Thomas Keller
Thomas Keller is internationally renowned for his innovation and passionate dedication to his own unique brand of culinary style, which the chef himself has described as Contemporary American prepared with classical French technique. The role of entrepreneur and master chef is a cloudy mix for this workaholic epicurean who now oversees two eateries in Napa and a bakery, a vintage of local wine, a line of dinnerware, restaurants in Manhattan and Las Vegas, plus on the drawing boards for 2008 is The French Laundry Inn to be constructed right across the street from his famed The French Laundry restaurant.
"I have that Jekyll-and-Hyde thing inside me," Keller acknowledges. "Being a chef and an entrepreneur, that’s the biggest challenge. As a chef, you’re the person who’s in control. You know what the outcome is going to be. As the entrepreneur, you’re a gambler."
Born in Southern California, Thomas later moved to Florida, beginning his cooking career in a Palm Beach restaurant managed by his mother. He never went the culinary school route, but learned his craft by experience in a variety of kitchens while he defined the path he wanted to take with his culinary talents. In the early eighties, he became the chef at Raoul’s in New York, and then joined the staff at the Westbury Hotel, working under Daniel Boulud. Later, he traveled to France to train in several kitchens including the Michelin three-star restaurant, Taillevent in Paris. In 1986, Keller returned to New York and opened a restaurant called Rakel. He received rave reviews for five years until he moved to Los Angeles as executive chef of Checkers Hotel.
Keller purchased The French Laundry in 1994, located in Yountville California, with the goal of creating a three-star country French restaurant in the heart of the Napa Valley.
"The notable wine regions of the world also support a number of great restaurants to show off the wine of each region", the chef explained, "Napa was the exception, so I wanted to provide a place where both fine vintners and local farms would have a place worthy of showcasing the exceptional quality of this valley’s bounty in fresh produce as well as the local wine grape crops".
In 1999 The French Laundry Cookbook, authored by Keller, was awarded three International Association of Culinary Professionals awards, including Cookbook of the Year, as well as the 1999 Versailles Cookbook Award in Paris. Today, The French Laundry is one of the most sought-after reservations in the country; it is booked several months in advance.
In 1998, Keller opened Bouchon, also located in the Napa Valley. The casual French bistro has been a favorite for locals and a destination for out-of-towners as well. It was a natural continuation of this casual walk-in theme that caused him to open the Bouchon Bakery next door. Keller also collaborated with Raynaud and the design firm Level on a collection of simple, yet sophisticated, white porcelain dinnerware called Point (in homage to the great French chef and restaurateur, Fernand Point). The chef has also delved into the world of wines as a consequence of The French Laundry’s Napa locale. Modicum, a Napa Valley Cabernet, has been developed with French Laundry General Manager Laura Cunningham. In 2004, he opened another Bouchon at the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas as well as the highly anticipated Per Se in the Time-Warner Building in New York City, a work of art in design as well as culinary perfection as is befitting its international city backdrop, a theme as opposite and as distant from the vineyards and rolling hills of Napa as this chef could imagine, which is exactly what prompted him to attempt it.
The secret of Keller’s culinary success, reverently referred to by acolytes as the "French Laundry Philosophy," is actually quite simple. "A kitchen is about control, at any level, whether you’re a sous-chef or a chef de commis," Keller says firmly. "What is cooking, after all? At the most basic level, you’re laboring to master the fundamental elements: fire, iron, flesh. Rise up the ranks, open your own place, and the variables may grow exponentially—staff, purveyors, critics—but the fundamental equation hasn’t really changed. Like great film directors, certainly, all great chefs are epic control freaks. And to stand out among them? You probably have to be a tiny bit, well, "off". This multi-faceted chef/entrepreneur mused, "It’s a kind of craziness. It is an obsession to detail," Keller admits. "I hate it sometimes. There are times you want to turn a blind eye to all the little things that could go wrong. But I’ve always been like that."
It is not a mythic rumor that this attention to detail may lead the acclaimed chef to be found, after service, down on his knees scrubbing out the cupboards. "The only way to know every inch of your kitchen is to clean every inch of it," Keller explains with a shrug. "If you don’t get intimately involved in your kitchen, you can’t embrace it, you can’t call it your own."
It is difficult to describe why there is a line for months to get into The French Laundry, for a meal there depends upon the contribution of each course building toward a total experience. There is not a detail missed: the menu, exceptional staff, entry, decor, the table accoutrements – all are designed in harmony with the elegance and depth of the food. Each of the courses served is beautifully intertwined with the previous dish for the first minutes of presentation, until it too becomes its own.
"I try to give the patron just the right portion that will convey the taste without any one dish being enough to satisfy hunger" said this perfectionist chef, "but combined, the collection of courses should, of course, satisfy hunger while each dish still remains equally memorable because one was not served enough to grow tired of the taste."
For this holiday edition of the Melissa’s website, Chef Keller has contributed several dishes that are appropriate to the festive spirit of the season, as well as providing the reader with options to the traditional holiday fare.
