2019-06-01_Golf_Digest

edited by peter finch

40 golfdigest.com | june 2019

Cutting Strokes

Chef Thomas Keller

chases high standards

in the kitchen

and on the course

is it fair to judge a club by
its club sandwich? When I
eat at golf clubs, it’s usually for
dinner. So for me, it’s about the
wedge salad. There’s not much
flavor to iceberg lettuce, it’s all
texture, so if they can get that
crispiness right, add correctly
cut bacon, use a really good
blue-cheese dressing, fresh on-
ions—every component of that
dish is important—that tells me
they’ve thought it through. The
other benchmark is the steak.
After playing golf all day, a
wedge salad followed by a nice
New York strip or sirloin is what
you want. Two basic foods that
have been around for genera-
tions, but a club needs to do
those well. Oakmont comes to
mind, but I’ve been fortunate to
have a lot of great meals in golf.
●● ●
you’re a regular com-
petitor in the pebble beach
national pro-am. how do
those nerves compare to
opening a restaurant?
No matter how bad it gets, the

tournament is going to be over

in three days. A restaurant and

its problems could go on for 25

years. But both golf and cook-

ing constantly give the oppor-

tunity to fix mistakes. I’ve told

my staff that we run a sports

franchise, and that each day

we come to work with the

score 0-0 with the diners.

Some days you’re off, and you

have to adjust. In golf, it took

me a few years to develop the

understanding and confidence

to play reactively.

●● ●

do the tour players you

meet angle to get reserva-

tions? The first pro-am I ever

played was at Cog Hill, and I

was paired with Charley Hoff-

man. I’d been playing only a

couple years and was nervous

about hurting a spectator. He’d

won the week before and so had

a lot of his team following him

excitedly. I’m slicing and hook-

ing. They ignore me entirely.

Even the scorekeeper walked

away from me. On the sixth

T

homas keller is the only American-

born chef to hold two three-star Michelin

ratings simultaneously. He also hosts an

annual golf tournament open to all staffers

of his dozen restaurants. In his newest, TAK Room

at Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the “Augusta green”

upholstery of the dining chairs is no accident.

The morning after opening night, he took questions

from Golf Digest Editorial Director Max Adler.