Thomas Keller

Thomas Keller
Keller in 2009
Born (1955-10-14) October 14, 1955 (age 69)
EducationApprenticeship
SpouseLaura Cunningham
Culinary career
Cooking styleFrench

Thomas Aloysius Keller (born October 14, 1955) is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, the French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, including Best California Chef in 1996 and Best Chef in America in 1997. The restaurant was a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World;[1] the voting process has since been changed to disallow previous winners from being considered.

In 2005, he was awarded the three-star rating in the inaugural Michelin Guide for New York City for his restaurant Per Se, and in 2006, he was awarded three stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area for The French Laundry. He is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three-star Michelin ratings for two different restaurants.[2] His restaurants currently hold seven Michelin stars in total: three at Per Se, three at the French Laundry, and one at the Surf Club Restaurant.[3]

  1. ^ "Thomas Keller and The French Laundry Awards" Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Venetian.com.
  2. ^ (in French) Anaïs Digonnet, "Le chef américain Thomas Keller reçoit la Légion d’honneur" Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. France-Amérique. March 29, 2011.
  3. ^ "MICHELIN Guide Reveals Inaugural Florida Selection". Michelin North America, Inc. (Press release).