Eat My Globe

Interview with Award-Winning Chef & Author, Eric Ripert

Simon Majumdar (“SM”):

Hello everybody. I am Simon Majumdar, host of Eat My Globe: Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Food. And on today's very special episode, we're going to welcome one of the greatest chefs in the world. In his earlier years, he worked as a chef poissonier for Joël Robuchon, sous chef for Jean-Louis Palladin, which I love, sous chef for David Bouley before becoming the executive chef and co-owner of the highly acclaimed New York restaurant, Le Bernardin.

His cooking at Le Bernardin is renowned for its seafood dishes. The two times I have been there counted one of my best two meals anywhere. It certainly deserves its three-star Michelin rating.

This very impressive chef has so many awards to mention, but just let me highlight just a few. Over the years, James Beard Foundation has recognized him as the top chef in New York City, as an “Outstanding Chef in the US.” His show, “Avec Eric,” won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding culinary program. His restaurant, Le Bernardin, has been ranked number one on La Liste, has a three-star Michelin rating, and has been on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants – which I used to vote for – since 2006. And his cookbooks, including “Vegetable Simple” and “Seafood Simple,” are New York Times Bestsellers.

So, I'm now fortunate that I can call this remarkable person a friend.

So, it gives me the enormous pleasure to introduce you to Chef Eric Ripert. I hope you're doing well.

Eric Ripert (“ER”):

I'm doing fabulous. Thank you so much for this great introduction.

SM:

Well, there's so much to say about you. But let's start, if you don't mind, by starting what books you've got, what events you've got coming up and TV shows, of course, which is where we met, you know. . .

ER:

Yes.

SM:

. . . regularly in Guys Grocery Games and Guy’s Tournament of Champions. And so just tell us what you've got coming up because I know my listeners, which are many, would love to know.

ER:

Sure. So, as you know, I make appearances on a few shows that mostly are competitions and I'm usually judging.

SM:

Uh-huh.

ER:

It's one that's going to be filmed very soon for CBS and Padma Lakshmi will be the host.

SM:

Oh great.

ER:

So, we are going to do that in October. And then I don't even know the name of the show, but I'm showing up. And then I've done a book. It's going to be called, “Mindful Cooking, Nurturing Body and Soul.” That book will be, actually, the book is finished for a long time, but it will be out next year, 2026. And it's basically bringing back the philosophy of Temple Food from Korea in a secular message, not a religious message, of course, with a lot of recipes that are westerners, not necessarily Asian.

So anyway, the book will be a compilation of recipes, but really it's bringing that philosophy back to the readers. And Temple Food is about making people, of course, happy and joyful and wishing them a great health to be able to create good deeds around themselves. So therefore, it's an exercise of loving, kindness, compassion. It’s an exercise of mindfulness, which means being really in the present, being grateful about the ingredients that you get and so on. So, I think it's interesting because sometimes in professional kitchen, I see chefs being distracted by the awards and the stars and they get stressed and they should be focusing more on those values. And sometimes at home, the people who are cooking in their kitchen are stressing because they want to... They want to get the meal perfect and get compliments and the ego get in a way instead of being like, hey listen, whatever I do, I did my best. I want you to be happy and joyful. So, this book is to basically bring the stress level down and have a lot of inspirational recipes.

SM:

That's great. That'd be. . . that. . . I can't wait until that book comes out. And I love all your books. So, I'm waiting for that to come out.

But before we start doing that, could you tell us about your history? Because I know that our listeners would like to know about your time as a young person in Antibes and in France and then Andorra, because Andorra is somewhere that I've been many times or certainly a long time.

Yeah, no, because I spend a lot of time in that part of the world and I spend a lot of time in Spain and I've spent in Andorra. And so, I'd love to know about how that brought you to an area of cooking.

ER:

Sure. So, I was born in Antibes, which is in the French Riviera, very close to Italy and close to Provence as well. My mother was born in Morocco. I had a grandmother from Italy, a grandmother from Provence. And as a young kid, I was eating food on the weekend from my grandmother's and during the week food from my mom. So, my mom was very passionate by nouvelle cuisine at the time, which was kind of a revolution in the beginning, before it became a parody later on.

SM:

[Laughter]

ER:

But she was looking at chefs like Paul Bocuse and Michel Guérard and all those chefs that created a very delicious cuisine at the time, lighter than Escoffier cuisine. And then during weekends, depending on which house I was going, I was eating soul food from Italy or soul food from Provence that were cooked by my grandmothers. And I was really enjoying the food. I wanted to help in the kitchen, but they didn't want me to help because I was five, six years old.

SM:

[Laughter]

ER:

They knew I would mess up the kitchen. So, I was always authorized to stay with them, watch and eat, which was quite a bit. And I developed on the beginning passion for eating, but then of course, very quickly, when I was 12 years old, 13 years old, I was allowed to help a little bit and I really enjoyed the craftsmanship and being in those kitchen and creating those meals. I also read a lot of cookbooks and instead of studying in school, I was reading cookbooks. Therefore, the day after when we had the test, I would have really bad grades because I was reading cookbooks. And when I reached 15 years old, I was called in the principal office with my mother and the principal said, you know, your son is very nice, but his grades are so bad. He has to find a vocational school. What can he do? And I said, hey, can I go to culinary school? And I ended up in a culinary school in the south of France in a town called Perpignan.

SM:

Which I've been to, in fact. And tell me about the culinary school. What was it called? How did you get in there? Because some French chefs don't often go to culinary schools. They tend to go to work in a stage or work. They tend not to go, if I'm right, about, well, particularly from that era.

ER:

Yes, some of them went directly in apprenticeship.

My grades were bad, but not as bad that I had to go to apprenticeship so I could go to the school. And I think the benefit of going to a culinary school is that you learn. Well, first of all, the first year you learn how to be a waiter and how to be a cook and many other disciplines. And then the second year you specialize. Depending on your grades, you are studying how to be a waiter or you're studying how to become a cook, a chef one day.

And because I love cooking and I had good grades, the second year I was allowed in a cooking department. The school was called the Lycée du Moulin à Vent, the Windmill Lycée. And it was a culinary school, school for nurses and hairdressers. So, we were very happy, the boys in those schools, because it was a lot of nurses and ladies who are cutting hair, they were very friendly to us.

SM:

I love that. And, you also though, I know, and I've mentioned some of it earlier, you've worked for some of the great chefs. And I know again, I've been to France when I lived in London and I'd always go off there, particularly once the Chunnel opened. And so, who were some of the great chefs that you, who also taught you, you know, their things and also taught you great business as well?

ER:

Yes, well, after culinary school, I wrote a letter for all the three-star Michelin restaurants in France. It was 18 of them. Nobody answered. And then finally, two months later, I got a letter from La Tour d'Argent that was a very famous classic restaurant.

SM:

Of course.

ER:

That is still open, of course. In 1982, they were celebrating their 400-year anniversary. It was a three-star Michelin restaurant. And the chef was Dominique Bouchet.

SM:

Who is very famous.

ER:

So, he was my first chef. I stayed with him almost two years, and then he sent me to work with Joël Robuchon, who was at the time considered basically God in our industry.

SM:

Yes, he really was. He really was.

ER:

He was amazing. And I worked with Joël Robuchon for one year, then I went to do my military duties. It was mandatory at the time for one year, specializing in explosive mining and demining.

SM:

I'm sure that working for Joël Robuchon was probably harder than working for the military. He was a very. . . I only met him once and he was fantastic and I had all his famous dishes.

ER:

Yes.

SM:

But he was very particular.

ER:

Very precise, very particular for sure. So yes, when I was with the military, I felt like I was in a Club Med compared to Robuchon. But on my last week of being a military, I received a call. At the time, we didn't have cell phones. So, they came to me and they said, it's a phone call for you in the office of whoever is in charge. And it's Joël Robuchon. And I thought it was a joke.

So, I went to the phone and it was Joël Robuchon and he asked me, he said, I would like to hire you back because you're done with your military duties and I would like for you to take care of the fish station at my restaurant, Jamin. And I said to him, you know, I need to think about it because it was so hard in his kitchen.

SM:

Yeah, I'm sure.

ER:

And he had a very quick answer. He said, of course, you can think about it. You have 30 seconds.

SM:

[Laughter]

ER:

I couldn't say no. And I said, OK, I'm coming back. So, I went back to Paris a bit more than two years. And then I came to America. And I worked for Jean-Louis Palladin.

SM:

So, tell me about what brought you to America?

How did you get all those things that bring you into America now? And even now we're talking about it. So, I want to know what brought you to America.

ER:

I didn't want to come to America. I wanted to go to Brazil.

SM:

Oh, interesting.

ER:

So, I asked, because at the time you would ask your chef, when we were very young, I was like 19 or 20 something years old.

SM:

Uh-huh.

ER:

So, you will ask your chef, where should I go? And the chef will tell you where to go. So, I had a discussion with Joël Robuchon, I said, I wanna leave, and I gave him a long notice, and I said, can you help me? And he said, where do you wanna go? And I said, Brazil, and he said, no, because I know why you want to go to Brazil. You don't want to go to really cook. You want to go to party and you want to go to the beach and enjoy what Brazil has to offer, which has nothing to do with cooking necessarily. So, then I said, well, in that case, I would love to go to Spain. And he said, well you know, you grew up very close to Spain. You shouldn't go to Spain. So finally, I said. . .

SM:

It's a great place though.

ER:

It's beautiful. But I grew up in a country called Andorra. . .

SM:

Yeah.

ER:

. . . from nine to 17 years old. In Andorra, we speak Catalan and Spanish. . .

SM:

Yeah.

ER:

. . . and it's close to Barcelona. So, he wanted me to travel, I guess. So finally, I said, Chef, just tell me where you want me to go. And he said, go on vacation. When you come back, call me and I will have a job for you. And when I came back, he said, you go into the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, and you're going to work for Jean-Louis Palladin. And we started the paperwork. I didn't speak English.

SM:

Wow.

ER:

So I learned English quickly, of course. And I was very impressed with the cooking of Jean-Louis Palladin.

SM:

I've never tried it. I've never-

ER:

He was, my God, so talented, extremely, extremely talented.

SM:

And it's. . . that makes me feel very out of sort because everything. . . You know I've eaten at most chefs restaurants around the world or a lot of them anyway. And that was someone I never went to experience. So, tell me about his cooking though.

ER:

Yes, so Joël Robuchon was very refined and very beautiful. And what Joël Robuchon was successful at was to bring the cooking that you do in competitions that usually looks beautiful but doesn't taste good because by the time they're done, it's cold or it took three days to do the platter. Joël Robuchon was able to bring that beauty from the competition into food that is edible and delicious in a restaurant. That's why he was considered a genius. he got, when he opened in Paris the first year, he got one star, second year, two stars, third year, three stars. And he was the first restaurant in the world to get three stars in three years.

And then, Jean-Louis Palladin, had a different philosophy. Jean-Louis was like, we just need beautiful ingredients. And then when you slice a beautiful, let's say, leg of lamb, you don't need to put dots and flowers and things on top of it. The lamb itself is beautiful. But what you have to do, you have to create a beautiful sauce or jus and the vegetable that's going to elevate the lamb to the next level. So, it was slightly different styles. I like both styles of course. Jean-Louis Palladin was maybe more my type of cooking and also in terms of ambience in the kitchen it was much more relaxed than in Joël Robuchon kitchen which was very, very difficult to be in. was a very difficult culture, a lot of screaming and, and abuse from his sous chefs and so on.

Jean-Louis Palladin was very different, very friendly, and leaving Paris and France and Joël Robuchon and going to Jean-Louis Palladin, if I can make an analogy, is like leaving Catholic school and going to Woodstock.

SM:

[Laughter]

So, tell me about that because when you. . . what other kitchens did you work in before you got to Le Bernardin because I want to talk about Le Bernardin and then take that because that's something that I've enjoyed so much.

ER:

Thanks.

SM:

But I want to know of how your kitchen journey took you to Le Bernardin.

ER:

Sure. So, I was working with Jean-Louis Palladin, as I mentioned, in Washington, D.C. However, David Bouley, who just got four-star in the New York Times and he was in New York City, called me. And I knew David from Joël Robuchon because when he was in training, he ended up in my station and I trained David. And he was a friend. So, David asked me to come to New York to help him and support him and to be a sous chef. And I give a. . . same thing. I gave a good notice to Jean-Louis Palladin and I moved to New York and worked with David. I said to David I would stay a minimum of a year with him, but three months later, Gilbert Le Coze and Maguy Le Coze, were the brother and sister owner, and Gilbert was the chef of the Le Bernardin, contacted me and said, we are looking for an executive chef de cuisine. Would you be interested? And at the time I was very young, I was 20, I was 26, I think. But it was an amazing position. Hard to say no, but I said no because I said, you know, I'm not ready. I need to give at least six months notice to David Bouley because I promised him one year. So, I'm sorry, I cannot take the job. And. . .

SM:

Which must be heartbreaking at the time.

ER:

It was.

SM:

That to turn down that amazing job for something I know is amazing because I know what Bouley’s like. He’s a fan. . . and I've eaten at his restaurants. But to move to your own restaurant must be heartbreaking at the time. Was it?

ER:

It wasn't really because I didn't know if I was ready for that position.

But they were relentless and they came back at me and they made offers that were very advantageous and also really show me Le Bernardin and the ins and outs of the restaurant. And suddenly I got excited and I went to see David. I said, David, I have this offer, it's very unique. And they accepted that I will give you six months notice. So, therefore in six months I will be gone. And David got very upset and started to be a bit belligerent with me. And three months later, I couldn't take it anymore. And finally, I went to Le Bernardin. I entered the door of Le Bernardin on June 10 at 7.40 AM. Because at that time I looked at my watch because I knew it was something special in my life. I had these six fans. I was like, this is not an ordinary day. So, look at the clock and remember the day and the time. And then since then, I have been, of course, as you know, at Le Bernardin.

SM:

And what I, what I love not is that even now we don't think of Le Bernardin as being the owners and the people who were there before. It's now your restaurant and that I think is a little you know, that's difficult for them to you know carry on but it's great for you. Do you think that's. . . do you that's the right thing to say or do you own it all together or how do you work that?

ER:

So, I worked with Gilbert Le Coze for three years.

SM:

Yeah.

ER:

And his sister, Maguy Le Coze. And then in 1990, so I started in 1991, in 1994, he passed away. And the sister asked me to take full control of the kitchen. Although I was already technically in control of that kitchen, but she said, you know, I really want your name to be known and I want you to change entirely the menu. I don't want anything from the past and we're moving forward. And I said yes. And a couple of years later she came back and she said, you know, would like for you to become my business partner. And I said yes. And then until today, Maguy Le Coze and I are business partners.

SM:

Yeah, and I love that. But what I want to talk about now is how do restaurants, how do you feel when you get, you know, you get a one star and then you get a two star and then you get a three star. And how do you, how does each star separate? Because I know a lot of people go, well, it's a Michelin star. And I go, yeah, but it's not a three star. It's a one star. And they're very different. Yeah. So, tell me.

ER:

Yes. So it's interesting because at the time in New York we had. . . for ranking restaurants we had the New York Times that was giving four stars maximum and Le Bernardin has been a four star since the opening of the restaurant which was since 1986. I joined in ‘91. We never lost the four star. And we had the Zagat Guide at the time and also the New York Magazine with Gael Green was very, very powerful.

SM:

Yes.

ER:

Michelin didn't exist in the ‘90s. Michelin came in 2005 in America. And when they came to New York for the first time, Michelin gave right away three stars to few restaurants, not going through the system of one, two, and three. So, I think because I have one Michelin somewhere in my office, I'm going to tell you right away who was on that at three stars.

SM:

I love the fact that you just get out your three Michelin or one Michelin and can read them out because this is something that is you, from that day you've been right up at the top.

ER:

Oh no, for sure. So that year, Jean-Georges got a three-star Michelin, Alain Ducasse got three-star Michelin, Le Bernardin got three-star Michelin, and I think that was it. So, one star means that a very good restaurant in its category. That's one star. Two stars is excellent cuisine worth a detour. And then three star is exceptional cuisine worth a special journey, which means you will travel to go to that place.

SM:

And that's interesting for people to listen to because they don't know what each of those stars mean. I think that, could you say that again for people listening? Because I think it's really important.

ER:

Of course, one star means a very good restaurant in its category. So, it could be an ethnic restaurant, it could be anything, but it's a very good restaurant in its category. Then two star means it's an excellent cuisine worth a detour, which means you are, let's say in New York or you are in a region, if you have time, you should pay a visit to the restaurant. And then three stars, the cuisine is exceptional according to Michelin, it's worth a special journey, which means you should take the plane and come to New York and eat in that restaurant.

SM:

And does that include the service as well? Does that include the wine list? Does that include everything or just the food?

ER:

The stars are rating only the food. By the way, the fourth chef was Thomas Keller with Per Se.

SM:

Which is fantastic.

ER:

Alain Ducasse, Le Bernardin, Jean-Georges and Per Se in 2006, Michelin edition.

SM:

Which I remember going to Per Se in 2006 with one of the critics from London. I still remember it.

ER:

Oh wow. So, the cuisine is the stars, like I mentioned, and then the service is forks. So you get 1, 2, 3, 4, even 5 forks for the quality of the service, which is not related to the stars.

Stars are solely about the chef and the cuisine, and the forks are about the quality of the service and the decor of the restaurant as well.

SM:

Okay, that's see that I think that's great because a lot of people don't know that and I think that's a. . .

ER:

Yeah, that's true.

SM:

So, I want to ask you though, when you receive these stars, particularly the three star one, how do you feel? I mean, that's an amazing... How many restaurants are there that have three stars in the world? And you do. And how could you... How do you explain that to people like me who go, I don't understand how good your cooking is, how wonderful your seafood is in your case?

How does that feel to you? Because it's just... I don't understand it being me.

ER:

Yeah. Well. When Michelin came to America and gave us the three-star, we were very surprised, extremely happy, of course.

SM:

Yes.

ER:

And you feel great because, I mean, for me, it was very unexpected. I didn't expect to get three-star like that. Being such a young chef and having Michelin coming to America for the first time, I didn't know what would be in terms of rankings. I was overwhelmed with joy, of course.

And right away I thought about the team and I couldn't wait to come back. I was at the ceremony of the guide and I couldn't wait to come back to the restaurant and share with the team the fact that we were a three-star restaurant because without a team you cannot do much. And I always think about them and they're very loyal and trying to do the best they can to create a very special experience. So, when the Michelin party was over, I came back to the restaurant and we had private events, rooms available, and we brought some caviar and champagne and some food upstairs and we party all night.

SM:

Which is the best way to do it. I would love to have been there.

But let's talk about your passion then for seafood because let's stop the the restaurants, but let's talk about your passion. So, was there one particular dish that you put you said that's the dish and now I'm going to replicate this kind of dish? Was there a simple dish, not a simple dish but a more. . . dish like bouillabaisse which isn't simple but it's just a beautiful dish. Was there something that you immediately thought seafood is my passion?

ER:

Well, my passion is for all kinds of, except for pastry because I'm very lousy and I'm too edgy to be a good pastry chef. I don't follow the recipes.

SM:

Yeah, that's very hard.

ER:

In pastry, you have to follow the recipes. I will compare my cooking to jazz where you improvise a lot and so on.

SM:

That's great.

ER:

But I, so I love all kinds of cooking, cooking vegetables, cooking meat and cooking seafood equally and, I like all the techniques of cooking. But as a young age, even when I was in La Tour d'Argent, which was specialized in ducks, I spent a lot of time in a fish station. And then when I worked for Joël Robuchon, I spent the second part of my stay with him, which was after my military duties, in a fish station. Again, I was the chef of the fish station. Then when I came to Washington, DC with Jean-Louis Palladin, again, I was in charge of the fish station. And when I worked with David Bouley, I was in charge of the fish station. So therefore, I developed love and knowledge about cooking seafood. And when I had the offer to come to Le Bernardin, it felt like a gigantic fish station and was very at ease and happy to cook seafood. And that's why I'm specialized in seafood. And that's why I love it so much.

SM:

Yeah, I know and we're going to talk about this book now. So this is Seafood Simple, which I'm just putting here and we'll do a proper post at the end to show this, this is such an incredible book.

ER:

Thank you.

SM:

And I say that because, I was in publishing.

ER:

Oh yeah.

SM:

Yeah, no, I was in, I started as an Anglican theologian. I went on to publishing and then ended up in food when I went around the world. Anyway, this was the most wonderful book and what I love about it is everyone thinks about, you know, Eric Ripert, of being a three-star chef, but you don't show that in here as well. You show your abilities, but this is seafood simple and it really is because, well, let's talk about, because I am horrible at cooking fish. I'm horrible. You name it. I can cook curries because that's my father's, I can cook all that. But you chose a way of cooking that I found really interesting. So, you take topics like marinated, steamed, baked, and then you brought the fish into there. So, first of all, how do you choose which fish? Go into those areas.

ER:

So, seafood is very diverse, as we know.

SM:

Yeah.

ER:

A shrimp is very different than a piece of codfish, and codfish is very different than tuna, and tuna is not a lobster, and the halibut is very different than the previous one, and we can go on and on and on and on.

SM:

Yeah, yes.

ER:

They have different characteristics, and you have to apply certain techniques to make those ingredients shine. For instance, tuna, as you know and many people and myself know, is very good when it's rare or raw, marinated or seared slightly. But you wouldn't poach tuna or steam tuna because it's not going to really elevate the quality of the fish because it's a very rich fish, very fatty, if you sear it you're going to have a very nice crust and then you eat it very rare because if you cook it too much it's going to be very, very dry.

Halibut is very delicate and potentially the best way to cook it will be to poach or steam or very lightly broiled or something like that because if you cook the halibut in a pan and you sauté it at a very high temperature or sear it, you're going to have this kind of like a very dry crust on the outside and inside is going to basically be raw. Or if you overcook the halibut with those techniques it will have no juice, no flavor, no nothing. When you cook lobster and shrimp again different techniques apply. So, what I did in the book. . . .

SM:

So how would you cook lobster for example?

ER:

So, lobster can be broiled, lobster can be poached, lobster can be sautéed. What you need to know is how to master those techniques.

So, what we did in the book, we broke down the book into techniques. And in every technique we said, well, the lobster is very good for broiling, is very good for sautéing, very good for poaching, very good for baking. And then we explain to you how to apply those techniques for the lobster.

Then if we take for instance a piece of codfish, we say well the codfish is a fish that really can be sauteed, pan-roasted, can be steamed and poached and we again teach you through the techniques how to elevate the codfish to the next level.

But the techniques are really guiding you to be successful with the seafood that you are trying to cook. But cooking starts, especially seafood, cooking starts with shopping. When you are shopping, you have to have the knowledge about the ingredients you are going to purchase especially, yeah.

SM:

That's what I was going to ask because I know even though I'm going to some good fish markets here in LA, sometimes I'm going, well, is this fresh and is this not fresh? And from me, I don't know, quite frankly.

ER:

Yes.

SM:

And for you, obviously, you do know. So, what's the difference between someone buying this book, which is it is, this is a fantastic book and I want, let's get it in. I have to see there, Eric Ripert. So, I want people to buy this. But people who just don't know fish, but want to explore fish because it's so lovely, but I don't do it very often.

ER:

We have many chapters in this book, but one of them is dedicated to how to shop and recognize when the seafood is fresh. When you go to the market, first of all, it should be no smell, no fishy smell coming from the shelves or where you are buying your fish. And then if you take the piece of fish of the fishmonger presented to you, you should smell it and it should be absolutely no smell or if it's a smell it's like a fresh breath from the ocean, not kind of smell. And after that when you buy a fillet of fish the flesh should be slightly translucent, like very white translucent because if it's kind of beige opaque or kind of grayish, it means the fish has been washed by the ice, cooked by the ice, stayed too long in the market.

SM:

Interesting.

ER:

If you buy fish that is whole, which is very rare, but I mean, us chefs, we buy it whole, but people sometimes don't. If you buy the fish whole, you should look at the gills, which is on the side, and the gills inside should be very bright red. It means the fish...

SM:

Oh okay.

ER:

. . . has been out of the water for very little, maybe 24 hours. Then you should look at the eyes of the fish. And the eyes should be very vibrant and very colorful and not red and not looking with a skin on top, like kind of a grayish skin on the eyes.

When you poke the fish with your finger, the flesh should spring back immediately. When you poke the fish and your finger makes a hole in the fish or the fish doesn't spring back, it means it's old. A fish that is rigor mortis is extra fresh and therefore will stay straight. If the fish falls right away and it has a smell and it doesn't have a good color and it doesn't have eyes that are vibrant, you don't buy it.

So, all those tips are documented very well and very simply in the book, but it's a good start because when you buy fish that is fresh, when you go to cook it at home, the house will not smell, your kitchen will not smell, and the fish will be firm enough not to break in the pan and become a mess. If your fish is not fresh, your kitchen will smell, the entire house will be smelly, yourself as well, and the fish will basically break down in a pan. That's why we are teaching you from the beginning, which is shopping, to keeping the fish at home for 24 hours in perfect conditions. We teach you all those aspects. Then we recommend the techniques that are the ones to apply to all the different species.

SM:

And I know you're going to get a lot of different dishes in this. Again, Seafood Simple, which is fantastic. But if there was one dish that you go, that's the dish I want you to try first, what would you say? Because you are the great master of seafood. What should we do?

ER:

Well, if you really are a beginner at cooking seafood, and let's suppose you're entertaining for four people or even eight people, which is a lot, and you decide to cook seafood, if you're not an expert or if you haven't trained yourself a little bit, it's going to be challenging.

SM:

Yeah.

ER:

So therefore, I think the technique that is the easiest, simplest to apply is broiling.

SM:

Okay.

ER:

Because you can put the seafood, the fish on the tray. If you have a big oven or even a toaster oven, actually, it will work. You put it on broil and then you can cook your fish. You brush the fish with a bit of butter on top or a bit of olive oil and you cook it in a broiler like that, under broiler. And then after a few minutes, of course, you have to look at it and see what's happening. You insert a metal skewer through the flesh.

SM:

Yep.

ER:

If it's very difficult to go through the flesh, and when you touch your hand with the skewer, if it's cold, the obvious is that the fish is not cooked. When the fish is perfectly cooked, the skewer goes through the flesh easily, and when you touch your hand with the skewer, metal skewer, it will be warm, which means the fish is perfectly cooked medium rare to medium. Now, if you put the skewer in it and it comes back and it burns your hand, you are punished for overcooking your fish.

SM:

[Laughter]

That's fantastic and I hope that people will listen to that as well as buying the right fish and. . .

What I want to do now is just talk to you because the other thing that I love and as you know I've been to I don't know nearly a hundred countries you, you really travel and so again and simple simple you've got dishes from around the world. Although I noticed not from India yet unless I have not. . . .

ER:

We have a Madras curry in the book.

SM:

Oh.

ER:

Yes, we have a recipe of curry. So that could come from India, could come from other countries, but definitely India. The inspiration was there.

SM:

But tell me about some of the countries that you've visited, because I know you've got Sambal, which is Indonesia, which is, and you've got, you know, tempura, and you've got, these things make me really hungry, and I probably have people cook them for me. So how did that experience work with your cooking?

ER:

Well, experience comes from traveling or from being in New York. As you know, New York is a melting pot of cultures. . .

SM:

Very much.

ER:

. . . and we interact with chefs all over the world and we are inspired and influenced by their techniques and by the new ingredients that we test when we go to visit them and by new flavors that we never tried before. So that is it's definitely an inspiration. But in my life, I traveled quite a bit. I have been to many, many countries in the world. And I have been influenced by South America, by Asia, by Southeast Asia, by India, by Europe, of course, and Scandinavia, and even in America. So, in America, we have soft-shelled crabs that you cannot find anywhere else, right? So, we have a recipe of soft shell crab in the book.

SM:

Oh gorgeous. So I love that.

And before I finish this period, because I'm going to ask you some more fun questions that I ask everybody when I do this, but people would love to know how a three-star chef eats every night.

ER:

Uh-huh.

SM:

Because I'm sure you I've talked to some three-star chefs who go to McDonald's. I've talked to some three-star chefs who just go, you know, I go and get a hamburger on the way. You know, what do you call it? A hot dog on the way home. So, I'd love to know how you're cooking or not cooking out what you buy on the way home. Just to keep me hungry…  to keep your hunger away.

ER:

So, I work five days a week, Monday to Friday, lunch and dinner.

SM:

Yeah, I know that's a lot of work.

ER:

And therefore, I do not eat for breakfast or I have maybe a fruit. Then I come to the kitchen and I test all the sauce and all the little preparations to make sure that they are right. Then I choose a couple of dishes from the menu and they make me small portions. And it allows me to try to make sure that it's exactly what it's supposed to be. And then, during what we call the service is when people come for lunch. . .

SM:

Yes.

ER:

. . . I taste the food a lot in the kitchen. I never cook.

SM:

So, you're not that hungry when you go home.

ER:

No, am not. I never double dip, but I test a lot of food. And then dinner starts again. And then I do not have a dinner, but I try the food again a lot. Because I believe that when you cook, if you want to know if it's good or not good, you have to try the food. If not, you have no way of knowing what you are doing. It's not possible to know if it's salty, over salty or bland, if you don't test. So, I test and I teach the team how to test as well. At the end of the night, I'm really not hungry at all.

SM:

[Laughter]

ER:

And therefore, when I go home, I don't have to stop anywhere. I go home and it's time to relax. Now, on the weekend, I'm not working on Saturdays and Sundays. I have lunch with the family and very often I like to go to a casual place, fun place. Like in New York, we have restaurants like Balthazar. . .

SM:

Which I love, which I love.

ER:

. . . that are one of my favorite, which are fantastic, brasseries or bistro. Then I like to go out one night and try a new place. And in New York and in many big cities, we have so many new places opening all the time.

SM:

So, many.

ER:

So, we do that on a Saturday. On Sunday, I like to cook at home. So, on Sunday, I gather ingredients during the day and then I cook dinner for the family. Sometimes we eat a light lunch at home, but at night, we always have a very elaborate dinner, Sunday night. And then I cook for the family for a few days, for Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, so they don't have to worry about it. And that's the way I live my life. Focus during the week on the business and especially in the kitchen, taking care of the team and the food. And the weekend, enjoying new discoveries and then being with the family and really cooking home food, farm to table food for myself and all my friends.

SM:

Well, that's a perfect way to end this part of the questions, but I have got I know the other questions are fun. I hope anyway, but these I always call fun questions.

If Eric was a meal What would he be?

ER:

Well, I will be a bouillabaisse because I was born in the French Riviera. I'm specialized in seafood. I love seafood. I know how to make bouillabaisse. And if I was a meal, I would be a bouillabaisse because bouillabaisse is not only a dish, it's a meal. It's so many different species that you cook in the broth and it's aromatic and, and it takes time, so it's an entire meal basically.

SM:

That sounds. . . I love we're based on when I go down to knees or whatever I always go and have. . . There's a couple of places that specialize in doing the best and that is. . . . So I love that. That's be great. Okay, but it goes a little more difficult now.

If Eric had to go back in time to any meal, where would it be and what would it be?

ER:

I would like to go back to my first important meal when I was very young. I was maybe five or six years old. And it was on Sunday. And then it was repetitive because on Sunday, my grandmother, and they were hosting the entire family, my Italian grandmother. And she was doing a meal where everybody was bringing something from the house, but they were making upstairs in a kitchen that was becoming huge, the kitchen and the living room was solely for the ladies to cook the meal because they didn't want the men to come and mess up the kitchen and the living room. And they were making on the table fresh pastas and raviolis and all kinds of pastries and so on. While the men were playing pétanque or bocce downstairs. . .

SM:

Yeah, yeah.

ER:

. . . and playing other games and having some drinks and aperitif and joking. The women were very passionate in my family. And then we had long tables with the entire family, we’re 20, 25 people.

SM:

Whoa.

ER:

And we would have those very delicious meal and so much happiness at the table. And if I could go back to those moments when I was five, six years old, that would be the meal I wanna go back to.

SM:

Oh that is just fantastic. And it makes me feel like I should go back and go and enjoy that as well.

ER:

But you know, when you are five, six years old, everything is marvelous, right? When you look at the kids' eyes, you can see that they're not blasé at all. They’re just like, everything is amazing. Everything is incredible. And I remember those moments where every aspect of the day and the meal and the details were just incredible for me.

SM:

I can hear you even now just discussing it. I can understand. I can see the water in your mouth and I can hear and that's the that's what I love as well by this and that's why I ask it.

Okay, but we have got another question with this.

If Eric had to go back in time to see the invention of anything, what would it be?

ER:

It's not necessarily tangible, but it's an invention that revolutionized my industry. The invention of the brigade system by Escoffier.

SM:

Oh, of course. That's the first time that's been mentioned.

We've actually talked about the brigade system. And I think he founded it when he was at the Savoy.

Would you mind telling us about it? Because you obviously have that system in your kitchen.

ER:

Yes, well, today, every kitchen in the world that has many employees working together as the brigade system. Previous to Escoffier, which was the beginning of late 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, restaurants didn't really exist the way they exist today. And when people were cooking in the kitchen, it was not necessarily well organized, and it was a bit chaotic.

But then Escoffier, who worked, as you mentioned, at the Savoy in London, and he worked in France as well, and he worked at the Ritz, and Escoffier said, you know, we're serving 100 people or 200 people, and our kitchens are so chaotic, and everybody is bumping each other, and we're not very efficient, so we have to create a system. And we are going to create a system that's going to make the life of the kitchen simpler. And we're going to be able to deliver those meals with less pain and less drama, or be more efficient. And the food will be better and hot and delicious.

So, he said, we're going to use the military system. And we're going to say the general is the executive chef. And then the coronel is the chef de cuisine. Under the coronel, I think it's the captains, will be the sous chefs. And then under the sous chefs will be what we call chef de partie, which is chef associate, pastry chef, all the chefs responsible of different sections of the kitchen. And then finally, the soldiers will be the commis, which is the young people learning the craftsmanship. And he created stations in the kitchen. He said pastry, you stay where you are. Don't come close to the guys who are roasting because it's too hot for the chocolate or for the whatever you're doing.

So, we are today evolving in restaurants that have brigades. And that makes our life very simple. And that is an invention that we owe to Escoffier.

SM:

Wonderful. I love the fact that you mentioned that because that's something my show is traditionally a food history show and so I write essays on it and then I interview four people so you know from different places like yourself and we've had many, many people come on from all kinds of areas so that's fantastic for me to have that.

But could you tell me what your social media sites are so people will know how to reach you, how to get hold of you, all of that stuff?

ER:

Sure, so I am on Instagram, on Facebook, on X, on Threads, and I am at at Eric Ripert, so that's simple. And then on TikTok, where I am also, I am at at Chef Eric Ripert.

SM:

Thank you again.

OUTRO MUSIC

SM:

Make sure to check out the website associated with this podcast at www.EatMyGlobe.com where we will be posting the transcripts from each episode, along with all the references and resources we used putting the episodes together, in case you want to delve deeper into each subject. There is also a contact button, so please do let us know if there are any subjects that you would like us to cover.

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Thank you and goodbye from me, Simon Majumdar, and we’ll speak to you soon on the next episode of EAT MY GLOBE: Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know About Food.

CREDITS

The EAT MY GLOBE Podcast is a production of “It’s Not Much But It’s Ours” and “Producer Girl Productions.”

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We would also like to thank Sybil Villanueva for all of her help both with the editing of the transcripts and essential help with the research.