Behind the scenes with chef Thomas Keller at the Los Angeles Food and Wine Festival

Thomas Keller gets his beach ball arm warmed up before service at the Los Angeles Food and Wine Festival.  (Russ Parsons / Los Angeles Times)

There’s no Thomas Keller production without a little theater -- in this case, the Bouchon logo encased in ice, topped by ice containers to hold the oysters, shrimp and mussels.  (Russ Parsons/Los Angeles Times)

The containers on top were filled with enough crushed ice to keep the shellfish cold for several hours.  (Russ Parsons / Los Angeles Times)

Bouchon chef David Hands garnishes the Bouchon logo with fresh seaweed.

Thomas Keller inspects the Bouchon beach balls. Each of them had to be perfectly inflated. That’s pure Keller.  (Russ Parsons / Los Angeles Times)

The team of oyster shuckers rocked steady for more than three hours, opening more than 1,600 oysters. That’s heroic.  (Russ Parsons / Los Angeles Times)

And of course there was media. Here a team from KTLA-TV (Channel 5) interviews Thomas Keller.  (Russ Parsons / Los Angeles Times)