Visiting The Theater Of The Mouth

Lara Logan Talks To 'French Laundry' Creator Thomas Keller

(CBS)  Keller says great cooking comes from the heart. He’s had no formal training. He spent years moving from kitchen to kitchen in this country and working as an apprentice in France, before finally creating the style of cooking and presentation for which he has become famous.

"The food has a foundation of French cuisine. Very strong classical influence. We take that and we’re inspired by that and the inspiration turns to interpretation and that evolves," says Keller. "And that’s what’s called personality cuisine and that’s Thomas Keller cuisine."

Keller has designed his kitchen down to the smallest detail, from custom-made stoves to refrigerators that keep every type of food at their ideal temperatures. But he says that’s not what’s behind his success.

"I think it’s all about execution. You and I can have the same quality of staff. We can have the same quality of kitchen," says Keller. "But if I can execute the dish better... It really goes back, even beyond that. It goes back to the quality of the product. If I can get a better quality product than you can, then I’m a better chef."

Keller prides himself on using the very best products. His preferred butter comes from only a few very pampered cows that live in Vermont. The finished product arrives fresh every week, along with lobsters from a certain spot on Penobscot Bay in Maine. And the mushrooms are just harvested from the wilds of the California mountains. Keller even picks some of his own produce from a garden right across the street from the restaurant.

"It’s the stuff of legend," says chef and author Anthony Bourdain, who says Keller’s colleagues regard him as a purist.

"Chefs love talking about his standards and the way he has his cooks approach a fish, for instance. A raw fish, the way it has to be handled. You kind of approach it. Address the fish. It has to be stored in the upright, swimming position. No shortcuts, I mean. This is pretty maniacal stuff."

But behind the maniacal stuff is a scientific explanation.

Keller says his practice of handling food with such respect, even reverence, stems from the traumatic experience he had the first time he tried to butcher a rabbit.

"I reached into the cage. And, unfortunately, I didn’t get both legs," says Keller. "Big mistake. And I was holding onto one and, of course, it snapped. And it broke its leg, and the rabbit screamed. It was a terrible sound. It was a moment in my life that changed everything, the way I think about food."

What did he do? "I killed the rabbit and slaughtered the other ten. And then, of course, you know, after that, I wanted to make sure I was extra careful, making sure that I used every bit of that rabbit, and didn’t make a mistake," says Keller. "If I was going to be a cook, if I was going to be a chef, if this was going to be my life, that had to be something that I had to not only participate in, but do it in a way that was proper."

"And you apply that lesson now to everything?" asks Logan.

"I try to apply it to everything," says Keller. "And that’s why when we make a mistake with any food, you know, it just drives me crazy."

Keller also demands a nearly surgical environment in his kitchen. He cleans obsessively, the compulsion of a man for whom spotlessness is next to godliness, a lesson he learned from his mother, who first introduced him to kitchen life. She managed a Florida restaurant while raising him and four older brothers on her own

"I don’t even think I had a job," says Keller. "It was just come here to the restaurant and stand on this milk crate and wash these dishes and that was extraordinary experience."

"Most people would consider that a nightmare job, washing dirty dishes," says Logan.

"I looked at it as something that was very gratifying, you know, to be able to complete a task, and to complete it successfully, and so many times," says Keller. "It really encouraged me to continue on. If washing dishes can be so gratifying, what is cooking about?"

Over the years, Keller’s earned a reputation for refusing to compromise, and he’s become a tough taskmaster for aspiring chefs from around the world who flock to his kitchen.

On this night, the young cooks are left in no doubt that he is not happy with the way they have prepared the risotto.

"You have to be driven. You have to be focused. You have to be aware. You have to be a part of the team," says Keller, who adds that you don't expect anything of them that you don't expect of yourself.

When he’s not cooking, Keller supervises the chefs at other restaurants he owns, including two bistros called Bouchon, one down the street from The French Laundry; the other in Las Vegas, where high rollers come for state-of-the-art steak frites. His most recent project is a new temple of fine dining in Manhattan, called Per Se, where you have to wait two months to get a reservation. The pressure to keep all of his restaurants up to standard is unrelenting.

"When you're cooking at his level, every single plate that goes out could be the end of your career," says Bourdain. "Three of the wrong people at the wrong time in your bar, casually saying, 'This place is not what it used to be' or 'This place is so last week,' can really hurt you."

But the harshest critic Keller usually faces is himself. "I guess the main source of stress for me is the stress I put on myself," he says.

"Because you're always pushing yourself to do better," says Logan.

"Or more," says Keller.

"Or more," says Logan. "And you are a perfectionist by nature."

"I strive to be a perfectionist by nature," says Keller.