Mayra Martínez-Rosales
Ms. Campbell
Culinary and Hospitality I
04 September 2015
American Chef: Thomas Keller
Thomas Keller is a renowned chef that has been recognized as the best chef in the United States by Time Magazine in 2001. He has been asked for advice for culinary-inspired movies, owns several restaurants, has won several prestigious awards, and has been mentored by one of the greats, Roland Henin. Thomas Keller was born on October 14, 1955 at Camp Pendleton, California. At the age of 5, Keller’s parents had a divorce, and he moved with his mother and five siblings to Palm Beach, Florida. He had an early start in the culinary world due to his mother’s influence. His mother was the restaurant manager of Palm Beach Yacht. His older…show more content… One of the summers at Rhode Island was spent at The Dunes Club where Keller worked under Roland Henin. His job under Roland Henin was to cook staff meals for those at The Dunes Club. Thomas Keller considered Roland Henin as the best mentor that he ever had because, under his mentorship, Keller truly began to learn the French cuisine in and out. When Keller left The Dunes club, he cooked in several restaurants in several different locations until he found one in New York where he could settle with more ease, La Rive. La Rive was a French restaurant that did not have a lot of staff. Thomas Keller was the executive chef, and he had one prep chef. Due to the lack of staff, Keller had more freedom as to what he could do with the preparing and cooking of food. Roland Henin, his long-term mentor, would go to La Rive occasionally in order to give Keller feedback on the way that he was running the kitchen. Keller spent three years at La Rive. He left after the original owners of La Rive refused to sell him the restaurant. After La Rive, Thomas Keller spent years jumping from restaurant to restaurant in New York until he decided to move to France in 1983. In France, Keller worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, restaurants recognized for their high quality fine-dining, for a year until he returned to the United States. One in the United States, he worked for three years in La Reserve, located in New…show more content… Rakel was very difficult for him to maintain open since the United States at the time was going through a recession. Rakel did not survive the recession so Thomas Keller decided to move California where he became the executive chef of the Checkers Hotel, located in Los Angeles. In 1994, Thomas Keller opened his second restaurant, the French Laundry in Yountville, California after spending one year and seven months raising $1.2 million. The French Laundry was his way to culinary fame at the age of 39. The first night of the French Laundry was a rough one. However, the second night completely turned the French Laundry around with his decision to provide a different menu daily. The country noted the change in menu, and this decision won him various awards from culinary magazines, Michelin, Mobil, and the James Beard