The recipes he's contributed to Food & Wine span the styles found at his various outposts: We have comfort food recipes in the vein of Ad Hoc inventive, elevated dishes like the ones found at The French Laundry and even a Bouchon-inspired quiche. Thomas Keller is known for applying American flavors to French classics. Keller went on to open several more restaurants, including Bouchon, Per Se, and Ad Hoc both The French Laundry and Per Se hold three Michelin stars. By 20, The French Laundry ranked number one among the World's 50 Best Restaurants. The James Beard Foundation named Thomas Keller the Best California Chef in 1996 and the Best Chef in America in 1997. It wasn't long before Keller learned about a certain restaurant space for sale in Napa Valley in July of 1994, The French Laundry opened its doors. Keller left Rakel for California in 1990 when his business partner decided to take the restaurant in a different direction amid an economic downturn. At that time, he was cooking at his first restaurant, Rakel in New York City Andrew Zimmern was a line cook there, and Tom Colicchio was a sous chef. Now, to the TOC.Food & Wine began naming Best New Chefs in 1988, and Thomas Keller was among the first group to receive the honor. Bonus: Some photos of Keller saying things like “that’s how I roll” (get it, lobster rolls?) and “I do like to spoon” (eggs, that is). Lots of delicious stuff here, along with asides about trussing a chicken, tying a boneless roast, and the like.

What isn’tincluded is an extensive table of contents, so we’ve typed one out for you below, a task that was actually more of a challenge for our stomach than it was for our hardened typing fingers.

Of course, there’s a recipe for Keller’s buttermilk fried chicken in the book (“If there’s a better fried chicken, I haven’t tasted it,” the chef modestly writes). Obviously aware of the fried-chicken zeitgeist, Artisan sent us the tome, along with the Ad Hoc All-Natural Fried Chicken Kit that sells for $14.50 at Williams-Sonoma. Yesterday Eat Me Daily took a look inside Coco, the Phaidon coffee-table cookbook that got Canadian toques up in arms because not a single Canuck ranked as a “world-leader.” And now another highly anticipated project, Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home, has finally hit stores.

Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller