The Thomas Keller Empire

Thomas Keller 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.


Bouchon


Bouchon Bakery





French Laundry's garden







And last but not least The French Laundry

Ad Hoc

The building at 6476 Washington Street was originally intended to be a very different type of restaurant. While we were designing it we thought we'd experiment by opening a temporary restaurant and calling it Ad Hoc, which literally means, "for this purpose." The idea for Ad Hoc was simple - 5 days a week we'd offer a 4 course family style menu that changed each day, accompanied by a small, accessible wine list in a casual setting reminiscent of home. We wanted a place to dine for our community and ourselves. The decision to change over the restaurant, however, was taken out of our hands by our guests. The response was so positive, we simply couldn't close. So, in September, 2007, we decided to stay open permanently and now we're serving dinner 7 nights a week.



Bread service


Poached Atlantic Salmon – pencil asparagus, braised leeks, bibb lettuce, whole grain mustard vinaigrette.




Snake River Farm Pork Chop – with jameson cream sauce, caramelized savoy cabbage, melted onions and marinated crimson potatoes.





Gorwydd Farm’s Caerphilly – Irish soda bread and marshall’s farm honey.

Sticky Toffee Pudding – vanilla ice cream, toasted hazelnuts.