Chef Thomas Keller on Creating Destination Restaurants

For chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller, the sense of place in a restaurant is defined by the quality of the establishment. And for Keller, service — not food — is most important in creating a quality restaurant. Keller spoke with Skift Table on stage at Skift Global Forum this year alongside Kenneth Himmel, the CEO and president of Related Urban, the real estate development company behind the massive Hudson Yards project in the works in New York City. (Once completed, Hudson Yards will be one of the largest private real estate developments in the United States.) Keller and Himmel have worked together since the early 2000s, when Kimmel was building out the Time Warner Center. "You begin all of these projects by wanting to find best-in-class operators," Himmel explained. For him, that meant calling up Keller, who then agreed to work with him. Himmel said that the layout of the Time Warner Center was panned while in development because the restaurants were all on upper levels of th