In the world of gastronomy, Eric Ripert collects enviable titles.
Take his current status, for example: he’s a chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin restaurant focused on fish and seafood with three Michelin stars It is four stars from The New York Times (highest newspaper score).
The New York home in the Midtown region still appears in the 44th place on the 50 Best Restaurants list and is considered as the best restaurant in the world on La Liste 2023 as well as figure as best restaurant in usa in the same ranking.
In short, it’s what you might call a success. But what are the ingredients in this recipe?
“A lot of hard work and dedication, of course, but the most important thing is being able to create around you a team that is loyal and supports your vision”, comments the French chef in interview with CNN Travel & Gastronomy during the festival cayman cookout in the Cayman Islands last January.
“Without a team you can’t do much. Alone, how many people can I feed?”, asks Ripert, who has been in charge of the stoves at Le Bernardin for 29 years and still carries a French accent amid the words of the English language.
Fish are the big stars of his restaurant in New York and also remain, even after almost three decades, the chef’s passion.
At Le Bernardin we say that fish is the star of the dish and everything that accompanies it is meant to elevate it.
Eric Ripert
The menu is divided into tasting menus like that of four stroke (US$ 198, about R$ 1,030) until the eight stroke chef menu (US$ 298 per person, about R$ 1,550, with the possibility of pairing for US$ 468, about R$ 2,440).
The classic four-stroke menu gives a dimension to how ingredients are treated in the house, as it is segmented into three sections – “almost raw”, “almost untouched” and “lightly cooked” – with dishes that combine French and global influences. , especially Asian ones.
Tuna tartar with sea urchin toast drizzled with meat broth; poached lobster with fennel salad with grapes; Scallop tartar covered in Osetra caviar and sole cooked in a pan are some of the options diners can enjoy.
Lessons and challenges of fine dining
Such a respectful relationship with fish, a raw material he described as “fragile”, was acquired through another relationship: his friendship and work dynamics with the French chef Gilbert Le Coze.
In short, Le Coze (1945-1994) was the one who influenced an entire generation of chefs, mainly in the United States, due to his creative and innovative methods with everything that came from the sea.
It is known that he treated fish in the same way as meat, in which cooking times were based on the texture and particular characteristics of each piece. Inspirations often came up against the simplicity of Japanese cuisine, as well as the presentation of the dishes.
With her sister, Maguy Le Coze , Gilbert opened a small restaurant specializing in fish in the south of Paris. Then was born the Les Moines de St. bernardin which after a few years settled next to the Arc de Triomphe and earned two Michelin stars.
In 1986, the restaurant crossed the Atlantic and settled in New York, where it adopted the name Le Bernardin . After Gilbert’s unexpected death in 1994, Maguy began to work more closely with Ripert.
“His legacy is first and foremost his style: he used a lot of creativity at Le Bernardin at that time, being very careful and delicate in handling the fish and cooking it,” says Ripert.
Le Coze’s teachings to the then young chef, however, went further.
“He taught me how to manage and motivate the team and also how to be financially sustainable because many chefs have thrown a lot into creativity, but they don’t understand how to maintain a restaurant in financial terms”, he points out.
The most recent example concerning the subject is the name in Copenhagen , elected for five years the best restaurant in the world and which announced earlier this year that it will close its doors in 2024.
To The New York Times, René Redzepi, chef behind Noma , categorized the modern model of fine dining that he helped create as “unsustainable”. René, who is Eric’s colleague, told the paper: “Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work.”
About the case, Ripert is emphatic:
I disagree with him, although I am a friend, but I don’t think that fine dining is unsustainable, because we are sustainable. I don’t want to go into details, but I can say one thing: Le Bernardin is sustainable and doing very well.
Mentors beyond Le Coze
But it’s not just Gilbert Le Coze that Ripert looks up to as a mentor. He quotes, in fact, the word in the plural: mentors enter his trajectory.
Born in the French commune of Antibes, he moved to Paris at the age of 17 and began his career in La Tour D’Argent a restaurant that celebrated its 400th anniversary in 1992. It was where the chef learned the “basics”.
Afterwards, he left for a position on the Jamin, Joël Robuchon , who was considered one of the best chefs at the time. Alongside him, he learned “rigor and techniques”, as he recalls.
“I then moved to the United States and worked with Jean-Louis Palladin , which was very famous at the time. He was in Washington DC, but before that he was in France, where he was the youngest chef to have a Michelin star at the time. I learned creativity from him,” recalls Ripert.
Back in New York in the early 1990s, Le Coze was the one who “put everything together and not only reinforced my knowledge, but also taught me how to manage a team”. Since 1994, Ripert has commanded the brigade and attests to the continued quality of Le Bernardin.
Restaurant and festival in the Cayman Islands
In 2006, a new gastronomic flight saw the chef land directly in the Cayman Islands a paradise that goes beyond tax havens and is about an hour and a half flight from Miami.
In partnership with the five star hotel The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman he opened the first restaurant under his signature outside the US, the Blue by Eric Ripert.
With the use of blue carpets and wood in light tones, the house, which is one of the most emblematic restaurants in the small island country, follows the philosophy of having fish as the star of the dish when also working with tasting menus.
In the small territory of the Caribbean, the restaurant stands out with more than 700 labels of fine wines from all over the world and there are also private spaces for more than 40 people.
The difference between the New York business and the Caribbean venture is precisely the rich incorporation of local flavors and fish.
“We are in the Caribbean and we wanted to have a restaurant that reflected the influence of the region. So, first of all, we look for fishermen from the island to obtain a lot of local fish”, says the chef, who works with typical inputs from the region, such as snapper and swordfish, for example.
Unlike Le Bernardin, influences from South and Central America are most notable among Blue’s dishes. “When you eat at Blue, you know where you are. You don’t get confused with New York”, he emphasizes.
After the opening of the restaurant, new ideas emerged, this time for a gastronomic festival on the island that would bring together different professionals by the mesmerizing blue waters of the Caribbean Sea.
Led by Ripert, 15 years ago the cayman cookout , gastronomic festival based at the Ritz-Carlton. “The first year we held an event with only local chefs. We promote the event and test the system, and then improve it. So second year I brought my dear friend Jose Andrés It is Anthony Bourdain “, quotes Ripert.
The endeavor has grown year by year, attracting not only international chefs, but also sommeliers and mixologists, who give a taste of their work to a loyal legion of guests and guests in a more relaxed way, since, on the beach, shoes give way to slippers.
Source: CNN Brasil
Johanna Foster is an expert opinion writer with over 7 years of experience. She has a reputation for delivering insightful and thought-provoking articles on a variety of subjects. Her work can be found on some of the top online news websites, and she is currently lending her voice to the world stock market.
