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Thomas Keller: A Chef with a Passion
Yountville, California --- Eating at chef Thomas Keller's
famed Napa Valley restaurant The French Laundry makes
me think of watching Fred Astaire. When you watch the
master dance, you only think about how much fun he must
be having, it all looks so easy, so natural. It never
crosses your mind that he is working about as hard as
a human being can work.
The truth is, no matter how hard the modest, talented
Thomas Keller works, you can be sure he is having fun
at it. As he says himself, the trick is to learn to
''maintain passion for everyday routine,'' and there
is plenty of that in any kitchen, especially one generally
considered the very best table in America.
I first encountered Keller's exciting, well-crafted
food in 1986, when he opened restaurant Rakel in New
York City, just a few years after he served apprenticeships
in some of France's best and most up and coming restaurants,
including Taillevent, Guy Savoy and Le Pre Catalan.
In 1994 he purchased the 1900's stone building that
had actually once been a French laundry, dedicating
himself to creating a top country restaurant in the
heart of Napa Valley. There are still rough spots to
work out (the restaurant is too cramped for his expansive
cuisine), but I can't imagine coming to the hallowed
Napa Valley and not trying my best to secure a table
at this superb establishment.
Keller has what many other chefs don't have, and that's
a sense of humor. As our very first taste arrived on
a recent dinner at The French Laundry, our table of
four burst into giggles, like schoolchildren. Set before
us were his legendary ice cream come starter --- buttery,
miniature homemade ice cream cones filled with salmon
tartare and sweet red onion crème fraîche
- food that was both fun and delicious, and they went
down so well with delicate sips of bubbly. It is all
the better to know that the chef actually created the
dish during a moment of personal sadness, while eating
a Baskin Robbins ice cream cone!
The Napa Valley was originally inhabited by the Wappo
Indians, and nappa was their word for plenty, and plenty
certainly applies to a meal at The French Laundry. Rather
than a first course and main course Keller will tempt
you with many many little bites, well rehearsed, close
to flawless, well executed. And there are plenty of
them.
A favorite legendary French Laundry treat is Keller's
"'Oysters and Pearls,' plump, gorgeous oysters
set atop a bed of smooth pearl tapioca sabayon then
topped with a small oval scoop of glistening osetra
caviar. What could be bad about this? The kind of dish
that must be savored, oh so slowly, for once you down
the last grain of caviar, it's all over. All that remains
is the fine memory, and a palate still filled with the
iodine-rich essence of the sea.
Strong, assertive flavors continue as we confront warm,
sweet, fruitwood smoked salmon served with feather-light
potato gnocchi all joined together with a signature
balsamic vinegar glaze. Keller cooks the delicate smoked
salmon in milk (much as the French do traditionally
with herring) to help retain its texture and to allow
him to serve it warm.
The meal moves on, with rabbit treasures and goat cheese
surprises, ending with perhaps his most famous dish,
Coffee and Doughnuts, another creation born out of sadness,
and you guessed it, a trip to S&K Doughnuts in Los
Angeles. What Keller serves in a giant bowl of warm
''cappuccino semifreddo,'' or a frothy white blend of
sugar, eggs, espresso extract and cream, paired with
adorable homemade cinnamon-sugar doughnuts, yeasty,
golden, and reminiscent of some of my best food memories
of childhood.
Keller tugs at our food memories in the nicest of ways.
He is also lecturing us a bit. He rightly considers
a respect for food, a respect for life, but admonishes
that "our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet
meal, for one-pot ease, prewashed precut ingredients
has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking."
He says it all. So go into the kitchen and cook up a
meal you can be proud of, with respect.
The French Laundry
6640 Washington Street
Yountville, California 94599-1301
Telephone: 707 944 2380.
About $100 per person, not including service or wine.
Reservations are accepted no more than two months in
advance.
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