Superstar chef Thomas Keller visits students at Lake Worth High School, his alma mater

LAKE WORTH BEACH — What’s more amazing than Taylor Swift showing up at your high school? For culinary students at Lake Worth Community High School, the answer to that question came to visit Wednesday wearing a chef’s jacket.

The superstar onstage was Michelin-starred chef Thomas Keller, who visited the students of the school’s Culinary Arts Academy. The visit, which included a lecture, conversations with students, lunch and a student-TV interview, was also Keller’s return to his alma mater. The globally acclaimed chef graduated from Lake Worth High in 1973.

Keller, who put on an apron before addressing the auditorium audience, was just as moved by the visit as the culinary students.

“I get very emotional when I have these opportunities, because I’m extremely lucky,” said Keller, 68. “Understanding that there is this wonderful culinary program here was a very, very pleasant surprise and I immediately wanted to be back here.”

The chef, who is set to open a restaurant on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach sometime in late 2024, spoke to the culinary students about the lessons he learned on his way to success.

Keller began his speech describing his tumultuous mindset while attending high school.

“I doubt I would have ever been chosen most likely to succeed,” he said. "It was a difficult time for me in life, as it is for most of us at that age ... but as we do when we find difficulties and challenges in our lives, we find ways to persevere.”

That way would be the Palm Beach Yacht Club, after his mother Betty, restaurant manager at the club during the 1970s, got him a job as a dishwasher. “To keep me out of trouble, she put me in front of the dishwasher,” Keller said.

More: Chef Thomas Keller returns to his roots - on Flagler Drive

The job was pivotal to Keller's journey to culinary greatness. He owns of a fleet of award-winning restaurants, including Napa Valley’s The French Laundry and New York’s Per Se, both three-Michelin star awardees.

“Sometimes you learn things without realizing at the moment," said Keller, referring to his time as a dishwasher. "I didn’t realize the impact that was going to have on me later in my life.”

Through that early job, Keller said he picked up what would be six “disciplines” that he'd carry throughout his career: organization, efficiency, feedback, repetition, ritual and collaboration. However, these disciplines require the right mindset, Keller said. And that begins with desire, not passion.

"Passion is not a constant," Keller said. It is desire that can move you through the day, he said. “That desire is there to do a good job, to try to make a difference, to try to have a one percent improvement every single day.”

Keller warned students to not rush through life, emphasizing the need for patience, not only to succeed as a cook, but to enjoy the journey of life. "Don't rush through your career, don't rush through life, appreciate the moments by finding gratitude and happiness in the moments as you continue to work on your career," he said.

But sometimes taking your time requires urgency. Keller said a sense of urgency is sometimes important when completing a task because it allows you "enough time left over so you can learn something."

He described his own journey in the kitchen, and how he would prepare his station as quickly as possible so that he could observe the saucier chef's preparations. "So that when the moment arrives and the chef needed a new saucier, I could raise my hand and say, 'I'm ready,'" Keller said.

Keller also spoke about the importance of failure and critical feedback as vital tools for growth.

“Learn to accept critical feedback. Now, rightly so, it has to be given in the proper way,” he said. “But nonetheless it can help you grow enormously.”

Following the presentation, Keller took questions from the audience. One student asked him about his current aspirations.

“My aspiration today in my life is to make sure my restaurants are generational restaurants.”

He related the answer to the 25th anniversary of The French Laundry, celebrated in 2019.

“Over 750 came to celebrate the anniversary of The French Laundry, and I realized in that moment that was the most selfish thing I could do,” said Keller, who bought the restaurant in 1994 from previous owners Sally and Donald Schmitt. “The French Laundry was 17 years old when I took it over.”

Now, Keller celebrates both anniversaries, incorporating the anniversary date of the Schmitts' purchase of the property on Feb. 9, 1978, which means the restaurant celebrated its 45th anniversary as a generational restaurant this year. Next year will mark the chef's 30th anniversary as owner of the esteemed eatery.

After the presentation, Keller sat for an interview with the high school’s TV production team before enjoying a lunch cooked by the culinary students. The students watched from afar as he munched on chicken and vegan empanadas, still warm from the fryer.

Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Star chef visits LWB alma mater, speaks to culinary students