He worked part time along with schooling at a Palm beach Yacht club as a dishwasher to support his mother in family earning as their parents got separated. From here he developed the interest in cooking and to make different sauce. He also use to cook at home. As he could not take education form culinary institute he got trained under a well known mentor named Roland Henin at the age of 22 in Dunes club. Under him he also learnt French classical cooking.
As he did his training from Dunes club he also worked at different position in Florida. After struggling a lot he became a small cook at a French restaurant called La Rive, in New York.
As he used to work in the restaurant he also helped his grandmother in preparing pre cook food in his spare time. As he worked for three years at La Rive he wanted to become the owner of it. But as he couldn't manage to buy left the place and moved to New York and did his apprentice at various Michelin-star restaurants in Paris.
At the age of 29 when he returned to USA he got hired as a Head Chef at La Reserve in New York. After 3 years, keller opened a French cuisine restaurant named Rakel in partnership and got marked as two-star by the New York Times. He also opened many restaurant which became famous and won the Michelin star awards along with French laundry.
"The Process of influencing the behavior of other people toward group goals in a fully respects the freedom". (Diocese.R.C. 2011)
Thomas Keller, an entrepreneur chef is not a celebrity chef like he defines himself as. He was not a chef but became a modern chef. From the very beginning he wanted his business to be under his control. This was more important for him rather than become a good chef.
Keller has a very different leadership quality as he was collaborative and competitive. He believes that anyone could have an impact. He developed the culture where everyone was responsible for coming up with ideas and thoughts which came in their minds. He also attention to quality along with eye for detail. When we talk to ideal modern kitchen, he says, it is a place where there is a true ownership for everybody. Whether is an idea from a coffee server or another chef, that particular thought could turn in a recipe even used today. As he is a participative leader he allowed everybody to participate but implemented their plan in his own way. His values is collaboration. He always wanted an expert staff group who could work with him and for the vision and interest he wanted to share with all. He also believes in competitive work. Every line cook is responsible from ordering ingredients to delegating tasks to complete his part of menu and dish. It helps them all to become leaders and also boosts friendly competition among the staff which results in better menu everyday.
Thomas Keller has owned a group of restaurant. It including two Michelin Three-Star Restaurant which has now increased to seven. But it was not always the same as he faced failures and rejections in his life. It helped him develop the style of leadership he embraces. His first two restaurants failure resulted in many lessons. One significant lesson was to build a team that could understand the philosophy, culture and vision with yours. All his future ventures had a beautiful collaboration with staff. This spirit of collaboration was seen in particular when he opened a new restaurant in New York called "Per Se".
Since he had strong faith in collaborative work and quality team, he showed proper enthusiasm for same at the time of opening of Per Se in New York. He closed the other restaurant French Laundry for renovation and moved some of its staff to New York so that the new staff at Per Se could get a real feel of his culture and this is how he wanted things to be. He wanted the new team to know and understand company culture and vision. He gave every detail personal touch like a modern chef as he is totally different than what a traditional chef would be. He trained the new team personally long before the opening of a new place with new ideas. Sometimes it was months or more than a year before when he started to train the new staff for a new place or restaurant. He never forgot the collaborative values and always offered the new team with the experience of the already working team in his other restaurants. In this way he made way for many teams to embrace same ideals, culture and philosophy. It was not a part of the plan but it evolved according to the needs of the business, he says. He not only wants his team know his company culture but also be someone better than himself. He puts it in his own words like this, "if the person is not better than you are then you haven't done your job". His quality of welcoming new ideas in the restaurant from anybody sometimes surprised him and would think why he could not get this idea in his mind. Moreover it also helped him know if his team/staff is on the right track. It is his leadership style which made him the owner of the best restaurant in the world, the Per Se and the French Laundry from an ordinary dishwasher. It is only his attachment with every restaurant and the staff that he could make a finely tuned collection of restaurant famous around the globe. His leadership style was seen in his few ventures. He worked with the new team personally from training to making them expert staff who are well versed with company culture. He would let a station chef work autonomously with his own concepts and still keep up with the vision he wanted to share with everyone. His way of working help him make every day menu as the chefs in the restaurant were motived to create new receipes and techniques which inculcated the collaborative style as well as the competition among the staff. This competition was fair enough as it was necessary to come up with something in the modern style of cooking. So his leadership really did a great of work in guiding any chef or line cook to create an impressive composition and it was not just a stationary concept or fashion. It kept on evolving and elevating everyday as the spirit of his leadership was so high in everybody.
He is the best american chef and owner of the best two restaurants in the world namely Per Se and French Laundry. He is a famous name around the globe especially when talked of as modern chef. He is truely the one who stepped out of the traditional league and created something new and unique. He is a cookbook writer, chef, entrepreneur and not forgetting real mentor for other chefs. Despite of his work and effort to maintain the quality work in the company culture he is not away from troubles. He has gone through issues and problems in life from rejection to untimely moving to failures. He didn't loose hope and grabbed the perfect oppurtunity. After returning to America in 1984, he started as a chef in La Reserve, New York. Thereafter he opened Rakel in 1987 and served the Wall Street clients well. As the economy went down, he was forced to move as he didn't want to compromise with the style he choose long before he started to work professionally.
Before buying the French Laundry in 1994, he struggled working as chef and consultant at various places in New York and Los Angeles. As his popularity waned in the end of 1980s, he had to come up with something sound this time. He learned a lot from his past life. He needed a real collaboration with people who would understand his vision and philosophy. In the French Laundry, two different nine-course menus are served everyday. The collaborative effort made by the team makes it possible. It is not a doddle to offer such unique menus without using the same ingredients more than once. It is the competitive effort made by whole of the team. He wanted to make French Laundry a place to be full of creativity and original thoughts. His leadership style helped him a lot as it was the only way he could have paved way for new ideas and vibrant thoughts from just about anyone. Because of his modern belief and ideas he didn't want his restaurant to be a place where delicious food is served in hast but he wanted the perfection and the complete experience to be magical like he does at the stoves.
His collaborative effort with a boost of competition among this team always make it easy for him to get the work done and also develop the culture and the vision he wanted to share with all. He showed the zeal and the vision in overall construction of his restaurants whether it is Per Se or the French Laundry.
The search for perfection is the not a static thing, it goes on. It is live in any of his restaurants.
Since his style demanded a true collaboration and support from everyone that is from suppliers to waiters. It created chain or network of farmers, fishermen, chefs and gardeners. As it is all about a common a goal to serve the needs of the guest by providing him the best ingredients and presentation on the table. In the end it is the patrons who decides if the common goal is accomplished or not.
Suppliers are really play an important role. It is on the suppliers to decide the quality of sourcing and its sustainability as they know what they have been doing for years now. His world famous restaurants have been serving food since years now. Most of the need of the restaurant like in French Laundry are sourced by the restaurant garden adjoing it. It includes most of the needs but not all. But sourcing and its sustainability is different when you get the products sourced from outside. It includes a critical choice of suppliers, who would never compromise with the quality of the food. So, being careful enough and responsible for the guest is the main motto so that the final food on the table is the mixture of perfect ingredients and the execution.
Keller's idea and working style invited a better support system and environment. It is a general belief that we tend to work better in a good and welcoming environment where everyone could make an impact. He being a chef himself knows how to make a kitchen a more comfortable place for everyone to work with the company culture and good spirit. The final execution on the table depends on the kitchen's vibe which is taken seriously by him.
Again Keller's view on collaborative effort makes him want to hire, train and mentor. He says it is process which is vital for any hotel industry if you want to get your job done. He wants a critical interview process for hiring people so that we have the perfect talent for the job. Else the job won't ever be done in the way it might be required in the company culture. It is only because of his leadership style a team full of talent proficient for the restaurant. Training is the important part to make sure that we have got what we wanted. In order to deliver mouth watering dishes one need to have confidence in the team. It comes only with best training. It is not enough. It is the mentoring process. Every one in team must know what is expected of them. Only this continuous process can make them all better than who you are.
Since Keller has many ventures he has been facing issues managing all the them or even one. However from his past failures he has learned about true collaboration and team work which he values yet. It is developed along with other essentials values in the company culture. It talks about a true process of hiring, training and mentoring. It is marrow part of any of the Keller's restaurant. He couldn't repeat the same mistakes as he was never ready to compromise with the working style at all.
Sooner or later comes a crisis in our affairs, and how we meet it determines our future happiness and success since the beginning of time, every form of life has been called upon to meet such crisis. (Collier.R.)
Crisis refine life. In them you discover what you are. (Chalmers.A.K.)
Man is not imprisoned by habit. Great changes in him can be wrought by crisis - - once that crisis can be recognized and understood. (Cousins.N.)
When Thomas Keller was 6 years his father and mother got separated. As a result thomas did not want to be burden on his mother as they were solely bought up by her. So to reduce the burden of his mother he did all the home work from maintaining the house along with new inventions he did in it. When he became 13 years, he worked as a part timer as he recongnized his responsibilities and started working as a dishwasher at the palm beach Yatch club to support his mother in the family earning and to also look after his brothers. Later he started working in a restaurant in Florida where his mother worked as a dining room manager. He took the job of a vegetable peeler 1st but once a chef left the job without informing as soon as he heard this without any delay he grabbed the opportunity and took the job as a chef. He played many roles in the kitchen from a regular dishwasher to chef. (Thomas Keller News - The New York Times. web page)
From here he developed the interest in cooking and to make different sauce as a result he started to cook at home. As he could not take education form culinary institute he got trained under a well known mentor named Roland Henin at the age of 22 in Dunes club. Under him he also learnt French classical cooking. As he did his training from Dunes club he also worked at different position in Florida. After struggling a lot he became a small cook at a French restaurant called La Rive, in New York.
As he used to work in the restaurant he also helped his grandmother in preparing pre cook food which was ready to prepare and which would save time. He did this in his spare time. As he worked for three years at La Rive he wanted to become the owner of it. But as he couldn't manage to buy left the place and moved to New York and did his apprentice at various Michelin-star restaurants in Paris. Suddenly at the age of 24 years his mother also left him but instead of crying and thinking about it he moved on in his life. He never lost hope neither did he compromised with his style of working.
So, when he was 32 he opened his first restaurant Rakel in partnership which was opened at New York. The word Rakel comes from "Ra" which means Raoul and "Kel" comes from keller. The restaurant happened to be a turning point in his life and gave him success after a very long struggle. This restaurant was airy and expensive. The food which he was preparing was loved by all the guest who would visit his restaurant and would compliment him for same. The business was going on smoothly but suddenly as the stock market crashed in 1987 by the age of 35 years he had to convert his restaurant to a small bar. This gave a huge hit to him as his profit that he used to earn reduced. During this his partner also left him. This indirectly forced him to shut the restaurant. After this he joined as a executive chef at the trendy checkers hotel which was situated at Los Angeles. Later he realised that the word executive does not belong to the word chef. So he left this job and again took up a different jobs such as consultant and also different chef position in New York. He wanted to be in full control of the kitchen and its features. Instead of getting upset about the whole thing he didn't loose hope and learned something which he truly implied in all his future ventures. (The return of chefs Thomas Keller and Gray Kunz - Times Warner Center. web page)
As a chef named Kunz was working and growing fast at Lespinasse in Los Angeles Keller also had arrived there in search of a job but could not get. So around the age of 36, while he was driving to go to Napa by the route 29 he stopped out of a place named Table 29 which belonged to his friend, Jonathan Waxman. As he knew Keller was in search of a place he suggested him a restaurant which was for sale where he could open his own one. So without wasting time he visited the place and liked it. As he returned to Los Angeles he compiled all his plans for the same and made a business plan of about 300 pages. He also hired an advocate named Bob Sutcliffe who had a relation in food business as he would help him to build money for the place and also wanted investors to whom he had to pay which he managed through his bank loan. As he spent one and half month collecting money for the same he could gather $1.2 million as he was acquainted with the investors whom he had paid because of which he could finally purchase the place. So around 39 years he opened his restaurant and named it as French Laundry. As the restaurant started flourishing it gave him fame and earned a profit of about $672 in the second year after its open. When he was 42 years The New York Times stated that French Laundry is one of the most exciting place to have food and whose reservation books remains filled everyday. During this as Kunz was departing from Lespinasse, he and Keller came together and wrote a cookbook. After few years as the 9/11 incident took place it was a confusing situation for him whether he could come back to New York or no. (The return of chefs Thomas Keller and Gray Kunz - Times Warner Center. web page)
When he turned 49 years, he also opened a restaurant in New York, named Per Se. As the restaurant was gaining name a week later of it opening a fire spread took place in the kitchen. First when he was not aware of the fire spread and when a guest complained about some bitter taste in the dish. So he thought there must have been some problem while preparing the food by somebody. But when he realised that there was a fire spread that took place in his restaurant he immediately wakened the restaurant along with the guest and his staff. He also called his lawyer to take him out of this situation. This changed the whole scenario as he had worked hard for years to earn the money and build the restaurant. Because of this incident, the loss he faced was up to millions of dollars. Here he showed that he care for people and the staff that worked for him. As he was thinking that the fire which took place was bad, immediately after few days Keller started getting congratulation letters from his Asian guest who visited his restaurant. They stated that in their culture when fire spread takes place it is treated as good sign and changes the fortune. So as he was thinking to quit he changed his mind and started to set up another restaurant with the same name again. So as he planned new goals and visions for his new restaurant and started to achieve it. As he came out of the consequences after a year later the restaurant which he rebuilt again earned a 4 star recognitions from The New York Times. (Life Lessons from Chef Thomas Keller. web page)
As he is a chef who cares for other which he showed this during the fire spread that took place in Per Se he also allowed his staff to put forth their points and would appreciate them if he like it and also implement it. As he face many drawbacks he did not give up as he was sporting. Sometimes he would think upon it and could come out with different plans. He worked out what he believed in and tried to create the same vibe in this company's culture. He never ignored even a minute thing as he had faith in everyone in his team. He also failed in opening many restaurant but successes in many other which are famous even today. They are French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon and Ad hoc. He also has won Michelin star for French Laundry and Per Se. along with this he also has Bouchon bakery which is also famous. He also has written various cookbook named The French Laundry, Ad hoc at home, Bouchon bakery and Under pressure - Cooking sous vide. He was courageous as he handle each and every situation that came his way which had happened during his father. He did not had pride and treated everybody equal. To achieve this he struggled a lot in his life but did not show in his behaviour. He is the only American chef to win 3 Michelin star restaurants for two of his restaurant one after another. He also did not take any formal education in culinary but achieve whatever he wanted in his life as a chef. He is man who seeks perfection in whatever he does. He is a modern chef in ever sense.
