Thomas Keller has steadily worked his way to the top of the culinary heap. Crave meets the man behind The French Laundry and Per Se.
Text by Kavita Daswani
For Thomas Keller, cooking, he confides, “is all about nurturing”.
The acclaimed chef and restaurateur has been nurturing numerous foodies for decades. His stable includes the three Michelin star The French Laundry in Yountville, California, and New York’s Per Se, as well as Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery and Ad Hoc.
In the summer of 1977, he began working with his mentor, master chef Roland Henin, who discovered the young Keller working as a cook in Rhode Island. From Henin, he learned the basics of French cooking.
Keller is now on every “best chef” list going, an association that has resulted in The French Laundry having a waiting list of up to two months.
From late November to early December, Hong Kong gastronomes had the opportunity to sample some of Keller’s signature dishes during a special guest event at the Mandarin Oriental. Prior to his departure from the US, Keller was finalising the menu details. Dishes would include vegetables freshly plucked from the culinary garden at his restaurant, cheeses made exclusively for him by Soyoung Scanlan of Andante Dairy in Petaluma, California, as well as Vermont’s only handmade butter.
“While Hong Kong offers an extensive array of amazing produce, our goal is to showcase ingredients that we use on a regular basis, in order to give our guests the opportunity to experience a typical meal at The French Laundry,” he says.
Keller intended to bring a team of seven to assist him in the kitchen, where he was also looking forward to collaborating with the Mandarin’s Executive Chef Uwe Opocensky and Chef de Cuisine Cheng Yiu Shing.
When working as a guest chef in foreign countries, Keller says he always hopes to bring a little taste of The French Laundry with him.
“We certainly feature some signature dishes, such as the Cornet of Salmon and ‘Oysters and Pearls’,” he says, referring to one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes – a sabayon of pearl tapioca with Island Creek oysters and Californian sturgeon caviar.
“However, the menu is typically a collaborative effort by our chefs, so each one has an opportunity to contribute to its evolution.”
Keller has become a fixture on the gourmet food scene. He’s known for his consistently delectable dishes made from the finest and freshest ingredients, and his peerless restaurants. He has written three cookbooks. His fourth, recipes from Bouchon Bakery will be out in autumn 2012.
Unlike other celebrity chefs, he doesn’t have his name on canned soups and bottled coffee drinks sold at discount stores. Instead, he remains a purist, preferring to work long hours and completely focus on the task at hand. He says he inherited these qualities from his mother.
“[She] was my first role model,” he says. “From her I learned my values, my strong work ethic and desire; the desire to do a good job and to do a little bit better every day. She also stressed the importance of attention to detail.”
His mother worked as a restaurant manager and gave her youngest son of five his first job as a dishwasher.
“It was a very gratifying experience for me,” he says. “Through this experience, I formed my inclination for organisation, repetition and ritual. It laid the groundwork and discipline for my chosen career path later in life. She was in the industry and she knew how important all of these things were in order to achieve success.”
Keller began his long road to culinary success as a teenager in Palm Beach, Florida, where he washed dishes over the summer at the local yacht club. It was there, he says, that his love of cooking began.
After Henin discovered him, Keller assumed various chef positions in restaurants around Florida. Later, he landed at La Rive in Catskill, New York. There, he learned to cook French delicacies such as entrails and offal, as well as how to create a smokehouse to cure meats. He eventually moved to New York City, and then Paris, working at some of the top restaurants in those cities. He returned to the US in 1984. After more restaurant jobs, he struck out on his own.
Keller doesn’t gloss over the amount of work required to own and operate a restaurant, nor what it takes to hit the upper strata of chef-dom. He says one of his biggest challenges in running a restaurant group lies with training and mentoring his own staff, “so that we are able to help elevate their abilities and challenge them to become the best culinarians in the industry”.
He has further advice to give to any novice chef or restaurateur. “I think patience is critical when you are trying to reach the top of your field,” he says. “You really have to work hard, diligently, and with focus and determination. Then, hopefully, someday you will have some bit of luck and reach the level you aspire to.
“The most important lesson aspiring cooks need to learn in how to become a chef is respect: respect for food, respect for staff, the graciousness with which you treat your guests and the life commitment you make to the profession.”
My Favourite Things with Thomas Keller
1. Your top three favourite places in the world to eat? In no particular order: The Fat Duck (London and Bray, Berkshire); Alinea (Chicago); Miyamasou (Kyoto).
2. What are some of the more exotic ingredients you’ve used in your cuisine? Have you had to hunt to track down a particularly elusive ingredient? I’m afraid not. All our restaurant menus are driven by what’s available in the market and by seasonality.
3. For someone wanting to refine their skills as a home cook, what utensils should they invest in? I think investing in the best equipment possible is paramount, such as high-quality pots and pans, stove… a great cutting board —all these can really make a difference.
4. When you’re enjoying a quiet evening at home, what dish do you tend to toss together for yourself? I rarely cook at home but when I do, I enjoy cooking simple, one-pot meals such as roast chicken with vegetables.
5. With holiday celebrations coming up, what’s your suggestion for an easy and no-fail potluck dish? Caviar.
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