It is official! Thomas Keller will open Bouchon restaurant in Beverly Hills sometime in 2009 in the Gardens Building next to the new Montage Beverly Hills on Canon Drive. Adam Tihany will design the space that will occupy more than 11,00 square feet on two floors including a restaurant and bakery. Rory Herman will be the chef he is presently at Per Se in NYC. He will work under Jeffrey Cercielloo, who oversees casual dining in the Keller operation. Keller, the only American chef with two three-star Michelin establishments says, “I want our food to have integrity and a connection with French bistro history. We’re not being interpretive here; we’re not making crème caramel flavored with lavender.”
Not long ago we attended a dinner at the Le Normandie, at the Oriental Hotel, Bangkok where Keller was cooking for a week. I had a chat with him regarding the long advance booking wait for his restaurant The French Laundry. He nonchalantly said, “it’s not so bad now, only about three weeks.”
Tags: Beverly Hills, Bouchon, Thomas Keller