French Laundry chef Thomas Keller's recipe for success

Thomas Keller, world-renowned for his prowess with a knife, is wielding a tape measure. Positioned between two stainless steel counters in the kitchen of his Michelin three-star French Laundry, the chef stretches the tape from edge to edge, demonstrating the unusually tight span between cooking stations. "It's only 31 inches across," he says, smiling with a mixture of sadistic pride and mock horror. "That's barely a step from one side to the other." That means chefs are forced to cautiously dance around one another as they choreograph the restaurant's nine-course menu. Yet it's this kind of closeness that has distinguished Keller's team since he opened his Yountville restaurant in 1994.

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