Martin Luther King, Jr. Abraham Lincoln. George Washington. Susan B. Anthony. And now, joining this pantheon of Great American Heroes recognized with holidays: Thomas Keller.
Seriously, Thomas Keller Day is now real, thanks to the Culinary Institute of America.
The CIA did not declare Thomas Keller Day a holiday which people celebrate by taking the day off, eating salmon tartare cones and buttermilk fried chicken, and pondering how the combination of nostalgia and an unrelenting drive for perfection could possibly culminate in one very skinny man. No, they’ve turned it into a teaching moment.
On May 13th, Keller and two of his proteges, Grant Achatz and Jonathan Benno, will take over the Hyde Park campus of the CIA for a “day of discussions with students, breakout sessions regarding various restaurant business topics, and a culinary presentation,” according to a press release. Oh, so it’s not a day for the celebration of Thomas Keller’s accomplishments. It’s more like a conference.
In a statement, Keller expressed his honor in being invited to educate the minds of tomorrow: “Education in all of its forms is the foundation for all of life’s pursuits, and it has certainly been key to my own growth as a chef. Any time I have a chance to share some of what I learned, I see it as an opportunity to give back in a modest way — it’s a small measure of thanks for everything that so many others have given to me.”
By the way, that photo above is not a random one that we scrounged online, it’s the official press release image which is incredibly misleading, to be frank, because apparently Thomas Keller Day is about nurturing young chefs and not giving out free back rubs.
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