Thomas Keller
Thomas Keller | |
---|---|
Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California, United States | |
Education | Apprenticeship |
Spouse | Laura Cunningham |
Culinary career | |
Cooking style | French |
Rating(s) | |
Current restaurant(s)
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Thomas Aloysius Keller (born October 14, 1955) is an American
In 2005, he was awarded the three-star rating in the inaugural Michelin Guide for New York City for his restaurant Per Se, and in 2006, he was awarded three stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area for The French Laundry. He is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three-star Michelin ratings for two different restaurants.[2] His restaurants currently hold seven Michelin stars in total: three at Per Se, three at The French Laundry, and one at The Surf Club Restaurant.[3]
Early life and career
Keller's mother was a restaurateur who employed Thomas as help when her cook got sick.[4] Four years after his parents divorced, the family moved east and settled in Palm Beach, Florida. In his teenage summers, he worked at the Palm Beach Yacht Club starting as a dishwasher and quickly moving up to cook. It was here he discovered his passion for cooking and perfection of the hollandaise sauce.
During summers, he worked as a cook in Rhode Island. One summer, he was discovered by French-born Master Chef Roland Henin and was tasked to cook staff meals at The Dunes Club. Under Henin's study, Keller learned the fundamentals of classical French cooking. After The Dunes Club, Keller worked various cooking positions in Florida and soon became the cook at a small French restaurant called La Rive in the Hudson River valley in Catskill, New York. Thomas worked alone with the couple's grandmother as prep cook. Given free rein, he built a smokehouse to cure meats, developed relationships with local livestock purveyors and learned to cook entrails and offal under his old mentor, Roland Henin, who would drop by on occasional weekends. 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.[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. Rakel's refined French cuisine catered to the expensive tastes of Wall Street executives and received a two-star review from The New York Times. 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.[6]
The French Laundry
Following the split with his partner at Rakel, Keller took various consultant and chef positions in New York and Los Angeles. In the spring of 1992 he came upon a restaurant in Yountville, California founded by Sally Schmitt, in a space formerly occupied by an old French stream laundry. She and her husband Don purchased the building in 1978 and converted it into a restaurant.[7] Keller spent nineteen months raising $1.2 million from acquaintances and investors to purchase the restaurant, then re-opened it in 1994. Over the next few years the restaurant earned numerous awards, including from the James Beard Foundation, gourmet magazines, the Mobil Guide (five stars), and the Michelin Guide (three stars).[1]
In April 2009, Keller became engaged to longtime girlfriend and former general manager at the French Laundry, Laura Cunningham.[8]
Other restaurants and pursuits
Food and dining
- Yountville, CA: ad hoc, addendum, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, The French Laundry, La Calenda
- New York: Bouchon Bakery, Per Se, TAK Room (closed)
- Las Vegas: Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery
- Miami: The Surf Club,[11] Bouchon Bistro
Prior to the opening of The French Laundry, Thomas Keller started a small olive oil company called EVO, Inc. in 1992, with his girlfriend of the time, to distribute Provençal-style olive oil and red wine vinegar. 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. He has also attached his name to a set of signature knives manufactured by MAC.[12]
Keller is the president of the Bocuse d'Or U.S. team and was responsible for recruiting and training the 2009 candidates.[13] The former French Laundry Chef de Cuisine Timothy Hollingsworth won the Bocuse d'Or USA semi-finals in 2008, and represented the U.S. in the world finals in January 2009 under Keller's supervision where he placed 6th.[14][15][16] On describing his reasons for accepting the Bocuse d'Or Team USA presidency, Keller stated, "When Chef [Paul] Bocuse calls you on the phone and says he’d like you to be president of the American team, you say, ‘Oui, chef’. He's the role model, the icon".[17]
In 2012 he announced he was at the point of his career when it was time to step away from the kitchen. 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."[18] He permanently closed his restaurant TAK Room, located in Hudson Yards, during the coronavirus pandemic. The throwback restaurant had been opened in March 2019, and had been his first New York restaurant in 15 years.[19]
Publishing and film
In 1999, Thomas Keller published
Working on the film
Keller currently has three online cooking classes at Masterclass.com, pursuing his belief in teaching.[25][26][27]
Awards
- Best American Chef: California, James Beard Foundation, 1996[28][29]
- Outstanding Chef: America, James Beard Foundation, 1997
- Chef of the Year, Bon Appétit Magazine, 1998[30]
- Voted #1 – Top Food, Zagat Guide to the Bay Area, 1998–2003
- Five-Star Award, Mobil Travel Guide, 1999–2004
- Favorite Restaurant – Restaurant Experts' Poll, Food & Wine Magazine, 2000
- Top Restaurant for Food, Wine Spectator Magazine, 2000
- America's Best Chef,
- Outstanding Wine Service Award, James Beard Foundation, 2001
- Outstanding Service Award, James Beard Foundation, 2003
- Best Restaurant in the World (French Laundry),
- Best Restaurant in the Americas (French Laundry),
- Best New Restaurant (Per Se), James Beard Foundation, 2005[39]
- Outstanding Restaurant (French Laundry), James Beard Foundation, 2006
- Michelin Guide New York, 3 Stars for Per Se, November 2005 – Current
- Michelin Guide Bay Area, 3 Stars for The French Laundry, 2006 – Current
- Michelin Guide Bay Area, 1 Star for Bouchon, 2007 – 2021
- 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[40][41]
- Lifetime Achievement Award (French Laundry)
- Culinary Hall of Fame Induction.[44]
- Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement,[45]2014
Bibliography
- Keller, T. ISBN 1-57965-126-7
- Keller, T. Bouchon. Artisan Publishers, 2004. ISBN 1-57965-239-5
- Keller, T. ISBN 1-57965-351-0
- Keller, T. ISBN 978-1-57965-377-4
- Keller, T. ISBN 978-1-57965-435-1
- Keller, T. The French Laundry, Per Se. Artisan Publishers, 2020. ISBN 978-1-57965-849-6
References
- ^ a b "Thomas Keller and The French Laundry Awards" Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Venetian.com.
- ^ (in French) Anaïs Digonnet, "Le chef américain Thomas Keller reçoit la Légion d’honneur" Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. France-Amérique. March 29, 2011.
- ^ "MICHELIN Guide Reveals Inaugural Florida Selection". Michelin North America, Inc. (Press release).
- ^ Kramer, Jane (September 5, 2005). "The Quest". The New Yorker. p. 3.
- ^ "per se" Archived October 29, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. DininginFrance.com.
- ^ Matt Duckor, "The Thomas Keller Interview, II: On Benno, Bouchon and Brooklyn" Archived April 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. The Feast. March 23, 2011.
- American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ "Thomas Keller to Wed". FoodGal.com. April 23, 2009.
- ^ Johs Stens. "Prix fixe to the people: Thomas Keller goes populist with his new restaurant, Ad Hoc". San Francisco Magazine.
- ^ "Ad Hoc to become permanent". San Francisco Chronicle. January 17, 2007.
- ^ Buch, Clarissa (June 7, 2018). "writer". www.tastingtable.com. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
- ^ "TK SET - Thomas Keller Limited Edition Set" Archived August 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Macknife.com.
- ^ Bocuse d'Or Team United States 2009 dossier Archived November 15, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Sciolino, Elaine, The New York Times: Diner's Journal (January 28, 2009). The American Chef Comes in Sixth
- ^ Cowin, Diana, Food & Wine (February 2009). Competing at the Bocuse d’Or: Team USA’s Unbeatable Recipes
- ^ Vallis, Alexandra, New York Magazine: Grub Street (November 6, 2008). Chef Timothy Hollingsworth Wants to Bring American Pressure to the Bocuse d’Or
- ^ Sciolino, Elaine, The New York Times (January 26, 2009). High Hopes for American Team in Bocuse d’Or Cooking Competition
- ^ "Chef Thomas Keller :'Preparing myself to let go'". FineDiningLovers.com. June 6, 2012.
- ^ Christina Izzo, Bao Ong, Amber Sutherland-Namako (October 29, 2021), "75 notable NYC restaurants and bars that permanently closed since 2020", TimeOut
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "French Laundry chef talks about celebrity life". MSN. May 22, 2007.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Brian Van (October 26, 2005). "Make yourself a Spanglish sandwich". Gothamist. Archived from the original on June 26, 2007.
- ^ J.J. Schnebel. "Who cooked that up? The Spanglish sandwich". Archived from the original on May 24, 2007.
- ^ "Chef Thomas Keller on Why Food Isn't The Point Of a Restaurant". Vogue Man Arabia. December 3, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ^ Stacy Finz (June 28, 2007). "Bay Area flavors food tale: For its new film 'Ratatouille,' Pixar explored our obsession with cuisine". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ "Thomas Keller - Teaches Cooking Techniques I: Vegetables, Pasta, and Eggs at masterclass.com". Masterclass. July 2020.
- ^ "Thomas Keller - Teaches Cooking Techniques II: Meats, Stocks, and Sauces". Masterclass.com. July 2020.
- ^ "Thomas Keller - Teaches Cooking Techniques III: Seafood, Sous Vide, and Desserts". Masterclass.com. July 2020.
- ^ "The James Beard Foundation Awards Presents 1996 Winners". Starchefs.com. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
- ^ "Search:"Thomas Keller"". James Beard Foundation. Retrieved October 10, 2012.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "The 1998 Bon Appétit Awards: Chef of the Year". Bon Appetit. Archived from the original on April 13, 2013. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
- ^ "Table of Contents". TIME Magazine. September 17, 2001. Archived from the original on January 13, 2005. Retrieved June 19, 2011.
- ^ Joel Stein (September 17, 2001). "Chef: Captain Cook". TIME Magazine. Archived from the original on January 13, 2005. Retrieved June 19, 2011.
- ^ "The S. Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurants in the World, 2003". Archived from the original on September 20, 2012. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
- ^ "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2004". Archived from the original on October 27, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
- ^ "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2005". Archived from the original on October 27, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
- ^ "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2006". Archived from the original on January 1, 2013. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
- ^ "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2007". Archived from the original on October 27, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
- ^ "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2008". Archived from the original on October 27, 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
- ^ Melanie Young (May 2, 2005). "Winners Announced For 2005 James Beard Foundation Awards" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 25, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2011.
- ^ "Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor for Thomas Keller". Archived from the original on August 8, 2011. Retrieved June 19, 2011.
- ^ "American chef Keller to be admitted into French Legion of Honor". The Independent. March 10, 2011. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2011.
- ^ "Thomas Keller – The S.Pellegrino Lifetime Achievement Award Winner 2012". Archived from the original on October 27, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
- ^ "Thomas Keller wins Lifetime Achievement Award".
- ^ Culinary Hall of Fame Induction
- American Academy of Achievement.
Further reading
- Keller, Thomas. The French Laundry Cookbook. Artisan Publishers, 1999. ISBN 1-57965-126-7
- Ruhlman, Michael. The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection. Penguin Books, 2001. ISBN 0-14-100189-5
- Keller, Thomas. Bouchon. Artisan Publishers, 2004. ISBN 1-57965-239-5
- Severson, Kim. "A Rat with a Whisk and a Dream." The New York Times, June 13, 2007.
- Keller, Thomas. Under Pressure. Artisan Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-1-57965-351-4
- Keller, Thomas. Ad Hoc at Home. Artisan Publishers,2009. ISBN 1-57965-377-4
- Keller, Thomas. Rouxel, Sebastien. Bouchon Bakery . Artisan Publishers, 2012. ISBN 978-1-57965-435-1
External links
- Thomas Keller on Said Search – Searchable list of Thomas Keller Interviews
- Interview by Restaurant Insider magazine: January 2006
- Charlie Rose interview: March 26, 2008
- Google Authors: Thomas Keller: May 19, 2009
- 60 Minutes: Inside Thomas Keller's Restaurants: November 20, 2011
- 60 Minutes: Visiting the Theater of the Mouth: February 11, 2009