This time around it was better: there were glimpses into chef Hollingsworth's inspirations. Closed until 11:00 AM (Show more) MonThu. My last meal was delicious, but it felt sterile and soulless. Check out the menu for The French Laundry.The menu includes chefs tasting menu, vegetable tasting menu, and wine list. While I've never been lucky enough to eat dishes prepared by Thomas Keller, Chef Hollingsworth comes close to what I'd imagine chef Keller's cooking to be: precise and composed. Sometimes there's synergy between an executive chef and a chef de cuisine, and at other times, a discontinuity. On the one hand it's an incredible opportunity for a chef to propel his career, but unfortunately, the dishes still have to further the concepts and passions set forth by someone else: Thomas Keller. It's an interesting situation being the chef de cuisine at a restaurant of this caliber where the executive chef no longer cooks. Since then, Chef de Cuisine Corey Lee left and opened San Francisco's Benu, with Timothy Hollingsworth taking his place. The French Laundry is a legendary restaurant located in the Napa Valley town of Yountville California, Ground Zero for some of the best restaurants in California. It was four years since my last visit to the French Laundry. But it also means that the dishes will never feel spontaneous and whimsical, and it's difficult for them to convey chef Keller's inspiration. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it means that Chef Keller is a good teacher, one who is able to teach his staff how to reproduce his dishes with enough accuracy that they can be prepared anywhere. Whether the restaurant be in Napa, New York, or the basement of a department store in London, the dishes are the same. If there's one thing Thomas Keller taught us during his 10-day pop up in at Harrod's London, it's that The French Laundry brand is fundamentally not connected to time and place.
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