The Exchanges

Q failure of that restaurant, you can imagine, like, the movie scene with, like, the tracking shot and the music, and it says Keller returned to his itinerant life, you know, as a itinerant, sort of a traveling chef, right? And you did this for a number of years into the early eighties, and you eventually, I guess, ended up in upstate New York at a seasonal restaurant, a French restaurant,

A Yeah, called La Rive. So, right, I went to work for another French chef who just opened his restaurant in Lake Park, Florida, which is, you know, just north of West Palm Beach, and he introduced me to his friend who owned a restaurant in Catskill, New York. It was on the side of a small mountain next to a flowing river, and the name of the restaurant was La Rive, and so Rene and Paulette, Rene was the husband Paulette, of course, brought me to La Rive and It was just a wonderful experience for me working with Renee and Paulette and, and Mimi, uh, who was Paulette's mother. I was the only person in the kitchen, except for a helper and a dishwasher. And Paulette's mother, who would, who would shuck my hair couvert or peel my shallots for me, you know, while she was watching Wheel of Fortune upstairs, which is where they lived.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, called La Rive. So, right, I went to work for another French chef”

Q And I guess there was a point when you were like 21 or something when she needed a chef because she couldn't find one and kind of pressed you into doing this job with very little experience. Can you help me understand, like how, was this like a fancy restaurant? Was it just like burgers and fries? What was like a, yeah, what was it?

A You know, the Palm Beach Lock Club was a small private club, and basically catered to local businessmen for lunch. And lunch consisted of, you know, for the most part, hamburgers, flank steak with au jus, omelets, right, eggs benedict. So it wasn't really a struggle for me to understand how to prepare those dishes. And then I had my brother Joseph, who really was my second mentor after my mother, who helped me, helped me learn, taught me how to make a hollandaise sauce. And so that was really my first understanding of cooking. I mean, cooking a steak or doing an omelet, those things were fairly easy, but the actual intricacy of making a holiday sauce was a little more detailed, a little more, it was a little more intense.

AI assessment note: “the Palm Beach Lock Club was a small private club, and basically catered to local businessmen”

Q Thomas, what were you, what in your mind were you chasing, right? As a, you're now getting close to 30, and obviously you're working towards something, and was it to be Presumably to eventually come back and start your own restaurant with your own vision, but was it also to, like, learn how to become the best chef ever? I mean, I don't know.

A Education, education, education. That's, that's what I was going for. This was my graduate school, and when I finally got to France, I had amassed, you know, a certain amount of skill, knowledge, experience, that really helped me look beyond and learn beyond Just the fundamental things that happen in a French kitchen, right? What are the nuances, right? What are the details? How do they actually make their stock, and why do they make their stock like that? So the refinement of the processes that are executed in, in a true three-star mission restaurant, I became privy to. I mean, I would, you know, after coming back from lunch every day at Tali Avant, you know, I would go upstairs with the pastry chef and make the marquee au chocolat, The most famous dessert of that restaurant at that time, which was one of the most famous restaurants in all of France. And most young stagiaires didn't even get to see the pastry kitchen.

AI assessment note: “Education, education, education. That's, that's what I was going for.”

Q So what does that mean? What does succession mean?

A It means that you're going to find a person or a group of individuals that believe in your culture, in your philosophy, in your vision. You're going to be able to structure a succession plan That holds everybody to a certain standard into the future. That's it. So the French laundry, I don't know if it can ever really be sold to somebody. So what is the French laundry worth? This is the other thing we've, we struggle with as chefs. My restaurants aren't named after me, yet they're so entwined with my name. Yeah. So what is the French laundry really worth? What is the French laundry worth with Thomas Keller? What is the French laundry worth without Thomas Keller? If I sold the French Laundry and I wasn't there anymore, what is the ROI for the new owner?

AI assessment note: “It means that you're going to find a person or a group of individuals”

Q And what was it like? I mean, you would work for some of these incredible kitchens, right? Michelin three-star kitchens. I mean, and presumably you were the only American in a lot of these kitchens with limited French. Was it, I mean, it sounds like that wouldn't be easy.

A No, but, you know, for me, it was, there was never a fear, right? I just got on the plane and went and ended up in this small kitchen in Arvois, which was, which was really horrible. I mean, I come from the Polo Lounge. I mean, this is, this was some of the most cutting edge cuisine in America. And I go to this kitchen where, you know, the lights are still on, on like, on wires hanging, hanging down from the ceiling. The floor is always wet. And the room I stayed in, the window was covered with what I didn't know at the time, covered with, with soot from coal. And my first job in the morning for the, the only three days I was there was to fire the ovens with the coal. I mean, this was, I was going back in time, you know, a hundred years, and I'm going, why am I here? I just came from the polo, and within three days, you know, I snuck out the back door, and I got on a train and went to Paris, and the rest was history, and I just started calling people. I had this huge file, and I just started asking for help, and just sending my resume out, and finally getting a job, and once you got your first job, and you did a good job, Then the chef would help you and refer you to his colleagues. And so, you know, going from one to the next just became part of my life through that year plus.

AI assessment note: “ended up in this small kitchen in Arvois, which was, which was really horrible.”

Q All right, so tell me a little bit about, I mean, I guess your mom, if she's running a restaurant, she was probably gone all the time, but what was your home life like? Did you kind of have to sort of raise yourselves in a sense?

A More or less. I mean, you know, there wasn't, and that's why people ask me all the time, so what was your food culture like at home? I mean, did your mother cook a lot? Did you have these experiences like where you're, you know, sitting on your grandmother's knees during the The blanquette. The bolognese. Yeah, whatever. It's like, no, you know, my, my childhood was, was primarily, you know, uh, I ate, um, whatever my older brothers, right, or whatever we could produce for ourselves, and primarily at that time you had, you know, Swanson's TV dinners was always, you know, like a night out, and then, you know, whatever came, hamburger helper, or, you know, those kinds of things, which were fairly easy to do, but at the same time, You know, after school, or during our homework, we would go to the restaurant. So many nights, we would just eat at the restaurant.

AI assessment note: “More or less. I mean, you know, there wasn't, and that's why”

Q I mean, it's stressful because you're vulnerable, right? And this is somebody who's got a lot more, you know, means and resources. Essentially, you're thinking in your head, ok, this guy's just gonna find another A person like me, and just replace me, and back this thing, and that restaurant's gonna go to, to him.

A Yep. So this was a, this was a daily emotional challenge for me, is, is, is the feeling of this. There was something, you know, again, there's, there's so many stories that are wrapped around purchasing the French Laundry, but there was, again, significant things that happened. There was a article in the New York Times, and I, I didn't really read the article, because the headline of the article became really important to me. And the article, the headline was, having a dream is hard, living it is harder. And I, I really, you know, I thought that was me. I cut that out. I still have that in my office today, but I put it on my little makeshift desk in my small apartment in Los Angeles, and, and that became, you know, something I read every morning when I started making phone calls to strangers to ask them if I could send my business plan to them that they would invest in the restaurant.

AI assessment note: “Yep. So this was a, this was a daily emotional challenge for me”