Thomas Keller: Well, we all learn that. Now, before I went to see Bob, you have to realize that I had worked on this business plan, right? 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. So at La Rive, which was a beautiful old farm on the side of a small creek, I planted my first garden. Cook it by the numbers, following every instruction. So you can see there was a wide range of investment. 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. The following year, Michelin inspectors came to the West Coast and gave The French Laundry three stars as well. 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. I had committed myself since 1977 to make this my career. This was the area that was going to become the next advertising center of New York City. 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. The other one was off on his career. 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. His father, a United States Marine, was stationed nearby at Camp Pendleton. And great restaurants have to be consistent. One summer, he was discovered by French-born Master Chef Roland Henin and was tasked to cook staff meals at The Dunes Club. Of course we want to make our restaurants better, but our overarching goal is to elevate the standards of our profession, and we do that by training, by mentoring, by giving the skills and knowledge to those next generations, so that they can not only help us in our restaurants but then go out and be impactful in other restaurants, and of course hopefully one day open their own restaurants. 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. Certainly the profession that I chose, cooking, allowed me to do all that. 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. The U.K.'s Only Female 3-Michelin-Starred Chef on Going Solo - Vogue 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. For three years he wrote to restaurants all over France. Raoul and Keller, R-A and K-E-L. Thomas Keller Is Reviving A Classic With The Surf Club Restaurant You have chef plumbers. People become very anxious in those moments. 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. One of the first employees to sign on was a young woman named Laura Cunningham, a Berkeley graduate with some experience in the Napa restaurant scene. With Lena Kwak, the research and development chef of The French Laundry, Keller had developed Cup4Cup, a gluten-free flour. They ran it in one of their last issues. Ill dye it green. So, food color came out, we dyed the pasta green. It was kind of this magical place, and I just felt an instant connection to it. 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. It was a restaurant that was extraordinarily consistent. Again, just classic but just perfectly done. I was thinking that, I dont know, fireworks. Chef Thomas Keller takes a seat just outside the wall of windows enclosing his new kitchen, the centrepiece of The French Laundry's $10 million renovation, while inside about a dozen cooks smoothly begin preparations for evening service, when the performance will begin all over again, as it has for 23 years. Thomas Kellerdrew closer to the realization ofa longtime dream when hisTeam USA won the silver medal atthe 2015 Bocuse dOr competition in Lyon, France. I gathered everybody around and I said, I think were going to have a great day tomorrow, so we opened a glass of champagne. Theres a chef de partie in every different station thats in a kitchen. Everybody did. You never say no to the chef, right? So yes, I primarily lived with my mother, and my grandmother for a little while as well, and my great aunts. 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. So in 1980, I planted my first garden. So he has to be able to motivate them. And Im very thankful for all of them. So that was a mistake I made that I never made again, and I learned from that. Certainly, working in French kitchens was the same for me. Thomas Keller: In 1977 I met my mentor, Roland Henin, who really enlightened me about what cooks do: we nurture people. He was very, very fascinated with cooking. Thomas Keller: We became friends. And then of course you have the chef de cuisine who is responsible for the entire kitchen. So at the time I was born he was stationed in Camp Pendleton, which is right near Oceanside in California. 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. It was the first American restaurant to receive this honor. 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. So you know, I did different things in different kitchens, because each chef needed a stagiaire in a different way. By 1986, he felt ready to try his hand again at opening a restaurant of his own. On a 1992 visit to the Napa Valley, he was introduced to Don and Sally Schmitt, owners of a small restaurant in Yountville, a small town in the heart of the wine-growing region. In 1997, The New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl called The French Laundry the most exciting place to eat in the United States. And I thought that was just brilliant in the way he wrote that book. Thomas Keller, who had been inspired by classic cookbooks as a novice chef, published The French Laundry Cookbook in 1999. So, we have a sous-chef thats responsible for the meats and the garde manger. Armed with his investors contributions, Keller secured a bank loan and a federal small business loan. We are only as good as those who come after us. And of course if you were successful, then it was positive feedback and you knew that you did a good job. He has established a collection of restaurants that sets a new paradigm within the hospitality profession, including The French Laundry, in Napa Valley, and Per Se, in New York, among others. 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. Thomas Keller: Its interesting because when I was at Taillevent, I had been cooking for quite some time. For him it was about meat and potatoes. It changes your life of course. With just a small four-burner stove with one oven it takes you a long time to prepare dinner. So you always had a bread and butter plate in one spot, a service plate in one spot. 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. Oysters and Pearls. Thomas Keller: My parents were divorced when I was young. It does. You learn a lot from your mistakes. 'Bistro dishes have become debased,' says chef Thomas Keller Were all in it together, and we all have to support one another. You had to empty the garbage can three times a day. 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. Traditionally, in France, is that an unpaid position? Thomas Keller: Per Se. Why Thomas Keller's Michelin Stars Make Him Unique - TastingTable.com The following year Michelin was going to launch in San Francisco. The opening of her debut restaurant, Core by Clare Smyth, marks an important milestone for Smyth, who trained under world-renowned chefs Thomas Keller and Alain Ducasse and made headlines as. Its fascinating that theres this underpinning of philosophy beneath the core value of great cuisine, of making it as good as it can possibly be. I think thats more of what I meant. 1996 - 2023 American AcademyofAchievement. 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. I wonder where that ambition came from to be the best, and why didnt you decide to go to school for that? I dont know, whatever. You made him a real last supper, didnt you? And there was another friend of mine in Los Angeles who taught me how to use a computer. I had much more control over it. And I always say my biggest asset at the time was my ignorance. And in his own way he enlightened us in the same way that Alice did in being able to encourage chefs to reconnect to the suppliers that are bringing us those extraordinary ingredients. And of course that catapulted us to again be financially successful, which allowed us now to commit our resources in so many different ways. So on Thanksgiving day at Bouchon, thats what we do. Of course, when it tries to jump forward, Im holding a leg. At this time newspapers still had a social columnist. And I learned at that moment a profound respect for the ingredients that we have, a profound respect for those individuals who bring them to us, and how committed they are to what they do, and how committed I have to be to what Im doing to respect what they do. So you have chef electricians. In France, Keller formed a friendship with the legendary chef Paul Bocuse, sponsor of the Bocuse dOr competition, the Olympics of international cooking. What better way to start a celebration than that? You prepared it in the way you could at that time with the ingredients that you had, and the knowledge and skills that you had at the moment, and it evolved with you. What does the American Dream mean to you? 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. Our job is to mentor and train the next generation of superstars, of franchise players, if you will. And that was the moment, July 1977, that I decided to make this my career and pursued that with determination, with commitment. I was four or five years old when my parents were divorced. We got on a plane the next day and came back to New York and of course celebrated again. And I realized three or four months later that it was a perfect meal.