Chef Thomas Keller: share secrets

• The French Laundry, Yountville, Calif.
• Per Se, New York
• Bouchon, Yountville, Calif., and Las Vegas
• Bouchon Bakery, Yountville, Calif., and New York

Thomas Keller is a perfectionist in the kitchen. Just ask the diners who wait months for a seating at his most acclaimed restaurants, The French Laundry in California’s Napa Valley and Per Se in New York, then happily pay several hundred dollars apiece for the privilege. Or peruse the best-selling French Laundry cookbook, which has more detail than most graduate school texts. Or speak with chefs who have studied under Keller, experiencing first-hand his intensity, obsession with quality and occasional outbursts over the slightest imperfections.

But get the 50-year-old son of a Marine drill instructor out on a golf course, and all that changes.

„Golf is a way for me to separate myself from my cooking and really relax,“ he says. „It allows me to be outside in beautiful surroundings, to smoke cigars and have some laughs with friends and not take things nearly as seriously as I do with my work. I’m just happy to be playing.“

Keller plays as often as he can, despite plenty of 16-hour days and roughly 60 travel days annually. You might find him squeezing in a quick round at the Vintners course, a nine-holer near The French Laundry in Yountville, or at the nearby Silverado Resort or Chardonnay Club.

Keller also takes his game on the road. His favorite golf destinations include the Four Seasons Hualalai on the Kona-Kohala coast in Hawaii and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where this generation’s most lauded chef regularly recharges his batteries on the seaside courses.

Born at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Calif., Keller is the youngest of five boys. He discovered cooking as a teenager, working at the Palm Beach Yacht Club in Florida after his parents divorced and his family moved east. He later made his way to Paris and New York, honing his craft at some of those cities’ most sophisticated eateries before opening The French Laundry in 1994.

Golf, in contrast, came late to Keller’s life. His brother, Michael, tried to pique his interest in the game in his early 20s, to no avail. „It really wasn’t until I turned 40 that I started to play with any sort of regularity,“ Keller says.

Mostly, he plays with colleagues from the culinary world, seeking escape from the confines of the kitchen. „Many of us are happy with any opportunity to be outdoors,“ Keller explains. „Golf is also good because it is a very social game, and the time we spend on the course is time that allows us to get caught up with each other in a way we cannot in the restaurants themselves.“

Cooking is the last thing Keller wants to ponder on the golf course.

„Remember,“ he says, „with golf, I am trying very hard to get away from work.“ So he doesn’t grasp for many parallels between the two.

„But, I suppose if you look closely, you can find similarities in their established foundations,“ he says. „Cooking requires incredible commitment, practice and focus, and if you take golf seriously, you have to have those as well. Also, in cooking, repetition generally results in success, and it is the same way in golf.“

Ask Keller for his handicap index, and he declines, saying he would „rather not go there.“ The man who is so deeply concerned about perfection in his professional life does not want to be seen as mediocre at anything he does.

But for Keller, it’s also true that his score matters far less than the chance to enjoy a scenic links, a sunny day and a cigar with friends.

– John Steinbreder
 
Source: golfweek.com