Word: kellers
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None of this bedlam fazes Keller, 48, who is used to the organized chaos of a busy kitchen. Instead he has zeroed in on a minor detail, the tiny labels on the Garnier Thiebaut linen that has just arrived from France. "Especially made for the French Laundry" they read, referring to Keller's four-star restaurant in Napa instead of Per Se, for which the linen was ordered. That few if any diners will notice the label on their napkin is immaterial; Keller knows it is wrong. And it irritates...
...Keller is regarded, even among America's top chefs, as a perfectionist. He is the first chef to win back-to-back best-chef awards from the James Beard Foundation, the Oscars of the restaurant industry. Since 1994 he has devoted himself single-mindedly to cooking in the 17-table French Laundry in the town of Yountville (pop. 2,916). The Napa Valley restaurant is regularly rated as one of the best in the nation--and one of the hardest at which to snare a reservation. Keller grosses about $7.5 million annually there, and his 1999 French Laundry cookbook...
...dining rooms--and every plate that comes back unfinished--is taking the celebrity-chef diversification plunge. Micromanaging is no longer an option. On Jan. 26 he opened a second Bouchon, in the Venetian in Las Vegas. Per Se is scheduled to open in New York on Feb. 16. Keller has another cookbook due out in the fall, based on dishes served at the original Bouchon. He is also marketing a line of Limoges porcelain by Raynaud that he helped design and a collection of silver hollow ware--egg cups, wine buckets--by Christofle, both destined for high-end retail stores...
...Keller, like most entrepreneurs, needed to take the risk. He knew he couldn't continue at the French Laundry indefinitely. "The kitchen is such an athletic place. At some point you have to stop being, say, a running back and become a coach," he says. Despite having had two operations, Keller still experiences pain in his knees while standing at the stove...
...Keller has found a typically idiosyncratic solution to the management problem. He has set up an eclectic six-member advisory council to mentor him on the expansion of his business: two bankers, an attorney, a restaurant consultant, an accountant and a psychologist. (Chefs are a little crazy, as anyone in the restaurant business will tell you.) He has increased staff training to reassure himself that the pursuit of perfection will be maintained even when he is not in the kitchen. And, as insurance, he is installing a live video link between the kitchens of the French Laundry...