Eric Ripert

Eric Ripert

Born	2 March 1965 (1965-03-02) Antibes, France
Cooking style	seafood , French, Latin
Education	Culinary school in Perpignan, France
Current restaurant(s) Le Bernardin (New York City), The Releigh (Miami), Westend Bistro (Washington, DC), 10 Arts by Eric Ripert (Philadelphia)

Eric Ripert (rih-pair') (born 1965 in Antibes) is a French chef, author and television personality specializing in modern French cuisine and renowned for his work with seafood. His flagship restaurant, Le Bernardin, located in New York City, is routinely ranked among the best restaurants in the world by Restaurant magazine's and S. Pellegrino's annual "Worlds 50 Best Restaurants" list and holds the maximum ratings of four stars from The New York Times and three stars from the Michelin Guide. Ripert inherited the title of executive chef and partner of Le Bernadin from founding chef Gilbert Le Coze, who opened the restaurant with his sister Maguy Le Coze in 1972.

Early life

He was born in France and learned to cook at a young age from his grandmother. When he was young, his family moved to Andorra, where he was raised. He later returned to France and attended culinary school in Perpignan.

Career

At the age of 17 in 1982 he moved to Paris where he worked for two years at La Tour d'Argent, a famous restaurant more than 400 years old. Ripert next worked at Jamin under Joël Robuchon and was soon promoted to Assistant Chef de Partie. In 1985 Ripert left to fulfill his military service, after which he returned to Jamin as Chef Poissonier.

In 1989, Ripert moved to the United States and was hired as a sous chef in the Watergate Hotel's Jean Louis Palladin restaurant. He stayed for two years before moving to New York City in 1991 to work for David Bouley. He stayed just under a year so he didn't break contract by being pursued by Gilbert Le Coze at Le Bernardin. In 1994, Ripert became Le Bernardin's executive chef after Gilbert Le Coze died unexpectedly of a heart attack. The following year, at the age of 29, Ripert earned a four-star rating from the New York Times, and in 1996 he became a part-owner. In the Michelin Guide NYC 2006, Ripert's Le Bernardin was one of four New York City restaurants to be awarded the maximum 3 Michelin stars for excellence in cuisine. Le Bernardin received four stars from the New York Times four consecutive times, making it the only restaurant to maintain that exquisite status for that length of time and never dropping a star in ten years. Le Bernardin is often referred to as the Temple of Seafood.

Ripert chairs the City Harvest’s Food Council, and is president of the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation. He has been a guest chef at the French Embassies in Mexico and Venezuela and for the New York City Ballet.

Ripert lent his name, talents, and several members of his team, including Le Bernardin's then-sous chef Richard Brower, to the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, in the form of two restaurants: Blue and Periwinkle.

The former received a AAA Five Diamond Award, the only restaurant in the Caribbean to receive this rating. Both restaurants make creative and extensive use of local food products – particularly the lobster and red snapper, which are strictly sourced from the surrounding waters – as well as sea salt harvested by evaporation. Blue features a three course prix-fixe menu by tradition, as well as a six course tasting menu and à la carte selection. They were the first restaurants to bear Ripert's name and he reportedly brings a team to the restaurants once a month to ensure quality.

Westend Bistro by Eric Ripert at the Ritz-Carlton on 22nd & M Streets in Washington, D.C., opened on 8 November 2007. The concept features casual French and American bistro fare in DC's West End neighborhood. In early 2009, to encourage people to continue to go out for meals despite the economic downturn, Westend Bistro began serving a family-style Sunday Supper of a starter and entree for $28 per person. Ripert opened his newest venture in the Ritz Carlton Philadelphia spring 2008. The name of the restaurant, 10 Arts (run by former Le Bernardin Sous Chef and now Chef de cuisine Jennifer Carroll, also a Top Chef contestant), comes from the hotel's address along Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts.

Eric Ripert has made several guest appearances on cooking-based television shows, including guest judge and assistant chef roles on the second, third, fourth and fifth seasons of Bravo's "Top Chef". Chef Ripert had been considered to join season 8 of Top Chef as a permanent judge, but bowed out when his employee Jen Caroll was selected as a contestant again. He is friends with and has appeared on many episodes of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. Most recently he has launched a series of brief online cooking videos called "Get Toasted" on his website AVECERIC.com which focuses on easy and quick meals that can be prepared and cooked in minutes with a toaster oven. In the series he uses a somewhat high end brick-oven based toaster oven produced by Cuisinart. Adding to his adventures, PBS has aired Avec Eric episodes (started September 2009) where he travels the world and finds inspiration and shows the idea in a profession setting, travels on location, and then finally shows the enlightenment in his very own home kitchen. Chef Eric occasionally resides in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York with his wife, Sondra and son.

Chef Ripert has been a featured chef on Great Chefs television.

In 2010 he played himself in the television show Treme on HBO (season 1 episode 5). He returned in his cameo role in Season 2, in multiple episodes.

Books

• Le Bernardin Cookbook (co-authored with Maguy Le Coze) (1998), ISBN 0-385-48841-6
• A Return to Cooking (co-authored with Michael Ruhlman) (2002), ISBN 1-57965-187-9
• On the Line: The Stations, the Heat, the Cooks, the Costs, the Chaos, and the Triumphs (co-authored with Christine Muhlke) (November 2008), ISBN 1-57965-369-3
• Avec Eric: A Culinary Journey with Eric Ripert (2010), ISBN 978-0470889350

Awards

• "Best Restaurant in America" (1997) by GQ
• "Best Food in New York City" (2000–2007) by Zagat
• "Outstanding Restaurant of the Year" (1998) by the James Beard Foundation
• "Top Chef in New York City" (1998) by the James Beard Foundation
• "Outstanding Service Award" (1999) by the James Beard Foundation
• "Outstanding Chef of the Year" (2003) by the James Beard Foundation
• Gayot Top 40 Restaurants in the US: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004

Philanthropy

• Ripert is the chair of City Harvest’s Food Council. In this capacity he works to bring together New York’s top chefs, restaurateurs and others in the food community to assist City Harvest in its mission to raise funds and to increase the quantity and quality of food donations. "City Harvest, a non-profit organization founded in 1982, is the world's first and New York City's only food rescue program. City Harvest exists to end hunger in communities throughout New York City, through food rescue and distribution, education, and other practical, innovative solutions."
• President of the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation, which serves to recognize and honor Chef Jean-Louis Palladin's outstanding culinary contributions. "Part of its mission will be to develop programs to increase the understanding and appreciation of high quality ingredients among young chefs and food professionals."
• For the past three years, Ripert has hosted the Tibetan Aid Project's Taste & Tribute New York benefit dinner and auction at his acclaimed Manhattan restaurant, Le Bernardin. "Funds raised at the annual Taste & Tribute benefit dinners help support a monumental effort to restore Tibetan-language texts to libraries all over the Himalayan region. So far, this project has led to the distribution of nearly two million traditional Buddhist texts—one of the largest free book distributions in history. These treasured texts are presented at the annual World Peace Ceremony in Bodh Gaya, India, and benefit Tibetans in exile communities and in Tibet itself."

External links

• Profile at Great Chefs
• Personal Blog
• Biography at CuisineNet
• in depth video interview w/ Eric
• Biography at Global Gourmet
• iVillage's Secret Sauce: Eric Ripert's Warm Peekytoe-Maryland Lump "Crab Cake"
• iVillage's Secret Sauce: Eric Ripert's Grilled Trout with Sauce Vierge and Potato and Leek"
• Westend Bistro, Washington, DC
• Chef’s Table: Drinking with Eric Ripert