Eric Ripert (French:[ʁipɛʁ]; born 2 March 1965) is a French chef, author, and television personality specializing in modern French cuisine and noted for his work with seafood.[1][2]
Ripert's flagship restaurant, Le Bernardin, located in New York City, has been ranked among the best restaurants in the world by culinary magazines and in 2023 ranked No.1 on the annual list of "La Liste".[3] It holds the maximum ratings of four stars from The New York Times[4] and three stars from the Michelin Guide.
Early life and education
Ripert was born in France and learned to cook at a young age from his mother. When he was young, his parents divorced and he moved to Andorra with his mother, where he was raised. His mother remarried and his stepfather was abusive. Ripert's father died when he was 11 in a hiking accident. [5] At the age of 15 Ripert left home to attend a culinary school in Perpignan.[6]
Culinary career
At 17, he moved to Paris where he worked for two years at La Tour d'Argent, a famous restaurant that claims to be 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 1994, Ripert became Le Bernardin's executive chef after Gilbert Le Coze died unexpectedly of a heart attack. The following year, at 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 three Michelin stars for excellence in cuisine. Le Bernardin received four stars from The New York Times six consecutive times, making it the only restaurant to maintain that exquisite status for that length of time and never dropping a star. Ripert has since firmly established himself as one of New York’s—and the world’s—great chefs.
In September 2014, Ripert and Le Coze opened Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, named for their wine director Aldo Sohm. That same month, the two expanded Le Bernardin’s private dining offerings with Le Bernardin Privé.
In September 2009, Avec Eric, Ripert's first TV show, debuted on PBS stations and ran for two seasons, earning two Daytime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Culinary Program (2011) and Outstanding Achievement in Main Title and Graphic Design (2010). Avec Eric returned for a third season on the Cooking Channel in February 2015 and is now available through iTunes and Netflix.
Ripert launched a series of brief online cooking videos called "Get Toasted" on his website, focusing on easy and quick meals that can be prepared and cooked in minutes with a toaster oven. In 2010, he played himself in the television show Treme on HBO (season 1 episode 5), alongside David Chang, Wylie Dufresne and Tom Colicchio. He returned in his cameo role in Season 2, in multiple episodes.
Ripert appeared in Netflix's original series Chef's Table, in an episode about Jeong Kwan (Season 3 Episode 1), which aired in 2017.
Books
In the fall of 2008, Ripert published On the Line, his second cookbook with Artisan, which in 2002 published A Return to Cooking, a collaboration between Ripert, photographers Shimon and Tammar Rothstein, artist Valentino Cortazar, and writer Michael Ruhlman that was selected by Newsweek as one of its best books of the season. Ripert's first cookbook, Le Bernardin – Four Star Simplicity (Clarkson Potter), was published in 1998, and in 2014, Ripert released his newest cookbook, My Best: Eric Ripert (Alain Ducasse Publishing). In 2016, he published his memoir: 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line (Random House), which appeared on The New York Times bestseller list.
Philanthropic activity
For three years, Ripert has hosted the Tibetan Aid Project's Taste & Tribute New York benefit dinner and auction at his Manhattan restaurant, Le Bernardin. "Funds raised at the annual Taste & Tribute benefit dinners help support efforts 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.[7]
On the Line: The Stations, the Heat, the Cooks, the Costs, the Chaos, and the Triumphs (co-authored with Christine Muhlke) (November 2008), ISBN1-57965-369-3
"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
Personal life
Ripert and his wife Sandra (née Nieves) have a son.[8]
Ripert is a Buddhist, and meditates for an hour every morning.[9]
Ripert was very close friends with fellow chef Anthony Bourdain.[10] Bourdain's 2000 book Kitchen Confidential was the first book Ripert read in English;[10] afterwards he called Bourdain, and the two met and became friends.[10] Ripert's first TV appearance with Bourdain was on A Cook's Tour in 2002.[10] Bourdain featured Ripert's restaurant Le Bernardin on No Reservations, and Ripert was often a guest on that show and on Parts Unknown.[10] Bourdain was also supportive of Ripert's writing career.[10] Ripert introduced Bourdain's second wife, Ottavia Busia, to him after his divorce from his first wife, Nancy Putkoski.[10] Ripert was in France with Bourdain in 2018 for an episode of Parts Unknown when he found Bourdain unresponsive in his hotel room; Bourdain's death was ruled a suicide.[10] Ripert paid respects to Bourdain on social media afterwards and promoted June 25th (Bourdain's birthday) in 2020 alongside Jose Andres as Bourdain Day.[10]
