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<\/p>\nThe chef behind The French Laundry on empire-building and sustainability<\/p>\n
Words by CATHERINE BIGELOW
Photography by ALANNA HALE<\/p>\n
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On a misty February morning in Yountville, Calif., the honeybees are quiet. Only a few of the fuzzy insects flit about their stacked hive in a corner of the 3-acre culinary garden that supplies and informs seasonal daily menus at The French Laundry.<\/p>\n
That world-renowned temple of gastronomy, expertly assembled by equally renowned chef Thomas Keller, is, literally, a stone\u2019s throw across a quaint two-lane street from this working, but public, garden.<\/p>\n
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Across the street from THOMAS KELLER\u2019s three-Michelin-star restaurant THE FRENCH LAUNDRY is his culinary garden (which supplies and informs his vaunted daily Chef\u2019s Tasting menu).<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf you really want to address carbon footprints, look at factory farms\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas Keller<\/p>\n
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This Edenic garden is marked by a wood cr\u00e8che displaying a legend of the crops growing in 51 beds \u2014 such as his famous \u201c24-karat\u201d carrots, and romaine lettuce, which blooms like roses inside the protected \u201cHoop House\u201d \u2014 for his Yountville restaurants. There\u2019s also a coop of Rhode Island Red hens, which daily lay some 20 golden-yolked orbs for the kitchen.<\/p>\n
In its France 2020 Guide, Michelin introduced the \u201cgreen clover\u201d for standout sustainable restaurants. But that concept has long existed in Keller\u2019s playbook. \u201cWe want to ensure we\u2019re taking care of the land across the street, rotating crops, nurturing the soil,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t believe sustainability should only be perceived as ingredients or a geographical area. Sustainability should encompass the best possible ingredients and support our communities and individuals, how we treat each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
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From left: THOMAS KELLER inspects freshly harvested Tango celery. Labeled jars of spices and aromatics in the pantry of THE FRENCH LAUNDRY annex.<\/p>\n
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Keller, who is well versed in culinary history, explains, \u201cGoing back to Marco Polo and the spice route, travel was about discovering food. Switzerland is famous for chocolates, but there\u2019s not a cocoa plantation anywhere in Europe. So suddenly, because it\u2019s now fashionable to use these words, we\u2019re arguing about what is local while drinking a cup of imported coffee and sounding like worse hypocrites than before. \u2026 Sustainability is important. But as it relates to a chef, that makes me bristle. If you really want to address carbon footprints, we should look at factory farms.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Keller applies a wide lens to sustainability, one that extends far beyond how a carrot is raised: \u201cWe buy some of our lobsters and mussels from Deer Isle, Maine. There\u2019s nothing near there. But we see sustainability as the opportunity to sustain this community of doctors, lawyers, teachers, priests, librarians. That community relies on their fishermen to sustain those fisheries and have access to wider markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Closer to home, his establishments have been a boon for small Northern California purveyors, such as The Apple Farm in Philo, owned by Sally Schmitt, and Petaluma cheesemonger Soyoung Scanlan, who in 1999 founded Andante Dairy and also manages The French Laundry\u2019s cheese program. \u201cMy business wouldn\u2019t exist without his support and respect,\u201d Scanlan says. \u201cHis entire career, Thomas has pursued perfection, professionalism and excellence. I\u2019ve met the world\u2019s leading young chefs, training with Thomas in his kitchen. The French Laundry is not only the best restaurant, it\u2019s the best school in the world for modern cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n
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To THOMAS KELLER, the new wood-and-glass kitchen \u2014 inspired by I.M. PEI\u2019s glass pyramid at the LOUVRE \u2014 represents the link between THE FRENCH LAUNDRY\u2019s storied past and its bright future. <\/p>\n
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Keller, who\u2019s received almost every accolade in the book (from a James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award to France\u2019s highest civil honor, being named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor), has trained a list of heralded proteges as varied as The French Laundry\u2019s 15,000-bottle-capacity wine cellar: Grant Achatz, the molecular gastronomist, helms the three-Michelin-star Alinea in Chicago; Corey Lee founded the three-Michelin-star restaurant Benu in San Francisco; and Eric Ziebold, former French Laundry chef de cuisine, steers two one-Michelin-star restaurants, Kinship and M\u00e9tier, both in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Keller speaks with a quiet, fatherly pride of staff and alumni, and joyfully celebrates them on his lively Instagram feed. Meticulous mentorship is a key ingredient of his success and legacy.<\/p>\n
That includes Ment\u2019or, a nonprofit foundation dreamed up by legendary chef Paul Bocuse, who engaged his son, chef J\u00e9r\u00f4me Bocuse; chef Daniel Boulud; and Keller as founding trustees to provide structure for young chefs competing in the Bocuse d\u2019Or, a biennial culinary competition in Lyon, France.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s important to run French Laundry at a very high level. But the bigger picture is setting aside our egos and increasing our profession\u2019s standards by giving opportunity to young individuals,\u201d explains Keller. \u201cLook at Kaelin [Ulrich Trilling] down the street at La Calenda; he\u2019s only 27 but does a terrific job with Oaxacan cuisine.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Edible flowers, romaine lettuce, baby leeks and Tango celery harvested from THE FRENCH LAUNDRY\u2019s culinary garden. <\/p>\n
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\u201cSuddenly we\u2019re arguing about what is local while drinking imported coffee\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas Keller<\/p>\n
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The initials TFL are shorthand for the enterprise comprising Keller\u2019s restaurants (Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, La Calenda, Ad Hoc + Addendum) and culinary emporium (Finesse, The Store), which spill like pearls along Washington Street, Yountville\u2019s main drag.<\/p>\n
Keller still reigns as the only American-born chef to hold three Michelin stars at two different restaurants simultaneously \u2014 The French Laundry and his Manhattan restaurant, Per Se.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also his line of best-selling cookbooks; global collaborations (including All-Clad and Cangshan Cutlery steak knives); and a new caviar partnership, Regiis Ova, with former Tsar Nicoulai Caviar CEO Shaoching Bishop.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Keller opened TAK Room, an ode to Continental cuisine at Hudson Yards in New York. The year prior, he resuscitated the old Surf Club at a new Four Seasons Hotel near Miami. But The French Laundry is his first success, and last year, Keller and his team celebrated its 25th anniversary.<\/p>\n
This year, Keller recognized another anniversary: He paid homage to The French Laundry\u2019s former owners, the late Don Schmitt (a former Yountville mayor who passed away in 2017) and his wife, chef Sally, a California cuisine pioneer who in 1977 renovated the rustic circa-1900 National Register of Historic Places building (formerly a saloon, brothel and actual French laundry), creating a beloved destination of handcrafted dining in this once sleepy village.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt our anniversary, I stood at the entrance, greeting 650 guests. So I had time to think,\u201d recalls Keller, who turns 65 this October. \u201cI realized I was being a bit selfish, in the sense I was celebrating 25 years of Thomas Keller at The French Laundry. \u2026 The French Laundry is already a generational restaurant \u2014 Don and Sally passed it to me; I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll pass it on to someone else \u2014 and we want to maintain that heritage. We always talk here about \u2018standing on the shoulders of those who came before us.\u2019 That\u2019s true of Don and Sally. And I\u2019m very grateful for the opportunity they gave me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Chefs prep for service in the refreshed, state-of-the-art kitchen redesigned by SN\u00d8HETTA and THOMAS KELLER.<\/p>\n
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Keller\u2019s own story began at Camp Pendleton, in Oceanside, Calif., where he was born in 1955, the youngest of five boys. His late father, Edward, was a Marine Corps officer. Following his parents\u2019 divorce when he was a young boy, his mother, Betty, moved the family to Florida, where Keller\u2019s career was sparked as a teenager when he worked as a summer dishwasher at the Palm Beach Yacht Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always in the kitchen, so I couldn\u2019t play baseball. But I\u2019ve always said I run a baseball franchise at night,\u201d says Keller with a laugh. \u201cLike a baseball diamond, a kitchen, for me, feels the same. You have a team of people executing different disciplines. Their skills, their stations, their positions are all different \u2014 server, maitre d\u2019, sommelier, reservationist \u2014 for the sole purpose of winning that night\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2014, Keller, working with the architectural team Sn\u00f8hetta (designers of the 2016 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art expansion), embarked on a three-year, $10 million-plus renovation of his flagship property. The new kitchen and annex has revamped areas for a pantry, butchery, produce receiving and breakdown, offices and a wine cellar rendered in California redwood shelves that one navigates via a sliding library ladder.<\/p>\n
The French Laundry has expanded its high-efficiency geothermal loop system that controls temperature variances for the hot water, radiant heat and refrigeration. New solar panels reduce energy costs and supply their own batteries. The building exteriors are preserved using a Japanese-style wood treatment, eliminating the need for paint touch-ups and toxic weatherproofing.<\/p>\n
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Picture windows offer the staff courtyard views while they work. <\/p>\n
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The French Laundry\u2019s heralded casual-yet-sumptuous service and design was developed by Laura Cunningham, Keller\u2019s decades-long collaborator. A former general manager of The French Laundry, St. Helena native Cunningham now serves as the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group\u2019s vice president of branding and creative development. Her exquisite, precise vision informs everything from marketing and philanthropic partnerships to the five-star guest experience at all of Keller\u2019s establishments. Last spring, Cunningham was honored by the Culinary Institute of America with the prestigious Augie Award, conferred upon those the institution designates as \u201cmasters of hospitality.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Bowls of handcrafted chocolate truffles, candies and macarons \u2014 a sweet finale to the multicourse Chef\u2019s Tasting menu. <\/p>\n
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Keller no longer mans the stoves for a full-service shift. But when he\u2019s in town, he\u2019s in the kitchen with the chefs at The French Laundry, talking, tasting and mentoring. Though he\u2019s loath to admit it, Keller now feels more like a symbol in the kitchen. \u201cI still love to cook with the young chefs, but I can\u2019t get in their way too much,\u201d he says. \u201cThat would be like Derek Jeter deciding he wants to play shortstop again. You realize you can\u2019t participate at the same level you did when you were younger. So you organize your structure around the purpose of your restaurant, to relieve yourself from being the franchise player. If you haven\u2019t achieved that, then you haven\u2019t done service to the purpose you started with: running a great restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keller divides most of his time between The French Laundry and Per Se. There are currently no plans for any new projects. Unless, of course, this golf devotee, who recently played Pebble Beach, decides to hang up his apron to focus on winning the Pro-Am cup.<\/p>\n
His daily goals remain teaching, training and mentoring staff on their purpose in the kitchen. \u201cIf you do those three things correctly, then they become better than you,\u201d Keller explains. \u201cBecause if they\u2019re not better than you, you\u2019ve done a shitty job.\u201d<\/p>\n
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THOMAS KELLER strolls through his culinary garden.<\/p>\n
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Feature image: Across the street from his three-Michelin-star restaurant THE FRENCH LAUNDRY, chef THOMAS KELLER in his culinary garden (which supplies and informs his vaunted daily Chef\u2019s Tasting menu).<\/p>\n
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This story originally appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of C Magazine.<\/p>\n
Discover more FOOD news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The chef behind The French Laundry on empire-building and sustainability Words by CATHERINE BIGELOWPhotography by ALANNA HALE \u00a0 On a misty February morning in Yountville, Calif., the honeybees are quiet. Only a few of the fuzzy insects flit about their stacked hive in a corner of the 3-acre culinary garden that supplies and informs seasonal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1443],"tags":[1709,102,1454],"class_list":["post-12427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-thomas-keller","tag-highlight","tag-people","tag-thomas-keller"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117525023479495252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}