Now, before I went to see Bob, you have to realize that I had worked on this business plan, right? 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. 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. We were very honored. 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. I wanted to try new things. We live by them day to day, not necessarily having written them down. 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. Just go. We did so many different things. And then you work until 11:00 at night. We try to limit the choices, relieve the anxiety, and give somebody an experience that then, when they leave the restaurant, its memorable. Even though I hadnt spent a lot of time with my father growing up, in my early 20s I made a reconnection with him and certainly we rekindled our relationship and he was very supportive, even though he didnt understand what I did. What It Takes is an audio podcast produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: public service, science and exploration, sports, technology, business, arts and humanities, and justice. Serge was my only investor (in Rakel) so his life was impacted by the failure of Rakel. For him it was about meat and potatoes. Now Ive got this rabbit thats got a broken leg, and Ive got to kill it and dress it. In the process I did really I wasnt really privy to the process that you go through but I remember receiving the letter from the President of France telling me that he was proud of the work that I had done in my field and that I deserved to be recognized by the people of France and to receive the Medallion de Legion dHonneur was their way of expressing their gratitude and asking me if I would like to be hosted at the lyse Palace in Paris later that year to receive the medal from him, or to receive the medal from an officer of the Legion dHonneur that was of a higher rank than I was. I enjoyed it. Keller plans to continue this movement at the art deco-themed TAK Room on the firth floor New Yorks Hudson Yards complex. Not everybody has that much awareness of it, but for our point of view, the sense of national pride that we have in what we do, the commitment that we have during that two-year process of training, choosing and training those young chefs because it takes a year to train them. Yes. It comes out in a beautiful pan. I believe in you, but I need something. Saatchi & Saatchi, another huge advertising firm, opened their corporate headquarters down there. The entire pastry production, the entire pastry service, working with the chef de cuisine on the philosophy of the pastry. In 2004 they opened a Bouchon Bakery & Caf in Las Vegas and a new fine dining establishment, Per Se, in New York City. "[18] He permanently closed his restaurant TAK Room, located in Hudson Yards, during the coronavirus pandemic. Thank you, Chef. And cheese, the cheese cart always comes by in France, and you have so many selections. Could you tell us how that came about? In the next few years, Keller would pursue his interest in French cooking, developing close relationships with the cooks and proprietors of French restaurants in his own country while applying for jobs in France. We have to have an American president. I said okay. From the beginning, did you have the idea of doing a tasting menu, rather than a long menu of choices? And he was always the one who was out there getting reservations for the restaurant. Its that social engagement, that interaction around a dinner table that to me is the most important. We have to be that much more determined, that much more committed to what we do every day. Thomas Keller: Well first, thank you very much for that wonderful compliment. And of course if you were successful, then it was positive feedback and you knew that you did a good job. [7] Keller spent nineteen months raising $1.2million from acquaintances and investors to purchase the restaurant, then re-opened it in 1994. Take the lobster, do this, this, and this, and add this and this and you have this is what lobster Bohemian is. Theyre going to drive right by our restaurant and stop. It was a daunting task for us every day to produce this menu. It was in watching his. But it was such a wonderful moment that lasted for days afterwards, because you had all the leftovers. 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. At the same time he has to be able to maintain the standards of their preparation and also the ingredients that are coming in. The kitchen was my comfort zone, and I was very successful in the kitchen, but outside of that I wasnt so much so. Theres 12 rabbits in the cage and hes explaining to me in broken English how to kill the rabbit. And the level of the success or the result of the recipe was based on your current ability. No more than three days later (so you don't forget too much), take . I was unsure of my career. But I truly dont think that any moment that you get something to eat should just be about getting something to eat. There was jubilation. Im looking at this rabbit hanging on the side of the barn, and 11 rabbits in the cage. 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. 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. And his house was right next door to The French Laundry, where he lived and it was a common thing to go over there after work in the afternoon, at four or five oclock when the morning team would be finishing up, and theyd be over there on his front porch drinking beer out of cans, because he really liked canned beer as opposed to bottled beer. I learned the importance of ritual, doing things at specific times of the day and having them leading up to those times, and being prepared for those times. Thomas Keller: In the beginning, when Don and Sally Schmitt had the restaurant, there was one menu. But now I had to actually act on it, that dream, and make it reality. He is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three-star Michelin ratings for two different restaurants. Keller began his career as a professional cook at the Palm Beach Yacht Club in 1974. Traditionally, in France, is that an unpaid position? We have to give them training. In 1997, The New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl called The French Laundry the most exciting place to eat in the United States. You dont know. I had committed myself since 1977 to make this my career. In 1994, he set his heart on a converted laundry building in Yountville, in the heart of Californias Napa Valley wine country. One of the most moving little notes on your website is easy to miss, but its just the fact that The French Laundry has had three stars since 2007, and Per Se has had three stars since 2006. So it was really I was in a comfortable position in my living quarters, and I wasnt really spending a lot of money. As a dishwasher you do the same thing over and over and over and over again. 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. There was that true connection to our suppliers, to those people who produced our food. Pierre ran the kitchen. And during my time working for him and of course I was just a lowly cook so Im not sure why I was having this kind of conversations with him but the conversations were really about cooks and our career and our profession. The ignorance allowed me to do it. I remember him watching you know, you would have the Graham Kerr series. So five days a week, my meals were paid for. 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. Two years later, Keller opened Bouchon Bakery in Yountville and started his own wine label, Modicum. 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. And its up to that organization or that chef to define what youll do. They feel the responsibility to them. Its extraordinary what we have available to us and how important our farmers have become. And he agreed to do it. In the late 1980s he opened Rakel in New York, but left for California a few years later. We changed every day. Of course we called the restaurant. I was a semi-well-known chef with, I guess, a checkered reputation, and now I needed to go out and raise the money to buy this restaurant. And we were so proud. What college did you attend for that short while? After a third summer at La Rive, he was working at Polo Restaurant in New York City when he finally received a job offer from a restaurant in Arbois in Northeastern France and packed his bags. I wanted to have a large group of people, because of my experience at Rakel. And not only that, Ive got to do the other ten. So between the two of them, they ignited what I believe we have, the resurgence of the farmer, the fisherman, the gardener and the forager. So on Thanksgiving day at Bouchon, thats what we do. So that organizational aspect allowed you to be more efficient, which was kind of the second discipline that I learned is efficiency was really, really key in doing things well. Made him a strawberry shortcake for dessert. You started quite young, didnt you? And it was fascinating because without realizing it, it inspired you to prepare the recipe. Many residents and visitors to the area were lovers of fine wine and well-versed in contemporary trends in fine dining. And it was one of those things that you try. And of course Bill Wilkinson was very influential in the hotel world because he opened the first boutique hotel in our country, which was Campton Place in San Francisco. Those were things that he was familiar with so and just telling stories. Even though I didnt have a father present, I had some great, great women that helped form and focus my childhood. Armed with his investors contributions, Keller secured a bank loan and a federal small business loan. As much as he was satisfied, he said, Youre not quite there yet. 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. 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. 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. Its the one hit wonders that are one hit wonders. In 2011, Keller opened branches of Bouchon Bakery in Beverly Hills and in New Yorks Rockefeller Center. And the kitchen downstairs at 5:30, my first job was to shovel coal into the ovens. You have truly defined haute cuisine in this country. He also holds an honorary doctorate in culinary arts from The . How old were you when you received it? He wanted America to have a better representation at the Bocuse dOr. At the height of this you had La Cte Basque, La Caravelle, Le Cirque, La Grenouille, La Reserve, Le Perigord. And that was the moment, July 1977, that I decided to make this my career and pursued that with determination, with commitment. 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 does. It was a narrative. It may be my last chance. I was in my mid-30s. 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. So, we werent away from it for too long, but long enough that so many of us forgot how important it was. Of course its such an uncomfortable story for a lot of people that my publisher didnt want to include it in the book and I made her. We went to the local markets all the time. 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. At the same time, be able to do my homework when needed, be able to function as a young person and still keep busy. 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. I learned how to share with them. So we lasted about 12 months. 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. 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. And so you have a pastry chef who is responsible for the entire pastry station, right? I had been reading about this restaurant for years. And I think thats what made the difference for me is not having to focus on the foundation of cooking, but be able to understand what made these restaurants great and understanding that Taillevent, which was probably the single most influential for me, a great restaurant. In 2003, Richard Capizzi became the first pastry chef (not to mention the youngest) to ever sweep the awards at the U.S. 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? And to keep herself busy, and of course to supply some income for the family, she worked in restaurants. 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. Thomas Keller grew up in the restaurant business, in Palm Beach, Florida, working his way up from dishwasher to cook. Were they going to be Americans? Thomas Keller: We opened Bouchon. He loved wine. Today we have executive chefs as well. And I thought that was just brilliant in the way he wrote that book. And I realized that thats not why I came to France. 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. I spent three summers there: 1980, 81 and 82. So I gave them some and I took some. Thomas was considered too young to work as a cook so he started as a dishwasher. But not only did I have to raise money from private partners, I had to buy the property. We built our new kitchen. 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. 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. But it wasnt about the team that won gold. Therefore you have to pay them. It would seem Chef Thomas Keller would have reason to be satisfied. And Rakel was in an area that wasnt really supported by a community or a neighborhood around it. Of course, I thought that because of the things that I learned, and because of the ability to execute what I wanted to do, because of my ability to organize a kitchen, I thought that I was invincible. Keller started out young in the field of cooking and culinary skills - in fact, his love for cooking surfaced when he once worked as a chef at his mother's restaurant in Florida. We are only as good as those who come after us. You just never know. Thomas Keller: I think the American Dream, what it means to me is we everybody in our country has an opportunity. Im not sure which one. So that they could plate the food. And that was a wonderful environment, very familiar, very small. So yes, I primarily lived with my mother, and my grandmother for a little while as well, and my great aunts. I became a chef there and moved to Los Angeles. Cook it by the numbers, following every instruction. I went to work at another restaurant in New York called Raphael, and this was theres a lot of Rs in my restaurant history. Thomas Keller: I studied philosophy actually. In 1999, Thomas Keller published The French Laundry Cookbook, which he considers his definitive book on cuisine. We fell to tenth. Theyll pick up Bon Appetit magazine or Gourmet or Saveur or any of the magazines. Fortunately, my persistence paid off and I had eight different stages in observation, permission to have observation at a restaurant. [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). Everybody was doing casual dining. You know, working with a group of other young men in a line, in a high-stress environment where its very intense and youre cooking food. And so in conversations with the dining room, the course of a persons experience there was they would come in and they would ask they finally got into The French Laundry, it was a great it was a wonderful moment for them. Thomas Keller stands in front of the original exterior wall of the French Laundry in Yountville. It was a restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida. Thomas Keller, the master chef behind the Michelin-starred restaurant The French Laundry, is an unlikely champion for business and organizational excellence.