Thomas Keller facts for kids
Keller in 2009
|
|
| Born | October 14, 1955 Camp Pendleton, California, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Cooking style | French |
| Education | Apprenticeship |
| Spouse | Laura Cunningham |
|
Rating(s)
|
|
|
Current restaurant(s)
The French Laundry (Yountville, California)
 Per Se (New York City) Surf Club (Miami, FL)  Bouchon (Yountville, California) Bouchon Bakery (Yountville, California) ad hoc (Yountville, California ) La Calenda (Yountville, California) Bouchon (Las Vegas) |
|
Thomas Aloysius Keller (born October 14, 1955) is a famous American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He is known for his amazing cooking skills. His restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, has won many awards. These include "Best California Chef" in 1996 and "Best Chef in America" in 1997 from the James Beard Foundation. The French Laundry was also often named one of the "Top 50 Restaurants of the World."
In 2005, Thomas Keller received three Michelin stars for his restaurant Per Se in New York City. The next year, The French Laundry also earned three Michelin stars. This made him the only American chef to have two restaurants with three Michelin stars at the same time! His restaurants currently hold seven Michelin stars in total.
Contents
Early Life and Cooking Start
Thomas Keller's mom owned a restaurant. He started helping out when their cook got sick. When he was a teenager, he worked at the Palm Beach Yacht Club. He began as a dishwasher but quickly became a cook. This is where he found his love for cooking. He even became very good at making hollandaise sauce.
During his summers, he worked as a cook in Rhode Island. One summer, a famous French chef named Roland Henin noticed him. Chef Henin taught Thomas the basics of classic French cooking. After this, Thomas worked in different cooking jobs in Florida. He then became the cook at a small French restaurant called La Rive in Catskill, New York. He worked mostly by himself there. He even built a smokehouse to prepare meats and learned to cook different parts of animals.
After three years, he left La Rive and moved to New York and then Paris. He learned more by working in restaurants that had Michelin stars. In 1984, he came back to America. He worked as a head chef at La Reserve in New York. Then, in 1987, he opened his own restaurant called Rakel. It served fancy French food to wealthy people and got good reviews. However, when the stock market had problems, the restaurant became less popular. Thomas left because he didn't want to change his cooking style.
The French Laundry Restaurant
After leaving Rakel, Thomas Keller worked in New York and Los Angeles. In 1992, he found a restaurant in Yountville, California. It was in an old building that used to be a French steam laundry. He spent a lot of time and effort to raise money to buy the restaurant. He finally reopened it in 1994. Over the next few years, The French Laundry won many awards. These included awards from the James Beard Foundation and three Michelin stars.
In 2009, Thomas Keller got engaged to Laura Cunningham. She used to be the general manager at The French Laundry.
Other Restaurants and Projects
Food and Dining
After The French Laundry became a big success, Thomas and his brother, Joseph Keller, opened Bouchon in 1998. It is located near The French Laundry and serves French bistro food at more affordable prices. A few years later, Bouchon Bakery opened next door. Thomas Keller once joked that he opened Bouchon so he would have somewhere to eat after working at The French Laundry!
In 2004, Keller opened Bouchon in Las Vegas. Soon after, in 2004, his highly anticipated Per Se restaurant opened in New York City. Per Se was designed from scratch and became very popular right away. People had to book reservations months in advance.
In 2006, he opened "ad hoc" in Yountville. This restaurant serves a different fixed-price "comfort food" dinner every night, served family style. It was so popular that he decided to make it a permanent restaurant.
Here are some of Thomas Keller's restaurants:
- Yountville, CA: ad hoc, addendum, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, The French Laundry, La Calenda
- New York: Bouchon Bakery, Per Se, TAK Room (now closed)
- Las Vegas: Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery
- Miami: The Surf Club, Bouchon Bistro
Thomas Keller also started a small company in 1992 that sold special olive oil and red wine vinegar. He has also helped design special dinnerware and silver items. He even has his name on a set of kitchen knives.
Keller is the president of the Bocuse d'Or U.S. team. This is a very important cooking competition. He helps train the American chefs who compete. He believes it's important to help young chefs and improve the cooking profession.
Books and Movies
In 1999, Thomas Keller published The French Laundry Cookbook. He considers this his most important book about cooking. It won several awards. He has also written or helped with other cookbooks like The Bouchon Cookbook and Ad Hoc at Home.
Thomas Keller has also worked on movies! For the film Spanglish, he taught the actor Adam Sandler how to cook what was called "the world's greatest sandwich." It was like a BLT sandwich with a fried egg. He also helped with the 2007 Pixar animated movie Ratatouille. He designed a fancy layered version of ratatouille for the characters to cook. He even had a small voice role in the American version of the movie! Keller is also mentioned a lot in the TV show The Bear, and he even appeared as himself in one episode.
Thomas Keller also teaches online cooking classes at Masterclass.com.
Awards and Honors
Thomas Keller has received many awards for his amazing cooking and restaurants:
- Best American Chef: California, James Beard Foundation, 1996
- Outstanding Chef: America, James Beard Foundation, 1997
- Chef of the Year, Bon Appétit Magazine, 1998
- Five-Star Award, Mobil Travel Guide, 1999–2004
- America's Best Chef, TIME Magazine, 2001
- Outstanding Service Award, James Beard Foundation, 2003
- Best Restaurant in the World (French Laundry), Restaurant Magazine's Top 50 Restaurants of the World, 2003, 2004
- Best New Restaurant (Per Se), James Beard Foundation, 2005
- Outstanding Restaurant (French Laundry), James Beard Foundation, 2006
- Michelin Guide New York, 3 Stars for Per Se, 2005 – Current
- Michelin Guide Bay Area, 3 Stars for The French Laundry, 2006 – Current
- Michelin Guide Bay Area, 1 Star for Bouchon, 2007 – 2021
- Michelin Guide Bay Area, 1 Star for The Surf Club Restaurant, 2022 – Current
- Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor, presented by Chef Paul Bocuse, 2011
- Lifetime Achievement Award (French Laundry) Restaurant Magazine's Top 50 Restaurants of the World
- Culinary Hall of Fame Induction
- Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, 2014
See also
In Spanish: Thomas Keller (cocinero) para niños
