Hubert Keller
Fleur de Lys
San Francisco CA
Fleur de Lys, Mandalay Bay
Las Vegas NV
Burger Bar, Las Vegas and St. Louis
Sleek Steakhouse and Ultra Lounge, St. Louis
Chef Hubert Keller´s career has been a tour of the cooking of his native France, a tour whose souvenirs he is happy to share with diners at his San Francisco restaurant. it´s important to note here that in French, souvenirs are not mere trinkets from the road but profound memories.
Since opening Fleur de Lys with Maurice Rouas in 1986, Keller´s French cuisine has drawn wide praise as the best in San Francisco. Those who´ve shared this opinion have included John Mariani in Esquire, Bryan Miller in the New York Times, and Michael Bauer in Food & Wine.
If the student is, to some degree, a measure of the master, then both Keller and his teachers have much for which to be grateful. His training began at the Ecole Hoteliere in Strasbourg, then continued under the Haeberlin brothers at the Auberge de l´Ill in Alsace. After additional training with Paul Bocuse at Collonges, Keller spent time with pastry expert Gaston Lenotre in Paris and cooked aboard the Mermoz, one of the stars of the French Paquet Line. Experience at the Domaine de Chateauneuf in Nans les Pins led to an assignment with Provencal celebrity Roger Verge at Moulin de Mougins.
Famed restaurant followed famed restaurant for Keller, including stints at the Hotel Negresco in Nice and the Hotel Prieure in Saumur. Finally, though, Verge called the chef back into the family to open his La Cuisine du Soleil in Sao Paulo, Brazil. After two years in this very different world, Keller moved to San Francisco to manage the kitchen at Verge´s Sutter 500. When Keller opened Fleur de Lys with Rouas, it, too, was on Sutter Street. Now he also has a Fleur de Lys inside he Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and his own TV series.
Though he can thank a lifetime of great chefs for teaching him so many things, today Keller considers Verge his mentor. It was under his influence that Keller developed his own style of combining the classics of French cuisine with the sun-struck foods of Provence. And Keller passes it on, through his PBS series, Secrets of a Chef.
