HATTIE: So what did you do?

THOMAS: You just keep doing what you're doing.
Eventually my partner, you know, forced me
to accept the fact that I couldn't, you know--
either I changed what I wanted to do foodwise
and thus change the prices, or we'd have to find
somebody to take over the restaurant.

So I said, "Well, you know my purpose in my career is to do the kind of food that I believe in, and I'll give up the restaurant and we'll bring somebody else in and we can reformat the restaurant." And that's what happened. I left.

HATTIE: So what you're saying is that you're not changing.

THOMAS: I wasn't changing. No... I believed in what I was doing and I believed that I would find a place to be able to do it. I thought that if I would compromise my quality and my standards that it would be the end of me.

HATTIE: And then...

THOMAS: We shook hands and I left. I left. So I took a job in Los Angeles. And first time being in a corporate environment was disastrous for me.

HATTIE: Layers of bureaucracy.

THOMAS: Yeah. It was disastrous. It didn't afford me the ability to cook. As the chef, as the executive chef of a hotel, you were expected to do everything else but cook.

HATTIE: Oh. You had to manage staff...

THOMAS: Yes. I had staff meetings and budget meetings. I mean, I was in meetings four or five times a week. I found out that I was miserable in that environment. I was in a kitchen environment and not able to cook. I was not cooking.

I left the hotel and I started a small business called EVO, which was an olive oil company, with a partner. And we produced olive oil for a while. We still do; I still do. And that kind of kept me busy. It was fun, made a little bit of money at it. But what it allowed me to do was think about where I wanted to be in my next step, and I found The French Laundry.

I always kind of back into things, I guess is the way that I do it. I found the restaurant, I said, `This is what I want. Now how can I get it? How can I get it?' And that was the biggest challenge of my life. And I think if I knew then what I know now, I'd have probably thought, `That's ridiculous. I'll never be able to do that.'

HATTIE: In other words, it was too big of a dream.

THOMAS: Yeah, it was just too many things involved in buying a business. I had no idea.