Thomas Keller Highlight Three or Four Major

Thomas Keller Highlight three or four major world events or technological advancements during this person's life. Thomas Keller was born in 1955, and witnessed several major world events and technological advancements during his lifetime. When Keller was about nine years old, the Civil Rights Act was passed. This landmark legislation transformed race relations in the United States and helped to empower African-Americans in particular. When Keller was 14 years old, he would have watched the moon landing footage on television, a major global event that was also technological in nature.

Keller came of age during the hippie generation, which might have influenced his career. Being from California, Keller undoubtedly exposed himself to unique ideas during this time. Keller also lived through major world events like the oil crisis in the 1970s, but also would have bore witness to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Finally, Keller's work as a chef would have changed dramatically as technologies of restaurant management changed.

When Keller first became a chef, for example, there were no Yelp reviews, no Open Table for booking, and no Web pages for restaurant brand management. Reviews for restaurants were done by professionals only, published in major newspapers. Word of mouth publicity was possible but not nearly as rapid or prolific as online customer reviews have become now. The consumer public has changed dramatically throughout the course of Keller's life as a chef.

When Keller first started out in cooking in the 1980s, only French food was on the American radar. The American public remained uneducated about the cuisines of other cultures. Flip forward to the 21st century, and the Food Network, coupled with the Internet and its wealth of food blogs have created a generation with unprecedented access to information about global cuisines. An increasingly educated public transforms the nature of restaurant work.

Chefs like Keller become increasingly challenged because their audiences are more knowledgeable and have higher expectations than they might have prior to the technological advancements of the information age. The tools and techniques of cooking have also changed since Keller first started working in Michelin-star restaurants. Moreover, the concept of the "mega-chef" or celebrity chef is a new one that has emerged during Keller's lifetime ("Chef Thomas Keller of The French Laundry -- Biography"). 2.

Explain who eats the food, where it is served, & how it is served (Commensality and foodways) Keller has spent most of his career in fine dining at the high end of the price spectrum. The upper echelon of global food, symbolized by the coveted Michelin star, is not accessible to the vast majority of people from around the world. This means that the people eating Keller's food are primarily wealthy, although they may come from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

The first restaurant Keller owned himself was Rakel in New York City. Keller is most famous for the restaurant he purchased in 1994, The French Laundry in Yountville, Napa Valley, California. The French Laundry is known as "one of the finest, most reputable restaurants in the United States," and a reservation must be made many months in advance (Stiavetti 1). Currently the restaurant is undergoing renovations, because the kitchen space was too small (Gold). In addition to The French Laundry, Keller owns several other restaurants.

All are part of the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group (TKRG), including Bouchon and the Bouchon Bakery, both of which are also in Yountville as is Keller's more casual Ad Hoc. Keller also owns another Michelin three-star restaurant called Per Se in New York City. Because of the exorbitant price of eating at one of the TKRG restaurants, the dining experience is rather formal. Thus, the commensality and foodways of fine dining differ significantly from those in traditional eating experiences and food cultures.

Fine dining in part reflects the cultural norms of wealth, material accumulation, and social status. With disposable income, individuals can afford to eat at a place like The French Laundry. Eating at the French Laundry represents a unique foodway, which is global in scope. Restaurants like The French Laundry are internationally renowned. The corresponding foodway is not one of boisterous large families sitting together at a table but rather, a more staid situation in which small groups challenge their taste buds and approach their food as art.

In fact, Keller was inspired by the Louvre when designing his restaurant in Yountville (Gold). This highlights the fact that foodways have shifted from socializing toward a more internalized, subjective experience open to personal interpretation. As Allard points out, "food and food-related practices can serve to either reinforce social relations that are based on social differentiation…or to strengthen ties within a group through commensality," (4).