Thomas Keller

Thomas Keller (middle)

Thomas Keller (born October 14, 1955) is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. He and his landmark restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996 and the Best Chef in America in 1997, and the restaurant is a perennial winner or top 4 finisher in the annual Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World. In 2005, he was awarded the highest, three star rating in the inaugural Michelin Guide for New York for his restaurant per se, and in 2006, he was awarded three stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide to the Bay Area for his restaurant The French Laundry, making him one of only two chefs in the world with two simultaneous three-star restaurants.