Thomas Keller
Thomas Keller
Thomas Kelleris an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. 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. The restaurant is a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionChef
Date of Birth14 October 1955
CityPendleton, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I like to drink young wines, wines which are robust and have a lot of forward fruit to them.
A kaiseki meal is like that, very small courses over a long period of time.
I came to understand that the words executive and corporate never belong next to the word chef.
I guess the main source of stress for me is the stress I put on myself.
I wonder if I love the communal act of eating so much because throughout my childhood, with four older brothers and a mom who worked in the restaurant business, I spent a lot of time fending for myself, eating alone - and recognizing how eating together made all the difference.
I believe Fernand Point is one of the last true gourmands of the 20th century. His ruminations are extraordinary and thought-provoking. He has been an inspiration for legions of chefs.
I think if you can take one or two things from a cookbook, it's successful.
Vegetables to me are - I don't want to say the most exciting part of cooking, but certainly a very exciting part of cooking, because they continue to change. They come into season and they go through different phases.
I don't think you could have a 7 with a manual. But I can't see having a BMW sports sedan without a manual.
Some of the recipes in the book have evolved for us. Many haven't.
I drank more wine when I wasn't working as much, to be honest.
Hopefully, imparting what's important to me, respect for the food and that information about the purveyors, people will realize that for a restaurant to be good, so many pieces have to come together.
I wanted to learn everything I could about what it takes to be a great chef. It was a turning point for me.
But once in a while you might see me at In and Out Burger; they make the best fast food hamburgers around.