Hands On With Chef Eric Ripert: An Excerpt From Theories Magazine
Your exclusive preview of our spring issue, available in stores and online March 14.
One part belief system, one part work ethic, chef Eric Ripert’s ethos comes down to an appreciation for the little things in life, and the artistry that makes each detail sing.
Words by Alicia Kennedy
Photography by Victoria Hely-Hutchinson
Fashion by Ian Bradley
Eric Ripert cuts a counterintuitive chef profile. He has maintained a level of excellence at Le Bernardin, the landmark New York restaurant where he’s been chef for 30 years and co-owner for almost 25, that has consistently seen itself awarded three Michelin stars.
Yet he hasn’t turned this success into chain restaurants, or even another Le Bernardin in Las Vegas, Miami, or Dubai. He hasn’t put his name on a line of cookware or food hall franchises. Rather, he sits on the board of City Harvest, New York’s largest food rescue organization, brings attention to the cooking of Buddhist monks (like Jeong Kwan on a 2017 episode of Chef’s Table), and gives monthly book recommendations on social media. His 2016 memoir 32 Yolks: From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line reveals that his talent and peace have both been hard won. His cookbooks, like Vegetable Simple from 2021 and Seafood Simple two years later, express his shockingly approachable style of cooking. From his desk in Midtown Manhattan, he talks about how his philosophy of generosity, forgiveness, and education inspire him in his day-to-day restaurant work and beyond, and how with his next book, he hopes to influence everyone picking up a knife to bring less ego to their cooking. Behind him, the Emmys he won in 2010 and 2011 for his PBS cooking show Avec Eric sit on the shelves next to statues of the Buddha and an intricate Tibetan tapestry. For Ripert, significance is given to both the secular and the spiritual.
Alicia Kennedy: The word simple is so present in your book titles—what is its significance to you?
Eric Ripert: Well, it is very subjective: What may seem simple to me may be complicated for someone else. For me, it means something that doesn’t require a lot of effort. In a sense, simplicity is something that is meaningful and powerful but that comes naturally. And when you share it with people, it is engaging and inspiring without all the fuss.
“I have the mind of an artisan, and I’m living my passion.”
Kennedy: Is that your approach in restaurants and cookbooks?
Ripert: It’s my approach in life.
Kennedy: You moved to the United States from Paris in the 1980s. What has New York City’s role been in your life as a chef?
Ripert: I started in Washington, D.C. when I was 24 years old, and as you know, the city is made up of plenty of lawyers and bankers and politicians, and it’s very boring, while New York was really happening. I was inspired by what I was seeing over there: the Union Square Greenmarket and all the different cultures mixed in. I wanted to come to New York because I was mesmerized by the energy, by the architecture, and then by the melting pot that lives together in harmony and shares everything, including recipes, techniques, ingredients, and flavors and so on. When I first moved to New York it was wild. The energy, the nightlife, the parties, everything was nonstop. Now life is very different. These days, going out means having a great cocktail and a nice dinner with my wife and close friends. I’ve built my home here. I have more responsibilities, and I really do feel like a New Yorker in the best way. The city is a magnet for talent, and people from all over the world come to share, showcase, compete, whatever they want. It’s tiring to be in that environment, but at the same time, it’s so inspiring. And so when you’re tired, you just take a vacation.
Kennedy: We’ve come to assume that when a chef achieves a certain status, they’re all of a sudden never in the kitchen. What has kept you there?
Ripert: Well, I am not in the kitchen all the time—but most of the time, I’m in the kitchen. I am very involved with Le Bernardin, and the team in general because it makes me happy. Sometimes I ask myself, Why are you in the kitchen so much, when everybody else is opening restaurants left and right and doing a lot of things that are rewarding? But I have the mind of an artisan, and I’m living my passion. I came into the business of cooking because I love cooking, and because I love eating—well, first of all, actually, it was reversed. I loved to eat well as a kid, and then cooking came later on. Now if I’m too far from the kitchen or the restaurant, it doesn’t make me happy. I’m not happy to be in a plane or on a train going to look at another restaurant: It would be a nightmare to have 50 restaurants. For me, the one-on-one contact with my team, the teaching and sharing of knowledge, it’s invaluable, and that makes me really, really happy, and so I stick to that.
Kennedy: In your memoir you credit your mother and your grandmothers with developing your palate. Did you see the home cook and the rigor of the professional kitchen as in competition or as complementary?
Ripert: They inspired me with their cooking. I would look at them in the kitchen and watch the way they were doing it, putting so much love in the process. I learned from them. They were my first teachers, and I felt the love from them. I was very lucky, because my grandmothers were cooking soul food. My mother was cooking something much more refined, because she was inspired by the chefs at the time, like Paul Bocuse, and that completed my experience as a gourmand. She would put all her emotions in her food, and I could feel it. But to me, I don’t see a difference in gender or between a professional cook and someone who cooks at home for the family. In life, there’s good food and bad food, and it doesn’t matter who cooked it.
Kennedy: I know that your mother was very into fashion. She had these boutiques, was a very stylish woman, and kept you in great clothes. Is fashion still an interesting aspect of life to you?
Ripert: I like fashion, but my dress code is black sneakers, black pants, black T-shirt.
Kennedy: Your wardrobe is quite minimalist, quite like Theory.
Ripert: It’s simple.
Kennedy: There’s so much conversation about whether fine dining can sustain more of a vegetable-forward ethos. Why did you start a vegetarian tasting menu?
Ripert: Le Bernardin is a seafood restaurant, but a lot of our clientele wanted vegetarian items on the menu beyond just plain green salad or grilled vegetables or a plate of pasta. I thought it was a good exercise for us to create something delicious, obviously, and vegetarian. We embraced the challenge, and we went with it, and now it’s in addition to our menu. Right away we gained an audience that we didn’t have before. In our neighborhood there are a lot of international banks, and we had people from India who are vegetarian who were like, “Oh my God, this is really fantastic. We couldn’t come before because we thought you only served fish. Now we can come.” I’m a Buddhist, and I’m conflicted by the fact that animals are being killed and served, so for me, it was a little bit of a reconciliation with this.
Kennedy: Vegetable Simple is such a beautiful cookbook. And I realized at the end of your acknowledgements that you thanked a monk—Matthieu Ricard, who has a fantastic book from 2014, A Plea for the Animals. Can you tell us a bit about your next book?
Ripert: The book will come out in October. It is for people who cook at home, for people who entertain, for professional cooks, for everybody. Very often, the pleasure of cooking, the joy and the meaning, is spoiled by the wrong vision, the wrong approach. This book is inspired by my experience studying temple food in Korea. It’s not a Buddhist book; it’s a secular message for everyone to be grateful, be mindful, and have the right intention. Create joy for whoever’s going to eat the food, and make sure that those people also will be strong and healthy so they can go on to do good deeds themselves. In a nutshell, this is what the book is about. In professional kitchens, I see so many cooks who are obsessed with the stars and the rewards and the good reviews, including people at home who are inviting their neighbors over just to impress them. They put so much ego in their cooking that they are stressed—forget all of that. Just have fun and cook, and then everything else will come from that.
Kennedy: I’ve seen you speak about how chefs shouldn’t yell in kitchens. What is the role of forgiveness for you in the kitchen?
Ripert: We have to be very disciplined, very precise, but we don’t have to be abusive. Ultimately, it comes down to treating others the way you want to be treated. Do you want to be insulted? No. You want to be humiliated? No. Well, therefore don’t do that.
About Theories
Much like the clothing Theory makes, Theories magazine is an homage to the innovation and originality of New York City and its creative community: the artists moving the cultural needle across fashion, cuisine, art, theater, and so much more. There they share their theories on style, life, work, and what it means to be a New Yorker today.
Credits
Groomer Taichi Saito at Art Department.
Photo Assistant Hector Adalid.
Fashion Assistant Trey Hemmings.
Production The Morrison Group.
 | A guest post by
|