Thomas Keller currently holds seven Michelin stars, making him the most decorated chef in the United States. His world-renowned Bay Area restaurant, The French Laundry, has held three Michelin stars since 2007, while its New York counterpart, Per Se, has held a further three stars since 2005. This also makes Keller the only US chef to own two three-star restaurants at the same time. His final star is courtesy of French-style bistro, Bouchon, located just along the street from The French Laundry.
Known for classical, meticulous French cooking with a lighthearted American twist, Thomas Keller has cuisine in his blood. Born in 1955 to a restaurateur mother, the young Keller began by helping out in the kitchen when the cook was sick, going on to take holiday jobs in the kitchens of the Palm Beach Yacht club near his family home, and later in Rhode Island, where French-born master chef Roland Henin discovered him. Henin became Keller’s mentor, teaching him the fundamentals of French cooking, which remain a vital part of his process to this day. His training was completed with apprenticeships at various Michelin-starred Parisian restaurants, including Taillevent, Le Pre Catalan and Guy Savoy.
Keller went on to develop a cooking style with French attention to detail and perfection of technique at its foundation, but with a modern, often humorous American flavour. His flagship restaurant, The French Laundry, located in California’s Napa Valley, was purchased from the former proprietors in 1994, and has been showcasing his unique style ever since. The restaurant’s signature salmon ice cream cone, a delicate salmon tartare in a miniature cone that was reportedly inspired by a trip to Baskin and Robbins, is perhaps the perfect example of Keller’s playful approach to French classicism.
The French seem pretty taken with Keller’s interpretation of their national cuisine, making him a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur - the French equivalent of a knighthood - in 2011. And there were plenty of awards closer to home, too. In fact, Keller was one of America’s most decorated chefs long before Michelin arrived on the scene. Before his first Michelin stars, he had already been named Best California Chef (1996) by the James Beard Foundation and America’s Best Chef (2001) in TIME Magazine, while The French Laundry held five stars in the Mobil Travel Guide from 1999-2004, was voted Restaurant Experts’ Favorite Restaurant in 2000 by Food and Wine Magazine, and made numerous appearances in Restaurant Magazine’s list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants, topping the bill twice, in 2003 and 2004.
The Michelin Guide crossed the pond to the USA in 2005, focusing solely on New York restaurants in its first year. The French Laundry’s sister restaurant, Per Se, opened in New York’s Time Warner Center the previous year, was awarded an instant three stars, and when a Michelin Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area was added in 2007, The French Laundry received three stars of its own. Keller’s bistro, Bouchon, also received a star in the Bay Area guide, taking the total to seven stars, the most held by any US chef.
Now a veteran of the US culinary scene, Keller has helped hone the skills of a new generation of Michelin-star chefs. The kitchens of The French Laundry have been staffed by Noma’s René Redzepi, and Grant Achatz, whose Chicago restaurant Alinea has held three Michelin stars since 2010. Achatz even named his son, Keller, after his former mentor. Keller is also heavily involved in selecting and mentoring the USA’s entrants into the prestigious Bocuse d’Or, an international culinary competition which takes place biennially in Lyon, France. Team USA took the victory in 2017 with a team composed of Mathew Peters and Harrison Turone, both formerly of Keller’s New York restaurant Per Se.
Since opening The French Laundry in 1994, Keller has helped transform the small town of Yountville, where it is located, into a gourmet paradise. With a population of around 3,000, and four Michelin stars shared between The French Laundry and Bouchon, Yountville boasts the most Michelin stars per capita of any town in the USA. Foodie pilgrims can also visit various other eateries, all owned by Keller: Bouchon Bakery is a french-style boulangerie adjoining Bouchon and serving artisan breads and desserts; Ad Hoc provides classic American comfort food at it’s very best; La Calendar serves authentic Mexican cuisine made with the best artisanal ingredients.
Keller may also have had a hand in establishing another fine dining hotspot, across the bay in the town of Los Gatos. Fellow chef David Kinch tells how Keller was instrumental in persuading him to buy the premises for his own restaurant, Manresa, in 2002. Manresa makes yet another three-Michelin-star restaurant in the Bay Area, having earned its third star in 2016.
Thomas Keller Michelin-starred restaurants
The French Laundry
Keller’s flagship restaurant started life as a saloon bar in the small California town of Yountville, followed by a brief spell as an actual French Laundry in the 1920s. It first became a restaurant under the proprietorship of Yountville Mayor Don Schmitt and his wife Sally, and was purchased by Keller in 1994.
Keller was an early champion of local, sustainable food, and expanded the restaurant’s modest kitchen garden into a three-acre smallholding from which to source his ingredients. Inside, The French Laundry prides itself on classical elegance, with pressed white table linen and fine china, yet there are also touches of whimsy, such as the iconic salmon ice cream. There are two nine-course tasting menus, one with meat and one without, neither using any ingredient more than once.
Keller’s cookbook, also called The French Laundry, was published in 1999, winning the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Cookbook of the Year award the following year. The recipes were famously challenging, but the book also contained interesting insights into Keller’s culinary philosophy. ‘The way to keep the experience fresh,’ he advises, ‘Is not by adding more flavours, but rather by focusing more on specific flavours.”
The French Laundry has won numerous awards, and was named Best Restaurant in The World by Restaurant Magazine for two years running, in 2003 and 2004. It was awarded three Michelin stars in the very first Michelin guide to the San Francisco Bay Area back in 2007, and has maintained them ever since.
