4 minute read
FEATURE STORY
Of the rewards he’s reaped throughout his culinary career, he says, “One of the best things about cooking is that it’s universal. I get to do so many things that I never would have gotten to do, meet so many people, experience so many different things, just because I’m a cook… and everybody has to eat!”
And what a wild ride it has been.
Speaking of rides, well, there’s nothing Keller is looking forward to more imminently than the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix in May. He’s a huge auto enthusiast with a predilection for BMWs (he currently owns three: a 1978 3201, a 2000 540 station wagon, and a 2014 i8), which he’s loved with a passion that has both preceded and encompassed his career as a master chef. [The French Laundry’s “house cars” are all BMWs as well, which is no coincidence.]
I wonder if he’s ever raced — and the answer is, of course, yes. He confides that he and chef friends Jérôme Bocuse — son of Nouvelle Cuisine pioneer Paul Bocuse, his mentor — and Daniel Boulud all hit tracks in Atlanta and New Orleans to race Ferraris. “I don’t consider myself a racer, but Jérôme did very well at least,” he remembers. “He practiced, he had lessons. Daniel and I would just have fun with [the cars] — “fun” being pretty fast with a Ferrari.” He chuckles, “I have a small amount of car knowledge — just enough to get me into trouble.”
That said, it’s not always a bad thing when these three culinary speed racers get together. In 2008, at the behest of mentor Bocuse, he, Boulud, and Jérôme Bocuse established the Ment’or Foundation, where he currently serves as president. The foundation is devoted to inspiring culinary excellence and preserving the traditions and quality of classic cuisine in America. In January of 2015, as president for the Ment’or Foundation, he led Team USA to a historic silver win in the Bocuse d’Or competition in Lyon, France, realizing Paul Bocuse’s dream of the United States making it to the podium. Two years later, in 2017, Team USA, led by executive sous chef Matthew Peters and commis Harrison Turone of Per Se, won gold.
Keller recalls both moments vividly — the Bocuse d’Or being among the top three honors of his life (along with receiving his Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor in 2011, which was presented by Bocuse, and becoming the first American chef to win three Michelin stars).
After winning silver, he quite clearly remembers standing in Bocuse’s Lyon, kitchen. “I said, ‘Chef, we’ve done what we said we were going to do. We’ve been promising you for seven years that we’d make it to the podium.’ But it was earning that gold medal that he wanted Team USA to achieve. My biggest concern, as well as Daniel’s and Jérôme’s, was, Are we going to be able to do this while Paul is alive? It always makes me cry when I think about him.”
In 2017, a year before Bocuse’s death, Keller went to see his mentor and gave him the American flag he had been wearing around his own neck. “I said, ‘We’re coming back with gold on Thursday.’ Well, on Thursday, we came back and what did Paul have around his neck? The American flag. It was an emotional moment for all of us.”
Ironically, though he goes big or goes home for Team USA, when it comes to the subject of expanding his brand — the personality-driven part of his brand, which is — Per Se and The French Laundry — another American eatery is not an option. “There’s a very slight chance I would even do another fine dining restaurant in the genre of The French Laundry and Per Se. If it did happen, it wouldn’t happen in this country. We have two of the most recognized restaurants in America — two of only 135 three-Michelin-star restaurants in the world — and to have another restaurant like that in America would be a disservice to the brand,” he says, noting, “If I decided to open in Paris or London, that would be something, but honestly, as exciting and seductive as opening a new restaurant can be, running a new restaurant is a lot of work, and for a long time. I’m at an age now where opening a restaurant like that — which takes two to three years to build and then to open and operate for 10 or 15 years — is a huge commitment that I’m not sure I would make.”
That being said, he’s always open to new opportunities, whatever they may be, and will go where the wind takes him. Or where his golf clubs take him, more likely. “One of my current goals is to get a hole in one. I came close the other day,” he confides with a laugh before adding, “If you have courage and confidence in yourself, then most of the time you’re going to be fine. Golf is the perfect example of that. Confidence and courage are such an important part of being a good golfer. If you don’t have the confidence to hit the ball, then you’re not going to hit it. If you don’t have the courage to step up and follow through, it’s just not going to be a good shot.”
But if you take your shot, and keep trying, you end up with an empire. And while that might not be a hole in one, no one could ever dispute that the result is a massive win all the same — whether or not Frank Sinatra is involved.
