If you were one of those people who thought of dirty French clothes, though, you weren't totally wrong. The restaurant, in Yountville, California, was once a French laundry. It's actually a saloon-turned-brothel-turned-French laundry-turned-restaurant. The restaurant was opened in 1974 by the mayor of Yountville, who sold it to Thomas Keller in 1994. Soon after, the French Laundry rocketed to restaurant fame, heralding a three Michelin star ranking since 2006, among other awards.
Thomas Keller, who grew up in California, started cooking at a young age, working at his mother's restaurant. After a series of apprenticeships, he moved to France where he continued his culinary studies. He opened the French Laundry in 1994, and continued on to open Bouchon, also in Yountville, in 1998 and the Bouchon Bakery in 2003. Finally, Keller opened Per Se, in New York City, in 2004.
Keller's restaurants serve fantastical creations ranging from salad of roasted fairytale eggplant (with ingredients as amazing and obscure as panisse and padron pepper aioli) to mascarpone enriched arrowleaf spinach agnolotti (this one has "champignons de Paris" in its ingredient list. What the heck is that?). Unfortunately, a meal there would cost somewhere between $185 and $295, but apparently it's worth it.
And now, some lovely photos for you to drool over.
http://www.frenchlaundry.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Laundry#Awards_and_accolades
http://topics.wsj.com/person/K/thomas-keller/1134
Photos: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/12/dining/20111012-REST.html?ref=thomaskeller#1
I really like the focus you have in this blog post. The unique background of Thomas Keller and how The French Laundry became a restaurant makes for a very interesting subject. The way you begin the blog post is also funny and helpful as a way to introduce the restaurant for less-informed food lovers like me. I am excited to see your future posts, and I hope they will include more features of various restaurants. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a comment earlier on this post, but it seems to have disappeared. So, here is my second try.
ReplyDeleteI am reluctant to pay 300 dollars for that amount of food. Look at it, he is using a syringe to dispense the sauce. I didn't pay $300 for a spoonful and three drops of sauce.
On the other hand, I am really intrigued by this. The food looks delicious (no matter what the serving size is), and most certainly it is a very elegant restaurant. Everything looks so amazing, times like this I wish I were a millionaire.
The name is also pretty cool, "The French Laundry" isn't really what one expects such a fine restaurant to be called. I would have thought it would be named in some french way where you can hardly pronounce the name correctly, so of course it must be dignified if no one can speak its name.
Both of your posts got posted!
DeleteWow, that's interesting. "The mythical lair from which Ratatouille came from." After four years of taking French, I've been very interested in French cuisine and cooking. Thanks for doing a blog post on this.
ReplyDeleteIf only the food didn't cost hundreds of dollars... Maybe, just maybe, I'll become a millionaire and can afford to eat there. :)