You want to go there and you want to have an experience. I learned that organization was really important. And then of course we had foie gras, poached foie gras, warm with turnips spring turnips peas, and a beautiful consomm of duck, rich but at the same time light, right. Certainly, working in French kitchens was the same for me. We all promised him that we would do our jobs collectively in organizing a foundation that would support a U.S. culinary team to compete in Lyon and actually reach the podium. 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. But you know, just standing there watching this beautiful, elegant, ferocious animal was something that was very captivating. Thomas Keller: Its interesting because when I was at Taillevent, I had been cooking for quite some time. They ran it in one of their last issues. Were dedicated to one another. 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. Thomas worked alone with the couple's grandmother as prep cook. So the morning sous-chef is a very, very important position, somebody that typically has had great experience in the restaurant that hes working in. 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. There was that true connection to our suppliers, to those people who produced our food. And to reach the podium for the first time, Daniel, Jerome and I felt that we had finally been able to give Paul what we promised. So for me, there wasnt really a lot of awareness about opportunities outside of learning the trade in a kitchen. It was a Frenchman, and he would bring me 12 rabbits beautifully dressed every week. It was an emotional moment. Thomas Keller: Those were two of the greatest moments of my life. By 1986, he felt ready to try his hand again at opening a restaurant of his own. Paul Bocuse, who has a great affection for America, hell tell the story. It didnt matter if you were doing fine dining, family dining. Its this whole process, which has really kind of made it really difficult for us to have a proper stage in the kitchen. I mean all these that are part of that repetition was what I learned as a dishwasher. No. And what do you say to Paul Bocuse? I had already closed two restaurants. Raoul and Keller, R-A and K-E-L. 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. He thought that would be the perfect kind of place for me, small, manageable, in a beautiful community here in Napa Valley. So, for example, meats or fish or vegetables or garde manger which is cold preparation, or pastry. Roasted chicken, thats a simple thing to do, but its very hard. After two years in Paris, Keller returned to New York, confident of his abilities in the kitchen and eager to prove he could run a kitchen in a first-rate establishment. I have five siblings: four older brothers and one younger sister. 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. Not only did I get a commercial bank loan, I also went to the Small Business Administration because I was still short on money. Theres two ways of looking at it, and I look at it both ways. 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. Thomas Keller: It was a very difficult time in New York City. The job in Arbois turned out be far less promising than he had imagined, and he headed for Paris. The following year Michelin was going to launch in San Francisco. We sat in their kitchen in their house next door. And we thought this location was just like the perfect location. It was a normal thing and it still is today. He started his culinary journey young -- at 15, he was already working as an apprentice pastry chef at the Relais of Poitiers hotel. And I went to his restaurant, had lunch on my way to Arbois and I left thinking, Wow. We built our new kitchen. Its always, Oui, chef. Yes. It was on West 45th Street in West Palm Beach, right next door to the jai-alai fronton. Its just breathtaking to look at, very classic, the aromas, the butter, and of course you have a tin of caviar and beautiful glasses of champagne. Thomas Keller: At 4:00 in the afternoon, we were on the West (Left) Bank, in front of one of the department stores over there I think Samaritaine or some one of the great department stores of Paris and the phone rings. 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. And for some reason he said, Okay, Thomas. Thomas Keller: I was working at a restaurant. Simple is hard. 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. When I wrote The French Laundry Cookbook, it was an important story for me to tell. In 1994, Keller closed the deal and set about renovating the facility. And all you have to do is believe in yourself, be patient, be persistent. 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 such a daunting task, the things that I went through. Thomas Keller: Fortunately, for those three years I was trying to find somebody to commit to giving me a job, I was also saving my money. It had been here for a long time. Daniel said, Pauls going to call you in ten minutes and ask you to be the president. Then the hard work of attracting investors began. 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. And to keep herself busy, and of course to supply some income for the family, she worked in restaurants. [10], Prior to the opening of The French Laundry, Thomas Keller started a small olive oil company called EVO, Inc. in 1992, with his girlfriend of the time, to distribute Provenal-style olive oil and red wine vinegar. You have dinner. Otherwise it wasnt going to be good. And I could have him pin the medal on my chest. 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. But it was such a wonderful moment that lasted for days afterwards, because you had all the leftovers. The Schmitts wanted $1.2 million for their business, and Keller had nothing resembling that kind of money, but they agreed to take $5,000 from Keller to hold in escrow while he returned to Los Angeles to raise the money he needed. What did you have in mind? 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. It jumps, right? It took 19 months to raise the money to purchase the place, but in 1994 he opened his restaurant, The French Laundry, and quickly made it a destination for gourmets and connoisseurs from all over the world. If Im going to raise money from a lot of different people so it doesnt impact if Im not successful, its not going to impact their lives. So that was the process with the private placement business plan. But not only did I have to raise money from private partners, I had to buy the property. All of them loved the idea but turned me down. Im looking at this rabbit hanging on the side of the barn, and 11 rabbits in the cage. 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. 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. No one told you those things. 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. 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. From the beginning, did you have the idea of doing a tasting menu, rather than a long menu of choices? 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. He enjoyed the teamwork of a restaurant kitchen and resolved to become a professional cook. Theres 12 rabbits in the cage and hes explaining to me in broken English how to kill the rabbit. You know, jai-alai is a sport. You have chef plumbers. He is also featured in "My Last Supper" by Melanie Dunea. 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. 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. What does the American Dream mean to you? You know, this is truly an extraordinary moment in American culinary history. I knew I could cook. Prove that you can by acting on it and youll be successful. Thomas Keller: Herb Caen was a great writer. It was like it was it just shocked us all. We converted the restaurant into Caf Rakel. I spent three summers there: 1980, 81 and 82. So that was really the beginning for us of our success in Northern California. I was also developing my relationship with farmers, with foragers, with gardeners, with fishermen from around the area. 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. In France, Keller formed a friendship with the legendary chef Paul Bocuse, sponsor of the Bocuse dOr competition, the Olympics of international cooking. At the same time, be able to do my homework when needed, be able to function as a young person and still keep busy. 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. To expand his knowledge, he joined Compagnons du Devoir, an artisans' organization that offers technical education through tours and apprenticeships with masters. I wanted to have a large group of people, because of my experience at Rakel. It was a restaurant that was extraordinarily consistent. Pastry Competition. If youre with somebody you dont really want to be with, or theres a problem going on, your experience is diminished regardless of what I do. You set up for dinner, then you have dinner. It was about Pauls dream realized, America reaches the podium. It was here he discovered his passion for cooking and perfection of the hollandaise sauce. So on Thanksgiving day at Bouchon, thats what we do. Traditionally, in France, is that an unpaid position? 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. It had become part of the fabric of restaurants in Napa Valley, and certainly of Yountville. I went to work at another restaurant in New York called Raphael, and this was theres a lot of Rs in my restaurant history. I mean that became the catch phrase. It was unprecedented in this country for a restaurant to get three stars from Michelin. 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. In 2017, Keller and Team USA secured the ultimate victory, winningthe Gold Medal for the United States for the first timeinthecompetitions 30-yearhistory. 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. Theyre going to drive right by our restaurant and stop. 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. Youre supporting the chef de partie. 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. So I went to Bobs office with this idea of The French Laundry and hoping that he would be my attorney. 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. 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. 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. You were actually born on the West Coast. But Gourmet magazine picked it up and they thought it was very important. And I realized that my window wasnt covered with dust. I took a shower like I normally did and I came back to the restaurant. So our job is to make sure that were choosing those ingredients of the moment. So it was really I was in a comfortable position in my living quarters, and I wasnt really spending a lot of money. [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. I learned six disciplines at the dishwasher which have, I think, become a foundation for my career, and I think for many people who aspire to have success in their careers. But at the time, I wanted to get out into the world. The rabbit story was a profound moment in my life where I learned that really deep sense of respect for everything that we have coming through our back doors. So thats where I chose to go. And we thought, Wow, theres 2,000 people there every night. Starting at $15/month (billed annually) for all classes and sessions. Hes got his cage. And I want you to know that were committed and dedicated to this honor, to this award, to this achievement, and well do our best to maintain the reputation of a three-star restaurant in America. And then we were with where are we going to celebrate? On your website theres actually a wonderfully rich list of philosophy and core values. You know, where did the dish come from? In June 2019, Keller became the first U.S. inductee into The Master Chefs of France, the oldest savory chef association in the world. Entertainment was going to the Beaubourg and taking a French lesson in the audio class downstairs, or going to the museums or walking around Paris. In other words, you carve the turkey, you serve the food, and then you took the leftovers home. We respond to that by notching up our game. [24], Keller currently has three online cooking classes at Masterclass.com, pursuing his belief in teaching. When I started to cook, the first cookbook that I received was from my mother, and she gave me a cookbook called A Treasury of Great Recipes. This is perhaps one of chef Keller's most famous dishes, a sabayon of pearl tapioca, beau soleil oysters and white sturgeon caviar. And then we have to mentor them not just in their career, but in their lives. But I think his favorite thing to do was really to share time, share moments with the young staff and just tell stories. 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 then you have other sous-chefs, which would be responsible for specific groups of chef de parties. What happens? You had to check the soap every three hours. Lets go back to the beginning. Trailer. They didnt want steak Diane and pommes boulangre. We try to limit the choices, relieve the anxiety, and give somebody an experience that then, when they leave the restaurant, its memorable. The recipe called for a double boiler. So during the Korean War he was there for two and a half years. Thomas Keller: Well, by the time they were divorced, my two oldest brothers were already out of the house. After the failure of Rakel, you persisted with haute cuisine but you moved to Los Angeles. So five days a week, my meals were paid for. And now Im left, because now I have to without his help or his guidance is butcher these other 11 rabbits. Everybody was doing casual dining. So that was a mistake I made that I never made again, and I learned from that. The restaurant was Per Se, in New York. And of course as a white, middle-class, educated American, I wasnt on the top of the list of somebody the SBA was going to give money to. 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. We all have our own core values, and I think that we can identify them when pressed to find them. 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. I think its discipline. So you know, I did different things in different kitchens, because each chef needed a stagiaire in a different way. Chefs use science to develop their food preparation techniques and invent new methods of cooking. Each time you made it it was yours, it was not necessarily his. And thats where youre there supporting. It was a restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida. Thats really a different mentality, isnt it, than ordering off a big menu? 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. Youre American. 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. You should be thinking about those who youre with. We could only hope that we can achieve that. They feel the responsibility to them. Paul Bocuse said it very well. And typically in the day she would work at the Officers Club as a hostess or a waitress, working her way up to understanding how to manage a restaurant. And if theyre not better than you, then you havent done a very good job. It creates an anxiety in you actually. And I think if I was born with that, I got that from my mother. 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. The new restaurant features intimate dining rooms with a fireplace, live music, lush greenery, a glass-enclosed conservatory room, an outdoor terrace and a lounge, with a Bouchon Bakery on the same floor. We are only as good as those who come after us. And it really truly is a learning, a place of learning. And he said, Okay, this is how much this is going to cost you. And I said, You know, Bob, I really dont have any money, but I have this olive oil. I put this olive oil on his desk and I told him about this olive oil and what I was doing with it and The French Laundry and all this. Our first year was 2009. So I became the chef, the second chef there. Youve mentioned the value of consistency, but nothing says it like that. And that became part of our and it changed, not every day. Jerry Della Femina moved down there, opened his offices. A chef in France is the head of a specific area. And I was working for a chef who was a presence in and of himself. It was a perfect meal to celebrate a perfect moment with the best people in the world. You have received the high There was a pause. In 1994, he set his heart on a converted laundry building in Yountville, in the heart of Californias Napa Valley wine country. The following year he added two additional locations of Bouchon Bakery at The Venetian in Las Vegas while continuing to vary his commercial ventures. Do you relate your attraction to the discipline and camaraderie of the kitchen to your fathers career as a Marine? His flagship restaurant, The French Laundry, has been called the best in the world (twice), he's created an empire but maintained his impermeable brand and he's the only American chef to have been simultaneously awarded three Michelin Stars at two different restaurants. So we had a gathering at the Per Se in New York where we invited the ambassador from France who came, and I thought of my colleagues of course, Daniel, Jerome, Alain Ducasse was there, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and it was a great celebration. And of course that catapulted us to again be financially successful, which allowed us now to commit our resources in so many different ways. 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. I understood it. Its the one hit wonders that are one hit wonders. 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. 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. There were no quantities. 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. June 13, 2007 FOR someone who works in a restaurant, watching a rat try to become a chef might seem like just another day at work. 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. Certainly the profession that I chose, cooking, allowed me to do all that. Just go. Even though I didnt have a father present, I had some great, great women that helped form and focus my childhood. 2. In his teenage summers, he worked at the Palm Beach Yacht Club starting as a dishwasher and quickly moving up to cook. Chefs understand how cutting, heating and cooling food change its composition. And Rakel was in an area that wasnt really supported by a community or a neighborhood around it. Teaches Cooking Techniques I: Vegetables, Pasta, and Eggs. 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. He enjoyed nothing more I think what he enjoyed the most when he would come out here with us and spend summers here, and ultimately moved here, was actually getting in line for dinner with the team every night at staff meal. 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. Thomas Keller: There was one other a little less-known chef, who also inspired me and I think a lot of my colleagues, and that was Jean-Louis Palladin. So I didnt have rent to pay. Thomas Keller: My mother passed away, unfortunately, by the time I went to France. I remember him watching you know, you would have the Graham Kerr series. 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. 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. And then of course the following summer I moved to France. The morel mushrooms, everything was just right, and I didnt appreciate it. I was unsure of my career. We won silver. 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. Its been a great pleasure. Its not just about going out to dinner. What did you learn working at Taillevent? Thomas Keller: When my parents were married, my father was typically stationed somewhere else. We were very honored. 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. I said, Im never going to do that again. Those things. You had to have the silverware to the servers so they could set the tables. So now we increased our production from 40 items to 60 items. Thomas Keller: Mentor is its interesting because, again, these things have happened in my life kind of by coincidence or by some divine plan. Cook it by the numbers, following every instruction. We had a beautiful foie gras to start, and we had I forget the dessert. They were of age. 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). How did you get started in the restaurant business? 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. This was the area that was going to become the next advertising center of New York City. Again, just classic but just perfectly done. You dont know. The specific details of the recipe do matter. In the same way that our U.S. Olympic athletes represent our country, we feel the same way in our profession. Thomas Keller: Restaurants are used in so many different ways. In 2004 he published "The Bouchon Cookbook," although he gives most of the credit to Bouchon chef Jeffrey Cerciello. He actually sat with us, and his wife Sabine told me as we were leaving, she said, You know, Ive never seen my husband ever, ever sit down with anybody in this restaurant. He sat with us for about five minutes and chatted.