Last week in my Culinary Management class, we each had to pick an example of a company, restaurant, or individual business in the food service insdustry that provided a good example of employee/business management and team building skills, and prepare a short presentation on it.

Today, we had to present that presentation.

I chose Chef Thomas Keller, a personal favorite of mine. For those who don't know, Chef Keller is well known for his exceedingly high standards and very deliberate, conscious, and respectful approach to food. I talked a little bit about the French Laundry, and about his general outlook and philosphy of food and cooking, and how it related to his staff and the experience his customers recieve.

Anyway - at one point, I couldn't think of the town that the French Laundry is located in, and one of my fellow classmates called out "Yountville". I thanked him, and finished up the presentation.

After I was done, my chef instructor was making some comments on my presentation, and asked if the other student who had called out was also a fan of Keller's.

"Kinda," he said. "He's my uncle."

How cool is that. Maybe we can talk him into arranging a field trip, hah.

Anyway, sorry if I rambled a bit, I just had to share.