An American restaurateur whose kitchen is a converted laundry in a remote Californian town has been crowned as the world's finest chef at a ceremony in Paris. Thomas Keller, chef at the French Laundry in the Napa Valley, north of San Francisco, was awarded the title of World Master of Culinary Arts by an international jury last week, beating off competition from French chefs Alain Ducasse and Guy Martin, and British-based Raymond Blanc. Keller, one of the pionneers of the "Californian cuisine" style, said: "My cooking is contemporary American based on French classics. Being American allows me to be a little more liberated." A first-round of the competition, run by the Wedgewood Awards and judged by distinguished national juries, had selected seven best chefs from Italy, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and the UK, as well as from the USA and France. UK winner and World Master finalist Raymond Blanc said of Keller: "He is one of the most serious people in the industry, as much in terms of his inventiveness as in the quality and consistence of his work. He definitely deserves this."
