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[Music] as soon as I got on campus I said to uh one of my um my traveling companions here is to make sure that I got a hat and sure enough there was one in the Green Room in the back so it's lovely to be here and thank you all very much of
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course well I want to thank you for joining us tonight Chef Keller it's truly an honor to have you on campus thank you and I think that's probably safe to say that you have a very welcoming audience everyone here has either dined in one of your restaurants
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fantasized about dining in one of your restaurants or heard their significant other fantasize about dining in one of your restaurants and it's actually quite fitting for me because my fiance Ben is in the audience and he has heard me
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fantasized about dining at The French Laundry for years Ben where is Ben okay I think you just got your traveling or or is there is I'm hoping that this helps build my case for actually getting to the French Laundry one day good I hope so too we'll
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do everything we can so it all started with dishwashing your first exposure to restaurants was washing dishes in one of your mom's restaurants y can you talk about how that first sparked your interest in cooking and then also what later drove
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you to commit your life's work to cooking well it it's interesting because as a youngster my mother ran restaurants so uh being the youngest of of of five boys I find my I found myself in the restaurant uh after school um doing odd
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odd things and certainly at a young age you know you weren't allowed to hold a knife or be anywhere near the fire so the most obvious and safe place to put me was in front of a dishwashing machine where you know looking back at that time
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I really learned so many skills that benefited uh me becoming a really really good cook and and just to explain a few of those when you think about you know being a Dish Dish machine you have to be you have to be organized you know so
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setting out all these sample plates on the dirty dis drain board so that as the waiters came back they put the dishes in the right spots they put the glasses in the right spot the silver in the right spot uh you had to be efficient in the
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way you stacked the plates and and and wash the dishes and got the uh the glasses done and putting them in the racks correctly uh so that when you put them in the machine the machine would wash them and of course by that 45
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seconds later you knew uh through the feedback whether the the the job that you had done was going to be satisfactory in other words the dishes would either came out clean or they came out dirty so if they came out dirty you know you didn't do your job correctly so
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the feedback was very important and then the idea that you really had to be part of a team you know a a as a dishwasher most of us you know think think of that as a as a really lowly position but everybody in the entire restaurant
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relies on you you have to give the dishes back to the cooks they they need their dishes in order to Plate the food uh the weight staff or the bartenders needed their their glasses and of course the weight staff needed the silverware
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so you really have had to be a team player uh and that was really important so you learned how to be part of a team that relied on you to do your job correctly and of course there was this idea of some some some some rituals and
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the rituals were also important you had to empty the dish machine you know every 3 hours and fill it up with clean water you had to sweep the floor at certain times uh throughout the night you had to empty the garbage at certain specific
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times you had to do these things so rituals played a big important part of that and over the overarching that was repetition you did it over and over and over and over and over and over again so you really got very good at it and and
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when you translate that to what a cook does it's basically the same thing we're we're we have to be organized uh we have to be efficient feedback is really really important for us I mean when when we're heating up oil in a sauté pan to
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to to cook a piece of fish and you put the fish in there you know right away if the if the pan was too hot if the pan wasn't hot enough it has enough oil or doesn't have enough oil right away you get the feedback on how on how that
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ingredient is reacting in that pan and of course rituals were important you have to do things at specific times of the day to get set up for service which begins at 5:30 and and repetition I mean repetition was such an integral part of
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becoming a good cook you know learning how to slice an onion you've all seen chefs on TV do the onion thing really really quick and you go how do they do that we do it because we've done it 10,000 times that's how we do it and you can do the same thing it's not hard uh
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so when you think about washing dishes it really set the tone for me becoming a really good cook interesting and then what was the later experience that ultimately convinced you that you wanted to commit yourself to cooking well for
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the for for the first several years of cooking my mother came to me one day and said you know the chef is leaving you're going to be the chef and I thought wow this is interesting I was a dishwasher yesterday and and and I'm going to watch this guy
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who's in this small private yacht club in Palm Beach and I'm going to do what he does well fortunately I had an older brother who who really embraced cooking at a young age and he was already a professional cook so he became my first
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Mentor but it wasn't until 1977 when I met a French uh Chef in narag at Rhode Island where I was working at a private club and and the job that I had at that time was cooking for the staff which was kind of a lowly job right you weren't
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you weren't doing the elegant food for the guests who were paying you know high prices to come to dinner uh I was cooking for for the team there and it's a summer job so you have all these young people who are on summer break and they
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in nans and because they can go to the beach in the afternoon and they can work at night and they have places to live and uh and and so but the interesting about it was you again the feedback feedback was really important because when I would cook something for them
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believe me they they were very vocal about whether they liked it or not right I mean right away this was good or this was bad and and fortunately I was I was a pretty good cook by then so most of the things I made for them were were
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really good and and the chef came to me and he was very he was very happy because typically his staff cook wasn't somebody who had the dedication and the skills that I have and and and the other staff was always unhappy and and he made
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the connection for me on why why Cooks cook why any cook cooks and it's it's to nurture people and and and when he said that to me I thought that is that's that's what I want to do that was something that resonated with me the
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idea that I could do something that would nurture others and give them give them not only sustance but give them pleasure was the reason I became a chef so July 1977 I said this is my job this is what I'm going to do and from that point on
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um I was dedicated to to Really learning my CRA my learning my craft and uh and it takes a long time uh you know it wasn't until much later in life so that was when I was you know 21 years old and was wasn't until I was really 39 that I
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start started to see any kind of financial success or or rewards from from the work that i' had been doing all those years I like how often you're referencing feedback because here at the gsv we say that feedback is a gift it it is and all of us receive a
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lot of it so we can certainly emphasize with you it's a good thing so that you moved on with no formal training and that you didn't go to culinary school and basically had different jobs and apprenticeships looking back and
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recognizing the success that you've had how much that do you think is innate verse learned ah good point I think that you know we look at our our early child life and I think that we have a a lot of things and and certainly I think all of
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you've got had gotten great advice from your parents or somebody that was meaningful for you because you're all you're all here at Stanford I mean you know you just don't don't show up without having some guidance on that and I think at at early in my life um again
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my my parents were divorced so I grew up with a with with a single parent that was my mother and I was very thankful ful uh that I grew up with my mother because she had uh an attention to detail uh a work ethic uh that um became
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part of who I was because she exemplified that every day and it was through those example those examples that again I I I find myself looking back to and saying you know there is the foundation of of My Success is is on in that early age of understanding what
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what expectations were how to reach them or how to exceed them in many ways and and and the amount of dedication and work that you had to contribute to actually do that um was was for me it was it was a pleasure uh I would get
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excited by it and to the point where I remember one time and and and it was back when when when people had um kind of fake um foliage fake trees in their house so my mother had this wonderful kind of Japanese maple tree that was
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plastic and I thought one day I'm going to take it apart and I'm going to really clean the whole thing really good so I pulled the whole thing apart and I cleaned every leaf and every branch and I had it all over the floor and and then
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I thought man I'm going to get this back together again she was happy that I cleaned it but she was very upset that we weren't able to put it back together again so often times at school we discuss how to respond to setbacks and
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the first restaurant that you opened verel in New York closed when the stock market bottomed out in the um end of the 1980s what was the hardest part of that experience for you I think the hardest part of that experience is realized that
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your your ultimate dream and and your ultimate goal which was so so close and in many ways was in your grasp was was something that could could just disappear um without without something that you you had no control over it as hard as as
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hard as you worked as dedicated as you were as great a job as you did uh at that point there there was nothing that I could do um outside of changing the the format of the restaurant um to to to make myself happier to make the restaurant successful yeah um so it was
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a choice and and I I had a great partner uh Serge Raul um and he had a very successful restaurant not too far away across town in SoHo and we had the choice to either to to to to um um establish a more of a casual restaurant because yeah like a beast was
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like this was when you know fine dining became something that was uh unapproachable anymore people weren't willing to pay for it and so everything was becoming casual and so we could casualized rockel um I could stay there
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as partner and as the chef or I could give it up and and pursue my goals and I was I was so determined uh that fine dining was was going to be my venue that I I I separated myself from the restaurant that believe me I mean when
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we were building the restaurant the contractors would come in in the morning and and they would they would do their work and the place would be a mess and every night I would clean the restaurant knowing that the contractors would come
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back the next morning and make it a mess again I there were nights I would sleep in the restaurant this was this was this was this was my life this was going to be my restaurant this was this was my future and and to to five years later
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realized that it wasn't going to be anymore and that New York City which was which again was my life in the center of the UN Universe for me wasn't going to wasn't going to be the place that I was going to be was was devastating but what
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are your choices I mean at the end of the day you're faced with a choice you know e either you can do something you can compromise on what your goals are you know I could have casualized the restaurant and been there and and been miserable um or I could have I could
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have left and and and pursued my true goals of of fine dining and and and hopefully finding that that Avenue that would lead me to to success and it that was in 19 90 when I when I when I left rockel uh and moved to Southern California and
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did you take any lessons from that experience maybe that would help you preserve fine dining big lessons big lessons I knew that you know I realized that that I didn't know everything I mean you know at some point in my life I
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thought I knew everything I thought I knew how to run a restaurant um but I realized that I was a really good chef I was a really good cook uh I had no idea about finances I I knew nothing about I couldn't read a p&l and I I didn't know
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how to run a dining room and and those are big part of a restaurant you know certainly a big part of any business you know terms of financial uh so when I when I when I was able to buy Raquel I was able to buy French Laundry I
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realized that I needed somebody in the dining room that could focus on the dining room that was an expert on the dining room and I needed somebody you know who could take care of our financial and so it became a tripod there it was me in the kitchen focused
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on the food which was really my expertise I realized that was my expertise that was my strength and I need to play with my strength and and find those individuals who could compensate for my weaknesses and so Laura Cunningham became the general
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manager of the restaurant uh we had a a young bookkeeper named Pat McCarthy and she took care of all of our financials and that's what the basis and the foundation of the success of French H was and it sounds like you all kind of
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respected each other's boundaries and we were so busy that there was there was no real choice you know we had to stay focused on on our different departments okay so after 1994 when you opened the French Laundry your presence
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on The Culinary scene just has exploded in terms of opening up buan and ban Bakery per ad hoc Etc um all of those restaurants include different locations different Cuisine different clientele what have been some of the driving factors behind each decision to open a
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new restaurant okay good good question but I just I just want to just if I can just seg way back to to to French Laundry because you know it's something that's very important for me to to to to tell you is that as as we was pointed out it was 19
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months I was raising money for the French laundry now you know looking back at that time I realized that my biggest asset was my ignorance had I known what it was going to take to actually raise the money and buy that restaurant when I
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began the process it would have been overwhelming for me I would have never done it what really drove me forward and and and and kept me motivated were small successes every so often um I was in a position where I'd closed Raquel um I
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was labeled you know somewh of an emotional Chef U which can be interpreted in a lot of different ways um and and I I had I was unemployed living in Los Angeles and I found this restaurant that I fell in love with and
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I said there there's my my dream there's where I should be there was an instant connection for me and I decided that I was going to try to purchase the restaurant but I I had no resources I I had no money I had no job and it was
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really through through perseverance and through so many other individuals around me that were supportive of that process that we we were able to accomplish it but it was really the unknown that protected me uh so well in in in that in
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raising that money and um every day I would wake up and I would make make phone calls or try to fill out forms and and to think about that time in my life and you know talking to over 400 people that I didn't know and asking them for
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money I don't know how many of you have actually called people you don't know and ask them to write you a check it's it's it's a very difficult thing but in the same time it reinforces is it it re it reinforces your your ideals and and really what you
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want to do because you say it over and over and over again what you're trying to accomplish and to the point where if you didn't believe it when you started you certainly believe in yourself at some point along the road and then to
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deal with with banks and and and I'm sure all of you have dealt with banks before um but it's it's a very it's a very difficult process um is to try to get people a bank to to write you a check and then the federal government uh
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an SBA loan a small business administration loan was also somewhat of a challenge knowing that a a white middle class uh male was applying for a small business loan when they would give it to to to more or less minorities um was also an accomplishment so the the
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ignorance Factor played a very important part in in My Success getting to your question about the the different the different restaurants around around the country and and what drove drove me to open more restaurants oh in the
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beginning it was it was it was always about the French Laundry and and how to make the French Laundry better was always our goal now our first restaurant we opened was bushan which is just two blocks south of the restaurant and the
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reason we opened bushan was so that we could have a place to eat I mean and it honestly I mean we there was a very small group of individuals at the French R when we opened most of us came from Urban environments where we could go out
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after work and get something to eat by was in San Francisco LA or or or New York we were used to that finishing work at midnight and then going going for dinner and in Napa Valley at that time everything closed at 9:30 so what do you
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do you open a restaurant that stays open late and fortunately we had already G garnered a certain amount of of respect and admiration from from not only the press and from the public but also from the partners that we had so when I
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proposed opening a French beastro in yanil um you know it took me 18 months to raise 1.2 million it took me 18 18 days to raise 1.5 million so it just goes to show you success breeds you know success and interest in in what you're
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doing um and we opened bushong but we opened bushong because it gave us an opportunity to have a place to eat now I knew at the same time that if my little restaurant needed a place to go to eat after work and Napa Valley being a center for
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hospitality and what that means is there there are so many restaurants in Napa Valley as well as hotels everything is based on Hospital ital so if we need a place to eat then then there are obviously dozens of others or hundreds
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of other people who would let to have a place to eat as well and so that was speculation but obviously it paid off because the restaurant stayed open to 1:00 in the morning and it was packed every night uh with with who with hospitality workers um the next thing we
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opened was bushan Bakery and we opened bushan Bakery because really again because of the French Laundry uh and in in Northern California as you know we have probably the the the the largest population of the most amazing artists
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and Bakers in America we just do they all they all travel to Northern California and so we had we certainly had our pick of great bread but none of them would bake bread specifically to not necessarily the standard we wanted
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but the size the shape or the variety so what choice did we have but to open our own Bakery so we open a bakery to supply bread for the French Laundry and obviously the byproduct that would be Supply bread for Bush and if you're going to open a bakery why
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don't you open a little retail area so people can come and and get morning breakfast so we built a little a little a little retail area and there's a little Courtyard there where today it is it's a community center I mean it's a
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wonderful thing to go down there in the morning time and see people sitting around in the morning having their coffee their Quant and engaging with other people uh you know it it's really created this this this community of of of individuals whether they're our
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neighbors whether they our friends or the visitors that come to Napa Valley it's it's a wonderful experience but it was really it was really the Genesis for for French AR so the first expansion that I would really cons classify as
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expansion happened in 2004 it's 10 years after uh we opened the French Laundry I opened a restaurant in New York City called per and a restaurant in Las Vegas called or a second bushon in Las Vegas and so that's where I really really we
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thought about expansion because it was outside of that that immediate geography the immediate geography of the French aor what what was right there what I can control very easily because they were right down the street and why per se
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though well it's a very it's a very you know it's a very easy question to answer I mean if I asked that question to all of you if you lived in New York if you began your career in New York if you've gotten some notoriety in New York and
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you knew you had friends in New York you knew the media in New York and you had suppliers in New York where would you go to open your your next restaurant you'd go to place where you they knew you so going back to New York for me was an
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obvious choice but but also you have to understand my my life has been been very interesting and I kind of separate myself from from from from Thomas Keller many times so I can kind of look at it um but when I moved to California and I
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became became successful you know at in at The French Laundry you know all my my my previous guests you know and friends in New York said when are you coming home it's like coming home what does that mean I was born in California so when I came to California in 1990 you
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know everybody thought I was coming home to California so kind this idea of me being back and forth and you know how LA and California have this kind of uh comp Competitive Edge with each other so when I moved to California from New York to
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California people thought well I'm California so it's okay although I never really lived in California when I when I got the French H they said New Yorkers said when are you coming home so it really again gave me more confidence to
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go back to New York because yeah New Yorkers thought I was from New York so per was per was born and it was a very interesting process as well it was it was a three and a half year uh um uh project which began in in mid 2000 and and open in in in 2004 um and
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saw a lot of a lot of difficulty obviously one of the big setbacks was 911 and and realizing that um you know New York had changed dramatically after after that catastrophe and uh and and and persevering through that process
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finally opening the restaurant and then we had a devastating fire in the restaurant which closed the restaurant um and it was a it was a very as much as we had spent uh a lot of time organizing the restaurant designing the restaurant
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building the restaurant Staffing the restaurant we closed the French Laundry this was this was a business decision that I made late in the process and and it was interesting because um I I didn't think of it and and and and you realize that that those
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individuals that are around you and I always listen to people and and I always like the idea of team and I like the idea of collaboration and many of the ideas that I have aren't necessarily my ideas um they're other people's ideas
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and I think one of the thing that that I'm able to do is give others the confidence and courage to express ideas I think we've all been in those environments where where where we've we've been either prevented or we're afraid to to express our ideas to to to
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our supervisors I I I try to give the opportunity for anybody to say whatever they want as I want them to have impact and there was there was a woman at the time when I was building per se and that was with us that was actually doing a
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her her doctorate uh thesis for the other school in in California we won't name it um and she spent two years with us studying the um the the the the our our business um and uh at French Laundry and she she actually published a book on
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it um and and she became a close friend and I didn't know what I was going to do when I was opening per as it relates to how I was going to open per and maintain and continue to operate the French Laundry and she got to know me so well we would
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sit and talk and we were sitting in the garden one day and she said Thomas you know I know you've been struggling with this but it's very obvious to me what you should do I said Rebecca what is that she said just close the French
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Laundry I thought wow what an idea just close the French laundry now from a business point of view you're going to close CL a restaurant that's doing you know over a million dollars a month in business and you're you're going to close it for 5
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months to go open another restaurant which has nothing to do with the partners of the original restaurant right I mean so you're a partner of the French a you're going wait a minute why would you why why would you do that well
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we're going to do that for a number of different reasons we're going to do that because if we do this successfully in New York City it's going to have a very positive impact on on the French Laundry it's going to give us the opportunity to
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really have this this cultural exchange between two restaurants that has never been done before so we did that we closed the French Laundry we moved 30 individuals like Noah's Arc we moved 30 staff members from The French Laundry from different departments that were
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intended to go to New York temporarily to help inoculate this team in New York and then they' come back and open with the French Laundry and that's exactly what we did and and to this day it it established such a strong Foundation for for that
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restaurant uh that almost immediately it became one of the best restaurants in New York City and ultimately one of considered one of the best restaurants in the country now you you could argue a lot of different things could we have
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done that without that well there's this idea certainly in the media it relates to chefs that we spread ourselves too thin has anybody heard that expression right oh that Chef's spreading himself too thin I know he's opening another
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restaurant that's not a good thing for him to do they don't say that about any other businesses do they I mean a can open as many shops as they want without somebody saying well Ares is spreading too thin right I mean you think about
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you think about retail or you think about General Commerce and most people think well you should just continue to grow but when it comes to restaurants and chefs it's a bad thing and I tried to explain that that is such I'm trying to it's it's it's it's
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so wrong when you think about it you could have said what you actually it's so wrong sorry it's so wrong because when you think about it if I have the French rund where there's 100 employees there's 100 staff members right they're
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all focused they have a they have the common Vision we have common goals we're achieving Great Expectations we're we're exceeding our standards we're doing all the things right we open per se and I've got 150 employees there who are doing
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the same thing so now I have 250 people that are working for me that are all folks how am I how have I become weaker how have I stretched myself too thin I mean we've become that much Stronger by opening another restaurant so it really
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it really you know this idea that you know there I I I must admit that some of my colleagues may be doing doing things other ways that don't really enhance or strengthen their their businesses but if you do it correctly if you really think
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about you do it for the right reasons I mean you we become so much stronger we were able to exchange you know I've always worked towards this exchange program we've always contined to exchange staff well last summer we exchanged our Chef
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to Cuisines right the heads of the kitchens from the French on and per they got an airplanes at the same time went to each other's restaurants right for 15 days they walked into each other's restaurants and operated each other's
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restaurants without a problem now we we built up to that because as Eli came to yanille he was walking to a restaurant where Matthew was now Matthew had worked for Eli in New York and came to to Yan Phil right so he he's walking into an
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area Mike Wallace was there Mike Wallace worked for for for Eli in New York Timothy was walking into restaurant where Nick was there who had worked for Timothy in yonil so we have this wonderful Exchange program where we built this this culture of of knowledge
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and the ability for if you're a young Chef you can come to French Andre and work in this beautiful ideal IGN naapa Valley and when you get tired of that you know we'll send you off to New York City this vibrant and exciting you know
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place in New York and you can go go to work there so this idea of this exchange that we have has created a bond a bond between the restaurants that is that that exchanges knowledge so you think about Evolution we all talk about
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Evolution well we have a rapid rate of evolution because now no longer do we have just 100 people thinking about something we have 250 people thinking about something so our evolution is is is is just goes at such a pace it's hard
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to keep up sometimes with what's going on in our restaurants because there are everybody's exchanging ideas uh and then we become strong we be the strength of our restaurants is is is extraordinary when I look at when I look at this and
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and I've said you know it's almost like a I run a I run a sports franchise is the way I describe it um because we have to be thinking gener generationally about who is coming up who's going to be replacing who and how we're going to do
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that how we're me how we're hiring how we're mentoring how we're training our staff so that they can become sooner or later can become the franchise player uh and and ultimately then let them go and become become their own business you know
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that's that's the ultimate goal is to actually push them out so that they can start their own restaurants uh and be successful on their own so at the beginning of what you were just describing the hiring piece yes what are the top three qualities that you look
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for when hiring new talent for one of your restaurants desire desire and desire you were quoted saying that it's desire that really matters not passion because passion is fleing people talk about passion you know I I I sometimes
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it drives me crazy you know some of the some of the the vocabulary that we use in people a young Coco come say so why do you want to work here I'm so passionate about what I do you just don't believe the passion I have I mean every morning I wake up I'm so
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passionate about this I'm thinking okay whatever this kid just doesn't doesn't understand it's wonderful to think like that right think that you're going to be passionate about your job all the time but we all know I mean passion e and
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flows I mean if you've ever had a relationship with somebody I mean I mean there there in lies the perfect example of you know how how passion goes I mean we're passionate about somebody you know for a while and then then it kind of
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subsides and then you know reignites for some reason you know it's all over the place right um and and if you relate that to food I mean you know the the first asparagus of the spring which we saw three weeks ago he like wow it's amazing you haven't seen it all year
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long it's like I love it you know I'm passionate about doing something with asparagus what happens 3 weeks later when you've seen asparagus every day for the past 3 weeks it's like okay whatever you know it's just another bundle of
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asparagus I got to do something to with it so what what what keeps you going it's the desire it's the desire to do something with the asparagus it's the desire to be with that person that that that keeps you with that person because
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if it was all based on passion we'd have a different partner every other year right it's the desire to to do something that really drives us so that's what I look for is I look for that desire I know that there are levels of skill that
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some people are born with and and some people will be stars and some people won't and and it breaks my heart to to see those young individuals that are in our restaurants whether they're in the kitchen or in the dining room who have
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this strong desire to do a good job and they just don't have the skills to do it that that that's really heartbreaking and we try to find places for them where they're going to succeed maybe it's not at the French Laundry maybe it's at
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bushon maybe it's at a colleague's restaurant um and then and then those those ones who who have amazing skill and you know they could be a star but you know they're just they just don't have the desire and that breaks your heart because you you just want to you
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slap them in the face you know you are so good how come you don't you apply yourself more um it's about desire is there a question you ask in interviews to tease out whether someone has no we you know it's what we what we the way we
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interview is we have them in our kitchen you know if we're talking about a culinary person we want them to come into our kitchen for for two different reasons we want to watch the way they move it's a it's a dance you know I mean let's face it in a kitchen that is that is crowded with people um and you know everybody's moving at you know at at intense speeds everybody's focused um it's it's about how you move in a kitchen so we want to really see
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how how they're moving and and and and sometimes it's an innate thing as well understanding who's behind you how you feel about about being close with people because we touch every you know it's it's like a basketball game you're
32:49
constantly touching somebody you know and if if people don't like to be touched that's a problem but making but having them in the kitchen gives gives us two opportunities gives us an opportunity to to see how they move through the kitchen to see how they
33:01
react to others in in the kitchen and you know to give them some basic skills you know here here here's here's an egg scramble an egg or you know here's some vegetables chop an onion or things like that uh we can all we can teach almost
33:13
anything if somebody has a strong desire to do it but the other important thing during that aspect is for them to actually see the kitchen themselves and we want them to answer the question do I think I can work in that environment mhm
33:26
so they know they're getting themselves into exactly and and and you'd be surprised how many people realize that they can't work in that environment it's too intense it's too quick it's too difficult uh it requires too much
33:36
dedication the hours are too long I mean all these different things that come into into effect you can look at somebody's resume that come out of school they're they're they're recommended by by somebody and and yes I mean you know it's it's it's a gamble
33:49
you know you flip a coin we've had we've had very successful chefs who come from I mean Timothy Hollingsworth who came from from basically nowhere uh 13 years ago began working at the French army and became the chef of Cuisine without any
34:03
any formal education as well um his whole education was at the French Laundry uh as a young he came at 21 years old he just he left last week he came in as a Comey which is the lowest level position in the kitchen and he left the highest level in the position
34:17
with you know with the respect of of an industry um competed as the buku store Captain who placed higher for the US than any other team had ever done and his only experience in the kitchen was at the French Laundry and he got there
34:30
by accident because my chef was at the time Eric zebold didn't want to hire him and and I didn't I didn't realize that he didn't want to hire him so I hired him and he gets in the kitchen and and and so you just never know um but but
34:44
you have this you you have other people who have great resumés who come from great houses and and and they just they fall they they fail so it's it's hard to really tell it's it's a it's an important process in hiring we we we have to spend
35:00
our time making sure that we're trying to identify the right person for the right job I mean that that's an important thing and and back when I was young in in in the business it was about being in the right place at the right
35:12
time you know if you were there when they needed somebody you were hired doesn't necessarily mean that you were good at what you did or or or that you had a great background you were just the right place at the right time and and
35:22
and they would beat you in submission or or or beat you to the point where you you you became you you you understood what they wanted and you did it um but the beating was always there um but today we want to make sure that we're hiring the right person for
35:35
the right job uh and putting them in a position where we can we can train them because that that's really an important part is training and again training has has no time limits when you think about it I mean you you you related it to a
35:47
child and and I don't know how many you have children but when you're teaching your child how to swim you got floaties on their arms you don't tell them they have two weeks to learn how to swim and then they're going to take the floaties
35:55
off and the kid drowns you know say well it's your fault you know you didn't learn how to swim in two weeks I mean it could take it could take two months it could take three months the point is once you hire a person you have to be committed to that person 100% And that
36:07
training can take a while and and but the commitment has to be there and the commitment from them has to be there and and the deciding factor in that is when they have a hard day and you go to them and say Walter you know you struggle
36:19
today what do you think about tomorrow and the kids got a smile on his face and say Chef I'm gonna get it tomorrow I'll be back tomorrow and and and and that show shows a strong dedication strong will and an attitude that they know in
36:31
their mind that one day they'll get it if you have the patience and persistence to to continue working with them they'll get it one day and believe me when they get it it's an extraordinary thing to watch because it's like turning a light
36:42
on one day they'll come in and it's just it's like night and day and then that person that you've spent the time with that you've dedicated that training moment you've given him what he needs or she needs you know Walter was with us
36:55
for for six and a half years an extraordinary young Chef who today now is a chef to cuisine in another restaurant um and then and then the point is so if you hired you trained and and and then you have to Mentor them and mentorship is something that goes beyond
37:09
beyond work you know it's it's it's a it's a process it's a life process and the point is if you've hired correctly if you trained correctly and you mentored correctly then the result of that is it's that you have somebody who is better than you are and and that was
37:24
that's a hard thing for a lot of chefs to say is that person is better than I am but if they're not then you really haven't done your job very well have you I mean they have to be better than you are you have to give them a better
37:35
environment you have to give them better skills you have to give them better tools to work with you have to give them a better education and you have to give them better opportunity than you ever had and if you do all those things then
37:45
then the the overarching goal that we talked about is raising the the standards of of our profession have been achieved yeah I know that there are some fantastic questions in the audience so I do want to open up for questions from
37:58
the audience if you have a question please raise your hand and someone with a microphone will find you my question is about you you've been quoted to to speak about the importance of ownership in every person in the restaurant and
38:09
you've said that you don't work for somebody your whole life and then suddenly wake up one morning and think like an owner right could you talk about what you've done to instill that um in people at your restaurant given that it is a high turnover industry yeah you
38:23
know it's funny because we don't really have a high turnover as much as is you know is a higher turnover industry our turnover really occurs when when there's not the ability for somebody to be promoted and that's typically because
38:36
you know as as as as it's a pyramid and as you get up towards the top those individuals are staying longer so you know as a Comey goes to a chef dep party Chef dep party goes to Demi suf Demi suf goes to suf suf goes to Executive suf
38:49
and then goes to CDC there are fewer and fewer people so typically somebody will leave after two or two and a half years at the chef dep part level but to to answer your question we're preparing them to be a chef to Cuisine and we're
39:01
preparing them to be a chef to Cuisine because we begin them as a comei so at that level at that beginning level they're understanding the foundation of the kitchen really understanding the true foundation uh of how to operate a
39:12
kitchen open a kitchen what what what the what the fundamental practices are how to do how to do the fundamental work um and and at the same time they get to work with a chef dep party a chef dep party is somebody who actually is
39:25
responsible for a you know fish meat vegetable um cheese whatever the different stations are in the restaurant so you've created this this team environment and the chef to partti is is now working with that with that comei or that group of Kies and and and and
39:41
supervising them managing them in a way that they are actually understanding what it is to be a chef because now they have their own little small team that they Divi we Define the menus they Define their dishes and then they start
39:53
to write out their list of of of tasks that have to be done and they have to then then motivate supervise their KES in order to get the the the task completed in in the appropriate amount of time so as a chef depar you're learning you and and back up a little
40:08
bit as a come your next position would be a chef depart so you're learning as a comei what it's like to be managed by somebody at that found at that foundation and then you're promoted to the chef dep party position so now the
40:20
roles are reversed you understand what you need to do at in those positions so as a Chef dep party you understand how to manage and supervise that position so we're teaching them how to be chefs little mini chefs in their stations
40:32
before they ever become a sue chef and if you get you get to become a sue Chef then you're now responsible for a group of Chef dep pares not for all the chef dep parties but for a group to Chef dep pares so you're managing or supervising
40:42
even even more people if you get to be an executive Sue Chef the executive suf is the same as a chef to cuisine in other words he's responsible for the entire kitchen and understanding how to how to supervise and manage that group
40:54
and then as a chef to Cuisine obviously responsible for the entire kitchen now you start to revert to what what it is to operate a business it's not just about the kitchen I mean the kitchen is a very important part of any restaurant
41:05
but it's it's not it's it it it's not the area where you're going to find success in being a business owner and and and that was evident as I spoke earlier me being a really good Chef didn't make didn't qualify me to run a business in fact it qualified me to run
41:22
a business into the ground and be unsuccessful so so understand that you know at that point when they become the executive chef even when they become a sue Chef they start to understand human resources they they start to understand
41:34
public relations they start to understand uh the finances so that they can start start to formulate what it is that they are impacting so as they as they begin to order food they understand you know how to keep inventories um how to price
41:49
inventories uh understand how to not how to manage inventories um and then the more the further up they go as an executive suf and as executive SF and Che and Chef toine now are in the budgetary process so every year they are
42:04
actually writing their budgets for for for their department so we're actually teaching them how to be these owners before their owners and that's that's really what I want to be able to do and and then as they start to to to understand that they they're working
42:17
human resources and public relations as well so they have really the three criterias that they need in order to understand how to open their own restaurant and then and then understanding that there's a transitional period I know if I walk
42:29
into my kitchen today and I said who wants to open their own restaurant 95% of those hands are going to go up so knowing immediately that everybody in my restaurant in my kitchen is going to leave someday prepares me for these
42:42
transitions so understanding that as a chef to Cuisine that that Chef wants to open his own restaurant so we begin early in the process so that we have a a smooth transition process for him to be able to not only learn what he needs to
42:57
learn about running a restaurant but now how to open a restaurant so we can offer that person uh not only the financial uh information needs but but also legal uh to help him understand how to write a business plan and preparing him for that
43:11
so the ownership is it it becomes something that is very tangible for them at at a at a very early age in in in in their career at our restaurants because they are owning it even though they may not realize it so that when someone leaves our
43:27
restaurant even at even at a young age even at a young position at a chef depart position they' they've already tasted and felt what it's like to be a chef right here hi uh my name is Candace corvetti I'm a first year MBA I was just
43:46
curious what right now your favorite thing to cook is right right now um we have some beautiful white asparagus right now it's like right now I no you it's interesting we were talking about this a little earlier about you know about ingredients and how
44:06
and I mean they are the most important part of what we do and and and the seasonality of them we we realize that the proteins are are are very easy right I mean we we forecast our proteins every week we we don't necessarily forecast
44:19
our vegetables every week we know that you know our our our duck producers is going to produce ducks for us every week we know our lammer got lamb we know our you know our our Ranch in in Idaho has has beef for us we know you know that
44:32
the fish we're going to get you know we know mostly we know what we're going to get if we can't get Cod this week we'll get another fish but we know we can get these different proteins it's really it really we really build our menus around
44:43
the vegetables because vegetables have a defined season we all think of Seasons seasonality as you know spring summer winter fall but that that that has nothing to do with the seasonality that we deal with because a fava being for us
44:55
may only have a season in a three and a half or 4 weeks we may see FAA beans in the market for 3 and a half months but we know that the the last 2 and a half months those FAA beans you know typically are overgrown and starchy and
45:07
we don't really want to work with that so really understanding the seasonality of each ingredient and certainly in this aspect is relates to vegetables so right now you know the white asparagus that we're getting the white asparagus we're
45:20
getting right now is from is from Germany which which arguably has some of the best white asparagus that available because they have they they're the northern north of Germany you think of the Scandinavian countries they have
45:31
white asparagus as well but it's still a little too cold so they don't get as as median as big and then further south in France it's it's already getting too warm by the time their season hits Germany has that wonderful that wonderful season that Prime season when
45:44
the temperatures are are just right for the growing of asparagus in the size that we like and the texture that we like so I hope that answered your question but they won't be around much longer one more question over there hi thanks
45:59
for uh coming here it's really excited to have you um to jump off on that question uh could you talk a little bit about your supply chain is a lot of it coming from local organic farms or is it sort of worldwide um I'm I'm glad you
46:12
asked that question um you know people talk about there there's all this this talk recently about local right everybody has anybody heard not heard that you know local has anybody not heard the word sustainability in the in the past three
46:26
or four years um you know chefs have always been focused on on quality ingredients you know and and chefs have always been focused on on on our Farmers our suppliers so this whole idea that farm to table is something new is a bit
46:39
absurd and insulting to me you know because you know it's something that we've that every Chef in every generation any chef that's that that's been worth anything has always been had relationships with with their Farmers their fishermen their foragers their
46:53
gardeners I mean those those individuals are are who we rely on I mean we we truly support them uh in in what they do in every way um and and local has nothing to do with geography I mean where did where did this idea come from that we have to use products within 25
47:11
miles what is what what defines local anyway is local you look at the D what is local can anybody Define it for me I was I was I was doing a lecture a couple weeks ago on someone said was 25 miles and I'm okay so 25 miles right so
47:30
that means if this farmer is growing a carrot within 25 miles I can buy it and if it's a shitty carrot that's okay it's local but if there's a guy 27 miles away that's growing the most amazing carrot that that you've ever tasted I can't buy
47:45
that carrot and by the way what are you drinking coffee is there is is is is there a coffee plantation 25 miles from here like you know like what's that about I mean we have a we you know we we we live with a little bit of hypocrisy
47:59
all of us do so if we believe we're truly buying local ingredients but we're drinking tea or coffee or sugar or using vanilla or oil or you know any of these things I mean you tell me you tell me where where these Farms are where these
48:11
producers are that are producing all these things locally you know and what is local anyway is it 25 is it 50 is it 100 is it 200 is it 300 miles you know around I have no idea what that would local means so local to me has to do
48:24
with ingredients and we realize is that the culinary diversity of the world has been based on Transportation right do we agree on that I mean the most famous country in the world for chocolate is where Switzerland do they have any cocoa
48:38
plantations in Switzerland I don't think so the Italians are known for What tomatoes Tomatoes came from the new world right they didn't come from Italy the Italians never potatoes the Irish Potato Famine in the 1600s right they got potatoes from from from Peru I mean
48:55
it wasn't something that they had locally was brought there by by by somebody from a boat so the the the spice Roots you know of of of ancient times I mean this is this has been the makeup of our culinary Heritage for
49:09
centuries for for and it's not going to stop so why would we say we're not going to support any longer the the the the the the Coffee Bean plantations in in South America or Sumatra or we're not going to we're not going to support the the vanilla bean plant
49:26
in in in in Mexico or Tahiti I mean would we really do that would we put out would we put out of business these communities that have been thriving for decades or centuries on the idea of exporting their food and then how many of you drink wine and does anybody drink
49:43
French wine you think that comes from local I you know all these different things it it's it just fascinates me that local has been has has been defined as something that is within a certain proximity local is about the ingredients
49:59
and the quality of the ingredients to me that's what it's all about it's about communities that are producing food for us and and we talk about sustainability and sustainability has nothing to do with ingredients sustainability has to
50:10
do with communities communities are very important and so if I'm buying my ingredients from the right individuals they're they're the ones that are going to be concerned about the sustainability of their ingredients I buy buy lobsters
50:23
from ingred benjes who lives in Stonington Maine does anybody Stonington main is has anybody been to Stonington M there you go if if if that community of fishermen had to rely on selling their fish and their lobsters within a certain
50:36
proximity to that town that Community would not exist there would not be the the the the fishermen there there would not be the teachers there or the doctors there or the pharmacists there there would not be a community in Stonington
50:49
Maine if they couldn't transport their local ingredients elsewhere and and then they're worried about the sustainability this is a community that's been there for Generations they're the ones that that that are that are monitoring the
51:03
quality of their harvesting of the of the lobsters or the scallops because every year for 30 years I've been buying lobsters and scallops and cod things from from ingr Benes right and she buys them from her fishermen so there's a sustainability in the community and
51:18
those fishermen are the ones that are worried about the sustainability of of what they're harvesting so I shouldn't really have to worry about the sustainability of those ingredients or or the locality of them other than we're supporting people who
51:30
are who are doing who are doing work that have been going on for generations and supporting a community around them did I answer your question organic I'm sorry organic is doesn't matter I it doesn't matter to me because
51:48
again we buy ingredients for for their for the flavor and for the quality of the ingredient and and and and sometimes our ingredients that aren't organic are much better than something that's labeled organic and if I'm going to tell
52:05
my my Farmer in yanil that he has to get certified organic from the state of California so he's for five years he's going to have to monitor his have to send in every six months or every three months his test results which cost him
52:20
money he's going to have to wait for the state to verify that and then and then give him a stamp on a piece of paper that says he's organic when he's been when he's been farming this his father farmed the farm and his grandfather farmed the farm and they've always been
52:31
practicing organic you know what he's going to tell me right he's going to go tell me to stick it because you know he doesn't need to be involved in the bureaucracy of the state certifying his property organic when he's been farming
52:42
organic for for Generations sorry great no it it's clear you've thought a lot about the topic yeah so I want to close with a question that's asked at many of you from the top engagements the current GSP application includes an essay that asks what matters
53:01
most to you and why how would you respond to that question you know I think what matters most to me now is is is is really education um I think education is is um is is the tool for success in in anything we do in life and
53:16
um you know our profession was one that we were told how to do something for so long and not necessarily why uh and and you know it's only been recently in in my career span the past 25 years that we we've actually learned why we' actually
53:31
become more knowledgeable on on the science of food right you've all seen a lot of things Harold McGee wrote a book 30 years ago called you know on on food and cooking which really opened up uh so much knowledge for for so many cooks who
53:45
never understood you know why an emulsification worked you know what was it what was the property in the fat of an egg yolk and the oil that brought it together and how much could you do and and and and it was the knowledge that
53:57
opened up a lot of doors for us and and I would say that what we want to be able to do to do is is is to share that knowledge uh with everybody to to help impact uh and enrich people's lives and and certainly in in my profession it's
54:14
it's been an extraordinary rise in in knowledge and and understanding of what we do and why we do it that in America today we live with a culinary culture today that is only 30 years old and we have achieved enormous success notoriety
54:32
and and reputation because of the knowledge that we have and the dedication we have to our craft and and and and to each other I think those are important things great thanks for sharing yeah so before we finish I understand that you have a surprise for
54:46
people in the audience we do there there's a story about green green tape has anybody heard the green tape story no ah one person heard the green tape story so you know as I told when we were opening per we took 30 individuals from
54:57
French army to per to help inoculate this this group of people in at in New York City with our culture and our philosophy and so I gave them all this this you know this big Rah speech about you know you're going to go there you're
55:09
going to meet people it's New York City we want to make sure that we teach you know this new staff who we are give them the examples of who we are find something find a way to to to just make it better a little bit you know find
55:23
something that's going to impact them find something that's going to say something to these individuals in New York and we had a young expeditor uh named Zion cruell I think he's probably 23 24 four years old at the time who worked at the French laundry now the
55:36
green tape was something that we use at our restaurant I began using 1994 it's painters tape right and and and we use it to label everything in the restaurant and the reason we use green tape is because masking tape which is typically
55:52
used or labels which are typically used have such a strong adhesive that when you take them off it leaves a residue on the container I hated that I I you know it just drove me crazy green tape has has a very uh light adhesive so that we
56:06
take it off nothing stays on the container so every container everything that's marked at the restaurant is marked with green tape every time we tape down the pass which means we put a tablecloth on the pass the table that we
56:20
plate our food on it's taped down with green tape for 10 years an entire decade hundreds of people tore the green tape right we would just tear it Grant aets Jonathan Beno Sebastian Rell Eric zebold I mean dozens of chefs today dozens of
56:36
people in our profession today Paul Roberts soier I mean you know man everybody nobody thought about doing anything else but tearing the GRE tape Zion cruel who taped down the P at the French Ry every day for two years shows
56:49
up in New York City on February 16th 2004 the first day he taping down the pass for the first service that per se what does he do picks up a pair of scissors and cuts the green tape everybody in the entire restaurant was like what what just
57:11
happened and and from that moment on 600 other employees where there's a roll of green tape there's a pair of scissors it just goes to show you how big of an impact one person can have just with the idea that they're going to make a
57:29
difference and it wasn't a big thing you know it wasn't it wasn't such when you think about it it's like okay whatever he picked up a pair of scissors to cut the green tape it's not it's not such a stretch is it but he did it he thought about it he
57:42
made an impact he had the confidence and he had the courage to pick up a pair of scissors and cut the green tape and now I have over a thousand people that work at tkrg and everywhere there's a roll of green tape there's a pair of scissors and now they
57:57
have actually dispensers so they don't have to get the pair of scissors I don't know where the dispenser came from but somebody thought about the dispenser so with that said there is three pieces I hope it's cut green
58:10
tape thank you there's three pieces of green tape under your chair okay so there are three chairs with a piece of green tape under it and um we want to be able to give you something from us so whoever has a piece of green tape let me
58:33
know do you remember where you put them yes did anybody find green tape anybody find green tape oh we've got one where right here we have and back there where's the third and we have three you have three yeah we okay come on thank you everybody I appreciate it [Music]