Like any young or aspiring chef, chef Thomas Keller started off at the very bottom and worked his way up to the top. Chef started off as a dish washer at the Palm Beach Yacht Club starting as a dishwasher and quickly moving up to cook where he discovered his passion for cooking and perfection in a hollandaise sauce. During summers he worked as a cook in Rhode Island. One summer he was discovered by French-born Master Chef Roland Henin and was tasked to cook staff meals at The Dunes Club. Under Henin's study, Keller learned the fundamentals of classical French cooking. After The Dunes Club, Keller worked various cooking positions in Florida and soon became the cook at a small French restaurant called La Rive in the Hudson River valley in New York. Thomas worked alone with the couple's grandmother as prep cook, Roland Henin who would drop by on occasional weekends. After three years at La Rive, unable to buy it from the owners, he left and moved to New York and then aris, apprenticing at various Michelin-starred restaurants. (group)
After returning to America in 1984, he was hired as chef de cuisine at La Reserve in New York, before leaving to open Rakel in early 1987. Rakel's refined French cuisine catered to the tastes of Wall Street executives and received a two-star review from The New York Times. Its popularity waned as the stock market bottomed out and at the end of the 1980s, Keller left, unwilling to compromise his style of cooking to simple bistro fare.
After the first buisness went on to fail, chef thomas took various consultant and chef positions in New York and Los Angeles. In the spring of 1992 he came upon an old French steam laundry in Yountville, California that had been converted to a restaurant. He spent nineteen months raising $1.2 million from acquaintances and investors to purchase the restaurant, and then opened in 1994. Over the next few years the restaurant earned numerous awards, including the James Beard Foundation, gourmet magazines, the Mobil Guide (five stars), and the Michelin Guide three stars (t. k. group) . Ever since, Chef Thomas has been awarded with the most prestigious awards in history. Some of which are:
· Best American Chef: California
· Chef of the Year
· Voted #1 – Top Food
· Five-Star Award
· Top Restaurant for Food
· America's Best Chef,
· Outstanding Wine Service Award, James Beard Foundation, 2001
· Outstanding Service Award, James Beard Foundation, 2003
· Best Restaurant in the World (French Laundry),
· Best New Restaurant (Per Se), James Beard Foundation, 2005
· Michelin Guide Bay Area, 3 Stars for The French Laundry, 2006–2012
· Michelin Guide Bay Area, 1 Star for Bouchon, 2008–2011
· Gayot Top 40 Restaurants in the US (French Laundry) 2004 – 2010
· Gayot Top 40 Restaurants in the US (Per Se) 2010
· Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor, presented by Chef Paul Bocuse on March 29, 2011 in NYC
· Lifetime Achievement Award (French Laundry)
Jose andres
José Andrés is an internationally-recognized culinary innovator, passionate advocate for food and hunger issues, author, television personality José chose cooking as his life’s work at the age of 15. He attended the School of Restaurants and Hotels of Barcelona and trained in Michelin-starred restaurants including el Bulli with world-renowned Master Chef and friend Ferran Adrià. He made his way to the U.S. and then to DC to work with Rob Wilder and Roberto Alvarez’s Proximo restaurants. Heading up the kitchen at Jaleo, he helped create one of the first critically and commercially successful tapas restaurants in the country, setting the standard for other Spanish and small plate restaurants to follow. José next took over the kitchen at Café Atlantico, a popular DC hangout, transforming it into one of the city’s most exciting dining destinations. In 2006, José and Rob transformed Proximo restaurants into ThinkFoodGroup (bourdian) . In 2010, José and Rob were awarded the Richard Melman Award from Restaurant Hospitality in recognition of their efforts to create exciting and relevant restaurant concepts.
With a four-star review from the Los Angeles Times, José made his mark on Los Angeles with the creation of SLS Hotels. ThinkFoodGroup partnered with SBE Hotel Group and designer Philippe Starck to create a new luxury hotel experience. The first property, SLS at Beverly Hills, opened its doors in fall 2008 (mini bar by Jose ) José and the TFG team oversee the food & beverage program for the hotel, including the signature destination restaurant The Bazaar by chef Andrés, named Best New Restaurant of 2009 by Esquire magazine. Zagat gave The Bazaar Top Newcomer in 2009 and honored it as one of the Top Ten Best New Restaurants of the Decade. The intimate chef’s tasting room, Saam, inside the Bazaar was also named a Top Ten Most Memorable Dining Experience in 2009 by the LA Times food critic. José then carried his creative style to Las Vegas in late 2010 with the opening of three restaurants at the casino hotel complex. Jose was also
Rene Redzepi
After choosing a culinary career, Rene Redzepi trained at the restaurant Pierre André which had just opened in Copenhagen and soon received a Michelin star. He first visited El Bulli as a guest in 1998 and subsequently worked there during the 1999 season. Back in Copenhagen he started working at Kong Hans Kælder which had been one of the city's leading gourmet restaurants since the mid 1970s. In 2001 he spent four months working at French Laundry but returned to Kong Hans Kælder and Copenhagen (weatherford) .
In December 2002, Rexhepi was contacted by Claus Meyer, who had been offered to operate a restaurant at the North Atlantic House, a former 18th century warehouse which was being turned into a cultural centre for the North Atlantic region. Noma was opened in 2004 with Rexhepi as the head chef. Chef is known for numerous awards, some of which are:
- 2006: 33rd Best Restaurant in the World Restaurant Top 50
- 2007: 15th Best Restaurant in the World Restaurant Top 50
- 2008: 10th Best Restaurant in the World Restaurant Top 50
· 2008: named International Chef of the Year at the Lo Mejor de la Gastronomia conference in San Sebastian, Spai
- Since 2008: Michelin Guide, two stars
- 2009: 3rd-best restaurant in the world and "Chefs' Choice"
- 2010: Best Restaurant in the World
- 2011: Best Restaurant in the World
- 2012: Listed in TIMES 2012 100 most influential people in the world
- 2012: Best Restaurant in the World
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