![\"chef](\"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Chef-Thomas-Keller_0.jpg\")
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Chef Thomas Keller issued an open letter today to customers of his celebrated Per Se in New York City, apologizing for letting standards slip.<\/p>\n
The communication was prompted by a recent review in the New York Times that cited shortcomings in service and food quality. Reviewer Pete Wells dropped the restaurant\u2019s four-star rating, one of the few to be granted by the paper, to two stars.<\/p>\n
Wells\u2019 experience \u201cdid not live up to his expectations and to ours,\u201d a situation \u201cgreatly disappointing to me and to my team,\u201d wrote Keller.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are sorry we let you down,\u201d he said in the letter, which was broadcast to customers via email.<\/p>\n
The chef pledged to deliver \u201ca most memorable experience\u201d upon any customer\u2019s next visit to the restaurant.<\/p>\n
Per Se is one of the most expensive restaurants in the country, with a prix fixe menu priced at $325 per person (one of the meals that figured into Wells\u2019 review cost the paper $3,000).<\/p>\n
It is also regarded as one of the world\u2019s best, with innovative, elegant cuisine often delivered with a twist. Among its signatures are a salmon tartare and creme fraiche cone, and Black and White Truffle Popcorn.<\/p>\n
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPeter Romeo has covered the restaurant industry since 1984 for a variety of media. As Editor At Large for Restaurant Business, his current beats are government affairs, labor and family dining. He is also the publication’s unofficial historian.\u00a0\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Chef Thomas Keller issued an open letter today to customers of his celebrated Per Se in New York City, apologizing for letting standards slip. The communication was prompted by a recent review in the New York Times that cited shortcomings in service and food quality. Reviewer Pete Wells dropped the restaurant\u2019s four-star rating, one of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1443],"tags":[1454],"class_list":["post-5409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-thomas-keller","tag-thomas-keller"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117206553905750886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409","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=5409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}