# Never Turn Away a Writer [Thomas Keller asked me to leave the French Laundry. It turned into my most extraordinary night as a critic](https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/thomas-keller-french-laundry-20290670.php) by MacKenzie Chung Fegan for the San Francisco Chronicle ([Apple News+ Link](https://apple.news/AZqNKdkFMSDqmPTzQYMAJOw)) > "Through the kitchen windows I can see Keller’s brigade, heads down, preparing the food I thought I was here to eat. He gestures toward them. The young chefs working for him don’t deserve to have their work slighted, he tells me. He personally does not care about the reviews, he insists, but his staff? It gets to them. And for that reason, even though he doesn’t know me, even though he’s sure I’m a nice person, he does not want me here." > "I told Keller I wasn’t going to write a review, and I meant it; I don’t have much to add to Ho and Clark’s recent critiques of the food. I will say that our servers put on the show of their lives, trying to save the evening, but all the cheerful professionalism in the world couldn’t cut through what had transpired, the inhospitality of it all. " I am reminded of [the old App Store Review Guideline](https://web.archive.org/web/20140903022336/https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/). > "If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps."