It was on West 45th Street in West Palm Beach, right next door to the jai-alai fronton. So I said, Yes, chef. And so that began the day of our quest to get on the podium. Thomas Keller: Per Se opened in 2004. What about books that you read growing up? Saatchi & Saatchi, another huge advertising firm, opened their corporate headquarters down there. Whats so great about that? Right? Thomas Keller: My mother passed away, unfortunately, by the time I went to France. And it just didnt happen. So we were producing if it was five, we were producing 40 items, 40, 45 items a day. Thomas Keller: Interpretation is a very, very important word. Is that hierarchy something that you observed in France? Youll find a job. Im not sure which one. We could only hope that we can achieve that. You had your different areas for your knives, your forks, your spoons, things like that. Thomas Keller: I was working at a restaurant. Did your mother or father support your culinary ambitions? French kitchens are very delineated, arent they? It was fascinating, and again certainly we were very proud and honored. For three years he wrote to restaurants all over France. 3. The first and most important thing, he said, was to make sure that when you reach into the cage, that you grab both the hind legs simultaneously. 1996 - 2023 American AcademyofAchievement. And you know what, it was okay, either one. The chef de partie is a chef who is responsible for a specific station. This dish is featured on both the menus at Per Se and The French Laundry, a dish that has stayed on the menus since it was created and one we fully expect to remain there. I understood it. 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. Roast chicken and a salad of fresh lettuces with a simple vinaigrette. It was familiar to him. 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. And its up to that organization or that chef to define what youll do. Can I send you a copy? Right. But someone suggested I write them and I did. 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. 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. Where else would you aspire to go if it wasnt the best? We went to the local markets all the time. On behalf of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chef Paul Bocuse presented Keller as a Chevalier of The French Legion of Honor in 2011 in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the traditions of French cuisine and his role in elevating cooking in America. Jerry Della Femina moved down there, opened his offices. 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. 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. Where were their parameters for that? He wanted to have chicken, barbeque chicken. So you can see there was a wide range of investment. Certainly the profession that I chose, cooking, allowed me to do all that. And rituals are very, very, very important. I mean that became the catch phrase. It was such a moment for us because we represented our country. And I realized three or four months later that it was a perfect meal. It could be as short as two paragraphs. So I was focused on that. 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. I wanted to see new things. So I was shuffled between very loving, dedicated, committed women, and it was really a wonderful childhood, if you will. 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. 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. Yes. Were they going to come from France? So the schools that we did have were relatively new. 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. And I always say my biggest asset at the time was my ignorance. I came up. And it really truly is a learning, a place of learning. In everything that we do, we have to understand that our expectations have to be of the highest. He liked that. Keller began his career as a professional cook at the Palm Beach Yacht Club in 1974. Of course you had your glass racks or specific racks. A community college in Palm Beach. What was school like for you? 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. Cooking wasnt the question, but could I lead a team better? Thomas Keller: There was a recipe in there, and I cant remember the name of the recipe, but it was a recipe from a very famous restaurant in Italy and it was, I believe, spinach pasta with prosciutto di Parma, parmesan cheese and butter. I wanted to travel. Could I interact better with those around me who influence our restaurants? 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. But the next summer, when spring came around, Ren called me and asked me if I wanted to come back to La Rive, and because that was such a bucolic experience for me, it was so familiar, they were like my second parents, I moved back to Catskill for that third summer. Had I known everything that I was going to have to do over the course of the next 18 months, I would have given up right away. But it wasnt because I wanted to have a career in the profession, in the culinary profession. They didnt want steak Diane and pommes boulangre. You take a break at 3:00. And he flew in from Paris with four other executives from Michelin and they had dinner at The French Laundry. What did you have in mind? That was at the beginning of that relationship with Serge Raoul. 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. The following year, Michelin inspectors came to the West Coast and gave The French Laundry three stars as well. 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. This was the year before I went to Caf du Parc. And he sat us down right at the first table. Everybody read Herb Caen whether you liked food or not. And then you work until 11:00 at night. 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. Chef Thomas Keller is renowned for his culinary skills and high standards. Mr. Keller thinks, at least for him, a change may be in order. 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. 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. As time went on and we became more and more popular, we realized that we wanted to add a tasting menu. They become better than you. That was a Sunday supper, and we had a beautiful time. So Per Se was in the forefront of that first launch in New York. Those things. 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. One summer, he was discovered by French-born Master Chef Roland Henin and was tasked to cook staff meals at The Dunes Club. Were they going to be Americans? Now I think it would be casual fine dining. You opened your own restaurant in New York in 1986. So we lasted about 12 months. A lot of other people might have said, Maybe I was too ambitious.. He recognized a certain talent in me and he wanted to open a restaurant with me so we opened Rakel. Thomas Keller: A commis is the lowest position that you would enter when you enter a kitchen. Jean-Luc Naret was coming to San Francisco himself because he wanted to have an after party to celebrate to introduce the Michelin Guide in 2007. 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). A chef in France is the head of a specific area. I mean its actually performing, and its a function, and its physical. Right. I was questioning my ability as a chef. In the early 70s, when I really started cooking, for me it was really about the process. 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. 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. 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. Of course there were the schools, some schools in France, but they were mostly focused on consumers, mostly housewives on vacation who wanted to learn how to cook, as Julia Child certainly did when she went to Le Cordon Bleu. 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. He said, No matter how good of a cook you are, unless theres people in your seats, youre going to fail. Of course I read that after we failed. 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. 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. Then youd have a sous-chef. The throwback restaurant had been opened in March 2019, and had been his first New York restaurant in 15 years.[19]. What do you say to any chef? Theres many ways to entertain yourself without spending a lot of money. You had to sweep the floor at these specific times. Thomas Keller: Herb Caen was a great writer. [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. Thomas Keller: Thank you. 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. You knew when you did a bad job and you knew when you did a good job. Oh, what difference does it make? When I wrote The French Laundry Cookbook, it was an important story for me to tell. Made him a strawberry shortcake for dessert. But now I had to actually act on it, that dream, and make it reality. And Michelin first launched in New York City. I became a chef there and moved to Los Angeles. We also support the Semper Fi Foundation, which is actually in Camp Pendleton. Thomas Keller, the master chef behind the Michelin-starred restaurant The French Laundry, is an unlikely champion for business and organizational excellence. 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. Its very much like going into somebodys home. The demographics were very important in that process, which we just totally threw out the window, or we just miscalculated. Where were you when you decided to make this your career? 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. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996, and the Best Chef in America in 1997. We got on a plane the next day and came back to New York and of course celebrated again. In 2013, Keller and Kwak introduced gluten-free pancake, waffle, brownie and pizza mixes. By living frugally on his savings, Keller was able to undertake a series of unpaid apprentice positions in the citys finest restaurants including Guy de Savoy and Taillevent, Michel Pascuet, Gerard Besson, Le Toit de Passy, Chiberta and Le Pr Catalan. You're science-oriented. 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. My saving grace when I moved to Paris was my friend Serge Raoul, who allowed me to stay at his apartment. We were able to expand our staff. I think its discipline. We sat in their kitchen in their house next door. He loved chefs. 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. He was the first hotelier to really bring in a great restaurant with a great chef and that was Bradley Ogden. And I went to his restaurant, had lunch on my way to Arbois and I left thinking, Wow. 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. The second summer I decided to go to New York City to try my hand in Manhattan, and that was when I met Serge Raoul. People become very anxious in those moments. The recipe called for a double boiler. 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. Do you relate your attraction to the discipline and camaraderie of the kitchen to your fathers career as a Marine? Were committed to one another. I was already cooking now for four years. The sandwich resembles a typical BLT, with the addition of a fried egg. It didnt matter if you were doing fine dining, family dining. We just received three stars. We fell to tenth. I chose to go into the kitchen. You prepare for lunch. [7] Keller spent nineteen months raising $1.2million from acquaintances and investors to purchase the restaurant, then re-opened it in 1994. I wasnt convinced that I was just going to travel to France and knock on somebodys door, but in reality thats actually what happened. He was a Marine. Back to the first cookbook you received as a gift from your mom. Thomas Keller: Not really. So thats where I chose to go. Every day after school hed come home and watch Graham Kerr or Julia Child. 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. Many times the advice was, Well just go. Thomas Keller grew up in the restaurant business, in Palm Beach, Florida, working his way up from dishwasher to cook. Never let anybody tell you that you cant do something. The French Laundry was open almost at the same time that Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse. Chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller says his mother was his first mentor. Favorite Restaurant Restaurant Experts' Poll, Outstanding Wine Service Award, James Beard Foundation, 2001, Outstanding Service Award, James Beard Foundation, 2003. 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.. I had committed myself since 1977 to make this my career. Yountville, CA: ad hoc, addendum, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, New York: Bouchon Bakery, Per Se, TAK Room (closed), Outstanding Chef: America, James Beard Foundation, 1997. The trio had hoped that their proximity to a sports arena would provide them with a steady flow of business, but the arenas patrons were not interested in the sophisticated fare he was offering, and the restaurant closed its doors. Thomas Keller: No, not really. Theyll pick up Bon Appetit magazine or Gourmet or Saveur or any of the magazines. 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. Again, just classic but just perfectly done.