relied on your ability to be organized, to be efficient, to have your job done thoroughly, to understand repetition, rituals, and give them what they needed to do the job. Thomas Keller: This was a time in my life when I started to embrace the idea of doing things myself outside of the kitchen, having a garden. What influence do you think his Marine background might have had on the discipline with which you approach your craft? The French government named him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the traditions of French cuisine and his role in elevating culinary art in America. The pigeon was beautiful. So Bill is then taking his expertise and skill to L.A., bought a hotel downtown, renamed it Checkers, and brought in me. Im sure my mother bought it for me because of the quality of the book, not necessarily the quality of the content. 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.. 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. And as time went on we realized that we started selling more and more tasting menus. Feedback was the third discipline. So it was really I was in a comfortable position in my living quarters, and I wasnt really spending a lot of money. Especially in California. [1], In April 2009, Keller became engaged to longtime girlfriend and former general manager at the French Laundry, Laura Cunningham. So he wrote a check to the New York tax authorities to clear us up, which allowed me to get a bank loan. Thomas Keller: No, not really. 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. Its always been an important part of our culture, that consistency. It was a restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida. I became the first American chef to be at one of the great La Le restaurants in New York City. In everything that we do, we have to understand that our expectations have to be of the highest. What we call a stage in an American restaurant, or a stagiaire in a French one, does that literally mean a stager? Keller and Cunningham opened a more casual establishment, Bistro Bouchon, in Yountville in 1998. I spent a little time in college. The failure of this restaurant did not dissuade you from haute cuisine. At The French Laundry, Keller applied everything he had learned from his years as a chef and his own previous ventures. 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 wasnt a difficult decision for me. We had The Greenbrier, which had a qualified externship program. Thomas Keller: The best restaurants that you were aware of if you picked up a Michelin Guide, if you picked up The New York Times, even New York Magazine or any magazine that was either a travel or food magazine, or had a food section in the newspaper at that time, were always talking about the great restaurants in France and the great chefs. What does the chef think I should choose? Serge Raoul was ready to scale down his expectations and convert to a more casual format, but Keller longed to practice the haute cuisine he had mastered in France and left the business, which closed two years later. And he flew in from Paris with four other executives from Michelin and they had dinner at The French Laundry. Then the hard work of attracting investors began. So Per Se was in the forefront of that first launch in New York. 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. It was a restaurant that was extraordinarily consistent. We just received three stars. Its not just about getting something to eat. So when I was doing my research and asking people in the Valley what they thought about The French Laundry, they all loved it. 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. All of them loved the idea but turned me down. In June 2019, Keller became the first U.S. inductee into The Master Chefs of France, the oldest savory chef association in the world. 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. What happens? I didnt have a double boiler. 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. Were going to have this instant business. But we were doing, at the time, fine dining. On behalf of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chef Paul Bocuse presented Keller as a Chevalier of The French Legion of Honor in 2011 in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the traditions of French cuisine and his role in elevating cooking in America. 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. It was something that made him really comfortable. 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. I had now failed in two restaurants and a chef de cuisineposition or executive chef position at Checkers Hotel. 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. Paul Bocuse, who has a great affection for America, hell tell the story. We respond to that by notching up our game. The entire pastry production, the entire pastry service, working with the chef de cuisine on the philosophy of the pastry. 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. His Surf Club Restaurant in Miami marked a return to the continental style of dining enjoyed in the legendary restaurants of the 1940s and 50s. You started to see the little sparks here and there of interest in not just cuisine but in those who produced it. What is the chef cooking today? But in retrospect it was beautiful. In 1996, the James Beard Foundation named Keller the Best Chef in America. A 1997 article by the influential New York Times critic Ruth Reichl pronounced The French Laundry the most exciting place to eat in the United States, and soon lovers of fine food from all over the world were making the pilgrimage to Yountville to sample Kellers fare. No problem. So we were always trying to fill the books in with his reservations. 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? You are trying to prepare a dish without having the proper ingredients or necessarily even the knowledge of those ingredients, and that really became for me a real building block, because I understood that. If you didnt properly rinse or stack or sort the silverware or the dishes correctly, and you put them in the dishwasher, a minute-and-a-half later, when the machine opened, they would still be dirty. 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. I became a chef there and moved to Los Angeles. It would seem Chef Thomas Keller would have reason to be satisfied. 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. Forget about three. Of course it became one of those stories that, if it was today, it would have gone viral, but back in those days we didnt have what we have today. 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 you know, I did different things in different kitchens, because each chef needed a stagiaire in a different way. Take the lobster, do this, this, and this, and add this and this and you have this is what lobster Bohemian is. I have five siblings: four older brothers and one younger sister. My mother passed away in 1982 so I had gone to France in 1983 but my father was, I have to say. He actually was my first mentor in this profession. They were of age. No one told you those things. So that was a mistake I made that I never made again, and I learned from that. Thomas Keller: One of his favorite things to do was to sit in the parking lot early in the morning when our purveyors would bring their deliveries in. Its not just about going out to dinner. You started quite young, didnt you? Very simple. A bowl, or whatever the serviceware was, you had a piece set up on the counter, on the drain board, where they were supposed to put it. "[18] He permanently closed his restaurant TAK Room, located in Hudson Yards, during the coronavirus pandemic. For movie audiences, a rat with culinary aspirations might be. And then we have to mentor them not just in their career, but in their lives. It was a daunting task for us every day to produce this menu. 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. 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. Chefs understand how cutting, heating and cooling food change its composition. Frise salad with . The same year, Keller published a book of family-style recipes, Ad Hoc at Home, which spent six weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. It began in 1985 when I returned from France. It was a very small kitchen, and it was a beautiful experience because it was what I related to from just returning from France. He had dinner at The French Laundry and he wrote three paragraphs about The French Laundry. 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. In the introduction to Bouchon (2004), Keller writes, "Bistro cooking is my favourite food to eat. Even though I hadnt spent a lot of time with my father growing up, in my early 20s I made a reconnection with him and certainly we rekindled our relationship and he was very supportive, even though he didnt understand what I did. We have to be able to give them options but restrict their initial choice to something that we believe they would enjoy. And of course at that time I was very young in my profession and I said, Well, how can I make pasta green? So our job is to make sure that were choosing those ingredients of the moment. I had been reading about this restaurant for years. What college did you attend for that short while? You know, learn how to cut brunoise, learn how to peel an onion, learn how to slice. In his teenage summers, he worked at the Palm Beach Yacht Club starting as a dishwasher and quickly moving up to cook. And Im very thankful for all of them. And it was one of those things that you try. 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. 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. We did so many different things. I took a shower like I normally did and I came back to the restaurant. Never let anybody tell you that you cant do something. 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. 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. And I thought that was just brilliant in the way he wrote that book. Its really refreshing to see how much thats changed in a short period of time, in 35, 40 years. 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. Sample. We would have been on a flight so we would have missed the phone call. 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. And you know, waste became a really important part of that learning experience, making sure that you know what? The specific details of the recipe do matter. So yes, I primarily lived with my mother, and my grandmother for a little while as well, and my great aunts. As you mentioned earlier, the 1980s and 90s were a fascinating time for great food in California. Twice named Best Restaurant in the World by Restaurant magazine, it was soon joined by other Keller establishments: Bouchon and Ad Hoc in Yountville, and Per Se in New York City. I was unsure of my career. So we made him barbeque chicken and cooked up some mashed potatoes because thats what he wanted. 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. It was an emotional moment. Could you tell us that story? And I thought, Wow, this may be a great opportunity for me. Back to the first cookbook you received as a gift from your mom. In 2013 we raised to ninth. And we were so proud. How did you come to take over The French Laundry? Roasted chicken, thats a simple thing to do, but its very hard. 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. They had enjoyed several years of modest success but were now looking to sell 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. Ill dye it green. So, food color came out, we dyed the pasta green. Im not sure which one. And in San Francisco we had Herb Caen. Thomas Keller: No. Thanksgiving is one of those moments thats truly about that experience around the table, that family, friends. We finally achieved what we promised, to reach the podium. 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. Given free rein, he built a smokehouse to cure meats, developed relationships with local livestock purveyors and learned to cook entrails and offal under his old mentor, Roland Henin, who would drop by on occasional weekends. From the beginning, did you have the idea of doing a tasting menu, rather than a long menu of choices? Friends urged him to try his hand on the West Coast, and he accepted an offer to become executive chef of the dining facilities at the Los Angeles hotel Checkers. On your website theres actually a wonderfully rich list of philosophy and core values. During summers, he worked as a cook in Rhode Island. The French Laundry was open almost at the same time that Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse. He was a great storyteller. Of course we called the restaurant. And of course the lunch and dinner in the same day, it really worked for me. We did everything. Thats really a different mentality, isnt it, than ordering off a big menu? Thomas was considered too young to work as a cook so he started as a dishwasher. So the schools that we did have were relatively new. When I wrote The French Laundry Cookbook, it was an important story for me to tell. We couldnt get prosciutto di Parma because it just wasnt available in this country so we used a dried Virginia ham, which was overly salty. What better way to start a celebration than that? So Im in his restaurant the next day, because every morning after the competition he does a breakfast for the winners. Chefs use science to develop their food preparation techniques and invent new methods of cooking. Then I think thats what makes our culture so strong. Thomas Keller: It was. The other one was off on his career. Its an extraordinary event, extraordinary undertaking. He likes a spoonful of Skippy peanut butter (Natural) before hitting the gym, and he believes chefs can find.