Lynne Rossetto Kasper: One of my favorite
interviews that we did was – by the way,
we were one of the first people to interview
Tony Bourdain.
Before he wrote his first book, Kitchen Confidential,
he had done a piece I think for The New Yorker.
What was the title?
Sally Swift: Yeah, we didn't interview him.
We did it as a commentary.
It was that piece he wrote about –
Francis Lam: What life is like inside a restaurant.
Sally: What life is like inside the restaurant,
and how you never order fish on a Friday –
Lynne: On a Monday.
Sally: A Monday.
Yeah.
And he did it as a commentary.
Lynne: That's right!
Yes, he did.
At any rate, by the time this
happened Tony was moving along.
We were working with Gourmet magazine.
Gourmet magazine used to have these annual
events where people would come in from all
over the country and they could take classes,
but they were also taken behind the scenes.
We were sort of the stage show
to kick it all off.
So, I'm on stage with
Tony Bourdain and Thomas Keller.
Thomas Keller had a little outfit – and
still does – called the French Laundry.
In New York he had opened Per Se. He had other restaurants.
Chefs referred to him as
the most talented cook in the United States.
Sally: And Tony Bourdain was 
still cooking at this time, too.
He was still running this French 
bistro called Les Halles.
Lynne: So, I has asked both of them – each
of them – how did you get started in cooking?
What brought you into this world?
And if we could have the tape.
[audio clip begins] 
Anthony Bourdain: I was a rotten kid.
I didn't have respect for anyone else.
I had no respect for myself.
Lynne: This is Tony in case you hadn't figured
that out.
Anthony: My roommates got 
sick of me loafing on vacation
and they got me a summer job washing dishes.
And I looked around and I said for various
reasons I like this business.
I like this lifestyle.
I want to be a member of this tribe.
It was the first time that I went home with
something to feel proud about.
It was the first bunch of people that I met
whose respect was important to me.
I went home feeling like a champion.
I was a very happy dishwasher.
And it's just that the cooks got more free
liquor and better girls.
Lynne: [laughing] Now we come down to it.
Thomas, you didn't set out to go 
to restaurant school.
How did you come to food?
Thomas Keller: My mother.
I mean how do we all come to food?
My mother ran restaurants when I was a child.
It was something that – being the youngest
of five boys – she was back in her career.
I would go to the restaurant after school
because that's where my mother was.
She would set me in front of the dishwasher
and I thought it was such a fascinating thing;
you put something in that was dirty and 30
seconds later it came out clean.
Well, this was an amazing 
thing to a young boy.
So growing up in that back-of-the-house
role was something I always did.
But, of course, there was job security there.
My mother wouldn't fire me.
Lynne: I want to get a picture of 
how both   of you work.
So here's the set up: It's Friday night, you're
in the middle of the worst part of the rush,
and I walk into your kitchen.
Thomas, what would be my first impression?
Thomas: Hopefully, you're 
impressed with what you see.
We're professionals at what we do, 
and we've been doing for a long time.
You're going to walk into our kitchen wherever
it is – whether it’s French Laundry, Bouchon,
or Per Se – and be impressed 
in an inspiring way.
What I mean by that is looking at a group
of people who are collectively working together
for a common goal, not just in the kitchen
but in the entire restaurant.
Lynne: Is it noisy?
Thomas: It shouldn't be noisy, no.
I mean we try to keep the chaos – you've
heard it before, it's controlled chaos.
And that's what it's about.
Chefs are control freaks.
Are they not, Tony?
It's the root of who we are.
You don't want to have a situation 
where it's chaos in the kitchen.
Lynne: Les Halles, Friday night?
Anthony: Slightly more civilized at Thomas’s.
Okay, Friday night.
Well, I'm cursing affectionately.
I'm probably on my second margarita.
They're playing Mexican hardcore 
over by the grill station.
The bus boys are squeezing behind me.
It looks chaotic, but the food is coming up,
it's going out on time, it's going to the
right customers, it's properly cooked and
we're not getting any plates; there are no
no returns coming back from the floor.
It is about control, but it's two 
very different control systems.
I tend to foster an “us versus them”
mentality in the kitchen
that I find very useful in team spirit.
It's the Das Boot principle
of restaurant management.
Thomas: But the results the same.
I think that's the important thing.
There's many ways to get to a successful result.
Anthony: We have slightly lower standards.
[laughter]
[audio clip ends]
Sally: What a career he has gone on to have.
He has taken food and turned it into – he’s
gone down paths you would never imagine.
Lynne: Exactly what you should 
be doing with food today.
It's not that it's not wonderful to watch
somebody cooking in a kitchen, but you look
at what Tony's done in taking us 
into people’s lives and into the politics,
into the life of a place.
It’s not always about the fanciest restaurant
or the famous chef.
I love what he does.
