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 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 1989, Ripert moved to the United States and was hired as a sous chef in the Watergate Hotel's Jean Louis Palladin restaurant in Washington, D.C. Ripert moved to New York in 1991, working briefly as David Bouley's sous-chef before Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze recruited him as a chef for 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 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.

Media career

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 TV's Top Chef. Ripert appeared in many episodes of A Cook's Tour, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

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]

Published works

• 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 978-0-470-88935-0
• My Best: Eric Ripert (2014)
• 32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line (17 May 2016) with Veronica Chambers

Awards

• #1 Restaurant in the World by La Liste
• Four stars (since 1995) by The New York Times
• Three stars (since 2005) by the Michelin Guide
• World’s 50 Best Restaurants (since 2006)
• Forbes All-Star Eateries: Four stars (since 2000) by Forbes
• AAA Five Diamond (since 2013) by the American Automobile Association
• Mentor Chef Award (2022) by the Michelin Guide
• "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

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]