Now Fernand Point was at his time in his era, which was the 30s and 40s he was the greatest chef in France, and therefore of course, the greatest chef in the world. 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. Thomas Keller: Its funny. So I gave them some and I took some. 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. Its that social engagement, that interaction around a dinner table that to me is the most important. Living It Is Harder. And that became my inspiration every morning, because I had a dream to buy The French Laundry. And it really truly is a learning, a place of learning. In 2003, Richard Capizzi became the first pastry chef (not to mention the youngest) to ever sweep the awards at the U.S. Could I interact better with those around me who influence our restaurants? And then the second half of the book were recipes, but not recipes like we recognize today. 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. Now Ive got this rabbit thats got a broken leg, and Ive got to kill it and dress it. Of course you never know those things when youre doing it. But it wasnt because I wanted to have a career in the profession, in the culinary profession. Thats where the name comes from. I knew I could cook. And the success of you as an individual is really based on the success of the team. 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. I spent three summers there: 1980, 81 and 82. I mean it was such an emotional experience I didnt know what to do, because the rabbit screamed so loud that Paulette, the wife of the owner, came out of the house their house was just maybe 50 yards away thinking something had happened. 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. He has won multiple awards throughout his career and is well-known for his rare ability to establish restaurants that are somehow both relaxed and exciting. We were open Monday through Friday. We had a beautiful foie gras to start, and we had I forget the dessert. That same year, the bible of international food connoisseurs, the Guide Michelin, paid its first visit to New York and awarded Kellers Per Se its highest rating: three stars. And I thought that was just brilliant in the way he wrote that book. In school, were there particular teachers you remember who had an impact on you? One of the things that I dont believe we do enough of is to help our veterans, our servicemen and women. I became the chef de cuisine of La Reserve, which is on 49th Street. So I passed by out of curiosity. And it was really about Marines and their ability to stalk, their ability to be calm, their ability to pounce quickly and seize their prey. 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. Right. 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). Following the failure of the Cobbley Nob, Keller became sous-chef at Caf du Parc in West Palm Beach. My saving grace when I moved to Paris was my friend Serge Raoul, who allowed me to stay at his apartment. I was a stagiaire and I was doing a stage, which is, you know, you go into somebodys its almost like its an apprenticeship, if you will. I didnt have a double boiler. Per Se, which was designed from scratch and custom-built as part of the overall construction process, was an immediate hit on the New York restaurant scene, with reservations booked months in advance and publications including The New Yorker and The New York Times giving rave reviews. 1996 - 2023 American AcademyofAchievement. I learned that the ingredients were important. And so it just didnt go with our proteins, it went with everything, because every ingredient that we receive in our restaurants or you receive at home as a consumer, somebody has spent part of their life producing that for us, and we have to be respectful of that and make sure that we are able to nourish ourselves with the food that they supply us. Its an extraordinary event, extraordinary undertaking. You got one more to go.. Keller took a $5,000 cash advance on his credit card to retain an attorney who helped him structure a private placement offering. I graduated high school. Thomas Keller: We opened Bouchon. Well offer a four-course menu and a five-course menu. So we started out with a menu that had up to seven or eight choices in each category. The commitment they make to doing the same talk about doing the same thing every day. Were they going to be Americans? Two years later, Keller opened Bouchon Bakery in Yountville and started his own wine label, Modicum. That rabbit, which gave up its life, I had to make sure that I utilized it in the best way I could and every bit of it. So, we werent away from it for too long, but long enough that so many of us forgot how important it was. I had now failed in two restaurants and a chef de cuisineposition or executive chef position at Checkers Hotel. Double boiler, single boiler? It was not very appetizing, but you already made the commitment to do it, right, so you had to follow through and you had to serve it and you had to take kind of the feedback, the critical feedback, and just say, Okay, yeah, I made a mistake. And really mistakes are such important building blocks for success. It had become part of the fabric of restaurants in Napa Valley, and certainly of Yountville. 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. But nonetheless I built my own little smoker out of an old refrigerator and cured and smoked my own salmon. And he agreed to do it. 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. 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. He thought that would be the perfect kind of place for me, small, manageable, in a beautiful community here in Napa Valley. Forget about three. The Keller empire expanded to Southern California with the 2009 opening of Bouchon and Bar Bouchon in Beverly Hills. 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. 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. We do the same thing over and over and over again. 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. No more than three days later (so you don't forget too much), take . Keller's mother was a restaurateur who employed Thomas as help when her cook got sick. My mother passed away in 1982 so I had gone to France in 1983 but my father was, I have to say. So I had a little bit of savings. I was already cooking now for four years. Rakel was in an area called Hudson Square in Manhattan, not too far from SoHo, not too far from the Village, but an area which was unheard of, and so we found a space there. A beautiful time in my life. Yeah. I think that a restaurant like The French Laundry or Taillevent, any of the great restaurants around the world and certainly there are many, many, many of them are restaurants that are experiences certainly. And rituals are very, very, very important. In 1986 he became co-owner and executive chef of the original Fleur de Lys in San Francisco. If I was going to make a career, if I was going to be successful in my chosen vocation, I needed to raise this money. Had they not, I wouldnt be here today. The multiple Michelin-starred chef (The French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon) spent the past five years . 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. 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. Expectations do get in the way. I mean thats it. So if you dont want to be repetitive in what youre doing, you probably dont want to really be a cook. What did you have in mind? So there were five of them. 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. Thomas Keller: I wish I could say there were, but no. We went to the local markets all the time. It was about that physical activity that was so compelling for me. 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. And Raphael was run just like the restaurants ran in France. I had partnered with two male flight attendants who wanted to open a restaurant. In 2004 they opened a Bouchon Bakery & Caf in Las Vegas and a new fine dining establishment, Per Se, in New York City. You had to deliver the dishes back to the chefs, right? But each day, waking up each day finding some success kept me motivated to the next day. Its not just about going out to dinner. Another great milestone for you was the Legion dHonneur. Talk about Rakel. Armed with his investors contributions, Keller secured a bank loan and a federal small business loan. We did lunch and dinner. Why Do His Michelin Stars Make Him Unique? No one told you those things. Thomas Keller was born in Oceanside, California. We have to be that much more determined, that much more committed to what we do every day. 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. 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. He started his culinary journey young -- at 15, he was already working as an apprentice pastry chef at the Relais of Poitiers hotel. Thomas Keller: One of our commitments is to make sure that we are consistent. But in retrospect it was beautiful. It was about the engagement with others. When Thomas Keller says he's built a better chocolate bar, it's worth tasting the results. Theres a chef de partie in every different station thats in a kitchen. This was the area that was going to become the next advertising center of New York City. And its up to that organization or that chef to define what youll do. I wanted to travel. Cooking wasnt the question, but could I lead a team better? They believed in me. [2] His restaurants currently hold eight Michelin stars in total: three at Per Se, three at The French Laundry, one at Bouchon, and one at The Surf Club Restaurant.[3]. The Cobbley Nob has to do with woodworking, because one of our partners was an amateur he was a hobbyist. So typically, artisanal work or work that youre doing with your hands, manual labor, would have a chef. People become very anxious in those moments. Born to a marine drill sergeant and a restaurant manager . 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. The throwback restaurant had been opened in March 2019, and had been his first New York restaurant in 15 years.[19]. I was at work so I didnt have to spend any money entertaining myself. 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. And if theyre not better than you, then you havent done a very good job. 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. 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. He grew up in the Depression, was a Marine for 23 years of his life. Yountville, CA: ad hoc, addendum, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, New York: Bouchon Bakery, Per Se, TAK Room (closed), Outstanding Chef: America, James Beard Foundation, 1997. So I was a little further ahead than some of the other stagiaires that were there who were much younger than I, who were more worried about how to make a veal stock or how to turn a vegetable or different things that are basic that I had already learned. You learn a lot from your mistakes. So we added a vegetable menu, which was seven courses, and we added a tasting menu, which was nine courses. 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. Im very proud to have been part of this. And cheese, the cheese cart always comes by in France, and you have so many selections. For him it was about meat and potatoes. French kitchens are very delineated, arent they? So on Thanksgiving day at Bouchon, thats what we do. 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 . What college did you attend for that short while? Its so repetitive. Jonathan Benno was our chef at the time. The chef has recently come under fire for praising a major Donald Trump donor. He was a woodworking hobbyist. Were going to have this instant business. But we were doing, at the time, fine dining. And I realized that my window wasnt covered with dust. I spent three summers there. 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. In France, Keller formed a friendship with the legendary chef Paul Bocuse, sponsor of the Bocuse dOr competition, the Olympics of international cooking. She would spend it seems like days preparing Thanksgiving dinner. 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. Frise salad with . Chef Thomas Keller is renowned for his culinary skills and high standards. For movie audiences, a rat with culinary aspirations might be. 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. We sat in their kitchen in their house next door. It jumps, right? Thomas Keller: It was a junior college. Once again, things got off to a good start, and Keller enjoyed making friends with colleagues in the West Coast restaurant scene. Thats what he wanted. The latest restaurant, "ad hoc", opened in September 2006 in Yountville with a different fixed price comfort food dinner served family style every night. Theyll pick up Bon Appetit magazine or Gourmet or Saveur or any of the magazines. Its Jean Luc Naret, who is the director of Michelin. When the hotel was sold, Keller clashed with the new owners and found himself again at liberty. How did you come by that vision? 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. You know, where did the dish come from? 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. So thats what we do. And then we have to mentor them not just in their career, but in their lives. Each time you made it it was yours, it was not necessarily his. Thomas Keller: We love to do Thanksgiving. So I went to Bobs office with this idea of The French Laundry and hoping that he would be my attorney. So living that dream became one of the hardest things Ive ever done, but also one of the most gratifying things Ive ever done in my life. So yes, I primarily lived with my mother, and my grandmother for a little while as well, and my great aunts. Thomas Keller: Restaurants are used in so many different ways. 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. But at the time, I wanted to get out into the world. In 1986, he opened his first restaurant in New York City, but the Wall Street crash of that year hit his business hard and he headed west. 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. The following year he added two additional locations of Bouchon Bakery at The Venetian in Las Vegas while continuing to vary his commercial ventures. Thomas Keller: I think people take it for granted that were just cooks in a kitchen, or youre just servers serving food, or youre just a sommelier serving wine. 3. And I really have to thank those who nominated me: Daniel Boulud, Paul Bocuse, Jerome. As important as Ruths was, Herbs was the same, the Schmitts. So he has to be able to motivate them. This was my first three-star restaurant, and I walked in there thinking that I dont know what I was thinking. His grandson is American. Then youd have a sous-chef. And one thing they said, Its not open enough. They were only open four days. 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. 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. It wasnt a difficult decision for me. With the porcelain manufacturer Raynaud and the design firm Level, Keller created the Hommage collection of white porcelain dinnerware. The Spanglish sandwich", "Chef Thomas Keller on Why Food Isn't The Point Of a Restaurant", "Bay Area flavors food tale: For its new film 'Ratatouille,' Pixar explored our obsession with cuisine", "Thomas Keller - Teaches Cooking Techniques I: Vegetables, Pasta, and Eggs at masterclass.com", "Thomas Keller - Teaches Cooking Techniques II: Meats, Stocks, and Sauces", "Thomas Keller - Teaches Cooking Techniques III: Seafood, Sous Vide, and Desserts", "The James Beard Foundation Awards Presents 1996 Winners", "The 1998 Bon Apptit Awards: Chef of the Year", "The S. Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurants in the World, 2003", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2004", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2005", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2006", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2007", "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2008", "Winners Announced For 2005 James Beard Foundation Awards", "Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor for Thomas Keller", "American chef Keller to be admitted into French Legion of Honor", "Thomas Keller The S.Pellegrino Lifetime Achievement Award Winner 2012", "Thomas Keller wins Lifetime Achievement Award", "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement", Google Authors: Thomas Keller: May 19, 2009, 60 Minutes: Inside Thomas Keller's Restaurants: November 20, 2011, 60 Minutes: Visiting the Theater of the Mouth: February 11, 2009, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Keller&oldid=1142852191. It could be as short as two paragraphs. I wanted to have a large group of people, because of my experience at Rakel. It was fascinating, and again certainly we were very proud and honored. 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). Maybe it was a plan D as an olive oil purveyor. [17], In 2012 he announced he was at the point of his career when it was time to step away from the kitchen. 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. We just received three stars. And he had great chefs that worked for him. 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. It had been here for a long time. At that time Serge and I started to talk about opening our own restaurant and that became Rakel. The failure of this restaurant did not dissuade you from haute cuisine. 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. The other one was off on his career. 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. 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. During summers, he worked as a cook in Rhode Island. Thomas Keller: Michelin announced that they were going to come to America. 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. No problem. So we were always trying to fill the books in with his reservations. He migrated towards cooking much earlier than I did. Were they going to come from France? Its going into someone elses kitchen and actually becoming part of that kitchen. The entire pastry production, the entire pastry service, working with the chef de cuisine on the philosophy of the pastry. Paul Bocuse was a commis at his restaurant. Start with your all-time favorite recipe from your favorite cookbook. 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. In everything that we do, we have to understand that our expectations have to be of the highest. In 1994, Keller closed the deal and set about renovating the facility. As a customer, you come in and you put yourself in the hands of a chef. Youre only doing it because you love the person and because youre responsible for the person and because thats what you do. I mean all these that are part of that repetition was what I learned as a dishwasher. Today we have executive chefs as well. Its still hard to believe that we are considered on the same level as those great restaurants in France that have inspired me and so many of my colleagues and so many others to try to achieve greatness. Before we get there, Ruth Reichls article, as important as that was, there was an article prior to that which very few people realize. Chef Keller began his career in the kitchen of the Palm Beach club managed by his mother, before traveling to France and working at Guy Savoy and Taillevent, among other similarly lauded places. He was always the kind of guy who wanted to save money. We did everything. A chef in France is the head of a specific area. And certainly receiving the Legion of Honor from President Sarkozy was beyond anything I could ever dream of. Soon, he started taking up chef positions at various restaurants in Rhode Island, where he met his mentor and French Master Chef Roland Henin. At the same time, be able to do my homework when needed, be able to function as a young person and still keep busy. 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?