Thomas Keller

Photo: Deborah Jones

It was back in 1992, 17 long years ago, that Thomas Keller left Los Angeles (where he was cooking at Checkers Downtown) to find fame and fortune in a restaurant housed in a former French steam laundry in Yountville. With The French Laundry, Keller became arguably the most acclaimed chef in America, and the raves kept coming for his subsequent openings, including Bouchon in Yountville and Vegas, Per Se in New York City and ad hoc in Yountville. This week he comes full circle, opening a third branch of Bouchon right here in Beverly Hills.

Merrill Shindler: Welcome to LA. Or to be more precise: welcome back to LA.

Thomas Keller: It's really great to be back. I love LA – I missed it. I didn't realize how much I missed it till I starting building the restaurant here. I have a real feeling for Los Angeles.

MS: Do you feel like the prodigal son, returned to the fold?

TK: Not exactly the prodigal son. I feel a little anxious, a little nervous. It's what you go through when you open a new restaurant. There are a lot of people watching. No matter how many restaurants I open, there are always jitters.

MS: You've always worked outside the box. And one of the boxes you're working outside these days is the TV. None of your renown is based on being on the tube.

TK: You have to have a TV show to be well known? I'm bucking the trend. I don't have a cookware line either. I guess I've taken a different path. But it's worked – so far.

MS: As the son of a Marine drill instructor, do you ever feel you're channeling your father when you're in the kitchen?

TK: I think there are a lot of parallels with the military, certainly in running kitchens. I'm always trying to train, and then challenge younger chefs. There are moments when it's like boot camp. Mostly, what I want to do is give them the opportunities, to train a new generation for what lies ahead, to get them ready for wherever food is going. So, yes, there are a lot of parallels – both are built around serious discipline, and lots of hard work.

MS: And how were you influenced by the fact that your mother was a restaurateur? I understand she'd have you do the cooking in her restaurants when the regular cook was out?

TK: Back then, they were Continental restaurants. They served a little of everything – Italian, French, American. They were all over the place. But I learned a lot from her: I learned to love a lot of cuisines, learned to cook by watching. I guess I learned the hard way.

MS: In a way, you've returned to the food of your childhood with your latest cookbook, ad hoc at home. Curious, doing a cookbook based on a restaurant that was supposed to be temporary.

TK: Ad hoc isn't so much ad hoc now as it is ad lib. It was supposed to be there for six months, and it's been open for four years. Sometimes, a concept comes through the back door. You don't realize what you've created, until it's come to life.

MS: And, based on the cookbook, that life includes the down-home dishes we all grew up with.

TK: I did fine dining with The French Laundry Cookbook, bistro cooking with the Bouchon cookbook and sous vide in Under Pressure. It was time to turn to American food – a book for the home cook about dishes that people recognize. They have reference points for these dishes; their families have recipes they've used for years, recipes that are more approachable because of that. But, still, cooking is a technique. It requires a certain amount of understanding of the process. I think we have to embrace that – and enjoy the process.

MS: Are there dishes that define the book – that sum it up in a nutshell?

TK: Fried chicken is an iconic American dish that so many people have memories of, and their own ways of cooking. The lemon bar is another iconic American dish, along with pineapple upside-down cake and beef Stroganoff. We relate to these dishes, feel close to them. I think they're what the book is all about.

MS: Did you have to lock yourself away for months creating recipes for these dishes? I mean, this is a foie gras–free zone...

TK: We make fried chicken at The French Laundry for the family. We cook it maybe every other week. There was a process of rediscovery for some dishes – and sharing our discoveries over the years for others. The beef Stroganoff comes from my mother, who made it for the family when we were kids. She used Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup. If it weren't for Campbell's Cream of Mushroom, and French Onion Soup, we'd probably have starved.

MS: It's great to have a Bouchon in Beverly Hills. But where's the bakery? Bouchon without a bakery feels like it's missing something.

TK: We're working on it. We're working with the city on finding a space for a small bakery. The bakery is part of Bouchon – it will happen.

MS: Are there dishes you get tired of cooking? The old "If they ask for salmon one more time, I'll scream" reaction?

TK: What I love about cooking is repetition. I love cooking the same dishes over and over again. You really become good at it. I think what made me a good cook is my love for doing things over and over again. There are no dishes I'm tired of making. I challenge myself when I have to do a dish again and again.

MS: Is there a dish you wish Americans would eat more of – or would eat at all. We can be so picky as a nation.

TK: Tripe. I love tripe. When it's raw, it's not very appealing and doesn't have a wonderful aroma. But when you cook it, there's a transformation that's extraordinary. In the end, it has such a complex flavor, such a wonderful texture, such a fine aroma. People didn't always like sushi – they were repelled by raw fish. That's all changed. Now, it's time for tripe.

– Merrill Shindler