American celebrity chef Thomas Keller first wrote about a dish he called "byaldi" in his 1999 book The French Laundry Cookbook.

[6][7] He served as food consultant to the Pixar film Ratatouille, allowing its producer, Brad Lewis, to shadow for two days in the kitchen of his restaurant, the French Laundry.

[1] Keller decided he would make the ratatouille in confit byaldi form, and fan the vegetable rounds accordion-style with a palette knife.

[8] According to Thomas Keller's recipe, a piperade is made of peeled, finely chopped, and reduced peppers, yellow onions, tomatoes, garlic, and herbs.

The piperade is spread thinly in a baking tray or casserole dish, then layered on top with evenly sized, thinly sliced rounds of zucchini, yellow squash, Japanese eggplant, and roma tomatoes, covered in parchment paper, then baked slowly for several hours to steam the vegetables.