Éric Ripert

Ugh.

Pete Wells reports that Eric Ripert has written a new cookbook arguing that mindfulness, gratitude, and lessons he learned from Buddhist temple cooks can make you happier in the kitchen, which is a lovely message for an industry whose traditional spiritual practice is screaming, "Where the fuck is table 12?" The book includes about 90 plant-based recipes because it seems the chef of Le Bernardin has reached the final stage of enlightenment, realizing the fish would also prefer not to be at Le Bernardin.

[laughs]

Ripert's Buddhist journey began in 1989 when he almost bought Playboy at a Paris airport, but instead bought a book by a fake Tibetan lama who later claimed one of his books was dictated by a Siamese cat, proving that sometimes the path to spiritual awakening is just choosing the second weirdest thing at Hudson News.

But having cookbooks on a color e-reader is actually pretty fantastic.

So Cucina Povera, and Baking For Two, and Seafood Simple by Eric Ripert, like, are all, you know, things that are right there in front.

And I'm just about to start Butter by Asako Yuzuki, and I'm looking forward to that too.

Thanks for sharing that with us, and thanks for being in here, Michael.

And I think that I came up in an era of chefs where a lot of our icons seemed like perfect specimens of cooking, like the things that they were capable of.

I still don't know how like Eric Ripert or Daniel Ballou do some of the things that they do.

And it's amazing to look up to people like that.

It's amazing to have those examples.

They all came through.

I remember when Eric Ripert came for lunch.

I remember they all came in, right? And first of all, you have to understand, Adrienne, I didn't read New York Times.

I didn't know what Food & Wine was.

One, because they were such good friends and he's very conscious about protecting the legacy of Bourdain.

And I'm sure it's quite painful to Eric Ripert that he was there in France in the same hotel, basically, when Anthony Bourdain passed away.

So... lot a lot wrong with this movie about a real person that was important to a lot of us yeah out of five stars i give it like 0.25 it was terrible all right this is it one whiskey i'm finishing this up uh this is a bottle that i found we were out shopping somewhere i came across this bottle i had seen it before i didn't um i kind of famously don't like uh gimmicky bottles or bottles that focus on things that distract from the product like if the cause is great that's great um but if the product's not good then there's the only reason you're buying the product is for the cause and there's no need to ever buy it again um but if the cause is great if the cause is important and the product you're getting with it for the price you pay is good then yeah worth it so I saw this bottle it is the Penelope fuck cancer bottle and I just thought like so many people in my world and people I know in their world and just cancer is something that if it hasn't touched your world In some way.

Bless you.

Yeah

... and Eric Ripert on, like, having a restaurant for 30 years, what is that like?

Yeah.

You know? Um, we, we redid the plating of a lot of our dishes-

We had two nights in Paris.

My favorite meal was at Frenchie, which Anchy- Anthony Bourdain went to with Eric Ripert years ago on No Reservations.

And a Michi- uh, it's my f- my, I mean, I've had Michelin-grade dinners before, but Frenchie, uh, was outrageously good, and so I recommend that if people are going.

It's just, I, I think Paris might be number one on my power rankings after going there for just two nights.

And, um, I was just like, I want to do this for real.

If I'm going to do this, I want to do this for real." And it was reading that book and it like him talking about like his interactions with like Eric Ripert and some of the classic French chefs and like it infused in me like, I want to do that.

If I'm going to do this, I want to do this

at the top of the game.

And one of the best things, I think, in, in my career so far that I was afforded was this opportunity to be able to learn from so many other amazing established chefs.

Um, I started with my father and learning in Spago Beverly Hills, but from there I went on to work for Nobu Matsuhisa in London, uh, for Eric Ripert at Le Bernardin or Grant Achatz at Alinea in Chicago, the Roca brothers in Spain, the Reitbauer family in Vienna, Guy Savoy, Éric Fréchon, and Glenn Viel and Jean-André Charial in France.

Just a small list of the really important chefs across the world.

But they- [laughs]

And that's a blessing, and that's something amazing, and that's something I constantly try to carry with me.

Um, I think I learned a multitude of different things from different chefs.

You know, when I went to work at Le Bernardin, Eric Ripert is, like, the epitome of this Zen chef in the kitchen, where he's very, very particular about his cuisine, his technique, and his team.

But the way in which he approaches you is so calm and collected and pleasant, even if you may have done something wrong, 'cause I, I definitely did.