A narrative from the people who actually work in some of the worlds best restaurants is something that has interested me for quite some time. These are the people, who on a daily basis, put their blood, sweat and tears into cooking, running the front of house and serving the masses. We are proud to introduce narratives by people that make food culture what it is. The first narrative is by Brandon Olsen, a long time friend of ACQTASTE and a veteran to the Toronto food scene. Brandon tells the story of his first day at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry.

I knew about Thomas Keller a while before I had the idea of going to work at the French Laundry. I went to culinary school in ‘04 for one year because I promised my folks I would go.  Then one day, I decided while just sitting in class, that I wanted to go and stage at the French Laundry. I wanted to do something cool, something no one I’ve known or talked to has ever done. So that’s why I applied to the French Laundry. My sous chef at the time said, “you’ll never get in.” They pick the best of the best, and they get hundreds of resumes everyday. I wanted to get in pretty bad. So I spent five months e-mailing and writing letters to Thomas. I was also doing a sommelier course on the side with Dan Volway. He was my teacher and every Wednesday, I would call the French Laundry and try to talk to Thomas and they’d say he was out of town or he’s in a meeting, they said just send your resume, so I sent a resume. I sent letters. I sent recommendations from restaurants that I worked in. Every week I would send something.

On my 22nd birthday in March, I got a call from Devon, the sous chef. He said you can come down in August. I was pretty stoked about that. I had from March to August to figure out how I was going to do it. My dad and my step-mom Sharon, they flew down; so they took like a mini-vacation, and dropped me off so I could get all settled up.

I went down, spent a day in San Francisco and then we headed out to the Valley and just hung out. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. My mom was looking for places for me to stay at but the Valley is unbelievably expensive, and I was trying to do this on a super, super cheap budget. We found this place called the Discovery Inn. It’s down on Silverado Trail, which is in Napa. It’s about ten miles out because the French Laundry is in the middle of the Valley. It’s in Yountville, so it’s ten miles to St. Helena from Yountville, and ten miles to Napa. I was living in Napa and it was the dirtiest motel ever. We went to Wal-Mart and we bought a bike because that was going to be my mode of transportation. I didn’t have a car, I didn’t know the bus routes, and I didn’t even know the bus could even get up there.

So there I was, riding this remake vintage bike from Wal-Mart ten miles up the valley to go work at the French Laundry. I left pretty early –just to gauge how much time I had before my shift. I showed up an hour early so I went out for lunch. When it was close to my start time I headed back to the French Laundry and entered through the back-way.

When you walked in, it was like, this is it. There was silence. Nobody was really talking. All the chefs de partis and the chefs are in their blue aprons. All the stages–that was me, I was a stage –had their white aprons. Everything was immaculate. Everything had a place and an order. Everything was amazing. When I walked in, I said, “Hi, I’m Brandon. I’m here to do a stage”, and they set me up with my jacket and my apron and I went up and finally met Devon. He was working down at the passe and he was breaking down the fish. He said “you’re going to work with the chef de partis in the canape station”. So I started working but nobody told me what to bring. Of course, you have to bring your knives. I brought a jacket just in case they didn’t provide a jacket. I brought a couple of aprons, but they provided that for all of us. But nobody told me that we were supposed to wear black pants. No one told me that. I should have really asked. So I’m there with my striped pants and I was thinking, “Oh boy.” They said I’d have to get new pants for tomorrow. So I said, “yeah I’ll get new pants.”

Five minutes into it, I’m working with this guy just peeling onions, and they’re so meticulous about it. There is a small membrane on a red onion that gives it its colour.  So if you tear it, it looks like it’s torn, but it’s not actually cut into, it’s just this small membrane’s lost and there’s a colour deviation. He said to me, “you have to make sure when you do something, you have to make sure it’s done properly, you have to take your time to make sure it’s done.”

So I’m doing this and next thing you know I get a tap on my shoulder and I look around, and there he is. It’s Thomas. In my mind, I’m thinking, “holy fuck, that’s Thomas Keller.” I knew he had Bouchon, he had Per Se, he had a lot of things on his plate. I didn’t think I was ever going to see him on the first day, within the first hour of me being there. He said, “Hi, chef.” And I was thinking, “Thomas Keller is calling me chef!” Later on, and even years later, when I went back to work with Dave at Ad Hoc, I realized why they call you chef and why you call him chef.

He said, “Do you mind if I just fix the rug that you’re standing on?” Because it was kind of just crumpled up. And I said “yeah, sorry, chef.” And he responded, “You’re new here.” I said, “yes, chef. I just came down to stage.” And he said, “welcome.” And that was it; that was the extent of the conversation. But he had to stop what he was doing to fix the mat. It’s just a mat to some people, but to Thomas it was an imperfection. It wasn’t meant to be. If you’re going to do something, do it right. You’ve got to make sure your station is properly organized and clean, and even though it’s a mat, it’s still part of your station. It didn’t click into me exactly why and I didn’t ask exactly why but now looking back on it, I understand the whole thing about it.

I just started working with this guy and next thing you know, staff meal was up. I started around 3 o’clock in the afternoon and there’s always morning commis and night-time commis. At nighttime, there’s only two. But in the morning, there’s five or six of us. Plus all the regular CDPs and all that. They got me to do some prep, some pearl onions, some bournoising. You can peel a bag of pearl onions, but to actually make sure you cut the root off square and peel it nicely, it takes a long time. They’re not big bags but they are your good-sized pearl onion bags that you find at Metro or something like that. I was so nervous. And one girl was giving me so much hell because I was ripping that one layer and it was an imperfection. “You can’t use this. It will be all garbage. It will be staff meal.” I saw Thomas call line that night. It was pretty intense. It was a humbling experience, and I’m very honoured and privileged to have experienced that.

There was another guy who was staging from England and Devon didn’t think we really understood what French Laundry meant or what we were doing. He gave us a talk; he said, “If you guys came here to stage, you’ve got to treat this as your job because this isn’t party-time. This isn’t a time to come in and say, ‘Hey, I worked at the French Laundry.’ This is your job. You do it like everyone else. You put in as much passion as everyone else. So if you’re not into it, then don’t come.” It was actually that kind of talk that made it click: This is what makes the French Laundry.

They don’t play around. They’re straight. If you don’t want to be here, don’t waste your time. It’s that mentality and philosophy that’s made that restaurant one of the best restaurants in the world. I was blown away. And this is why I came here: to hear that. It was at 2 o’clock in the morning, it was pitch black. I remember my bike didn’t have a light, and I was thinking, “Shit! Devon told me I had to be back at five in the morning.” Basically three hours later. But I had to ride ten miles.

My parents went to dinner. My stepmother Sharon, being a mother figure in my life, was really worried about me because of it was so dark out. My dad said, “Oh whatever, it’s Brandon, he finds his way. Just let him do his thing.” And they were driving back from the restaurant, it was only 10:30-11ish. It was dark, the valley has no lights, except for on the main highway. All the side streets had no lights. They drove down the side street where I rode up. They turned off the lights on the car and it was pitch black. Only the moonlight was lighting up, but now it was nothing. [Laughs] My step-mother started to freak out and was like, “I can’t have this. Brandon, he has no lights, no reflectors, nothing”. I had nothing. I just bought the bike. There I was, riding down at 2:00-2:30 in the morning, ten miles down the valley, back to my shitty motel room where they didn’t even clean any of my sheets. It was so ghetto. I’ve lived in some crappy places in my life, but this is probably one of the crappiest places I’ve ever slept in. It was so bad. When I got home, I went to 7-11, bought a jug of milk and a cereal box–Frosted Flakes cereal cup. It’s one of those eat-and-go… you know, as you go, you just pour in the milk. It doesn’t leak out. That was my breakfast. This was at 3:30 in the morning. So when I get to the motel I lay out all my stuff, pack my bag and I get into bed. But I forget to set my alarm. So at 6:30, I woke up and I was looking around and thinking what time is was. I jumped out of bed quick, and I biked up that valley so fast, and I got there. It was about 7:30 when I got there, I walked in and went up to the daytime sous chef–his name was Chef Michael… At the time I was like, oh shit, what was his name. It starts with an S. I forget. I walked up to him and said, “I’m so sorry. I forgot to set my alarm.” And he said, “I didn’t even know you’re in, no worries, just put your jacket on and start your day.” So I started.

Narrative by Brandon Olsen
Edited by Arianne Persaud
Illustrations by Tabitha Fisher

Meet Brandon Olsen.

FOODTOGRAPHY is a column that features food photos and portraits that capture everything relating to the food world whether it be emotions or just great food shots.

Brandon Olsen is a cook that has been working in some of Toronto’s best kitchens for years.  When it comes to food, he is a very focused individual that just wants to learn as much as he can.  Brandon’s passion for cooking is evident through the countless hours he spends in the kitchen.  This photo was taken while he was taking a break from a busy day of cooking.  Despite the tired look in his eyes, his playful nature comes through and shows us his lighter side.

Photography by Chuck Ortiz.