Thomas Keller: The Schmitts, lovely people, had agreed to sell me their restaurant for $1.2 million. They agreed to take $5,000 in escrow. They believed in me. Had they not, I wouldn’t be here today. An attorney in Los Angeles named Bob Sutcliffe, who I was introduced to by way of Joachim Splichal, Bob was an attorney who did, on the side, restaurant deals. He loved food. He loved wine. He loved chefs. So he worked with a couple chefs in helping them raise money, organize their businesses. So I went to Bob’s office with this idea of The French Laundry and hoping that he would be my attorney. Now, before I went to see Bob, you have to realize that I had worked on this business plan, right? And there was another friend of mine in Los Angeles who taught me how to use a computer. There was a friend here in Napa Valley who was a banker turned vintner who helped me with finance, and who helped me with putting together the financial component of the business plan. So when I went to see Bob Sutcliffe, I had a 300-page business plan and a bottle of olive oil. And this olive oil was a small olive oil company I began to kind of keep me solvent in some ways, but also keep me motivated and keep me busy and have kind of — I wouldn’t even call it plan B. Maybe it was a plan D as an olive oil purveyor. So I went to talk to Bob and I gave him this whole spiel about The French Laundry and here was my business plan. And he said, “Okay, this is how much this is going to cost you.” And I said, “You know, Bob, I really don’t have any money, but I have this olive oil.” I put this olive oil on his desk and I told him about this olive oil and what I was doing with it and The French Laundry and all this. And for some reason he said, “Okay, Thomas. I believe in you, but I need something. So if you can give me $5,000, then I’ll take on the project, and if it’s successful, we’ll take our money on the back end.” I said, “Great.” So for the next two weeks I went to the ATM machine, and on my credit card I took out $500 until I got $5,000, and I took $5,000 in cash and gave it to him and he started to modify the business plan and produce a bona fide business plan that I could then present to partners, which we did.