In other words, you carve the turkey, you serve the food, and then you took the leftovers home. And really, they are the true superstars of our profession. My first three-star experience in France was just like that. In 1994, he set his heart on a converted laundry building in Yountville, in the heart of Californias Napa Valley wine country. Feedback was the third discipline. It takes a village to build a great restaurant. It was in watching his. We want to make sure that we pay respect to them. So I passed by out of curiosity. I knew I could cook. I wanted to travel. I guess you also needed to learn who your customers would be. But not only did I have to raise money from private partners, I had to buy the property. And of course, what does the rabbit do? 13 Reasons To Become a Chef: Why You Should Choose This Career We respond to that by notching up our game. 2. Learn techniques for cooking vegetables and eggs and making pastas from scratch from the award-winning chef and proprietor of The French Laundry. So the schools that we did have were relatively new. So at the time I was born he was stationed in Camp Pendleton, which is right near Oceanside in California. On a 1992 visit to the Napa Valley, he was introduced to Don and Sally Schmitt, owners of a small restaurant in Yountville, a small town in the heart of the wine-growing region. And Im very thankful for all of them. My sights to go to France and work in specific restaurants were already defined. 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. It was fascinating, and again certainly we were very proud and honored. I mean if youre having dinner you should be thinking about what youre eating. What do you say to any chef? And some friends of mine, who were very influential in my move, were moving to California and they said, Come to California and try it out. At the same time a gentleman named Bill Wilkinson, who I had a brief conversation with about four years earlier, he was opening a hotel in L.A. called Checkers. We built our new kitchen. Pierre was in the kitchen Ann-Marie was in the dining room and I became his sous-chef. You work through service. Why I Became a Chef: Words of Wisdom from Great Culinarians 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. Theres many ways to entertain yourself without spending a lot of money. The latest restaurant, "ad hoc", opened in September 2006 in Yountville with a different fixed price comfort food dinner served family style every night. Of course there were the schools, some schools in France, but they were mostly focused on consumers, mostly housewives on vacation who wanted to learn how to cook, as Julia Child certainly did when she went to Le Cordon Bleu. Could I interact better with those around me who influence our restaurants? But it wasnt because I wanted to have a career in the profession, in the culinary profession. 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. We did lunch and dinner. Very few people in our country even knew that there was an American culinary team representing our country in Lyon every two years at this competition of 23 other nations. You have truly defined haute cuisine in this country. Never let anybody tell you that you cant do something. My oldest brother was here at the same time. All of them loved the idea but turned me down. I believe in you, but I need something. The owner, Serge Raoul, became a lifelong friend. Thomas Keller: We began of course with caviar. There were not that many great chefs recognized other than some of the great chefs of France. It was a wonderful restaurant. Keller started out young in the field of cooking and culinary skills - in fact, his love for cooking surfaced when he once worked as a chef at his mother's restaurant in Florida. For three years he wrote to restaurants all over France. Kon Tiki, things like that. Youve done a lot of beautiful service for veterans here in this area. But no, you went to work in the best restaurants. We did everything. I became the chef of Raouls, which was, at the time an outpost in what became SoHo on Prince Street, and it was a classic, classic, French bistro in every way, and it was wonderful. 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. It was in the era of Chez Panisse, you know. Double boiler, single boiler? It was not very appetizing, but you already made the commitment to do it, right, so you had to follow through and you had to serve it and you had to take kind of the feedback, the critical feedback, and just say, Okay, yeah, I made a mistake. And really mistakes are such important building blocks for success. He migrated towards cooking much earlier than I did. So thats where I chose to go. The second cookbook that I received, which was from my mentor Roland Henin, was Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point. It comes out in a beautiful pan. My first culinary disaster was a recipe from this book, and it just goes to show you the lack of availability of ingredients in our country at the time. As a teenager, he fell in love with the art of French cooking and learned his craft working in restaurants up and down the East Coast before moving to France to complete his training. Thats what he wanted. And it was a small kitchen. He began his career at a young age working in a Palm Beach restaurant managed by his mother. You had to empty the garbage can three times a day. You know, where did the dish come from? I could go anywhere in the world and be a cook. Thomas Keller: Interpretation is a very, very important word. You take a break at 3:00. We won silver. Then youd have a sous-chef. And then of course you have the chef de cuisine who is responsible for the entire kitchen. Hes gone. So yes, I primarily lived with my mother, and my grandmother for a little while as well, and my great aunts. You set up for dinner, then you have dinner. And this olive oil was a small olive oil company I began to kind of keep me solvent in some ways, but also keep me motivated and keep me busy and have kind of I wouldnt even call it plan B. All the men went to the war and the women went to work. Well, I could choose, you know, you go to a hotel and you had six pillows to choose from. But nonetheless I built my own little smoker out of an old refrigerator and cured and smoked my own salmon. He grew up in the Depression, was a Marine for 23 years of his life. I was questioning my ability as a chef. And the last, not any more important than the others, was the idea of teamwork and embracing that. Not everything changed every day, but the menu changed every day. It was poorly lit, and I had to arrive at work the next morning in the kitchen downstairs at 5:30 and they would show me what to do. What are your core values? And it wasnt something I had thought about before, but within a half an hour, I defined what they were, just because thats how I felt, and thats how most people are. My ignorance, as I said earlier, just continued to motivate me, to propel me forward. If Im going to raise money from a lot of different people so it doesnt impact if Im not successful, its not going to impact their lives. So that was the process with the private placement business plan. Its extraordinary what we have available to us and how important our farmers have become. On January 26, 2004, Keller opened his restaurant Bouchon in Las Vegas. Tell us about the Thanksgiving dinner you do at Bouchon. He was a Marine. I had been fired from another. You know, this is truly an extraordinary moment in American culinary history. Twice named Best Restaurant in the World by Restaurant magazine, it was soon joined by other Keller establishments: Bouchon and Ad Hoc in Yountville, and Per Se in New York City. So he was very proud to be able to talk to our suppliers and get them to either give us extra or to reduce our price. I was four or five years old when my parents were divorced. Two years later, Keller opened Bouchon Bakery in Yountville and started his own wine label, Modicum. And if you appreciate it, great. And it was just one of those magical moments. Otherwise it wasnt going to be good. He liked that. He recognized a certain talent in me and he wanted to open a restaurant with me so we opened Rakel. Thats just what you do. The same year, Keller published a book of family-style recipes, Ad Hoc at Home, which spent six weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. And then you have other sous-chefs, which would be responsible for specific groups of chef de parties. Best Restaurant in the World (French Laundry). How do we respond to that? Of course we never knew who their inspectors were, but who were their inspectors? His flagship restaurant, The French Laundry, has been called the best in the world (twice), he's created an empire but maintained his impermeable brand and he's the only American chef to have been simultaneously awarded three Michelin Stars at two different restaurants. Why Do His Michelin Stars Make Him Unique? Its not just about getting something to eat. And that was the moment, July 1977, that I decided to make this my career and pursued that with determination, with commitment. So five days a week, my meals were paid for. This was my first three-star restaurant, and I walked in there thinking that I dont know what I was thinking. Thomas Keller: In the beginning, when Don and Sally Schmitt had the restaurant, there was one menu. So of course the next week he showed up. We also support the Semper Fi Foundation, which is actually in Camp Pendleton. Now remember, a chef in France doesnt necessarily relate to the kitchen. It was about Pauls dream realized, America reaches the podium. He combined his thorough knowledge of French tradition with his own flair for humor and imagination, offering his guests a seemingly endless series of exquisite small plates, such as a miniature ice cream cone of salmon tartare, or a small serving of oysters and caviar resting on a bed of tapioca. In a few years, Kellers restaurants would collectively receive seven stars in a single years Michelin Guide. I break its leg. Weve reached an interesting crossroads in the stagiaire program because the labor departments need to get involved, and if you have somebody in your kitchen, its not a learning experience, theyre actually working. Again, we dont know what to expect. And he was always the one who was out there getting reservations for the restaurant. Theyre going to drive right by our restaurant and stop. On the other hand, we look at it as a sports franchise as well. Which one do I want? I was at work so I didnt have to spend any money entertaining myself. Many residents and visitors to the area were lovers of fine wine and well-versed in contemporary trends in fine dining. And of course the chefs. He was a woodworking hobbyist. He is the first and only American-born chef to hold multiple three-star ratings from the prestigious Michelin Guide, as well as the first American male chef to be designated a Chevalier of The French Legion of Honor. It jumps, right? Our second challenge was in 2011. The trio had hoped that their proximity to a sports arena would provide them with a steady flow of business, but the arenas patrons were not interested in the sophisticated fare he was offering, and the restaurant closed its doors. Its this whole process, which has really kind of made it really difficult for us to have a proper stage in the kitchen. I said, Im never going to do that again. You had to have the silverware to the servers so they could set the tables. And he had told me about this small restaurant in Yountville for sale called The French Laundry and I should look into that. This was the area that was going to become the next advertising center of New York City. Chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller says his mother was his first mentor. A typical person who wants to be a chef might think, Im going to go study with a really good person in Chicago or New York, or even a really good person in Paris. 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. In 1996, the James Beard Foundation named Keller the Best Chef in America. A 1997 article by the influential New York Times critic Ruth Reichl pronounced The French Laundry the most exciting place to eat in the United States, and soon lovers of fine food from all over the world were making the pilgrimage to Yountville to sample Kellers fare. And although I was very young, one of the things I do remember about Camp Pendleton is one of the regiments had for a mascot a tiger. We live by them day to day, not necessarily having written them down. And thats how we define success, thats giving people those memories. Right. I became the chef de cuisine of La Reserve, which is on 49th Street. It took me quite a while to get there. Entertainment was going to the Beaubourg and taking a French lesson in the audio class downstairs, or going to the museums or walking around Paris. I had committed myself since 1977 to make this my career. Chef Keller led a team from the U.S. to its first-ever gold medal in theBocuse dOr, a prestigious biannual competition that is regarded as the Olympics of the culinary world. I stopped to see him, say hello, see how he was doing. An executive chef would be somebody that would be in a position in a hotel for example, or where there are many different restaurants, and he would be the executive chef over all of the chef de cuisines from each different food and beverage outlet for example. Its the one hit wonders that are one hit wonders. In our country we had very few. In the introduction to Bouchon (2004), Keller writes, "Bistro cooking is my favourite food to eat. Could you tell us how that came about? Well, it was covered with dust, but it was covered with soot, with coal dust. If you kept after it year after year after year, that dish evolved into something else. Thomas Keller: Restaurants are used in so many different ways. Oh wow, what just happened? So I went to different banks, several banks. In past interviews youve speculated that perhaps some people are born with a gene for hospitality. There was jubilation. As a consultant for All-Clad Metalcrafters, Keller advised on the creation of the All-Clad Copper Core Bocuse DOr Cookware. And they would just be, you know, they were 50 years younger than he was, and he would just be telling them stories and theyd just be like listening on the edge of their seats, and that was one of the favorite things that he did. We were open Monday through Friday. And that training goes on not for two weeks or two months, but that training goes on the entire time that theyre with us. To cook something and overcook it, and then just throw it away would be just a waste of life. So he worked with a couple chefs in helping them raise money, organize their businesses. My saving grace when I moved to Paris was my friend Serge Raoul, who allowed me to stay at his apartment. It was such a daunting task, the things that I went through.