When acclaimed American chef Thomas Keller was preparing to open Per Se, his New York outpost, he took extraordinary steps to make sure everything was just so.

His space in the Time Warner Center was carefully outfitted with marble stairs, a fireplace and Italian bronze on the floor. Workers from his fabled French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley set up camp in New York for months. And the staff hired to deliver his vision to the table went through an intense culinary curriculum, studying ingredients and their origins, the essence of the chef’s nine-course tasting menu.