Thomas Keller’s Life and Career

Chef Thomas Keller is the Michelin-decorated chef and proprietor of Yountville’s The French Laundry in Napa Valley, California; and Per Se in New York City; among others. Chef Keller began his culinary career as a teenager, working as a dishwasher at a Palm Beach restaurant that his mother managed. He studied in France with Chef Roland Henin and apprenticed at several Michelin-starred restaurants before opening his first restaurant, Rakel, in New York City in 1986. Chef Keller is the 2021 Michelin Guide’s Mentor Chef Award recipient. He is the author of The French Laundry Cookbook, Bouchon Bakery, Adhoc At Home, and Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide.

Time magazine named Chef Keller America’s Best Chef in 2001. Here are a few fast facts about the award-winning chef and proprietor:

1. 1. Chef Keller has multiple Michelin three-star ratings. Chef Keller is the first and only chef born in the United States to hold multiple three-star ratings from the Michelin Guide.
2. 2. Chef Keller won the Bocuse d’Or. In 2017, Chef Keller led a team from the United States to its first-ever gold medal in the Bocuse d’Or, the world’s most prestigious culinary competition. Food professionals regard this gastronomic competition, named after Chef Paul Bocuse, as the Olympics of cooking.
3. 3. He is a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. In 2011, the France Légion d'honneur designated Chef Keller as a Chevalier, the highest decoration in France, for his promotion of French cuisine in the United States. Chef Keller is the first male chef in the US to receive the honor. Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud, Jacques Pepin, and Robert Parker nominated Chef Thomas Keller for the award.
4. 4. He’s a film consultant. Chef Keller served as a culinary consultant on films including Spanglish and Ratatouille.
5. 5. He has more than 10 restaurants. Thomas Keller restaurants include Yountville’s The French Laundry, Bouchon Bistro, Bouchon Bakery, Adhoc + Addendum, Regiis Ova Caviar & Champagne, and La Calenda in Napa Valley, California; Per Se in New York City; Bouchon Bistro and Bouchon Bakery in Las Vegas; and The Surf Club Restaurant in Miami.

Chef Keller has decades of experience running kitchens and building menus for fine-dining restaurants with the highest standards. You can expect these five highlights and more from the executive chef’s three classes on cooking techniques, available exclusively on MasterClass:

1. 1. Buy fresh ingredients. Chefs and home cooks alike benefit from fresh, quality ingredients. “I want you to work with your gardeners, suppliers, [and] your grocery stores to encourage them to continue bringing you fresher ingredients where the sourcing is understood,” Chef Keller says in his introductory class. “Where are they coming from? Where our ingredients come from is the most important question we can ask ourselves today.”
2. 2. Get the essentials. In his first class, Chef Keller shares essential cookware and kitchen tools. “I really have an aversion to useless tools,” Chef Keller says. “We tend to clutter our drawers with things that we don’t need. Gadgets, we feel we need to have them.”
3. 3. Know your sauces. Sauces are the foundation of French cuisine. “For me, a sauce is made from a stock,” Chef Keller says. “It gives a beautiful aroma and texture that complements whatever it's being served with.” In Chef Keller’s second class, learn how to prepare stocks, sauces, and broths to make flavorful meat and poultry dishes.
4. 4. Learn new techniques. Learn how to prepare vegetables, salmon, and turbot using a sous vide in Chef Keller’s third class. “The great thing about sous-vide cooking or this type of cooking with an immersion circulator is precision,” Chef Keller says. “Being able to cook something in a water bath at a specific temperature gives us that precision cooking.”
5. 5. Make dessert—and eat it too. Desserts, growing up for me, were always a reward,” Chef Keller says. “It was always, ‘Eat your peas, and you can have dessert.’ Make sure you finish your meat, and you can have dessert.” In his third class, learn how to make chocolate pots de crème, a lemon tart, and apple pie with a lard crust.

For more perspectives on home cooking, consider taking the following classes:

1. 1. Gordon Ramsay on cooking. Chef Gordon Ramsay is a Michelin-star chef with restaurants worldwide. Watch Chef Ramsay’s class to learn about essential kitchen tools and knife skills, plus how to make pasta dough and poached eggs.
2. 2. Wolfgang Puck on cooking: Wolfgang Puck is a James Beard Foundation Award–winning restaurateur and one of the world’s most successful chefs. Take Wolfgang’s class to learn how to develop your palate and cook recipes like tuna sashimi and roasted branzino.
3. 3. Yotam Ottolenghi on Middle Eastern cooking. Yotam Ottolenghi is a celebrated chef, bestselling cookbook author, and restaurateur. Watch Yotam’s class to learn about Middle Eastern ingredients and how to make various recipes, including muhammara, smoky marinated feta, and green herb shakshuka.

To perfect the mother sauces and make French cuisine at home, you must master essential cooking techniques. Discover Chef Thomas Keller’s approach to setting up a home kitchen and sourcing quality ingredients like fish and clams when you sign up for the MasterClass Annual Membership.