The French Laundry (file under its going to be a long winding road)

Quick update here in Thomas Keller and The French Laundry. I have a profound respect for what all Chefs do. But some, like Keller, rock my world. Today was my day off (thankfully) and I will be posting about my experience in the restaurant next, but, it gave me the opportunity to finish “The French Laundry Cookbook.”

Keller is exceptionally talented and has an awesome respect for food. He sees the ingredient for what it is and then tries to kick it in the ass thus making it that much better. Keller came to the kitchen at a young age and became a head chef even younger. His path to learning was (like mine) a long and winding road but it served him well.

One of Keller’s mentors was Roland Henin, the Master Chef who took him on at the Dunes Club to cook staff meals. This was an extremely formative time for Keller and as a result of the seemingly mundane (staff meals) he got a base from which a lot of his current shine comes from. From Henin Keller learned that if “you can cook… you can go back in time.”

Another interesting point which resonated with me is that a recipe has no soul. You can follow a recipe perfectly and never be able to create it as well as someone else. (This also relates to something that A and I were talking about recently and I will mention in the next post.) A recipe is a guide, a path that can take you to excellence, but the cook must have A SOUL TO GET THERE! The recipe can only do so much and the rest is up to the cooks sense and sensibilities.

Keller insists that in this fast paced world people slow down and especially cooks, make deliberate actions and your food will be better as a result. I could not agree more. But again I will touch on this in the next post.

As I have come to know from experience, you must trust your instincts.

That said, the food that Keller has included in the cookbook is fabulous. The images of the food leave you with the desire to be eating mouthfuls the whole time. I think that the most important point though that I took away from both The French Laundry Cookbook and Bouchon is as Keller says; “Sometimes you have to experience the really bad in order to avoid it.”

Dream Big and INSPIRED.

A la prochaine

SDM