-Thomas Keller opened The French Laundry in Napa Valley
25 years ago with an idea.
That an American-born chef, using American ingredients,
with precise cooking techniques,
could rival the best meals in Europe,
but still be a true American experience.
-If I could go back in time 100 years,
I would feel at home walking in the kitchen
the same way I feel at home today.
-Join me for a secret, behind-the-scenes look at day
in the life of The French Laundry.
-It will change to say
"Australian black winter truffle fondue".
-Here we are in our new kitchen.
We've elevated a lot of the tables
off the floor by 18 inches
so that we don't have to bend over so far [indistinct]
ergonomically. Cheers.
-Cheers.
Everybody feels like this is a foregone conclusion.
There's nothing about this that was a foregone conclusion.
-No, and still, there isn't. I mean, every day,
we have to come to work, you know, and do the job.
-A meal at The French Laundry begins in the three-acre
culinary garden across the street.
The chefs make the daily-changing menu
around what's available that day.
-This is my office. It's a pretty great office.
I get to be outside every day and be in beauty.
It's about three acres and we're about two acres tillable,
but we also have several other plots that we grow on.
We'll harvest from 6:00 in the morning
until whenever we're done with harvest.
-Morning. -They're cooking with it
before it even touches a fridge and that's how we get
the flavor of the garden directly to the diners.
-Aaron tells us what to cook for dinner.
If the carrots are ready, the turnips are ready,
and the peas are ready,
the turnips and the peas and the carrots are on the menu.
-Pea shoots. We have bronze fennel.
-It's like the most beautiful shopping list
that you can ever ask for.
It's like, "Do you want bachelor's buttons?
Do you want marigolds?
Do you want tiny, beautiful nasturtium"?
-Is this nasturtium? -Mm-hmm.
-Cilantro. -Yep.
So this is cilantro.
-They could make a lot more money growing wine grapes
on these three acres.
When Keller's friend the chef Jonathan Waxman
first told him about a Napa Valley property for sale,
Keller was close to 40 years old.
He had started as a dishwasher for the restaurant his mom ran
when he was a kid
and honed his skills as an apprentice in France.
Keller had a reputation as a good chef, but he was broke.
-I was very poor.
I had lost my job at the hotel I was working at,
was peddling olive oil at Gelson's, or Bristol Farms.
I was the guy standing at the end of the aisle
with a little table in front of me and pieces of bread
with toothpicks in it and a little cup of olive oil.
There was an article in a New York Times:
"Having a Dream is Hard.
Living It Is Harder".
It resonated with me, so I cut it out
and it sat on my little makeshift desk
and I had people's names and phone numbers
and I started calling.
Over 400 people I contacted.
Finally, accumulated about 51 who actually wrote checks.
I mean, I'm so grateful for them just, you know,
for their confidence in me.
To sign your name to that check and give it
to this middle-aged guy who had a checkered past.
-Yeah. Working at Checkers.
-Right, right. We wouldn't be here today.
-Interesting that you say this about perseverance
and about doing something over and over and over again,
until it works, because that is what you're known for.
-Yeah. -Hello!
Keller is intense about raising the professional standards
of being a chef.
-It's not about my restaurant.
It's about our profession.
We need to help elevate the standards of our profession
and, by elevating the standards of our profession,
we're elevating all of our restaurants.
Hire the right person; give them the right training.
And training's not two weeks or four weeks or six weeks.
It goes on for as long as they're here.
And then mentor them.
And, if you do those three things correctly,
what happens is that person is better than you are.
'Cause, if they're not better than you are,
then you've done a [bleep] job, right?
And so every one of these young folks
has the opportunity to be better than I am
and I'm really proud to say that.
When I was a young cook, in order for me to learn
what the guy next to me was doing,
I needed to have Sense of Urgency,
so that, when the chef said,
"Oh, we need somebody to take the saucier's place,"
I said, "I'm ready.
I've been watching them. I've been working with them.
I know what he's doing. Let me take the place".
You have to be the person before the job is offered to you.
-Well, it's interesting.
I saw your copy of "Ma Gastronomie" back there
and the idea that,
if you treat something like you own it, you eventually will.
-Right. -Like many restaurants,
The French Laundry runs it kitchen
using the brigade system,
a more than century-old way to ensure things run smoothly.
-The chef de parties, which are in blue aprons.
We can distinguish the sous chef or the chef de cuisine
by having a white apron on during service.
During mise-en-place or during the prep time,
we're all wearing blue aprons.
We're trying to always create these efficiencies
in our workspace so that people can do their work
with unencumbered interference.
You know, it's like can you imagine you're a doctor.
You're performing surgery and, all of a sudden,
somebody needs to come in to get something in your way, you know.
It just doesn't really work.
-For restaurants that use the brigade system,
this precision is necessary to serve guests
at the level everyone expects.
And The French Laundry is a place diners dream
about for years before eating here.
-Our guests have very high expectations
and we have to deliver every night.
And we talk about it all the time.
It's the Super Bowl, every day.
-In the past 25 years, American expectations of cuisine
have changed a lot.
-Many times.
-Right, exactly, exactly.
Today, we want picture-perfect food and service,
and to feel as comfortable as home.
A really, really big thing that we always do,
for every single guest, is coffee and doughnuts.
-Did somebody draw this on here? -[laughing]
It's a happy face because it makes us happy.
-How can you deliver that to every table
when every table has a different idea of what is comfortable?
The servers treat it with equal seriousness.
-All: Angela! -It's a busy night.
We're doing 121.
We have 13 tables in by 5:30 for 11 turns.
A lotta large tables, as you can see,
so please be mindful when walking through the dining room.
-Our first course is going to be a garden vegetable crudité
with cherry belle radishes [indistinct],
crispy chickpea panisse, and pea tendrils.
And, as Angela said, the courtyard's [indistinct].
-All: Thomas!
-Did he say morels [indistinct] morels?
-Mm-hmm, uh-huh.
-This is the entire log of what's gonna happen tonight.
The number of guests that are coming in, different times,
the number of people at the table, the total number.
You have, you know, number of birthdays,
number of anniversaries.
-Thomas Keller has opened other restaurants
since The French Laundry;
most famously, Per Se in New York City.
-And, of course, we have Per Se here, you know,
this idea of connectivity and this idea of sharing.
It's about knowing that Corey and Daniel
and the entire team realize
that they're part of a bigger team.
They're part of a bigger family.
And so that's just wonderful.
On their pass, you can see Mr First Man, Mr Fuhrman.
He's been there since the day we opened.
-There's a little bit of showboating.
If I have a nice dish, I show 'im the dish.
-Sibling rivalry. -Oh, for sure.
-You have the pastry department on this side;
and then, the garde manger,
who does all the cold first courses and second courses
or second courses, so that happens here.
-It's so beautiful and like we get to see outside.
There's not very many kitchens
where you get to look out the window.
We can actually have a lot of collaboration
with the savory team.
We don't want to be on our own little island.
So just the fact that we get to see each other,
we get to work in the same kitchen, is super-collaborative.
-For The French Laundry's 20th anniversary,
Keller decided to create a new kitchen and wine cellar,
modeled on the Louvre Pyramid in Paris.
-Did you go through the same kind of consternation
that some people had when the Louvre was first revealed?
-And there are still days I still go through this moment
of I don't know if it's buyer's remorse or
[laughing]. -No, no.
I mean, I think it's fantastic.
Oh, it's beautiful!
How much do you think this wall is worth?
Come on, Erik.
-I don't know; I don't know. -Come on, Erik.
-It might be able to get you a downpayment on
a condo in Queens.
-Okay.
These days, right? -Yeah, exactly.
-Well, you know, luxury items
should be used in quantities, right?
What's the point. I mean, what's the point, right?
I mean, if you're gonna use truffles, I mean, use 'em.
-Who could ever replace Thomas Keller
at The French Laundry?
He's asking the same thing.
-This restaurant not just needs to live on,
but it needs to thrive.
It needs to, you know, be taken over by, you know,
a young chef or a young, you know,
a young chef maître d', young general manager,
whoever, that has the same types of visions,
the same types of values, the same types of ambitions.
These are representing my core values
and, I hope, you know, if you work for me,
that you can embrace them as well.
But there are some on there that you may have difference with
and maybe there's another value that's more important to you.
-Hey, Chef. -Chef.
-Chef. -What we do,
running a restaurant, is not that hard, right?
Guests call. You get a reservation.
If you can just reduce it down to the fundamentals
of you're welcome somebody into our home.
-Mm-hmm. -Give 'em a hug.
-You make Mama happy, you make everybody happy.
I will give you a hug for that.
-I'm getting older, so, trying to make sure
that the younger generations understand
these people that changed our lives, right?
-Yes. -And make sure that we have
that sense of respect and understanding
of what Jean-Louis Palladin did, what Michel Richard did.
Delicious.
That is the perfect word that I wanna hear
when someone eats the food.
-Delicious. -Not extraordinary, not amazing.
I just want, "You know what? That was really delicious".