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 am a perfect example of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps: My mom raised six kids by herself.
People love the idea of the chef coming to them. But it's an extraordinary undertaking to do these parties. To replicate what we do in the restaurants in someone's home - the precision, the perfection - is a huge challenge and extremely time-consuming.
Repetition is the mother of perfection. If there is true perfection, it's about doing something over and over again. I truly think that if somebody does a recipe they've never done before and gets it right, they're probably more lucky than they are talented.
It's not about perfection; it's about the joy of striving.
When you acknowledge, as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear: to make people happy, that is what cooking is all about.
Well, it took me twenty-seven years, as long as I've been cooking.
We realized the imbalance of earnings and that a change needed to occur in order to provide everyone in the restaurant an opportunity to pursue their dreams,
For me, that's one of the important things about cooking. What was good enough yesterday may not be good enough today.
But the project, from beginning to end, was a little over two years, from the time we wrote the proposal to its publication.
It's nice to have the restaurants close by. It makes them easier to control and keep an eye on.
ultimately, the system proved instrumental in fostering an undeniably unified restaurant staff.
Now the restaurants have begun to catch up with the wine-making; there are numerous great restaurants in Napa Valley, and it's wonderful because the people are there for just that: great food and great wine.
Then, as the day progresses, depending on how the product is coming in - for instance, the fish man will fax us and say black bass is great - throughout the day, we'll also make judgment calls and adapt to what's available.
It's one thing you aspire to: someday, you'll be able to write a book.