Thomas Keller & René Redzepi in Conversation

How did you know? Oh my God, what is this? Thomas? Thomas the goat? Thomas the goat? Thomas the goat? Thomas the goat? Okay. I love it. Hey Thomas. How you doing? Yeah. He loves it out here. He loves it out here. Carefully, maybe dinner later. Thomas, Thomas, can I offer you a little bit of strudel. Strudel. Strudel. Strudel. I was looking for strudel in the back. It's ready now. Okay. Good for us. A little. My goodness. Hello, everybody. Hi. Good to be here. Good to be here. You know, I've been thinking about coming to MAD for 18 years. Or was it? It's a while. When you started dreaming about MAD, I started wanting to come here. That's how close we were. Right? His dreams were my reality. But thank you, René, for inviting me. Let me set the stage here a little bit. Thank your team as well for doing such a great job. Matt Orlando, thank you for a wonderful introduction. Thank you, Chef. And thank all of you for taking the time. I know a lot of you have traveled great distances like myself to come and enjoy this beautiful weather here. Cheers. Cheers. How does it feel? Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. How does it feel to be the GOAT? You call me the GOAT. I don't call myself the GOAT. But I'm grateful that you think I am. I appreciate it. Another chance. Cheers. Build to last, guys. Build to last. So, I have questions here. Is this biodynamic, is it? Yes. Okay, I just wanted to make sure. You want it like this? Didn't want to put something across my lips. That was it. Right? It's all good. Thomas. Thomas, it's kind of crazy that I'm sitting here and I have to speak to you like this because I'll tell you the story. So, I was at elBulli many, many years ago. And in the door steps in this incredibly pale American. Pale. Thank you. Wasn't me. No, it wasn't you. Somebody else. But he looked lost. And I went up to him and I said, hey, can I help you? And he said, yes, my name is Grant. Grant Achatz. And I'm the sous-chef at the French Laundry. He said, okay, no problem. And I sort of took care of him. And as a present, he gave me the French Laundry Cookbook, which had just come out at that time. And I remember flicking through the pages for this book, thinking to myself, I need to be there. This is honestly the feeling I had. And Grant, he organized for me to go to the French Laundry. Meanwhile, he left to go live in Chicago. And I came to Yountville. I stayed at the Pink Palace, it was called. Still is. Still is the Pink Palace with a chef called Timothy Hollingsworth. We were roommates. There you go. Somebody knows Timothy. Paula. And I got to spend some time there. It was the first time I traveled abroad. I never thought I would go to America. In fact, I remember the first day I was going to work. The Pink Palace is 700 meters from the French Laundry. And everyone drove to work. I remember that thinking to myself. It's California. And they drove 300 meters by the restaurant to park to walk back. I thought that was so funny. But I stepped into the French Laundry. You had a garden. The Petersons were taking care of a garden. Yes. Every day people would go and get the fresh produce. I remember you showing me a suckling pig. And you telling me, do you have this in Denmark? And I lied. I said, yes, we do. I did. I had to lie because I was so ashamed. Like, no, we cannot get this sort of produce. And it was mind opening to me back then. And you were at the forefront. And I think we forget often where things come from. But back then, so, so many years ago, 25 years ago, or whatever it is, maybe even 30 soon. 30. Yeah, you were doing the farm to table movement. And I just want to thank you for being a part of my life and pushing me in the right direction. And it kind of feels surreal for me to be sitting here speaking to you. But... Well, thank you. I want to ask you... But you all know that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, right? So, as much as I appreciate what René said, says about his time at the French Laundry and what he got from that, you know, there was those times in my life and my career that I could point to those who I stand on the shoulders of. And this wonderful thing about our profession is that we're so interconnected generationally after generation after generation. And I love that. Yeah. Me too. And I think we feel it today in this tent, how we're speaking about the things that people leave and how we have to take the best of that and shape it into something new. But if we go back in time, I mean, you're still a very young man. Thank you. You're dashingly handsome. Thank you. You're like the chef version of George Clooney. I'll tell you so. It's unbelievable how good you look, actually, Thomas Keller. It must be all that Californian Zinfandel. Right. You look striking. Laura, you're lucky man. Sleep, diet, and exercise. Three things to longevity. Sleep, diet, and exercise. You say those three words and they are sort of the anti-chef way of being. Right? Right. Seriously. Build to last. Yeah. Sleep. Say it again. Sleep, diet, and exercise. Sleep, diet, and exercise. That has to be one of the lessons. The key to longevity. Yeah. And the key to also being a healthy individual. Yep. But back to the beginning. Sure. The beginning. Even before that. Okay. Oh, wow. What is your first memory of a meal? Yeah, that's an interesting question because I didn't grow up in that kind of tight-knit family environment where we would all get together around tables, a dinner table at night, and share a meal. My mother worked at night, and I was the youngest of five boys. My parents separated when I was quite young, and so I was raised by a single parent who wasn't really a great cook, even though she tried on those special occasions. But nonetheless, she worked at night, so I was fed mostly by my brothers. My older brothers who gave us whatever was available from Chef Boyardee, these SpaghettiOs to Swanson's TV dinners, Beans and Franks, whatever. That's kind of what I grew up with. My mother, on the other hand, occasionally would make a standing prime rib. It was either Christmas or Christmas or New Year's or New Year's or New Year's. Those were kind of the times of the holidays where we actually sat down together. And I remember, and all of you know what the fat cap is on the prime rib or the culotte, right? That's what it's called in French. I never got that when I was a kid because my brothers would always get it before me, but I swore one day I would be able to eat that. So that's kind of my memory of dining at home. I didn't really think about food until I was in my late teens or early 20s. And I didn't think seriously about food either. It was more or less a job. Was food just nutrition, or was it just something you just did? Just did. I mean, you know, again, you know, growing up, you know, middle class American, eating convenience foods was kind of where I was. So what happened? My mother made me the head chef, not, well, short, head, the lead cook of a private yacht club in Palm Beach. Thank God. So we think about, we think about this, these decisions that are made. Significance of one decision. I'm going to talk about that a little bit. And sometimes those, and all of you woke up this morning and decided what shoes you were going to put on. Wasn't really a significant decision, was it? Didn't change your life. To some it is, let me tell you. Well, yeah. But sometimes those significant decisions are made by others. And in most cases, when we're young, made by our parents, in this case, my mother, who told me that I was going to be the lead cook in this private club, which is mostly lunch, cooking, you know, things like eggs, Benedict, omelets, you know, hamburgers, flank steak, very simple things. And so that was the decision she made for me. And of course, you know, what do you say to your mother? Same thing you say as a chef. Yes, no problem. My saving grace was my brother, Joseph, right? Who made a significant decision when he was really young because he always wanted to be a cook. And so he was already in that phase. You know, he watched Graham Kerr, Julia Child. He studied cooking. He worked at one of the best restaurants in Palm Beach at the time. And so my mother would ask him to help teach me how to boil a lobster tail. What did your mother do there? She was the manager. She was the manager. How old were you when you became a head chef? I was, it was, um, nope, I'm going to turn off my phone. Damn it. Laura told me to do that too. Sorry, guys. And then somebody from Denmark called. Always listen to your wives, okay? I was, I was 20 at that time. Was your mother worried for you? I don't, I don't know. My mother was always worried for me, as most mothers are for children. But since she told you, you being the head chef. Yeah. And, and, and, and, and so Joseph taught me, gave me, gave me some basic fundamentals, which was great. And, and the magic for me every morning was making a hollandaise sauce, right? Every morning I would come in and make the, he taught me how to make a hollandaise sauce. That was like magical, you know, and emulsification. Like who, what was an emulsification? I had no idea, but this hollandaise sauce became something for me, which drove me every single day to try to make it as perfect as possible. Yeah. Right. This idea of perfection in food, which doesn't really exist, as you know, but the striving for it is always there. And then, and then, you know, after that stint for a couple of years, I found myself in Narragansett, Rhode Island, working for a formidable French chef, Roland Henin. And I was, I was the staff cook, right? I cooked, I cooked for, you know, it was a beach club. So I cooked for the lifeguards. I cooked for, for the maids, obviously for, for the chefs, for the dining room team. And I was doing a really good job. And he came to me one day, he said, and I had I had no, I had no ambitions of cooking professionally. In fact, if you went home and told your parents that you wanted to be a cook, that you would have been, you know, labeled a loser. The L. Right. Like you're a loser. Because back then, the thought of being a cook in America was short order, right? You were cooking hamburgers or fried eggs somewhere. And that wasn't, that wasn't really a good, a good path. But can we also say that back then, including when I was a cook, it was a profession where you could kind of always enter. We talked about this yesterday. If you had been to jail, you couldn't even get into the army anymore. Yeah. But you would always find a kitchen to be in. Yeah. Yeah. We take, we, you know, first jobs, you know, second chances, you know, and, and retirees always can find a job in a restaurant somewhere. And it's really a wonderful thing. I mean, we are so, we, we include everybody in restaurants. I love that idea about what we do, regardless of who they are, where they come from, how old they are, you know, whether, whether they're experienced or not experienced. Anyway, quickly, I wasn't really thinking about cooking as a profession. I never, I never considered a profession. Can I ask you, what did you think of? What did you dream of? As a profession, I wanted to be an architect. Architect. Yeah. That was, that was what I wanted to be. But actually, really, I wanted to be the shortstop for the New York Yankees. But that wasn't going to happen. You still have time. Nonetheless, Roland Henin came to me one day, former French chef, and he came to me one day, he said, he, he, he, he congratulated and praised me that I was doing a really good job. Thank you, chef. He asked me a question, a simple question. He said, Thomas, why do cooks cook? Why do cooks cook? To get Michelin stars. Thinking about it. Well, that, that's, that, that's one reason, but not, not the best reason. So all of you are chasing Michelin stars. Stop. Right? Don't, don't do that. And I, I, I, you know, I didn't really have a great answer. I'm going through my, my, my Rolodex in my head, which was very minimal back then. And he asked me the question. He said, we cook to nurture people. We cook to nurture people. And that was the moment when he said nurture. I realized that I was a nurturer and I wanted to make people happy. This was, this was my goal in life, to make people happy. And he enlightened me. And from that moment on, I decided to become a chef. And because Roland was French, you know, he became my, my, my third mentor, if you will, my mother, my brother, and then Roland, he was a French chef, so I wanted to be just like him. And that's where I, you know, I embarked on a path of relentless learning, education, experience, all these different things that we do to become the best French chef that I could possibly become. And this word about happiness, you devoted your life to nurturing, to making people happy. The thought of that, did that make you happy? Did that give you something? Gratification. Think about that. How grateful we all should be for the positions that we're in to influence, to impact, to give others something that is nourishing, something that's memorable, something that gives them an opportunity to be together, right? This is, this is what we do. We bring people together every single day. And I, I love this about our profession. I mean, there's so many things that we talk about and certainly MAD represents a lot of different segments of our profession, what we're trying to do. But with just the basic idea of nurturing people. And then I realized I'm not just nurturing my guest, right? Which is what I thought about in the beginning. Then I realized I'm nurturing my team, right? Well, what about you? Helping them. I'm nurturing myself because, because of what I, of course, yeah. The satisfaction and the gratification of doing that for others brought, brought me a great happiness. Yeah. And I'm, I'm happiest when I'm in, in the restaurant. I'm happiest, I'm happiest when I'm with the kitchen team, with the dining room team. Still today. Still today. It's, it's, it's extraordinary. And I've been able to, you know, as we go through our careers, we have to modify where we are at the time. I've always said, I run a sports franchise, which means that eventually you as the star player are going to have to retire because there's going to be somebody better than you, somebody younger than you, somebody that's faster than you. And if you're not preparing yourself for the inevitability of, of, of leaving that position, then you're not, you're not planning for your future. But that, that's a good conversation right now. So, preparing. Preparing. And realizing someone is better than you. Yes. I don't know why. I feel like with you, that didn't sit well when you first started dealing with that. Maybe not. I'm not really sure. I, you know, I, I, I kind of believe that you need, we all need to leave a place. We all need to leave our egos at the back door. We're coming together as a team. Yeah. And, and that team. And so, so just, I'm going to go back and forth a little bit because I want to talk about words at the same time because it's really important. And it was mentioned already today a couple of times. There's a front and back. Front of the house, back of the house. Like, where in the hell does that come from? Right? It's so divisive. Probably from the front of the house to tell you the truth. I mean, come on, guys. You, you, you, you, you, all of you have a home somewhere. You grew up in a home, right? Tell me, tell me where you're in a home. Where you're front and back of the house is in your home. Yeah. Where is it? No, you have a dining room and you have a kitchen. Where did that happen in our profession that we now use front and back of the house? So I want you to change the vernacular here, right? And start using, because I ate in a dining room last night, right? And, and, and, and the chef was in the kitchen. The chefs were in the kitchen. I, I didn't, I wasn't sitting, I wasn't sitting in the front of the house, right? I was sitting at a dining room table with friends, having a beautiful meal. meal. And there were, there were a great young team in the kitchen preparing that meal and, and wonderful people serving that meal. So anyway, just, just some things on words, because words are really, really important. And I think in the first speaker today, talking about. My mother. My first mentor. Yeah. Yeah. When you talk about, when he talked about putting someone else's shoes on, and I think we would all do better if we could take on the very well-washed shoes, because of a front of a house. Well, who was talking about that? The shoe, the shoe guy this morning. Yeah, exactly. I love that. I'll give him my shoes. Hey, French Laundry happens at one point, but before that, you dealt with failure. Or did you? Of course. Well, yeah, we all deal with failure and failures are those moments in your life that you're most critical. But can you tell us a little bit about that? Failing? Yeah. The New York story. How you went through that. Because I think we all go through it. Yeah. And we want to hear how you deal with it. Well, there, there, there are obviously those daily challenges, which you can, you can actually identify as potentially as failure. You know, in America, I'm not sure here, but the word failure is kind of “interdit”. We're not allowed to use the word because it's going to insult somebody. So now we call it challenging. You know, you've been challenged. But I still embrace the idea of failure, because for me, that really defines a moment in my life. In my career, when I've realized I've done something that is not going to help me become successful. And I have to modify my behavior, right? Have all of you modified your behaviors? Have you ever had to modify your behavior? I've had to do that many, many times. Yeah. And you learn from your failures so much. I mean, yes, we, you know, we all love praise. Everybody loves to be patted on the back and tell you how good you're doing. You're such a great person. You're such a great chef. You're such a great whatever. But you don't really learn anything from that. That's reinforcing what you just did. How do you get to do better tomorrow? Right? It's to challenge yourself. And sometimes those challenges result in a failure. So you have to, you have to be dynamic, flexible. Don't let, don't, don't let it affect you in a negative way and move on. And, and it's important. I think about, I think about those, those failures in my life. And even before Raquel, and I think you're speaking of Raquel, which is New York City, I failed. I had, I had failures before that. We've all had failures in our life. I mean, I failed to become a really good shortstop to play baseball. But you never doubted. You never doubted yourself. I never, I, I, let me put it this way. I always knew I would never go hungry. Yeah. Yeah. I always knew I'd never go hungry. So if that's not doubting myself, it was this sense of confidence that I had that I was going to be able to, to survive, uh, in, in, in, in, in this world. Amazing. When, when, when did you know you were good? When, when did you tell yourself deeply, I'm fucking good at this? Yeah. I, you know, I don't, I, it's, it's, it's a hard thing, right? So when you start to get, you know, praise and recognition and accolades, right? And you go, okay, am I, do I, do I really deserve it? Right? So I'm a person that says, you know, you know, there's always, I'm an ultra critical person of myself. Um, and so, you know, there are times where I think I don't deserve the accolades that I receive. So it's always, it's always trying to do it. I think I'm a person that I have to do better every single day. And we live, we live on this philosophy is do a little better than you did yesterday. Yeah. Shine your shoes a little better, right? Make sure that you're dressed a little better. Make sure your knives are a little sharper. Whatever you need to do every single day, do a little better than yesterday in everything that you do, right? It's just a beautiful thing. It's funny you mentioned this and frankly, it doesn't surprise me when you say that you have moments where you feel like you don't deserve. Because I think it's a natural thing that we all have. I think, any person have it, it can be just with, I don't deserve the love I'm getting right now, whatever. So, you've dealt with that in your career. That's, yeah. I think that's, uh, thank you for saying that, Thomas Keller. I think sometimes you come across as like this, Mr. Perfect. No. Every day going to work, every single day is, is, is, is, is the goal. Uh, and to rally everybody around that one philosophy doing a little better than yesterday. Okay. And I think it's infectious, you know, I mean, it really is, right? You get, you, you have, you know, 10 people in the kitchen, you have 20 people in the dining room and you're all feeling that, right? And you're all challenging each other with that, with that. And it's, it's beautiful to watch it continue to improve every day. Yeah. And if it doesn't, we come back the next day. And that's why I said, you know, I, I, you know, it's like, I run a sports franchise, right? We, we, we, we, we, baseball, football, soccer, whatever you want to call it, right? We have the opportunity to come in every single day. And start new. We may have lost the game yesterday somehow, but today we're going to win it, right? That, that positive attitude, that sense of confidence that we all need to have, right? Confidence is so important. But what's more important than confidence? The courage to use it. If you don't have the courage to use your confidence, you're never going to, you're never going to, you're never going to, you're never going to see that level of success that you want. Confidence and courage go side by side. Again, two words which are really, I think, important. I'll share a story when I got courage, when I got courage in my life, then I want you to share one. I got sand everywhere. Okay. Look at this. Thomas. Yes. We share one each. Okay. Okay. So I was a young apprentice. There was a French chef in the front, in the back, of course. Well, sorry. In the kitchen. In the house. His name was Philippe. We'll get there. His name was Philippe. We'll get there. His name was Philippe. Extraordinary individual, like extraordinary. Growing up, super lost. Growing up, super lost. Just lost. Lost young boy. And stepping into his kitchen, I loved, suddenly there was a discipline. You know, you do this, you work now, da-da-da-da-da-ba-ba-ba-ba. I enjoyed it quite a bit. But the moment, and I think it's the defining moment of my career, is a moment where I'm cooking staff dessert. And I decided to cook pineapple. And with this pineapple, you know, it was classic restaurant with the caramel, but I added saffron to it. Oh, cool. Yeah. Whoa. You know, it was like, it was daring at the time. Today, you have added snails and whatever to the pineapple by now. But saffron at that time was like, you know. And I cooked it. And I spun a vanilla ice cream. I timed it to the just last moment. And then he came for dessert. I gave him a potent slice. He came back for seconds. This was on a Saturday. And then by Monday, I'm watching him fiddling with papers. And he comes to me. He says with this French. And he says, Rene, I put the dessert on the menu. And I cannot tell you guys how crazy big that was for me. How old were you? 16, 17, 18, something like that. It was the first time I felt somebody believed in me. Even from my own parents, from my own family. It was the first time somebody said, fuck you. Good job. The pineapple. And, you know, I often think of this story because I've gone through my own story as a restaurateur, as a chef, as a leader. And I often think if I, you know, when I've had a bad day and I've not been my best self and I think, fuck, am I not giving pineapple moments to people? You know, you want, yeah, but you can do the opposite. Instead of igniting a flame that's with you forever, what if you just turn it off? You know? Anyway, that's my story. What's your story? My job today, in part, is to give other people ideas so that we can celebrate it as theirs. Remember that, giving other people ideas so that you can celebrate it as theirs, right? Because that really elevates the commitment that somebody has to what they're doing. And as a chef, as somebody who's an acclaimed chef or somebody who's a knowledgeable chef, to give a younger person an idea and then let them develop it and let them own it is a beautiful thing to happen. So, what's the question? What was my thing? The question is, when was one of those defining moments? If you look deep... Oh, I think, you know, it had to be 1980, 1980, 1989. I was closing restaurant Rakel. Rakel in New York City. I thought I was going to be in New York City for the rest of my life. I thought Rakel was going to be there along with me. And we failed. I'm not afraid to say that. We were, you know, certainly we were challenged, but at the end of the day, we failed. I failed. And I took a job in Los Angeles as an executive chef, which I really didn't understand what that meant, for a hotel. And, you know, as I was leaving New York, there was different dinners that people would have me over and kind of celebrating my time and giving me hugs and kisses and sending me off. And my new boss in Los Angeles asked me to do something for a food and wine event, which was happening at the time I was arriving. And it was Bill Wilkinson, who was a formidable man in the hotel business at that time. And Bill said, I want you to wow the Angelenos. Like, what the... What does that mean? I'm extremely sad, terrified, apprehensive. And now I have to think about moving to Los Angeles and wowing the Angelenos with something that I can do. It was not like a mini skirt or anything he was talking about. I don't... Yeah. And some friends of mine, close friends of mine, took me to a restaurant in Chinatown, which we would frequent. And instead of having green tea ice cream, we walked... Do you remember the name of it? Phoenix Gardens. Yeah. We would walk across the street to Baskin Robbins and have, you know, what I considered a normal ice cream. And, you know, in the back of my mind, you know, it's just spinning around like, wild the Angelenos, wild the Angelenos. And the young ladies give me a scoop of butter pecan ice cream and put it in the holder on top of the counter. And that moment, I saw the cornet. That was it. Wow. Went back home, started playing with it. Moved to Los Angeles. That became a defining moment of your career. And developed the coronet. And that's when that started. And so that was a real defining moment for me, right? But there are many moments in our lives which are defining, as I pointed out, the significance of one decision. People make decisions for you. You make decisions for yourself. Right? Me deciding to buy the French laundry without any resources whatsoever, including experience or education in really buying a restaurant. But I committed to doing that. And because I committed to doing it, I was going to do everything I possibly could. Now, somebody told me in the beginning, Thomas, this is what you're going to have to do in order to buy this restaurant. I would have said, no way. No way. Yeah. I can't do that. So my biggest asset at this time in my life. Is craziness. No. Was ignorance. Ignorance. Yeah. They tell you ignorance is bliss. This is true. And every day I would wake up. And finally, I have all these little things around. I cut out a title from an article in the New York Times, which I don't even remember what the article was about. But the headline was, having a dream is hard. Living it is harder. Having a dream is hard. Living it is harder. I cut that out and put it on my little makeshift desk. And I would start making phone calls every day. Trying to raise money for this restaurant. 18 months with so many individuals who had supported me. Who had made decisions. Helped me make decisions. To actually fulfill that goal of mine. To buy the restaurant. And you never do anything alone. Right? No. You ask for help. You ask for help. You make yourself vulnerable for that. People, all of you, all of us, want to help each other. It's in our nature. And so if you can be vulnerable and ask for help, you will get all the help you need. And that 18 months of my life, trying to buy the French laundry, was a pure example of just this lovely, wonderful experience with people who just wanted to help. You think that's the best time of your life? I think right now is the best time of my life. I'm happy you said it. But that was a memorable time in my life. I mean, it's those moments in time where you're going outside of the scope of what you normally do to do something you've never done before. You've never done before. Don't be afraid of doing something you've never done before. Right? It is the most exciting moments. Right? You've done this many times. Right? Yeah. Your first pop-up. You never did before. Right? No, no. But it was exciting. Right? It's exciting. You brought the team together. Everybody worked towards it. Right? But in many ways, you know, I have three kids and sometimes they go to school and they're worried that they're going to do something and the other kids are going to laugh. Like they fart in school and everyone will laugh at them or something. You know, it's kind of, it just, that stays with you. It just becomes different. You're always afraid of like people will point at you or make fun. It's an important thing. It's an important thing. So I was an introvert. I was, you know, which means I was shy. You know, I didn't have the ability to have really great eye contact. I couldn't articulate things very well when I was young. And when I met Roland Hennon and I decided to become a chef, I realized I needed to change my personality. I needed to change who I was in order to become the person I wanted to be. Nice. Don't stop challenging yourself to make to continue to continue to work to be the person that you really want to be. You can be anything you want. Patience and persistence. Two other words I love. Patience and persistence. Have the patience with yourself. Right? To actually learn what you need to learn to do what you want to do. And that really goes back to being a young cook. Right? Being patient with yourself. Because as young cooks, we all want to do the next thing. Right? No. Go chop vegetables for another 10 days or 12 days or whatever. So patience is important. So patience is important. And then the second word is persistence. Don't let anybody ever tell you you cannot do anything. You can do anything you want. I sit here today as an example of that. Had I not been persistent, if you quit, you quit. You have no choice. I mean, you're done. So, you know, never, never, never quit on yourself. Never quit on those around you. Never quit on your purpose in life. It's a beautiful thing. It's very, very, very true. I will have to say a little caveat here because my daughter is sitting there. You cannot do whatever you want. Maybe, maybe not today. But I want to say, I think you're truly right this about not quitting. And it's something I tell myself because often I have moments where I want to quit. And I know that you quit once and the second time it's easier. And by the hundredth time, it's become very easy to just say no. And some things you just have to stick to. But you've surrounded yourself with people, right? Who feel the same way. I want to ask about people for you. Yeah. Yeah. We know your mother and the chef. You talk about who else has been in your world? Who has been in your life that's been so strong? This young lady over here, Laura Cunningham, you want to stand up? She's here. She's here. She's been an extraordinary partner. Without Laura, there would not be a French laundry. I can tell you that with honesty and certainty. But what about you? What about in your life, in your person? How has that meant? Laura? It's been... Well, I mean, I think with anybody that you're with for 31 years, you know, it has its challenges, but it has its own successes. And it's happiness and sadness and everything that you go through life about. Yeah. Yeah. But you are here. She, she, Laura, Laura, you know, I don't want to say, Laura really changed in America the way fine dining service was performed. For sure. Up until, up until Laura, there was this sense of intimidation in fine dining restaurants because most of them were French. And, and when we started the French laundry. Yeah. She, she brought a sense of casualness, sense of casual refinement, casual elegance to the way the, the, the, the dining room team interacted with each other and with our guests. So, and you see that now over, over and over again in so many fine dining restaurants throughout the U.S. And so thank you, Laura. Bravo, Laura. Yeah. Thomas, um, it's been some while now since you started the French laundry and I mean, you had rocket fuel on. What's going to happen? What's the next 50 years? That's a good question. So it was six years ago. It was the 25th anniversary of the French laundry. We had a big party. Um, and I didn't intend to stand, you know, eat, you know, in, in the front, um, walkway where, where people were coming in, but I w I was there for a moment and I just, I got stuck there the entire evening. Um, because people kept coming by and I needed to say hello to everybody. So I stood in this one spot for about three hours, which, which, you know, gave me the opportunity to, you know, kind of think about other things. I like to liberate myself, you know, and one of the thing about cooking is that you do the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, right? Um, to the point where you do it so well, you don't have to think about it, which gives you the opportunity and liberates you to think about other things, which is really, really important. So take those opportunities, right? When, when you're doing something that is, I don't want to say mindless, but something that you've done and you have confidence in. And so I was standing there, you know, saying hello to everybody, chatting with everybody. And I started to think, um, there was the 25th anniversary. And I'm thinking, damn, how selfish am I? How irresponsible could I be? Because it was my 25th anniversary. But it wasn't the 25th anniversary of the French Laundry. And I vowed on that day that I would start celebrating the anniversary of the French Laundry. Because I started to think about what the French Laundry meant. And the purpose of why I'm there. It's a generational restaurant. Don and Sally Schmidt started the restaurant in 1978. I bought it in 1994. I was the second generation. And in order for, for what we do. And legacy was talked about today. And it's an interesting topic. We can talk about that, you know, in many different ways. Um, but, but, but, but a true legacy is what you leave others to build on themselves, which also builds their legacy. And, and legacy will disappear after a while. And it's, and it seems to have disappeared, uh, quicker now than in the past, just because there's so much information through, through the internet and things. Um, you, you, you know, people don't really remember people that, they, that, that, that, that, that I learned from, or that they learned from. Um, and, and, and so it's really important. So I, I decided that, you know, this is a generational restaurant. And my purpose is to make sure that it continues to be a generational restaurant. How? By, by, you know, so here, three, three words, going back to words. Hiring, right? So all of you hire people, right? A lot of you hire people who've been hired. So hiring is probably the most important process in, in, in, in what we, what we need to do in order to continue. to evolve our, our, our, our philosophy, our culture, our work ethics, all those different things that are important to us. And when I, when I was a young, young chef, or a young commis or, or chef de partie, we didn't use those words back then. You were a young cook. Um, you got hired because somebody needed you. You, you knocked on somebody's door at the right time, at the right place, and they needed a, they needed a, they needed a fish cook. You were going to be the fish cook. They were going to train you how to do it. You had two weeks to learn, right? Have anybody been in that situation where you had two weeks to learn how to do something? It's ridiculous, right? I mean, all of you who are parents, right? You put floaties on your children's arms as they learn how to swim, right? They're 15 years old before you take them off, right? I mean, the training process goes on and on and on. So hiring the person and then training the person, right? And training goes on, as I said, for everything. And then mentoring the person. So those three things. You hire the right person, you mentor the right, you, you hire the right person, you train them, and you mentor them, what happens? What do you think is the result of that? Thomas Keller. Well, thank you. The new one. The result is that person is better than you are. Because if they're not better than you are, then you've done a shitty job, right? And I'm happy to sit here today. That's a good point. And that's how, that's how you create generational, if you want to call it generational wealth, right? Is by making sure that you pay attention to what you're doing when, when somebody's really young, and somebody has, has that opportunity to be formed. Make people better than you are. Make them better, because if they're not better than you are, then you're, then you've done a bad job. And I sit here today, very proud of young chefs that have come to my, I mean, look at you. I've come to, to our restaurants, come to our restaurants, and have become better than me. And that is an enormous sense of pride. And pride is an extraordinary word and an extraordinary emotion, right? Each one of you need to have pride in what you're doing. If you don't, if you're not proud of what you're doing, don't do it. Hmm. Pride is moving. Thank you. Thomas, we've already gone way, way, way. I know, I know. 23 seconds left, so. No, no, it was with the extra time. Okay. We've now gone over extra time. It's like a soccer match. They keep adding time. I never understood that about soccer. Like, how do you get more time? But you know, for a person that grew up introvert, you, you, you, not an introvert anymore. You, you were spilling out wisdom, and it's, it's, it's a joy. Um, and I have two more questions. Okay. One. Okay. Oh, it's on zero, zero, zero, zero. Okay. But that's fine. I'm here. I'm not moving. We, we, we can do whatever the fuck we want. It's your show. It's your show. Hey, um, Thomas, there's always this talk about generational shifts and, and, and so on. I want to know, is there something you envy this generation that's growing up in the industry? What do we want to do? What's your, is there something you envy them? Ah, you know, when you look at the generation growing up today and you wish, I really envy that they have that. Is there something you envy for them? Because I have something that I, so they, they, the number one, I, I, I, I don't, I, I'm not sure I, I, I, I envy it as much as I'm, you know, again, going back to the word pride, um, in, in what they're doing. You know, every generation is different, right? You know, our parents, you know, my parents, generation complained about my generation and your generation's parents complained about your, your generation and so forth and so on. Um, but I, I, you know, I have to say that, you know, the young generation that I come in contact with are extraordinary young individuals. They are as committed as I've ever seen. They're dedicated to their craft as I've ever seen. They, they, they have, they have a sense of work ethic that is, that is really, um, extraordinary. And, and, and, and, and I envy them because, because we have moved so far in this profession, in, in, in America and certainly here in, in, in, in, in, in, in, uh, in Copenhagen, Denmark. We, you know, where we began and where we are today. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's pretty damn extraordinary. I mean, if you look at America 50 years ago, I mean, in, you know, you would be last place, right? And in my lifetime, in my lifetime, I've watched America go from nothing culinarily to now having some of the best chefs, some of the best restaurants, some of the best wineries, some of the best farmers, fishermen, foragers, and gardeners in the world. Right? And, and the same thing has happened here. And so this is a wonderful thing that, that our profession, and I don't call it, again, going back to words, I don't, I, I don't like the word industry. So I think we're all professionals in what we do. Um, and, and we're, we're in the hospitality profession, not in the hospitality industry or the restaurant industry. Um, so just kind of keep that in mind a little bit as well. I mean, you are all professionals in what you do. Uh, and it's important to elevate yourselves beyond, you know, beyond where we were before to somewhere into our future. But I, I think the important thing is that, you know, that each generation has, has, has wonderful things to offer. Um, they, they're, they, they want to, they want to learn, they want to absorb. Um, and in many cases, like me, I wanted to be like Roland, right? And I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure younger generations here want to be like you, or younger generations at home want to be like me. And, and we've done that in a very short period of time because of what we believed in. Uh, and, and that, and that belief helped catapult us in, in, in, into a, a level of our profession. And you mentioned this word leaders, right? We are now leaders in our profession. That's, that's a huge responsibility. Mm. Yeah, no doubt. No doubt about that. When, uh, Fran was here almost 10 years ago, his last words were work for fun. That was kind of his message. What's your last message to all the young people right here that are ready now to attack the world and change their businesses? I would agree with Farron. I mean, if you're not having fun, don't do it. Right? I mean, if you're, you know, if you're not having fun, your guests aren't having fun. Right? So, you know, it's an extension of who you are, your personality, the way you display that, the way you share that, the sense of, the sense of generosity, right? That comes from you. Generosity has nothing to do with giving somebody a glass of wine or buying them dinner. Your, your spirit, right? That sense of generosity that you share with others, right? Is far more impactful than any other thing that we can do for our guests. And making them happy, giving them an opportunity to have fun, right? Restaurants are fun. If you're not having fun in a restaurant, like, what's wrong with that? We run restaurants. It's a place to celebrate. Every single night, we have a party. I mean, just think about that. Every single night, you're inviting all these people in your restaurant, and it's an opportunity to have a party every night. Help them celebrate what they're doing. Give them that opportunity to have a memory. Because memories, the definition, the definition of success is giving people memories. That's it. Memories. Memories. And then, if you can mention it one more time, what were the three things you do? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, diet, exercise, and sleep. One more time. One more time. One more time. Diet, exercise, and sleep. Okay, we do it all at the same time. One time. Diet, exercise, and sleep. Thank you, Thomas Keller. You are amazing. Thank you.