Take Five With Timothy Hollingsworth, the New Chef De Cuisine at the French Laundry
Placerville, Calif.-native Timothy Hollingsworth may have grown up surfing the waves at Bolinas and Ocean beaches. But now, the self-taught chef is in for the ride of his life on a veritable culinary tsunami as the new chef de cuisine of the one and only French Laundry in Yountville.
The esteemed restaurant, which has won every accolade imaginable, just celebrated its 15h anniversary last month, too. Hollingsworth, who has been with the French Laundry for seven years, stepped into the top toque role this month with the departure of predecessor Corey Lee, who left to open his own restaurant.
If the 29-year-old Hollingsworth is feeling the weight of that responsibility pressing on his young shoulders, he’s not letting on. Hollingsworth, who learned his craft apprenticing in celebrated European kitchens, including one manned by bad-boy chef, Gordon Ramsay, is used to being under pressure. Earlier this year, he competed in the prestigious Bocuse d’Or, the Olympics of cooking, where he placed sixth out of 24 chef teams from around the globe.
During a recent hiatus before resuming work at the French Laundry, Hollingsworth was kind enough to do an interview via email.
Normally, I prefer conducting interviews in person or over the phone, because it’s more difficult for someone to sidestep questions once you have them engaged in conversation. What kind of questions, you wonder? Oh, ones such as “Timothy, did Gordon Ramsay ever call you a ‘stupid donkey’ when you worked for him?’ ” (No comment.) And “Will you be in charge of cooking the dinner for the wedding of Thomas Keller and Laura Cunningham?” (No comment.)
Oh well, you have to give a Food Gal credit for trying, right?
Here’s what he did answer: