YouSaid · the spoken record

Thomas Keller

lines on the record: 111
first: 2023-05-29
most recent: 2023-05-29
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Well, you know, somebody told me a long time ago, a very wise man told me a long time ago, luck comes to those who work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, you know, you're casting that wide enough, you're bound to catch a little bit of luck. You know, I'm considered one of the best chefs in the country, yet I know there are many chefs out there who are better than I am. And why was I chosen? Why do I live this life? Why do I sit here with you talking about my career and not another chef? Well, some of that has to do with being in the right place at the right time, but there has to be the desire and the determination and the commitment to actually go out and try to do what we do in order to actually have that opportunity to be lucky.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Here's what I told the team. I said the only way that we're going to make a difference with our guests because they're not coming back. The New York Times is not coming back is to make sure that every guest that leaves this restaurant leaves the restaurant with one thought in their mind. What the hell was Pete Wells talking about Of that conversation, we coined one of our phrases, one guest at a time.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The resources for food and restaurant experience and knowledge is far diverse today than it was before. And so a lot of my staff who were very young looked at me going like, Chef, we don't read the New York Times, so it's okay. Don't worry about it.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. So a couple things. So every accolade that we receive or anybody receives is for what you did yesterday. Not what you're doing today or what you're going to do tomorrow. So we appreciate criticism. I mean, that's the one thing we ask. Like, what didn't you like? I mean, I don't want to, I don't want to know what you liked. I want to know what you didn't like because that's the only way we can make improvements. So Pete pointed out what he thought we did wrong. And I took it on as my responsibility to go to all of my restaurants and explain what happened. And so you learn from those experiences. But at the same time, today you have countless, you know, just look at Yelp. I mean, everybody's a critic.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You failed as a leader. So, does it truly matter if it's a person in name or if it's a group in name? You know, you look at the Brooklyn Dodgers 1955, you look at this, yes, there were significant people that were on the Brooklyn Dodgers, but it was the Brooklyn Dodgers who won. Right, and that's what we have to be, that's what we have to be. We have to be better as a team through our individual abilities.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a good question. I mean, you know, so when we open per se, I wasn't the chef anymore. Yeah. We hired the right person, we trained them, and we mentored them. And if you do those three things correctly, what happens is that person is better than you are because if they're not better than you, then you have not done a good job.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It means that you're going to find a person or a group of individuals that believe in your culture, in your philosophy, in your vision, you're going to be able to structure a succession plan that holds everybody to a certain standard into the future. That's it. So the French henry, I don't know if it can ever really be sold to somebody. So what is the French laundry worth? This is the other thing we struggle with as chefs. My restaurants aren't named after me, yet they're so entwined with my name. So what is the French Fondry really worth? What is the French Andre worth with Thomas Keller? What is the French Andrew worth without Thomas Keller? If I sold the French Andre and I wasn't there anymore, what is the ROI for the new owner?”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But America, are there three or four multi-generational restaurants? And the French entrepreneur is one of those restaurants.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But you know, it's, I don't, I've been very successful at one-off restaurants. I mean, we know running restaurants that opening one restaurant, another restaurant, is not going to move the needle. It's not going to change your life, in other words. It's just going to be another burden. You think about opening restaurants very exciting. It's seductive. It's exciting. But then you've got to run it for 20 years. You can't just close it. You have to open a restaurant that's going to be part of a community. And it lives on in perpetuity, or at least beyond you. I mean, this is the challenge I'm faced with today, right? I'm 67 years old. What happens to my restaurants? The French Andre needs to be a multi general restaurant. How many multi generation restaurants do we have in America today? You can point to Asia and Europe and they're countless”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That doesn't interest me. I've never been interested in lending my name to a can of soup or a pizza. God bless Wolfgang. I mean, I don't criticize any of my colleagues for the past that they've chosen, right?”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Which is a struggle for me. I mean, I talk to my best friend who's one of my closest colleagues, a renowned chef himself here in America. And we remember our first goal was to open our own restaurant. We wanted to own one restaurant. And then when we did that, we had more opportunity. We opened a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, or whatever. And now, you know what we talk about today? Him and I? Owning one restaurant. Wouldn't it be nice to just own one restaurant”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He couldn't walk out on the field and be a part of that team. He has to understand that his time is over. So he needs to find a different thing. And that's kind of the same thing of my career and all Cook's careers, right? Is we come in as rookies, we become seasoned players. Some of us become franchise players. And then eventually, in the same way that Derek Jeter or Joe Montana, they can't do anymore. They have to retire. So it's heartbreaking for them as it is for me. But you have to find a different purpose. So again, you find your way into the dugout, right? And you become the field manager. You find your way into the ownership and you become the general manager. You become an owner. And that's kind of what I'm doing today. Do I miss cooking, of course? I do.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's a really good question. But I am in the kitchen every night that I'm home here in Napa Valley. And when I go to New York City. I'm in the kitchen every night that I'm in New York. I was just in per se. Am I cooking? No, but you have to kind of understand the dynamic of the team. And again, if you use analogy of a sports franchise, you know, Derek Jeter would love to play shortstop for the New York Janies tomorrow.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have a wonderful memory for themselves that they take home. And that's memory that lasts with them for a long time. I can tell you some of my great experiences around the table in some of the greatest restaurants in the world. I can't tell you how much they cost. I can tell you the stories behind them. And those stories are dear to me. And those experiences are dear to me. So what I think about how much I spent And what I receive for that, it's priceless.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We want to give you something, and we talk about this all the time with our team because our team is there every single day. And complacency can become a problem because we're there every day. We have to remind ourselves that the guests that's coming tonight has been planning to come there for some time, whether it's a year or 10 years. They've saved their money or not saved their money, depending on their economic wealth, but they are spending money. And we want to make sure that when they leave that restaurant,”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, so we run an elite restaurant, right? It's just like an elite athlete. These guys in the football field or baseball field or basketball court, they're our elite athletes. They've worked their entire life to achieve what they do. They have God-given gifts, right? But they have been chosen to do what they do and they're paid to do what they do because they're elite. It has nothing to do with being elitist. They're two different things, right? We run an elite restaurant. We're not elitist. I mean, we want everybody to come to our restaurant. We don't profess that we're going to be there for everybody or that you can eat there every other week or every month or every other year. But when you are there.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think the answer is because it's perceived to be elite for the elite. And I think it's. Fine dining restaurants. I mean, the impact of those restaurants, what they do, has a trickle-down effect. It does have an impact on what other chefs do and how they think about cooking.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it's fascinating that fine dining is always kind of picked on. Nobody's talking about how much it costs to buy a ticket and sit courtside at the Lakers game. I mean”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then actually, the biggest expense is our labor, is our people who work for us, right? Giving them a wage that they have work-life balance, giving them the benefits so they don't have to worry about getting hurt or getting sick, right? They go to the hospital, they have insurance, and they have vacations, and they have opportunities to continue their careers in ways that are going to elevate the standards of their lives, their families' lives, their communities, and our profession.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is it going to be what we want? Is it going to be what we want to serve? No, which means I don't really ask, I call them my partners, my purveyors, how much something cost? Primarily because we've had relationships with them for 30 years or more. And they know the standards of what we're trying to achieve. So they're bringing us the best possible ingredients they have. And so is it my job to negotiate a cheaper price with them, or is it my job to support them in bringing us the best ingredients they can?”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, obviously that happened, but it wasn't in our thought. Well, we need to do a less expensive restaurant. Abhisha is going to be less expensive restaurant anyway, just because it's the bistro. Yeah. But I just want to comment because you said it's very expensive to make the food. I just want to qualify that it's also we're buying ingredients which are extremely rare. And produced or harvested or farmed or caught by extraordinary individuals. And yes, we could buy a cheaper salmon, for example. You know, if I said, I want to only spend $3.50 a pound for salmon, somebody would sell me salmon for $3.50 a pound.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we decided the best thing to do was to open a restaurant that was open until midnight. And as many decisions were made at that restaurant, the French laundry, where so many decisions were made, was sitting around the table at the end of service, not only defining our menu for tomorrow, but what would we do if we could? What would we do if? That's a very important question that we ask ourselves. And one of the things we want to do is to have a place to go to eat. And so it was obvious that we needed to open another restaurant. And what would that restaurant be? So we all decided that it would be a French bistro because that's what we missed the most.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Or go to a bar or go to a club, go to dinner, whatever, right? We had opportunities to go somewhere else. In Napa Valley, when we closed and finished service at 10 o'clock, Everything else they closed at nine o'clock There was no place to go. But then we also realized that everybody in Napa Valley is in the hospitality profession. If you work for a winery, you're not a special profession, right? If you're working for a hotel, you're in hospitality profession.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, okay, so we opened the French laundry There were 12 of us in that restaurant total. None of us came from Napoleon. I mean, Laura came from Napa Valley. Yeah. Most of us came from urban environments, which meant that we always had a place to go to after service.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There wasn't a path, right? It's like, this is what you do to get to this point. This is what you don't do. Know we were the explorers. I mean, we went out to cut the path. People were looking at us going, okay, that's what Thomas did, that's what Danielle did, that's what Rocco Despirito did, that's what, you know.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We want to set the example for the next generation, right? We want to elevate the standards, not just of our restaurant. We want to elevate the standards of our profession so that when people leave our restaurant, they go to their next post and they're taking something with them from the French laundry or per se or wherever they're coming from. And they're helping, right? They're adding value to their next post.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so the shape of the ice is now affecting the quality of the flesh of the fish. But if you stand it straight up as it swims, there's no pressure on the flesh.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, there's ice on the bottom, and there's ice on top. And so what is happening to the fish? You've got pressure, you've got weight on both the bottom filet and the top fillet.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it's important to me because it becomes obvious if you just study it for a moment, right? If you take the fish as an example, right? For years, right, fish was laid flat. And you're laying fish flat on ice.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, Laura was one of the discoveries, right? One of the discoveries of a lifetime. So Laura ran the dining room. She ran the wine program. I mean, you think about that and of its entirety of a young woman, I think she was 27 or 28 years old, running what was going to become one of the most significant restaurants in America, and then finding somebody who had the financial capacity, a bookkeeper, a really good bookkeeper who could keep us on track. And so that was the triad. That was the tripod. That was the three different. Departments that I needed to be able to succeed at running the French laundry.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, what I talked about when I realized the mistakes at Raquel, you know, there needed to be people in the proper positions that were experts in those positions that allowed me to just be a cook, to be a chef.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Much more intense experience or much longer experience, that kind of casualness allowed our guests and our service staff to really create bonds and relationships, which has really blossomed into something that the French laundry is known for and per se is known for. People are surprised when they have dinner at the French audience say how much fun it is.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So she began by going through that process of just highlighting people's names and trying to identify who they were for me. She ultimately became the assistant manager at the French Londre. And then finally, six months later, she became the general manager. And I have to credit Laura with so many things. I mean, you're absolutely right, Laura, has been a significant, significant part of the success of the restaurant, but also in changing the way fine dining restaurants operate and the service that they provide. And that has been to casualize service in find dining restaurants in America and around the world. I mean, she was somebody who had a strong belief in not having a formal dining room, but more a dining room that was more accessible between the guest and the service staff. And as our restaurant developed and became a”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, Laura grew up in Napa Valley. One of her best friends was one of the Schmidt's daughters. You know, she spent a significant amount of time at the French laundry as a young girl. She had worked for people like Jonathan Waxman. She'd worked for people like Jeremiah Towers. So she was semi in the hospitality profession. And she found her way to the French laundry because I was looking for somebody to help me understand the guest list that the Schmidtz had comprised”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was very simple walking down the grocery store aisle with a great sense of awareness and seeing a purple box that said pearl tapioca. And I picked it up and I'm thinking where did pearls come from? Where do they come from oysters? And that became the inspiration for that dish, right? And then you had the caviar to it. It becomes a complete dish in celebration, right? You have the oysters, you have the caviar, you have a glass of champagne. What better way to begin your meal than that kind of experience?”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's one of those compositions that you're required to keep on your manufacture because people have read about it so much. You can't disappoint them by not having that dish available to them. It's like going to a Rolling Stone rock concert and them not playing satisfaction. I'm sure they're tired of playing satisfaction, but they played every single time because they know the fans want it and the same thing, the oysters and pearls. The guests really want to have that experience with that.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tell me about what you were serving. Where did you get your ideas from? I mean, you had a dish, I think early on, which is still, I think, one of your most famous dishes called pearls and oysters, which is caviar oysters and tapioca spheres.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's where it all began. Was that second night? That first night, every night from that point on, we've changed the menu at French Andre and Perse.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Were several nights that we worked on producing the food, but actually putting it together into compositions, I knew what I wanted. We talked about it, but we never practiced or we had very little practice. But the next night we modified everything. We bought some more equipment, some more tools that we needed, and we opened on July 7th. And John Mariani, who was one of the most significant food critics in that period of time, he wrote for Esquire Magazine. Esquire Magazine every November published their 10 best new restaurants in America. And on the second night, John Mariani came into the French laundrel. And that November, we were one of the 10 best new restaurants in America. And that was just how dynamic we were. And we became. I mean, that became a cornerstone of what we do. And changing the menu every single day.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was a catastrophe. Total disaster July, the night of July 6th was a day that you wanted to forget. In fact, Ron Siegel, one of our chefs at the time, when he won the award for Best New Chefs, he was asked the question, what was the most difficult or was the most memorable night you had in opening a restaurant? And he said, the night we opened the French laundry. Was like the sinking of the Titanic. It was catastrophic, miserable, and last all night long. I had not cooked for close to two and a half years. We didn't have the money to spend a month on development R&D development, training, all those different things that we do today. We opened the restaurant. I think the day before I was shoveling gravel in the parking lot”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'd add the menus there. I would take people around trying to convince them that this was going to be a place where they wanted to invest.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I used to go up on weekends to have open houses at the French laundry. I would invite prospective investors to come. I would make my little coronet. I had slideshows of what the menu looked like.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So this was a daily emotional challenge for me, is the feeling of this. There was something, you know, again, there's so many stories that are wrapped around purchasing the French audience, but there was, again, significant things that happened. There was a article in the New York Times, and I didn't really read the article because the headline of the article became really important to me. And the headline was, having a dream is hard, living it is harder. And I really, you know, I thought that was me. I cut that out. I still have that in my office today, but I put it on my little makeshift desk in my small apartment. In Los Angeles, and that became something I read every morning when I started making phone calls to strangers to ask them if I could send my business plan to them that they would invest in the restaurant.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Stressful because you're vulnerable, right? And this somebody who's got a lot more means and resources, essentially you're thinking in your head, okay, this guy's just going to find another person like me and just replace me and back this thing and that restaurant's going to go to him.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was fearful because if he was going to do that for me, would he do it for somebody else, right? If Thomas Keller said no, he would go out and get... I had to go to Dod and Sally and explain it to them. And they said, Don't worry about it. We're supporting you Which was again a great encouragement and made me feel really safe in my endeavor.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, there was one investor who offered to bankroll me all the way, and I was sitting in the garden at the French laundry with him at the time. He said, but I want control over everything that you do in your future.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But I had drafted a 10 page brief to share with two individuals that I thought would be a good benchmark for investment. These two gentlemen both owned wineries, both came from financial background, and I gave each one of them a copy of this brief, right, would explain the French laundry, my vision, how much it was going to cost. The next day they came down. I turned to Michael. I said, Michael, what do you think? And he said, it's a horrible idea. It's never going to work. It's too expensive. People in Napa Valley don't want that kind of restaurant. Forget about it. I was crushed. I was just crushed. I was like, shit, what am I going to do? I turned to Bob. And Bob said, great idea. Let's do it. That's all I needed. That little bit of encouragement. That led me again to really. Pursue with the total commitment to buy this restaurant.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a really difficult thing. But in many ways, it's also very exciting, right? To convince somebody who you do not know that the project that you're embarking on has merit and so much so that they're going to write you a check.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We built a strong bond, a strong relationship through just communication. They believed in me, and they're counting on Thomas Keller to actually do this, a guy who has certainly a checkered past in his ability to operate restaurants, right? The failures that he's had. But yet they believe that I can do it. And that also motivated me to great ends to do everything I could possibly do, to execute this, not just for myself, but for them.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was terrified every single day I woke up with that idea in my mind that somebody else. With more credibility, with more experience, somebody who is better than I was was going to just reach out to the Schmidts and buy the restaurant. I woke up every single morning without on my mind for 18 months. And I had to continue over the period of time to convince Don and Sally that I was the guy. That I was actually going to make this happen.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT