Eric Ripert at Google

Eric Ripert is the chef of 3 Michelin star restaurant, Le Bernardin.

Today, he wants to talk about his early life and early career to today. As a child, he was not a good student and eventually got kicked out of school. One thing that was apparent from a young age was his love of eating (not, his love of cooking). As a result, he went to culinary school at age 15 and moved to France at 17.

Worked for Joel Robuchon who was/is the best chef in the galaxy. Ripert eventually realized that he wanted to travel and asked Robuchon if he could do so. Robuchon asked where he wanted to go and he responded, Brazil. Robuchon refused as he did not want to send Ripert on a vacation. Spain was too close. Ripert ended up going to DC and worked at the Watergate Hotel.

In 1991, he joined Le Bernardin. Seafood restaurant in NYC for some time. 90% of the food is seafood. In 1994 owner passed away and Ripert took over and he continues to be the owner of the restaurant. On the Line is his 3rd book. The first was a recipe book, second was a beautiful coffee table book, the collaboration of a painter, an author, and a chef. They improvised the book. Ripert would go to the market in the morning and cook all day. The painter would paint something related to the food.

On the Line is a book documentary of the life at Le Bernardin. He is inspired by his team, so he pays homage to the team that allows him to travel and talk to us. A journalist from the NYTimes worked with every role within the restaurant in order to create it.

Obviously, the book is inspiring for foodies and those in the industry, but it should also inspire those who need to create strong teams and relationships. Every night at 8, it's a war in the kitchen. It requires great organization and a good team.

Ripert says that was fairly young as a chef. A chef in France is trained through humiliation; they punch you in the butt, pull on your ears. The idea is that they break you and build you into a super hero, a champion no matter what happens in the kitchen. It doesn't work. When Ripert came to the U.S., he was very abusive and eventually he was alone in the kitchen. Building a team requires a lot of work.

"By the way, your headquarters is amazing. I've never seen anything like it. I am as inspired as you are by the book."

In the beginning, the restaurant staff ate crappy food as they didn't have time to make it. They realized that it was difficult to create good food when you're not eating well yourself. That led to the creation of menus and allocation of time to eat good food. That was the beginning of nurturing the team - making the team responsible for their own territory.

At one point, Ripert realized he was running a dictatorship - Ripert was the dictator - everything had to be run by him. If you did well, you were rewarded, and if you did poorly, you were reprimanded. That didn't work. It's a work in progress, but they now do things differently. Most of the team members have been around for 15 years.

The saucier is the ultimate magician in the kitchen. It is the most difficult position because you can't measure flavor with inches or ounces. It's like music. Sauce is ephemeral. The saucier is the keeper; he has to predict how spices will evolve over time. Some spices will just die after an hour and you lose them. Sauciers use their instinct and unique capabilities. He has a chapter dedicated to the saucier at Le Bernardin. He is a man from Barbados, who has been with Ripert for 22 years.

Q&A with Chef Jeff Freburg

Q: How was your lunch?
A: Amazing. I was very surprised by the cafes. The variety and quality is astonishing. I have never seen anything else anywhere in the world. You're lucky and I'm sure you know that. Buying mostly organic - that's amazing as well.

Q: Along those same lines, what are your views on the organic and sustainable movement?
A: Sustainability is vital for our planet. We need to go in that direction. Organic doesn't mean the products taste good, necessarily. It's difficult for farmers to farm that way. In terms of steps, we need to go in the direction of sustainable, then organic.

Q: We talked about fish at lunch today. At your restaurant, you chose to put fish like monkfish on the menu and other fish we don't use here.
A: Being a seafood restaurant, we want to be sensitive to the fact that fish are disappearing. There are 5-6 different fish that we list on the menu that are in danger of disappearing. The list comes from seaweb and Monterey Aquarium. We follow those recommendations. Sometimes we don't follow them. For example, codfish is on the list. However, we only buy fish from fish from small dayboats. By buying from small fishers, not industry, we hope it encourages sustainability.

Q: How do you collaborate with your team to come up with menu?
A: You cannot press a button and be creative. I am inspired by surroundings, inspired by interactions. NYC is a melting pot, I'm exposed to new products all the time. I absorb all this information and I never know when going to be inspired. Sometimes it's instant, other times it takes years. I always takes notes on pieces of paper and collect those. Sometimes my notes don't make any sense - combinations that don't go together. Then I write lists. Eventually, ideas get combined. Then, I bring ideas to team - the sous chefs. They discuss and try to materialize ideas. We edit from the primary idea. Most of the time it is bad. 10% of ideas are used in the menu. First, we run those as specials or give them to friends, and we may eventually put it on the menu. It's a very long process.

Q: How often do you change menu? Do you keep core items? Here at google we change the menu every day...(pat on the back from Ripert)
A: At one point I tried to follow the seasons - 4 menus. It didn't work. I felt pressure to perform and bring something new on an artificial day. Seasons last 3 months, so the produce can differ greatly. Now, we change dish by dish. Say we want to change the halibut dish, we change a little bit. 90% of the menu changes over the source of the year. Don't want to have signature dish because you become stagnant - chefs will become bored and will begin to overlook the details that make the dish good. In a city like NYC once you rely on what you've already accomplished, you will fall behind.

Q: How do you get 3 Michelin stars and 4 star reviews from the NYTimes? You keep doing it hear after year.
A: I don't think like that. I have a normal life - I go to work like everybody else. The industry has a lot of glamour. The kitchen is not glamorous, you have to do your duty. As chef, you have to be inspiration of team, a creative mind, and financially responsible. I focus from the minute I enter kitchen until leaving. I don't care about being #1 or #2 or having 3 stars. I think about how to be better, how to handle service better.

Q: What's your turnover and what do you look for when you hire?
A: We have 40 cooks, 41 when I'm around. 2/3 stay more than 3 years. The chef of the cold appetizers has been with 20 years, the butcher 8 years. Sous chef stays for 5-6 years. Line cooks say 3 years. Some young cooks who want many different experiences stay less than a year. The kitchen looks like a rectangle. Start in the corner in the cold station, the easiest. Eventually, you move around the restaurant and move to other cold, after a few years you move to the main course side learn poaching, other things. After several years, learn form saucier. Everyone want to be a saucier. We feel responsible for a chef's education and make sure they can feel rewarded.

Audience questions
Q: Describe menu process more
A: Le Bernardin does pre fixe. Basically, food can be broken down into canape, cold appetizer, hot appetizer, main course, cookies & chocolate. The menu is formed dish by dish. We try not to repeat fish or sauce within the same meal. Also create tasting menu - must be a progression of flavors, intensity, texture. This allows the sommelier to create pairings that can follow a similar progression. And, it allows him to serve red wine toward the end, which is difficult for fish.

To summarize, we look at it dish by dish, then by the entire menu. Try to create harmony in flavors and textures.

Q: A lot of us have to serve a large number of customers while also providing great service. How do you balance serving a large number while focusing?
A: Hospitality must be focused on serving. When talk to waiter, I say I am the merchant of soup and you're the deliver guy, to keep us humble. The front of the house team, the dining room team, interacts directly with the client must be able to read them well. We have a list of 129 cardinal sins listed in the book. We started with 15 - it's constantly evolving. When someone walks into the dining room, must make eye contact and smile within 30 seconds. You can't just ignore them.
In the kitchen, try to work with zero ego. Chefs have egos. We're here to make people happy. If someone asks for a change in sauce, fish cooked well done, no salt, They will say they recommend it the way they cook it, but they will accommodate. There is zero tolerance with ego. If someone wants to talk to me, I will talk to them as well.

Q from Chef Jeff: #129 says to be continued
A: We have 136 now.

Q: Do you have an idea for next book?
A: I'm still working on promoting this one.

Q: Mina - I love fine dining, but I'm also a vegetarian. It's difficult to experience these things because many chefs don't focus on a vegetarian experience.
A: Le Bernardin is supposedly the temple of seafood. We have vegetarian items on the menu - not uninspired. It's true that for chefs, you want to be able to cook with all the ingredients on the planet. Chefs get frustrated when they limit themselves. I find more and more chefs get excited cooking vegetables. Here in your cafes, you have vegan items. Years ago, people didn't even know what that was. It's a work in progress. Chefs are getting more excited. Change in mentality doesn't happen over night.

CA is probably vegetables and produce are incredible - it inspires chefs more than other parts of the country.

Q: Chefs of your stature have to fight the urge to share your cuisine with different parts of the world and maintaining the home restaurant. How much do you do the actual firing and expediting?
A: I have 3 restaurants, one in the Caymen Islands, one in Philadelphia, and of course, NYC. I wants to spend most time at Le Bernardin. I have the most fun there, it's my baby. I have been cautious not to open too many restaurants. It's a good way to promote one's own vision though. Plus, it's incentive for talent that they can be chef at new restaurants. I have a partnership with the Ritz Carlton - they obsess with quality of service. I place a chef in the hotel, create a menu, just check in on them. I am not on the line cooking. A good analogy is the conductor of the band, or the philharmonic, rather than playing violin. If I was cooking, then I'd only be focusing on a few dishes rather than the whole kitchen. When you're cooking yourself, you have the tendency to let down of guard and be more forgiving for mistakes. When you're not cooking, you have no pity, zero tolerance of mistakes.

Q: Tasting menus have many courses. Sometimes you can't finish. Do chefs take it personally when you don't finish?
A: Actually, I used to work for chef in Paris who would inspect each plate that came back. Even if it was a tiny piece, he would freak out!
Tasting menus are interesting. We try to create the right portions that allow you go through that many courses. However, I don't like micro food; I like 2-3 bites so that you don't just swallow the food then then "poof it's gone." If you don't finish, the waiter will ask if everything is ok. They will report back to the kitchen that "this lady is starting to slow down." We try not to be offended.

Q: Do you ever re-run a dish that you served in the past?
A: Sometimes it's very tempting to go to the past, it's easy. I never go back. My method for creating dishes and harmony has evolved.
It's like in the fashion world, if a designer did a collection that he did 5 years ago, it's totally obsolete. Maybe in 50 years it can inspire him again. The technology and the view of that will be different. Sometimes when I looks back, I realizes old dishes just wouldn't work today.

Q: When you're in the Bay Area, where do you choose to eat?
A: Try to eat everywhere. I have lots of friends in the industry. My good friend is the chef at Aqua so I will probably end up there today or tomorrow. I always go to Zuni Cafe to have oysters and chicken and try new places that friends recommend. Sometimes go to small places, like dive bars. I wants to try Slanted Door, never been there.

Q: Outside of fish, how do you approach secondary foods like bread?
A: Don't see anything has secondary. Attention to detail and consistency makes the difference. The way we select products, logically, it's by eating them. We try many many recipes and many pieces of bread then select that which is most appropriate for the restaurant. We try to keep it consistent; can't have the bread dark, then fluffy, then flat. I have to create organization that allows for that consistency.

Q from Chef Brian Mattingly: In order to have a 3 star Michelin everything has to be perfect. Does the staff ever know when the inspector arrives and does that stress everyone out?
A: The good thing about Michelin is that their inspectors are anonymous. Food critics for the NYTimes, however, you eventually recognize them. Everybody in the city has their picture posted in the drawer, behind the kitchen door. When sometimes is recognized as a food critic, we don't stress about it too much. It doesn't make a difference in the kitchen if a journalist arrives at 8. If the fish isn't fresh, there's nothing you can do. That's why we test the entire mise in place - 50 or 60 items in the morning. If you get drunk the night before, your palate is not fresh. What we do is we buy industry cheddar - the cheddar will always have the same profile. If the cheddar is aggressive, we know our palate is sensitive. Then we'll know what to change. As a result, we'll feel very secure that we're serving everything is ok.

Michelin is impossible to spot. They don't come by themselves with a little notepad and look behind the curtains.

Q: How do you decide what to serve the staff?
A: There is a weekly meeting to decide the menu for the following week. We have a lot of ethnicities in the kitchen. Every Saturday night, we have a pizza party before service. We visit lots of different cultures with the staff's food. Lots of employees come from South America and they enjoy rice with their food, so we always have that option. We make a variety of flavors and ingredients. If we have meat for lunch, we'll have fish for dinner. Twice a week vegetarian we eat vegetarian. Everyone is happy like that, I hope.

Q: Do you get recognized when you're out?
A: With my white hair, it's hard not to be spotted. I'm not a journalist, so it's usually very friendly. If they don't recognize me, great, I can have dinner with my wife.