PHOTOS: ‘Experience Bouchon’ Showcases Beverly Hills' Top Businesses

“I used to joke that I opened Bouchon, styled after the bistros of Paris, so that I’d have a place to eat after cooking all night at the French Laundry,” legendary chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller wrote nine years ago in “Bouchon,” his epic 341-page book whose title is also the name of his small chain of bistros, including one in Beverly Hills.

“The truth of it is that bistro cooking is my favorite food to eat,” Keller went on to say, contrasting bistros with the upscale French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley that launched his career as a celebrity chef who was equal parts craftsman and cook. “Roast chicken and a salad of fresh lettuces with a simple vinaigrette. Frisée salad with crisp, chewy lardoons and a poached egg. A dense steak with lemon-herb butter and frites. Ask chefs what their notion of a perfect meal is and nine out of then will name dishes such as these.”

On Monday night, scores—possibly hundreds—of people feasted on a variety of Keller’s bistro food, washing it down with generous quantities of champagne and wine. The event, “Experience Bouchon,” was sponsored by the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce and included live music and entertainment by Cirque-style performers as well as “educational installations” by Dior, Bentley and Rolls Royce, among others.

The idea, as one of Keller’s chef’s, Michael Puglisi, eloquently put it, was to “experience Beverly Hills’ through its major offerings—restaurants, boutiques, salons, car dealerships, artisanal fromage shops, Petrossian caviar—and to let the community know that all of Beverly Hills’ places are kind of together as a family.”

Buchon, he added, was chosen as the event’s host because it has the space—213 diners can be seated in the bistro simultaneously—“and the finesse that we have behind it to showcase Beverly Hills.”