-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".
