So I was shuffled between very loving, dedicated, committed women, and it was really a wonderful childhood, if you will. His father, a United States Marine, was stationed nearby at Camp Pendleton. It had been here for a long time. You learn a lot from your mistakes. 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. I was unsure of my career. Famous Restaurants Chef Thomas Keller is renowned for his famous California and New York restaurants, including The French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc. 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.. 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. You know, where did the dish come from? We were able to expand our staff. And of course the chefs. So at that right moment, in that right period of time, I was able to put my application in and be approved for an SBA loan. We were of course very flattered. It was a Frenchman, and he would bring me 12 rabbits beautifully dressed every week. He's the role model, the icon". It was a four-course menu that changed every day. They ran it in one of their last issues. I learned that organization was really important. He started his culinary journey young -- at 15, he was already working as an apprentice pastry chef at the Relais of Poitiers hotel. Theyll pick up the food guides. You had to get the glassware to the bartenders so they could do their job. 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. We want to make sure that we pay respect to them. I had now failed in two restaurants and a chef de cuisineposition or executive chef position at Checkers Hotel. And it was a small kitchen. You take a break at 3:00. He migrated towards cooking much earlier than I did. Chefs use science to develop their food preparation techniques and invent new methods of cooking. He was a woodworking hobbyist. Keller began his career as a professional cook at the Palm Beach Yacht Club in 1974. Roasted chicken, thats a simple thing to do, but its very hard. He began his career at a young age working in a Palm Beach restaurant managed by his mother. 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. Take the lobster, do this, this, and this, and add this and this and you have this is what lobster Bohemian is. 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. After three years at La Rive, unable to buy it from the owners, he left and moved to New York and then Paris, apprenticing at various Michelin-starred restaurants. 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. Thomas Keller: No, not really. My ignorance, as I said earlier, just continued to motivate me, to propel me forward. We changed every day. Keller served as a consultant on the feature film Spanglish, and in collaboration with restaurant designer Adam D. Tihany, created K + T, a collection of silver hardware and cocktail ware for Christofle Silversmiths. All the men went to the war and the women went to work. Thomas Keller: Well, by the time they were divorced, my two oldest brothers were already out of the house. [20] Other cookbooks that he has written or contributed are The Food Lover's Companion to the Napa Valley, Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide, Ad Hoc at Home (2009) and Bouchon Bakery (2012). 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. As you mentioned earlier, the 1980s and 90s were a fascinating time for great food in California. You know, jai-alai is a sport. Theres sous-chefs responsible in pastry in the same way. But I think his favorite thing to do was really to share time, share moments with the young staff and just tell stories. And its up to that organization or that chef to define what youll do. And then of course you have the chef de cuisine who is responsible for the entire kitchen. [1], In 2005, he was awarded the three-star rating in the inaugural Michelin Guide for New York City for his restaurant Per Se, and in 2006, he was awarded three stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area for The French Laundry. I mean its actually performing, and its a function, and its physical. At this time newspapers still had a social columnist. He had dinner at The French Laundry and he wrote three paragraphs about The French Laundry. If you kept after it year after year after year, that dish evolved into something else. Mr. Keller thinks, at least for him, a change may be in order. As a dishwasher you do the same thing over and over and over and over again. The businessmen who had constituted the base of their clientele went looking for lower-price, more casual dining options until the economy recovered. On my makeshift desk was I clipped out of The New York Times during this time during this period in my life there was an article which was titled Having a Dream Is Hard. So if you can give me $5,000, then Ill take on the project, and if its successful, well take our money on the back end. I said, Great. So for the next two weeks I went to the ATM machine, and on my credit card I took out $500 until I got $5,000, and I took $5,000 in cash and gave it to him and he started to modify the business plan and produce a bona fide business plan that I could then present to partners, which we did. Youve done a lot of beautiful service for veterans here in this area. How Thomas Keller's Impact is Changing the Restaurant Industry 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. 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. 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. It was unprecedented in this country for a restaurant to get three stars from Michelin. 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. He was the first hotelier to really bring in a great restaurant with a great chef and that was Bradley Ogden. So they do this extraordinary blini there. Thomas Keller Chef & Proprietor of Restaurants by Thomas Keller and Founder of Regiis Ova Caviar "Success, for me, is not about fortune or fame. Thomas Keller: My mother passed away, unfortunately, by the time I went to France. And then we have to mentor them not just in their career, but in their lives. 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. Thank you, Chef. Thomas was considered too young to work as a cook so he started as a dishwasher. Its the stamina, the commitment, the dedication to the craft is unparalleled. But now I had to actually act on it, that dream, and make it reality. With Lena Kwak, the research and development chef of The French Laundry, Keller had developed Cup4Cup, a gluten-free flour. You had to do different things at different times of the day, which began which were part of the ritual of your job. A community college in Palm Beach. He wrote his social column every day. We just received three stars. So when they were divorced, that was her path. 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. He is the first and only American-born chef to hold multiple three-star ratings from the prestigious Michelin Guide, as well as the first American male chef to be designated a Chevalier of The French Legion of Honor. Thomas Keller: The books that I read as a kid were mostly adventure books. Were going to have this instant business. But we were doing, at the time, fine dining. And if you appreciate it, great. But at the time, I wanted to get out into the world. It jumps, right? [17], In 2012 he announced he was at the point of his career when it was time to step away from the kitchen. So when I went to see Bob Sutcliffe, I had a 300-page business plan and a bottle of olive oil. It would seem Chef Thomas Keller would have reason to be satisfied. And I realized that my window wasnt covered with dust. Its this whole process, which has really kind of made it really difficult for us to have a proper stage in the kitchen. You had to empty the garbage can three times a day. I needed to have the knowledge and the skill in order to prepare it. They were of age. We live by them day to day, not necessarily having written them down. 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. [25][26][27], This article is about the chef. He was that kind of came from that kind of generation. I have to say that period of my life and that period of my career in France was so, so important to who I am today and really helped me understand a lot of things about running a restaurant that have supported my career and my success. So efficiency became important, how you lined up the racks, how you put the plates in the racks, or when was the time to wash the glasses, when was the time to wash the silverware so that nothing so that everything became seamless for everybody. 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. Maybe it was a plan D as an olive oil purveyor. Thomas Keller: I think that was in 1977. 1. 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. You set up for dinner, then you have dinner. The entire pastry production, the entire pastry service, working with the chef de cuisine on the philosophy of the pastry. I knew I could cook. So I could focus on more of the details, and I was able to do that. I became the first American chef to be at one of the great La Le restaurants in New York City. Everybody became more frugal during that time, as they do always in times of uneasiness and disruption in our economic climate. It was him and I in the kitchen with one commis and a dishwasher and of course Anne Marie in the dining room with two or three servers. The restaurant was Per Se, in New York. I had partnered with two male flight attendants who wanted to open a restaurant. Kon Tiki, things like that. Thomas Keller: We became friends. You know, Everybody wants casual food now. It wasnt so much casual food that they wanted, it was more of a casual price that they really wanted. So thats where I chose to go. I mean that became the catch phrase. As I grew older, I realized the benefit of a good education, and I continue to try to educate myself today. Of course we called the restaurant. 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. We can all cook. What does the chef think I should choose? So typically, artisanal work or work that youre doing with your hands, manual labor, would have a chef. Another great milestone for you was the Legion dHonneur. 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. Most of the kitchens that I worked in always have the chef, the sous-chefs, the chef de parties, the commis, and thats a very hierarchical system where everybody looks at the chef for the direction, the sous-chefs to implement it, you know, the chef de cuisines to perform it, and the commis to support it. We would have been on a flight so we would have missed the phone call. 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. I was already cooking now for four years. So he has to be able to motivate them. Thomas Keller: No. 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. He grew up in the Depression, was a Marine for 23 years of his life. With the porcelain manufacturer Raynaud and the design firm Level, Keller created the Hommage collection of white porcelain dinnerware. I guess you also needed to learn who your customers would be. 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. 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. Frise salad with . Of course you never know those things when youre doing it. Recently, Keller started marketing a line of signature white Limoges porcelain dinnerware by Raynaud called Hommage Point (in homage to French chef and restaurateur, Fernand Point) that he helped and a collection of silver hollow ware by Christofle. The job in Arbois turned out be far less promising than he had imagined, and he headed for Paris. 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. Keller is the first and only American-born chef to hold multiple three-star ratings from the prestigious Michelin Guide and is the first American male chef to be designated a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Frances paramount honorary order. It was kind of this magical place, and I just felt an instant connection to it. I was thinking that, I dont know, fireworks. Pierre was in the kitchen Ann-Marie was in the dining room and I became his sous-chef. In 2017, Keller and Team USA secured the ultimate victory, winningthe Gold Medal for the United States for the first timeinthecompetitions 30-yearhistory. And I really have to thank those who nominated me: Daniel Boulud, Paul Bocuse, Jerome. But there is a lot of work being done certainly in the past 20, 25 years that has helped us as a profession to really have an impact. Thomas Keller: My parents were divorced when I was young. I could go anywhere in the world and be a cook. So at La Rive, which was a beautiful old farm on the side of a small creek, I planted my first garden. And of course that catapulted us to again be financially successful, which allowed us now to commit our resources in so many different ways. 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). Never let anybody tell you that you cant do something. The recipe called for a double boiler. Thomas Keller: Michelin announced that they were going to come to America. Yes. Then I think thats what makes our culture so strong. When the hotel was sold, Keller clashed with the new owners and found himself again at liberty. When I wrote The French Laundry Cookbook, it was an important story for me to tell. What does the American Dream mean to you? 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. With just a small four-burner stove with one oven it takes you a long time to prepare dinner. Today we have executive chefs as well. We had never when I say we, Im talking about the community of chefs who have always aspired to be of that quality, not necessarily ever achieving those stars, but to be of that quality. Theres bronze, silver and gold. 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. It changes your life of course. And certainly receiving the Legion of Honor from President Sarkozy was beyond anything I could ever dream of. And I could have him pin the medal on my chest. As a teenager, he fell in love with the art of French cooking and learned his craft working in restaurants up and down the East Coast before moving to France to complete his training. Thomas Keller is a man who needs no introduction. I was a year-and-a-half younger, therefore I had to be set in front of the dishwasher. They agreed to take $5,000 in escrow. 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. Shortly after, he opened a second Fleur de Lys at Mandalay Bay. 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. 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. Why was it produced in that part of Italy? I believe the book was called A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price. I dont know, whatever. 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. Cooking and food preparation are applied sciences, and chefs understand them fully to succeed at their job. And what do you say to Paul Bocuse? Thats what he wanted. Yeah. We won silver. And he had great chefs that worked for him. Thomas Keller: It was a junior college. So sure enough, Paul calls me ten minutes later and asks me to be the president. Its always been an important part of our culture, that consistency. Its been a great pleasure. It certainly is very gratifying to see the interest now. Certainly, working in French kitchens was the same for me. A beautiful time in my life. Many residents and visitors to the area were lovers of fine wine and well-versed in contemporary trends in fine dining. AllRightsReserved. I chose to go into the kitchen. When he was seven his parents separated, and Thomas moved with his mother and two older brothers to Palm Beach, Florida, where his grandmother and great aunts helped raise him and his brothers. Its reaction is to jump. It had become part of the fabric of restaurants in Napa Valley, and certainly of Yountville. 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. Returning to Florida, he opened his first restaurant, the Cobbley Nob, with two partners in West Palm Beach. Thomas Keller: Well first, thank you very much for that wonderful compliment. He combined his thorough knowledge of French tradition with his own flair for humor and imagination, offering his guests a seemingly endless series of exquisite small plates, such as a miniature ice cream cone of salmon tartare, or a small serving of oysters and caviar resting on a bed of tapioca. So I didnt have rent to pay. That was going to be something that was maybe decades away. So we made him barbeque chicken and cooked up some mashed potatoes because thats what he wanted. Thomas Keller: When my parents were married, my father was typically stationed somewhere else. It was a wonderful restaurant. Thomas Keller: Yes. In school, were there particular teachers you remember who had an impact on you? Sometimes simplicity is best. Thomas Keller: Per Se. [8], After the success of The French Laundry, Thomas and his brother, Joseph Keller (currently owner/chef of Josef's in Las Vegas), opened Bouchon in 1998. 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). We had a beautiful foie gras to start, and we had I forget the dessert. I have five siblings: four older brothers and one younger sister. 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. Thomas Keller: I think its helped me understand and analyze what I do, and try to attach other examples of other professions to what I do, in trying to understand and elevate our profession. 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. Everybody did. When you won your first three Michelin stars, you celebrated at Taillevent in Paris. Organization as a dishwasher really meant that you had to set up a template for the servers to, you know, where to put their dishes. Very simple. And I think thats very important, certainly in a kitchen as well as other places in many professions where theres this instant command response. And you never know. 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. Thomas Keller: In 1992 I visited the Napa Valley from Los Angeles. So Per Se was in the forefront of that first launch in New York. Thomas Keller is the first American chef to receive consecutive three-star Michelin ratings for two restaurants. The pigeon was beautiful. 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. 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. 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. He loved wine. Was it a restaurant that was breaking new ground? I mean all these that are part of that repetition was what I learned as a dishwasher. Keller has joked in the past that the motivation for Bouchon's opening was to give him somewhere to eat after work at The French Laundry. Working on the film Spanglish, Keller designed and taught star Adam Sandler to cook what is often called "the world's greatest sandwich", as a plausible example of what a talented bachelor gourmet might cook for himself. The rabbit screams. [12], Keller is the president of the Bocuse d'Or U.S. team and was responsible for recruiting and training the 2009 candidates. We have to give them training. Thomas Keller: Yeah. Thomas Keller: Well, we all learn that. I said, Jonathan, youre the first chef de cuisine. He is also featured in "My Last Supper" by Melanie Dunea. He took advantage of the traditionalstagiare system in which unpaid apprentices, called stages in English, learn the skills of the classic French kitchen one by one. I thought, If Im going to do this, I need to do it now. And I went back to Los Angeles. So I went to different banks, several banks. 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. 3. Thomas worked alone with the couple's grandmother as prep cook. His grandson is American. You had your different areas for your knives, your forks, your spoons, things like that. 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. In France, Keller formed a friendship with the legendary chef Paul Bocuse, sponsor of the Bocuse dOr competition, the Olympics of international cooking. Teaches Cooking Techniques I: Vegetables, Pasta, and Eggs. 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. I was four or five years old when my parents were divorced. And of course at that time I was very young in my profession and I said, Well, how can I make pasta green? 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 said, Yes, chef. And so that began the day of our quest to get on the podium. profession evolve as American masters like Thomas Keller rise, and watch the genesis of a "chef nation" as these culinary pioneers crisscross the country to open restaurants and collaborate on special events, and legendary hangouts like Blue Ribbon become social focal points, all as the industry-altering Food Network shimmers on the horizon. It was on West 45th Street in West Palm Beach, right next door to the jai-alai fronton. So we have to our expectations in our kitchen, in our restaurant, in our service. So you always had a bread and butter plate in one spot, a service plate in one spot. I dont want to say the art of repetition, but the ability to respect repetition and embrace it. So in 1980, I planted my first garden. Thomas Keller: I learned that I needed to be a lot more responsible to the amount of money I spent on my products and how to use them. 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. Feedback was the third discipline. They invited me up to meet them. Thomas Keller: I wish I could say there were, but no. And cheese, the cheese cart always comes by in France, and you have so many selections. And the kitchen downstairs at 5:30, my first job was to shovel coal into the ovens. 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 .
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