Thomas Keller Biography
Thomas Keller is a chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author from the United States. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have received numerous James Beard Foundation awards, including Best California Chef in 1996 and Best Chef in America in 1997. The restaurant is a consistent winner on Restaurant Magazine’s annual list of the Top 50 Restaurants in the World.
How old is Thomas Keller? – Age
He is 66 years old as of 14 October 2021. He was born in 1955 in Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. His real name is Thomas Aloysius Keller.
How many siblings does Thomas Keller have? – Family
Keller’s mother was a restaurant owner who hired Thomas to assist her when her cook became ill. His father was a US Marine stationed nearby at Camp Pendleton. When Thomas was seven, his parents divorced, and he moved to Palm Beach, Florida, with his mother and two older brothers, where his grandmother and great aunts raised him and his brothers.
Does Thomas Keller have a Wife? – Marriage
Keller proposed to longtime girlfriend and former French Laundry general manager Laura Cunningham in April 2009.
What is Thomas Kellers Net Worth?
Keller has an estimated net worth of $130 million.
What is Thomas Keller best known for?
Keller is well-known for his culinary expertise and high standards. He has built a restaurant empire that represents a new paradigm in the hospitality industry. Keller took over The French Laundry in Yountville, CA, which is now celebrating its 26th anniversary, and quickly gained international acclaim. Bouchon Bistro in Yountville and Las Vegas; Per Se in New York City; Ad Hoc + addendum in Yountville; The Surf Club Restaurant in Surfside, FL; Bouchon Bakery in Yountville, Las Vegas, and the Middle East; and the Mexican eatery La Calenda in Yountville are also among his restaurants. He is the first and only American-born chef to have received multiple three-star ratings from the prestigious Michelin Guide.
Does Thomas Keller have a Michelin star?
Keller is the most decorated chef in the United States, with seven Michelin stars. His world-famous Bay Area restaurant, The French Laundry, has been awarded three Michelin stars since 2007, and its New York counterpart, Per Se, has been awarded three stars since 2005. Keller is also the only chef in the United States who owns two three-star restaurants at the same time. His final star comes from Bouchon, a French-style bistro located just down the street from The French Laundry.
Where did Thomas Keller live? – House
In September 2016, the molecular gastronomist paid $1,950,000 for a 1968 ranch house—$55,000 more than the asking price. While we don’t know what Chef Keller intends to do with the property—it could become his residence or, given its prime terroir, a new food/wine venture—he will presumably renovate the dated abode. The current decor of the house includes wood-paneled walls, linoleum tile, pastel wallpaper, and a heavenly emerald-green carpet.
Thomas Keller Cookbook
Thomas published The French Laundry Cookbook in 1999, which he considers to be his definitive work on cuisine. It won three International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) awards that year, including Cookbook of the Year, Julia Child’s “First Cookbook” Award, and Design Award. He published “The Bouchon Cookbook” in 2004, though he attributes most of the credit to Bouchon chef Jeffrey Cerciello. Other cookbooks to which he has contributed or written include The Food Lover’s Companion to the Napa Valley, Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide, Ad Hoc at Home (2009), and Bouchon Bakery (2012).
He wrote an introduction or foreword for The Vineyard Kitchen: Menus Inspired by the Seasons by Maria Helm Sinskey, “Happy in the Kitchen” by Michel Richard, “Indulge: 100 Perfect Desserts” by Claire Clark (head pastry chef at The French Laundry), and “Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing” by Micheal Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Melanie Dunea’s “My Last Supper” also features him.
Thomas Keller The French Laundry
Following his divorce from his Rakel partner, Keller worked as a consultant and chef in New York and Los Angeles. In the spring of 1992, he discovered an old French steam laundry that had been converted into a restaurant in Yountville, California. He raised $1.2 million from friends and investors over the course of nineteen months to purchase the restaurant, which he opened in 1994. The restaurant received numerous awards over the next few years, including those from the James Beard Foundation, gourmet magazines, the Mobil Guide (five stars), and the Michelin Guide (three stars).
Thomas Keller Restaurant – Career
Following The French Laundry’s success, Thomas and his brother, Joseph Keller, opened Bouchon in 1998. It serves moderately priced French bistro fare and is located across the street from The French Laundry, with Bouchon Bakery opening next door a few years later (in 2006 Keller opened a branch of the bakery in the Time Warner Center in Manhattan). Keller has previously joked that the motivation for Bouchon’s opening was to provide him with a place to eat after working at The French Laundry. Keller opened his Las Vegas restaurant Bouchon on January 26, 2004. On February 16, 2004, Keller’s much-anticipated Per Se restaurant opened in New York’s Time Warner Center complex, led by Keller’s Chef de Cuisine, Jonathan Benno.
Per Se, which was designed from the ground up and custom-built as part of the overall construction process, was an instant hit on the New York restaurant scene, with reservations booked months in advance and rave reviews from publications such as The New Yorker and The New York Times. The most recent restaurant, “ad hoc,” opened in Yountville in September 2006, with a different fixed-price comfort food dinner served family style every night. Originally intended to be a temporary project while Keller planned his lifelong dream restaurant for the location, which would serve hamburgers and wine, Keller decided to make ad hoc permanent and find a new location for the hamburger restaurant due to its overwhelming popularity.
Prior to the opening of The French Laundry, Thomas Keller founded EVO, Inc. in 1992 with his then-girlfriend to distribute Provençal-style olive oil and red wine vinegar. Keller recently began marketing a line of signature white Limoges porcelain dinnerware by Raynaud called Hommage Point, which he assisted with, as well as a collection of silver hollow ware by Christofle. He has also had his name engraved on a set of MAC signature knives.
Keller is the president of the Bocuse d’Or team in the United States and was in charge of recruiting and training the 2009 candidates. Timothy Hollingsworth, a former French Laundry Chef de Cuisine, won the Bocuse d’Or USA semi-finals in 2008 and went on to represent the United States in the world finals in January 2009 under Keller’s supervision, where he finished sixth, equaling the best performance by the United States in the contest to date. In 2012, he announced that he had reached the point in his career when it was time to retire from the kitchen.