Last week, Thomas Keller's three Michelin-starred NYC restaurant Per Se landed in the #10 spot on The S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants list. It's made the top ten every year since it opened in 2004. Meanwhile Keller's original masterpiece on the west coast, the French Laundry, located in Yountville, CA, didn't even crack the top fifty (it was #56). Though it too boasts three Michelin stars and an epic history of critical success. Which at some level begs the question, where do these two restaurants diverge?
According to The French Laundry's Chef de Cuisine Timothy Hollingsworth when Keller opened Per Se in 2004, making a carbon copy of The French Laundry wasn't the goal. "It wasn't like [Keller] said 'Okay, we have a three Michelin-starred restaurant here in California, let's go open up a three Michelin-starred restaurant in New York,'" says Hollingsworth, who moved to New York for two months to help open Per Se. "It was more like, can we open another restaurant with the same philosophy and have them operate independently?"
At Per Se, Chef de Cuisine Eli Kaimeh, a Brooklyn native, agrees. Philosophically the two are nearly identical (they even have the same framed Kellerian mottos hanging in their kitchens), but Per Se often looks outside New York City, and even the country, for technical and ingredient-related influences. TFL's Hollingsworth adds, "Eli and my flavor profiles kind of differ."
Click through the gallery above to see their kitchens, menus, and restaurant strategies juxtaposed in this exclusive Feast photo tour. [The Feast NY]
