The Best Chef in the World

The French Laundry, run by legendary chef Thomas Keller, has often been recognized as the best restaurant in the world, but few know the story of its original founder, Sally Schmitt. A culinary pioneer in California cuisine at a time when there were few women chefs, she never earned the widespread recognition she deserved for solidifying Napa Valley as a food-and-wine destination and starting a culinary movement built on seasonal local ingredients. Ms. Schmitt died on March 5, 2022. In an emotional final interview before her passing, Sally tells her own story as a pioneering chef of California cuisine and sets the table for another way to look at life: where balance, rather than recognition, is the ultimate prize. Schmitt shares with trademark humility and delightful candor a message about the rewards of balance and the trap of ambition. As she put it, “I didn’t need to be the best chef in the world…I just wanted to cook, to feed people good food.”