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

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Like today, I'm imagining a restaurant like that, 90% of its stuff would just come from the Cisco truck, right? It would just back in and there'd be stuff that would just be unloaded and maybe the fries would be frozen and the burgers would be pre-made. And was it like that already in the mid-70s?”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The Pompey Shock Club was a small private club and basically catered to local businessmen for lunch. And lunch consisted of, you know, for the most part hamburgers, flank steak with auju, omelets, right, eggs benedict. So it wasn't really a struggle for me to understand how to prepare those dishes. And then I had my brother Joseph, who really was my second mentor after my mother. Help me, help me taught me how to make a Hollanda sauce. And so that was really my first understanding of cooking. I mean, cooking a steak or doing an omelette, those things were fairly easy. But the actual intricacy of making of holiday sauce was a little more detailed, a little more, it was a little more intense.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. But my mother had great expectations, and certainly she was very focused on detail, work ethic. And so even as a dishwasher, I mean, my job was to make sure that my job was done at the level that she would have proved, whether it was cleaning the restrooms in the morning or whether it was taking out the garbage at the end of the night and sweeping up. I mean, that was, you know, always based on what my mother's expectations were. And still today, you know, I ask myself, you know, would my mother approve of this?”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But you are not sort of dreaming of being a chef. In fact, I think, I guess you didn't really know what you wanted to do, right? I mean, I've heard you describe yourself as a pretty mediocre student, for example, in high school.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Primarily, I ate whatever my older brothers, right? Or whatever we could produce for ourselves. And primarily at that time you had Swanson's TV dinners was always like a night out. And then whatever came hamburger helper or those kinds of things, which are fairly easy to do. But at the same time. After school or during our homework, we would go to the restaurant. So many nights we would just eat at the restaurant. Yeah.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“More or less, I mean, you know, there wasn't, and that's why people ask me all the time so what was your food culture like at home? I mean, did your mother cook a lot? Did you have these experiences like where you're sitting on your grandmother's knees during the blanc? Yeah, whatever. It's like, no, my childhood was...”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I wash dishes. I was the dishwasher, and Joseph was a prep cook or line cook. That's where we really kind of began that process of truly understanding what a restaurant was like. I mean, Joseph and I were of a specific age where we can actually Work in the restaurant”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was born at Camp Pendleton in Southern California. His dad was in the Marine Corps, and a few years after his birth, his parents split up. Thomas ended up living with his mom who managed restaurants, and by the late 1960s, when he was in high school, the family had landed in Palm Beach in South Florida, and there, Thomas's mother put him and his older brother Joseph to work in the kitchen that she managed at the Palm Beach Yacht Club.”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You will hear, he worked in so many kitchens and in so many places that we won't even have time to mention them all, but in each of those stops Thomas was learning how to be better, observing other shafts practicing the same steps over and over, even forcing himself on one occasion to learn exactly where his food was coming from by slaughtering twelve rabbits pretty much with his bare hands. And along the way, he also had a long string of false starts and all-out failures. He knew he could cook, but at times he wondered if he had it in him to be a restaurateur, a businessman. But over time he learned from his failures, his temper, his poor relationships with management, challenges in building the right team, and he really believed deep down that cooking, nurturing was his true calling. Thomas Keller”
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. Drafted a 10 page brief to share with two individuals that I thought would be a good benchmark for investment. 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. It's 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”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, one of my favorite parts of traveling is getting a feel for a neighborhood, the way locals do. A few summers ago, I was in Rome and stayed in an apartment I booked on Airbnb. It was tucked in a quiet neighborhood just outside the Roman forum. Every morning I'd walk to the corner cafe, grab an espresso, and just watch the world go by outside. I even managed to chat with the owner about the neighborhood he lived in for nearly forty years. And he got me thinking about my own neighborhood. There are incredible hiking trails and great restaurants and, of course, the beach. And when I'm traveling this summer, listing my own place on Airbnb could be a really smart way to let someone else experience the area the way I do, like a local. Listing your home on Airbnb while you're traveling is a great way to make some extra money. You could put the money toward your next trip. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much”
2023-05-29 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT