Thomas Keller
- In full:
- Thomas Aloysius Keller
- Born:
- October 14, 1955, Oceanside, California, U.S. (age 69)
What is Thomas Keller known for in the culinary world?
For which of his restaurants has Thomas Keller received three Michelin stars?
What awards has Thomas Keller received for his contributions to the culinary arts?
Thomas Keller (born October 14, 1955, Oceanside, California, U.S.) is an American chef and restaurateur whose restaurant the French Laundry, in Yountville, California, consistently ranks among the best in the world. Keller is the first—and as of 2024 the only—American-born chef to receive three Michelin stars at different restaurants. He is renowned for his focus on regional sourcing, quality ingredients, sustainability, farm-to-table cooking, and serving progressive American cuisine rooted in classic French techniques. In addition to the French Laundry Keller’s restaurant portfolio includes Per Se in New York City; the Surf Club Restaurant in Surfside, Florida; and Bouchon Bakery and Bouchon Bistro in locations across the United States.
Family life
Keller was born in Oceanside, California, near Camp Pendleton, where his father, Edward Keller, a drill sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, was stationed. Thomas Keller was one of six siblings and the youngest of five boys. His mother, Elizabeth (“Betty”) Keller, was a restaurant manager. After his parents divorced, Thomas Keller, two older brothers, and his sister moved with their mother to Florida, where they were raised with help from his maternal grandmother and aunts. It was there that he and one of his brothers, Joseph Keller, began their restaurant careers (Joseph would also become a chef, and Thomas would credit him with being his earliest mentor). Thomas Keller may have been only washing dishes (at 15 years old, he was too young to work in the kitchen), but the experience taught him six critical kitchen disciplines—organization, efficiency, feedback, repetition, rituals, and teamwork—and inspired him to pursue a culinary career.
Early career
Keller graduated from high school in Lake Worth, Florida, and attended Palm Beach Junior College. At the same time he accepted his first professional culinary position, at the Palm Beach Yacht Club (where his mother was the manager). After two years, Keller moved to Rhode Island and became chef de partie (“head of the section”) at the Clarke Cooke House in Newport, a position he held for a year before moving to the Dunes Club in Narragansett, where he worked under chef Roland Henin, who introduced Keller to French cooking.
Keller spent the next few years moving up and down the East Coast, working as both chef de partie and chef de cuisine (kitchen manager) in New York and Florida, including at Cobbley Nob (1978–79), the first restaurant he opened, in West Palm Beach. Keller left New York City for France in 1983. There he studied at some of the best restaurants in Paris, completing eight stages (borrowed from the French, a stagiaire, or one who completes stages, is an unpaid kitchen apprentice training to become a chef).
After returning to New York, Keller opened Rakel in 1986. The restaurant’s name was the combination of the owners’ names—Serge Raoul (for whom Keller had worked at Raoul’s from 1981 to 1982) and Keller. When Rakel closed in 1990 Keller briefly worked as a restaurant consultant before moving to Los Angeles to become the executive chef of the Checkers Hotel. The following year he launched his own brand of imported olive oil while trying to determine his next step.
The French Laundry and Per Se
A 1992 visit to the French Laundry, a restaurant for sale in Yountville, California, provided the inspiration and opportunity that Keller had been seeking. The owners, Don and Sally Schmitt (Don Schmitt was also Yountville’s mayor), opened the restaurant in 1978 in a historic building that had housed a brothel, bar, boardinghouse, and French steam laundry (hence its name). Under the Schmitts, the restaurant offered one daily four-course prix fixe (fixed price) menu highlighting Napa Valley’s seasonal ingredients. Keller spent the next year securing investors and financing, and on May 1, 1994, he took over as owner. Laura Cunningham soon joined the staff as general manager; she and Keller would become business and life partners.
Keller retained the single daily menu at the French Laundry, but it gradually expanded, first to five courses, then nine, structured so that hyper-local, seasonal dishes were coupled with whimsical takes on French classics. The 17-table restaurant offers a tasting-menu experience—including a vegetarian option—that regularly takes three hours or more, and daily menu supplements can include such high-end ingredients as black truffles and wagyu beef. “Oysters and pearls”—oysters and caviar atop a sabayon of pearl tapioca—remains one of the constant dishes on the menu. Keller turned the restaurant into a destination in itself, and reservations continue to sell out almost instantly.
“When you acknowledge, as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear: to make people happy. That is what cooking is all about.”
—Thomas Keller, The French Laundry Cookbook
Nearly since its opening, the French Laundry and Keller have been recognized with award nominations and wins: in 1995 the James Beard Foundation nominated the French Laundry as best new restaurant, and in 1996 the foundation named Keller as best American chef, California region. He won outstanding chef the following year. Many other awards followed, including the French Laundry being honored by 50 Best as best restaurant in the world in 2003 and 2004.
In 2004 Keller opened Per Se in Manhattan, which he described as a New York interpretation of the French Laundry. It quickly climbed the ranks to join the French Laundry atop critics’ lists. In 2005 the James Beard Foundation named Per Se as best new restaurant, and in 2006 the restaurant earned three Michelin stars (a status it has retained for nearly two decades). The next year the French Laundry received the same accolades, making Keller the first and only American-born chef to receive three Michelin stars at different restaurants. A third property, the Surf Club Restaurant, earned a Michelin star in 2022.
Publications, television appearances, and awards
Keller has written many cookbooks, including The French Laundry Cookbook (1999) and Bouchon Bakery (2012). The French Laundry cookbook was revolutionary at the time, with recipes that were unapologetically complex. Keller’s cookbooks have reached more than 1.5 million copies in print. The chef has consulted as a technical adviser on several movies, including Pixar’s animated Ratatouille (2007) and Adam Sandler’s Spanglish (2004). On the Emmy Award-winning Hulu cooking dramedy The Bear (2022– ), nods to Keller and the French Laundry abound, with Keller even appearing as himself in the final episode of the show’s third season.
Keller earned acclaim, along with chefs Daniel Boulud and Jérôme Bocuse, for mentoring Team USA at the Bocuse d’Or, the prestigious international cooking competition held in France biennially since 1987. In 2017 the American team took gold for the first time. Winning head chef Mathew Peters previously worked for Keller at Per Se and the French Laundry.
In 2011 Keller became the first American male chef to be designated a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor—American women Alice Waters and Julia Child also received the distinction—an honor bestowed in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the traditions of French cuisine. He also received honorary doctorates in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America (2021) and Johnson & Wales University (2003).