Cookbooks In Publication Order
- The French Laundry Cookbook (1999)
- Bouchon (2004)
- The Complete Keller (2006)
- What’s Cooking? (2007)
- Under Pressure (2008)
- Ad Hoc at Home (2009)
- The Essential Thomas Keller (2010)
- Bouchon Bakery (2012)
- Thomas Keller Bouchon Collection (2013)
- Crock Pot Cookbook (2017)
- The French Laundry, Per Se (2020)
CookBook Covers
Thomas Keller Books Overview
The French Laundry Cookbook
Thomas Keller, chef/proprieter of the French Laundry in the Napa Valley ‘the most exciting place to eat in the United States,’ wrote Ruth Reichl in The New York Times is a wizard, a purist, a man obsessed with getting it right. And this, his first cookbook, is every bit as satisfying as a French Laundry meal itself: a series of small, impeccable, highly refined, intensely focused courses. Most dazzling is how simple Keller’s methods are: squeegeeing the moisture from the skin on fish so it saut es beautifully; poaching eggs in a deep pot of water for perfect shape; the initial steeping in the shell that makes cooking raw lobster out of the shell a cinch; using vinegar as a flavor enhancer; the repeated washing of bones for stock for the cleanest, clearest tastes. From innovative soup techniques, to the proper way to cook green vegetables, to secrets of great fish cookery, to the creation of breathtaking desserts; from beurre mont to foie gras au torchon, to a wild and thoroughly unexpected take on coffee and doughnuts, The French Laundry Cookbook captures, through recipes, essays, profiles, and extraordinary photography, one of America’s great restaurants, its great chef, and the food that makes both unique. One hundred and fifty superlative recipes are exact recipes from the French Laundry kitchen no shortcuts have been taken, no critical steps ignored, all have been thoroughly tested in home kitchens. If you can’t get to the French Laundry, you can now re create at home the very experience the Wine Spectator described as ‘as close to dining perfection as it gets.’
Bouchon
Thomas Keller, chef/proprieter of Napa Valley’s French Laundry, is passionate about bistro cooking. He believes fervently that the real art of cooking lies in elevating to excellence the simplest ingredients; that bistro cooking embodies at once a culinary ethos of generosity, economy, and simplicity; that the techniques at its foundation are profound, and the recipes at its heart have a powerful ability to nourish and please. So enamored is he of this older, more casual type of cooking that he opened the restaurant Bouchon, right next door to the French Laundry, so he could satisfy a craving for a perfectly made quiche, or a gratin ed onion soup, or a simple but irresistible roasted chicken. Now Bouchon, the cookbook, embodies this cuisine in all its sublime simplicity. But let’s begin at the real beginning. For Keller, great cooking is all about the virtue of process and attention to detail. Even in the humblest dish, the extra thought is evident, which is why this food tastes so amazing: The onions for the onion soup are caramelized for five hours; lamb cheeks are used for the navarin; basic but essential refinements every step of the way make for the cleanest flavors, the brightest vegetables, the perfect balance whether of fat to acid for a vinaigrette, of egg to liquid for a custard, of salt to meat for a duck confit. Because versatility as a cook is achieved through learning foundations, Keller and Bouchon executive chef Jeff Cerciello illuminate all the key points of technique along the way: how a two inch ring makes for a perfect quiche; how to recognize the right hazelnut brown for a brown butter sauce; how far to caramelize sugar for different uses. But learning and refinement aside oh those recipes! Steamed mussels with saffron, bourride, trout grenobloise with its parsley, lemon, and croutons; steak frites, beef bourguignon, chicken in the pot all exquisitely crafted. And those immortal desserts: the tarte Tatin, the chocolate mousse, the lemon tart, the profiteroles with chocolate sauce. In Bouchon, you get to experience them in impeccably realized form. This is a book to cherish, with its alluring mix of recipes and the author’s knowledge, warmth, and wit: ‘I find this a hopeful time for the pig,’ says Keller about our yearning for the flavor that has been bred out of pork. So let your imagination transport you back to the burnished warmth of an old fashioned French bistro, pull up a stool to the zinc bar or slide into a banquette, and treat yourself to truly great preparations that have not just withstood the vagaries of fashion, but have improved with time. Welcome to Bouchon.
The Complete Keller
From two acclaimed, award winning restaurants came two of the most acclaimed, award winning cookbooks ever published now packaged together in a luxurious slipcased boxed set, the ideal gift for any food lover. First there was French Laundry in Napa Valley, setting a new standard for American fine dining. Then there was The French Laundry Cookbook, setting a new standard for American cookbooks. In 1998, Chef Keller opened Bouchon, so that I d have a place to eat after cooking all night at the French Laundry, and that restaurant, too, gave birth to a groundbreaking cookbook. Now, fifteen years after Thomas Keller first set foot in what would become a landmark restaurant, these two extraordinary books are offered in a striking new slipcased edition. With this year’s opening of the Bouchon Bakery in New York City, and last year s momentous Michelin guide that awarded Keller s Per Se the top honors, Keller is increasingly in the limelight and his inventive, delicious food is increasingly in the consciousness of a national audience. The Complete Keller is the perfect gift for anyone who loves fine food.
Under Pressure
A revolution in cooking Sous vide is the culinary innovation that has everyone in the food world talking. In this revolutionary new cookbook, Thomas Keller, America’s most respected chef, explains why this foolproof technique, which involves cooking at precise temperatures below simmering, yields results that other culinary methods cannot. For the first time, one can achieve short ribs that are meltingly tender even when cooked medium rare. Fish, which has a small window of doneness, is easier to finesse, and shellfish stays succulent no matter how long it’s been on the stove. Fruit and vegetables benefit, too, retaining color and flavor while undergoing remarkable transformations in texture. The secret to sous vide is in discovering the precise amount of heat required to achieve the most sublime results. Through years of trial and error, Keller and his chefs de cuisine have blazed the trail to perfection and they show the way in this collection of never before published recipes from his landmark restaurants The French Laundry in Napa Valley and per se in New York. With an introduction by the eminent food science writer Harold McGee, and artful photography by Deborah Jones, who photographed Keller’s best selling The French Laundry Cookbook, this book will be a must for every culinary professional and anyone who wants to up the ante and experience food at the highest level.
Ad Hoc at Home
Thomas Keller shares family style recipes that you can make any or every day. In the book every home cook has been waiting for, the revered Thomas Keller turns his imagination to the American comfort foods closest to his heart flaky biscuits, chicken pot pies, New England clam bakes, and cherry pies so delicious and redolent of childhood that they give Proust’s madeleines a run for their money. Keller, whose restaurants The French Laundry in Yountville, California, and Per Se in New York have revolutionized American haute cuisine, is equally adept at turning out simpler fare. In Ad Hoc at Home a cookbook inspired by the menu of his casual restaurant Ad Hoc in Yountville he showcases more than 200 recipes for family style meals. This is Keller at his most playful, serving up such truck stop classics as Potato Hash with Bacon and Melted Onions and grilled cheese sandwiches, and heartier fare including beef Stroganoff and roasted spring leg of lamb. In fun, full color photographs, the great chef gives step by step lessons in kitchen basics here is Keller teaching how to perfectly shape a basic hamburger, truss a chicken, or dress a salad. Best of all, where Keller’s previous best selling cookbooks were for the ambitious advanced cook, Ad Hoc at Home is filled with quicker and easier recipes that will be embraced by both kitchen novices and more experienced cooks who want the ultimate recipes for American comfort food classics.
The Essential Thomas Keller
Two award winning books in one box offer a lifetime of learning for anyone who loves fine food. From two acclaimed restaurants came two of the most acclaimed, award winning cookbooks ever published now packaged together in a luxurious slipcased boxed set, the ideal holiday gift for any food lover. First there was French Laundry in Napa Valley, setting a new standard for American fine dining. Then there was The French Laundry Cookbook, setting a new standard for American cookbooks. In 2006, Chef Keller opened Ad Hoc, his casual family style restaurant that serves a single menu a day, and that restaurant, too, gave birth to a groundbreaking cookbook, in fact a New York Times best seller. Whereas Ad Hoc at Home offers a huge happiness inducing collection of family style recipes that includes lunch counter favorites lemon meringue and cherry pie; such classics as Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Herbed Rack of Lamb, plus Thomas’s mom s coconut cake and his dad s favorite meatballs The French Laundry Cookbook is a culinary ode to finesse. Every recipe in it has become a classic: from Keller s Salmon Cornets to his Oysters and Pearls and Butter Poached Lobster. From the casual but carefully considered food of Ad Hoc at Home to The French Laundry Cookbook s recipes at their most refined, this is cooking that delivers in taste, and makes us all better cooks.