Biography

Eric Ripert was born in France and learned to cook at a young age from his grandmother. When he was young, his family moved to Andorra, where he was raised. He later returned to France and attended culinary school in Perpignan.

Culinary career

At the age of 17 in 1982 he moved to Paris where he worked for two years at La Tour d'Argent, a famous restaurant 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. He stayed for two years before moving to New York City in 1991 to work for David Bouley. He stayed just under a year so he didn't break contract by being pursued by Gilbert Le Coze at 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 the age of 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 four consecutive times, making it the only restaurant to maintain that exquisite status for that length of time and never dropping a star in ten years. Le Bernardin is often referred to as the Temple of Seafood.

Ripert chairs the City Harvest’s Food Council, and is president of the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation. He has been a guest chef at the French Embassies in Mexico and Venezuela and for the New York City Ballet.

In November 2007, Ripert opened Westend Bistro at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., offering casual French and American bistro fare. In early 2009, Westend Bistro began serving a family-style Sunday Supper of a starter and entree for $28 per person. Ripert opened his newest venture in the Ritz Carlton Philadelphia spring 2008. The name of the restaurant, 10 Arts (run by former Le Bernardin sous chef and now chef de cuisine Jennifer Carroll, also a Top Chef contestant), comes from the hotel's address along Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts.

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". Chef Ripert had been considered to join season 8 of Top Chef as a permanent judge, but bowed out when his employee Jen Caroll was selected as a contestant again. He is friends with and has appeared on many episodes of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Most recently he has launched a series of brief online cooking videos called "Get Toasted" on his website AVECERIC.com which focuses on easy and quick meals that can be prepared and cooked in minutes with a toaster oven. In the series he uses a somewhat high end brick-oven based toaster oven produced by Cuisinart. Adding to his adventures, PBS has aired Avec Eric episodes (started September 2009) where he travels the world and finds inspiration and shows the idea in a profession setting, travels on location, and then finally shows the enlightenment in his home kitchen. Ripert occasionally resides in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York with his wife, Sandra, and son.

Ripert was a featured chef on Great Chefs television.

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.

Philanthropic activity

Ripert is the chair of City Harvest’s Food Council. In this capacity he works to bring together New York’s top chefs, restaurateurs and others in the food community to assist City Harvest in its mission to raise funds and to increase the quantity and quality of food donations. "City Harvest, a non-profit organization founded in 1982, is the world's first and New York City's only food rescue program. City Harvest exists to end hunger in communities throughout New York City, through food rescue and distribution, education, and other practical, innovative solutions."

He is president of the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation which develops programs to increase the understanding and appreciation of high quality ingredients among young chefs and food professionals.

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.

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 (May 17, 2016) with Veronica Chambers

Awards

• "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

[ Source: Wikipedia ]