The French Laundry has opened its Yountville garden to the public for guided tours, offering visitors a behind-the-scenes look at how the restaurant’s produce is grown, harvested and turned into world-class cuisine just steps away.
The Mara de Bois strawberry — small, fragrant and impossibly delicate — will never see the inside of a grocery store. But at the French Laundry Culinary Garden in Yountville, it gets the VIP treatment: harvested at its fleeting peak and rushed across the street to the legendary restaurant, where it’s served within hours.
The prized French strawberry is just one of more than 150 fruits, vegetables, flowers and microgreens showcased in The French Laundry’s 3.5-acre garden, which opens to the public for guided tours Saturday.
Garden enthusiasts, culinary pilgrims and anyone seeking a beautiful stroll can now book a 75-minute, behind-the-scenes exploration of the lush grounds that supply — and inspire — renowned chef Thomas Keller’s local restaurants, including The French Laundry, Ad Hoc, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery and the seasonal Addendum.
Led by farm manager Teresa Kao and estate gardener James Costello, the tour gives visitors a glimpse into the seasonal rhythms of the garden and the creative dialogue between field and kitchen. That includes unusual varieties such as Blauwschokker indigo snap peas, Sicilian cucuzza squash and heirloom squash from the Cherokee Nation.
“I am always researching varieties that I think will appeal to chefs,” Kao said.
That interplay between what’s planted and what’s plated is the heart of Keller’s philosophy.
“Every vegetable has its moment,” Keller said during a preview tour for journalists. Capturing that moment is key to quality — what sparks the gardeners’ interest often shapes the day’s menu — and vice versa.
On the tour, journalists eagerly set down notebooks and phones to fill small baskets with strawberries ripening beside sweet peas. Visitors also step inside the Hoop, a greenhouse where more than 30 types of microgreens create a vivid patchwork of greens, purples and reds. Costello offered tastes of cantaloupe greens and citrusy oxalis blossoms.
“We’re always experimenting, learning, trying to do better,” he said.
The tour also stops by the chicken coop, home to a flock of egg-laying hens, and a hollowed-out log bee colony originally from the garden of Keller’s father. Two other hives hum nearby, providing honey and essential pollination.
The garden’s roots trace back to 1978, when Sally Schmidt — who founded The French Laundry — planted six beds. Keller purchased the restaurant from the Schmidts in 1992. While he once considered building an inn across the street, town regulations prompted a pivot: the garden would grow instead.
Over the past 18 months, that vision expanded dramatically. New features include a woodland grove, a small orchard, and a rose garden planted simply, Costello said, “for the beauty.”
“I wanted to be certain we could pluck ripe tomatoes and snip fresh chives just before serving,” Keller said. “This whole process seemed altogether natural to me. What else should a chef be doing but deciding how to use the great resources that are available?”
Keller emphasized that the garden is also an expression of sustainability — and a tribute to the people behind the ingredients.
“In most restaurants, everything comes in through the back door in a box or a bag,” Keller said. “Chefs don’t always get that experience with where it comes from. Sometimes we can become a bit wasteful or complacent about our food or more importantly about those who bring it to us.”
By connecting his team to the work of the 400-plus suppliers who stock his kitchens, Keller said he hopes to foster greater responsibility and appreciation.
“The thing about our gardeners is they are working constantly,” he said.