who's next/who else?

[CityCook]

Michael, I want to thank you along with everyone else who's already done so for devoting your time and attention to this Q & A session.

I'm mindful that this question may seem insulting to chefs I'm ignorant of; if so, I apologize for my ignorance.

I want to ask you, Michael, if you have encountered many chefs who are able to devote the same standard of thoughtfulness and care to their food as Thomas Keller has set in his kitchens. Is there another chef who you see as being "the next Keller" by virtue of possession of the same ideals and principles, or is the rest of the cooking world, as it sometimes seems to me, too consumed in the nightmarish blaze of production to be able to care as much as Keller (& Co.) seems to? Alternately, if I'm off-base and there are chefs all around who are like Keller in this respect, what, in your opinion, is the combination of elements that makes this level of food devotion possible?

Thanks in advance!

[Michael Ruhlman]

You and everyone are more than welcome, happy to answer questiongs.

Though yours is difficult--no I don't know. Keller's one of a kind, and there may be five more coming up or about to emerge or maybe even out there cooking away in obscurity at failing restaurants (as keller did for most of his career). Honestly, I don't know--but someone surely will. Bourdain, of course, might have been able to do it ... but he sold out to TEEvee.