In a few years, Kellers restaurants would collectively receive seven stars in a single years Michelin Guide. Keller remained in New York, consulting, but was completely unsatisfied. 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. 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? Prove that you can by acting on it and youll be successful. So on Thanksgiving day at Bouchon, thats what we do. 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. We invite those from our veterans home here in Yountville down to experience a meal around a table in a familiar place with food that is nourishing in every way. What about books that you read growing up? It was a wonderful restaurant. For three years he wrote to restaurants all over France. It was here he discovered his passion for cooking and perfection of the hollandaise sauce. In 1994, Keller closed the deal and set about renovating the facility. I could go anywhere in the world and be a cook. I dont know if theres a hospitality gene as much as theres a nurturing gene. It was my generation that kind of missed that. 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. 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. 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. And its up to that organization or that chef to define what youll do. And then we have to mentor them not just in their career, but in their lives. I was already cooking now for four years. You got one more to go.. I remember she served me on that day. Mr. Keller is 61, an age when other. So Bill is then taking his expertise and skill to L.A., bought a hotel downtown, renamed it Checkers, and brought in me. Keller has written five bestselling cookbooks, starting with The French Laundry Cookbook, and has received Best Chef honors from TIME magazine, the James Beard Foundation and the Culinary Institute of America. When I was in South Florida, I was working in a restaurant called the Caf du Parc. 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. Now Ive got this rabbit thats got a broken leg, and Ive got to kill it and dress it. Not necessarily. So I became the chef, the second chef there. Thomas Keller: I think its that way in most classy kitchens. And thats how we define success, thats giving people those memories. And I think if I was born with that, I got that from my mother. As important as Ruths was, Herbs was the same, the Schmitts. At that point you begin overeating because you want to try each one of them. Where else would you aspire to go if it wasnt the best? Paul Bocuse was a commis at his restaurant. And I could have him pin the medal on my chest. A community college in Palm Beach. 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. The recipe called for a double boiler. Thomas Keller: Yeah. Youve mentioned the value of consistency, but nothing says it like that. Were going to have this instant business. But we were doing, at the time, fine dining. I had left Checkers. It was fascinating, and again certainly we were very proud and honored. We did everything. When he was seven his parents separated, and Thomas moved with his mother and two older brothers to Palm Beach, Florida, where his grandmother and great aunts helped raise him and his brothers. At this time newspapers still had a social columnist. So I didnt have rent to pay. How do we respond to that? We just received three stars. 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. Born in America in 1955, Thomas Keller is a restaurateur and cookbook author, but first and foremost, a chef. During summers, he worked as a cook in Rhode Island. 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. But not only did I have to raise money from private partners, I had to buy the property. America had competed since the beginning but never even came close to the podium. Roast chicken and a salad of fresh lettuces with a simple vinaigrette. 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. So when I got there, I had a good foundation of technique, a good understanding of classic cuisine, certainly the understanding of the vocabulary in a French kitchen. And three days later I packed my bag early in the morning and I snuck out the door and caught the train and went to Paris and ended up staying at a friends apartment for almost two years and literally knocking on peoples doors for a job. [5], After returning to America in 1984, he was hired as chef de cuisine at La Reserve in New York, before leaving to open Rakel in early 1987. I wasnt doing anything. Not just in the culinary profession, not just in the hospitality profession, but in anything. Thomas Keller: Every morning there was a ritual where I would wake up and I would call my list of people asking them for money. 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. When he was hired as chef de cuisine at La Reserve, he was the first American to lead one of New Yorks distinguished French restaurants. It was a very small kitchen, and it was a beautiful experience because it was what I related to from just returning from France. As we continued to evolve with that idea, we realized that the veterans here werent having that kind of experience and so we committed ourselves to doing that. And we were so proud. So that was really the beginning for us of our success in Northern California. 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. Ive had some extraordinary honors in my life. The entire pastry production, the entire pastry service, working with the chef de cuisine on the philosophy of the pastry. So Per Se was in the forefront of that first launch in New York. We want to make sure that we pay respect to them. 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. My sights to go to France and work in specific restaurants were already defined. Were you a good student? It was in the era of Chez Panisse, you know. "[18] He permanently closed his restaurant TAK Room, located in Hudson Yards, during the coronavirus pandemic. 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. Where were their parameters for that? Thomas Keller: My father was a Marine. 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. And he came in, he snuck in. Keller's mother was a restaurateur who employed Thomas as help when her cook got sick. It was about the engagement with others. 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. And luxury to me is not having to make a choice, having somebody guide me through an experience thats going to result in something that is memorable. So I set my sights high. I graduated high school. And he agreed to do it. Those were things that he was familiar with so and just telling stories. His employers there, Pierre and Anne-Marie Latuberne, recommended him to Ren and Paulette Macary, who operated a restaurant of their own, La Rive, in Catskill, New York during the summer season. 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. And the kitchen downstairs at 5:30, my first job was to shovel coal into the ovens. A lot of other people might have said, Maybe I was too ambitious.. So when they were divorced, that was her path. Could you give a little definition of how each rank works? Keller has joked in the past that the motivation for Bouchon's opening was to give him somewhere to eat after work at The French Laundry. What do you say to any chef? Did you commit to purchasing it before you raised the money? Why didnt I choose to go to school? Thomas Keller: A commis is the lowest position that you would enter when you enter a kitchen. And you know, it really goes back to when I was a young child and that was one of the meals my mother would cook would be Thanksgiving. 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. And kitchens are run in that way because its all command response. We had Johnson and Wales. As time went on and we became more and more popular, we realized that we wanted to add a tasting menu. And that was the moment, July 1977, that I decided to make this my career and pursued that with determination, with commitment. [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. And it just didnt happen. Thomas Keller: My parents were divorced when I was young. It was considered one of the best restaurants in the world. The owner, Serge Raoul, became a lifelong friend. Its the stamina, the commitment, the dedication to the craft is unparalleled. And if we do that, if we do that every day, then thats the best we can do, and we can feel comfortable that we have given you the best. If you dont, then weve only failed you, we havent failed ourselves, and thats an important thing for us to remember. Thomas Keller: Per Se. I was unsure of my career. He had a friend, Ren Macary and his wife, Paulette, who owned a restaurant in Catskill, New York outside of the town of Catskill, New York. Thomas Keller: I began my humble career as a dishwasher. So when I went to see Bob Sutcliffe, I had a 300-page business plan and a bottle of olive oil. Could you tell us that story? So that they could plate the food. Thomas Keller: In 1977 I met my mentor, Roland Henin, who really enlightened me about what cooks do: we nurture people. 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. Every day after school hed come home and watch Graham Kerr or Julia Child. So our job is to make sure that were choosing those ingredients of the moment. A year later your skills your experience were increased, and if you made that same dish, it would be different. 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. 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. So at the time I was born he was stationed in Camp Pendleton, which is right near Oceanside in California.