French laundry michelin stars8/10/2023 ![]() Ho notes that at one point, before Michelin started publishing regional guides in the US in 2005, it was the only American restaurant to even garner stars. When it comes to The French Laundry, which has been under Keller's control since the mid-1990s and has been an international destination for much of that time, consumers should know whether the significant effort to even garner a reservation is still worth it, let alone the price tag. This is, after all, the most vital role of city's primary restaurant critic, to be the final word on whether new or old restaurants are worthy of your hard-earned dollars - we can't all eat everywhere in such a food-rich region, and we seek guidance. So, clearly the opinion was: not worth a splurge. But, without giving any further insight, Ho confirmed that yes, they had been to all of those places. No new reviews of these restaurants have appeared in the paper since Ho's tenure began in 2019, so it was plausible that they were left off because Ho had not made it to all of them yet. I reached out to Ho back in July, when I took note of the snubs of not just the French Laundry but also two other Michelin three-star spots, Quince and Manresa, on the Chronicle's Best Splurges list. Is it still worth the splurge?" should give you a clue about where this is going - because to even ask the question means the answer is likely "no." The headline, "The French Laundry remains so hot there’s a black market for reservations. Ho's review of The French Laundry is out, and by way of explanation for why it's taken them so long to publish, we hear some details about the backflips and tricks required to secure three reservations there in the course of three years - in order to give it the proper three-visit treatment. Today, we see another Bay Area sacred cow being, however gently, taken down. That was the signal the Chronicle wanted to send by having Ho's big opening review be of Chez Panisse - they didn't care for it too much (Ho uses they/them pronouns), but the review nonetheless showed a keen palate and a generosity of spirit, even a reluctance to sound flip or cruel given the respect that Alice Waters and her pioneering restaurant deserve. It can't be said that Soleil Ho is not a reliable critic, and unlike in the reviews of predecessor Michael Bauer, one can rest assured that there are no sacred cows being given kind treatment, and there is no playing favorites going on. Stand out dishes include salt and rye-baked lamb neck celery root ‘pastrami’ with pumpernickel melba, petite lettuces, Persian cucumbers and Burgundy mustard and caviar with chocolate-hazelnut emulsion, which was apparently inspired by one of his chefs dunking a chocolate and nut cookie in caviar mid-service.Three years in, Soleil Ho drops a review of The French Laundry, and now the details emerge about why the Chronicle's restaurant critic left Thomas Keller's famed restaurant off a recent list of best splurge restaurants. ![]() Like the chef’s restaurants themselves, the recipes strike a good balance between classicism and innovation. Keller is a master of his craft and his dishes are in no way overwrought. In fact, it seems with Keller and team that the more straight forward-sounding a recipe is the more complex it will be. It would be an intrepid home cook that attempted the chef’s ‘French Onion Soup’ which has four different elements including a 12-ingredient consommé and requires a chamber vacuum packer, a waterbath and a foam siphon. The French Laundry, Per Se is no different. It can still be found on the shelves of many a high-reaching UK chef and is famously complex and exacting: it is first and foremost a manual for professionals. ![]() Published way back in 1999, Keller’s French Laundry book is a modern classic and among the world’s bestselling cookbooks, shifting an impressive 600,000 copies. ![]() Thomas Keller’s books have long been popular with chefs on this side of the pond and his most recent work looks likely to be no different. The reassuringly hefty tome explores the relationship between his two most famous restaurants: The French Laundry in California’s Napa Valley and Per Se in New York, which both have three Michelin-stars and are constantly linked via live video
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