The phone rang and did not stop. Reservations became impossible to get for lunch and dinner, a total of ten services per week. It became common to have a hundred patrons for dinner and eighty for lunch. Chef Keller arrived around 10:00 A.M. on the weekends, expedited lunch service, then rolled right into butchering fish or cleaning foie gras as soon as lunch was broken down. The team prepped frantically until service, and most of the staff meals were eaten from deli containers while monitoring sauces as they reduced or garnishes as they cooked. In addition to the immense pressure brought on by the onslaught of popularity, chef Keller was in the process of opening his second restaurant, Bouchon, and had begun work on The French Laundry Cookbook. The man did not stop moving for a second. One day he overheard a cook complaining about being tired and sent him home. “You’re tired? Why don’t you go home and sleep, then.” That became the running insult that cooks would jab at a yawning coworker or when they sensed a lull in productivity.
