Eric Ripert Quotes & Sayings

Having sharp, great knives will enable you to cook very precisely. Knife skills are essential in cooking. — Eric Ripert

In New York there used to be some very good clubs with amazing sound systems. Techno was part of the process. — Eric Ripert

If I go to a nightclub, even if the music is good, if the sound system is not, I don't stay. — Eric Ripert

If you can't think like an onion or a carrot or a tomato, you may be a technician, but you won't understand what you're doing, and your dish will be flat. — Eric Ripert

I see a lot of people who change careers in the middle of their life and they think it's a good idea to come in the kitchen. — Eric Ripert

To me, it's very important to have time at the restaurant but also time with family and time for myself. — Eric Ripert

I am a Buddhist, therefore I should not be collecting anything - however, I have a collection of Buddhas. I have a lot of them. — Eric Ripert

California is lucky, the East Coast is lucky because we get great seafood and a lot of produce from Florida, locally in good weather, but in the winter we have to buy it. — Eric Ripert

When I am about to have a difficult project, I dream I am climbing a mountain. When everything is going fine, I dream I am going down the mountain. — Eric Ripert

I come from a family of farmers on both sides of my family. — Eric Ripert

I don't like it when I go to a restaurant and I'm lectured from the menu. — Eric Ripert

Some chefs go crazy with one restaurant, and if I had 20, I would go nuts. — Eric Ripert

Cooks build muscles; we can stand all day long on our feet and not feel the pain. — Eric Ripert

I have very vivid memories of being a young child. My mother would create dinner as for us, and when she would bake, she would leave some dough for me. I would roll the dough into little sticks while she was cooking the apple tart of whatever. I was looking through the window of the oven and flipping the light, and then my bread would come out, and it was inedible, of course. — Eric Ripert

I'm very inspired by other cultures and very often use what I perceive to be exotic ingredients. — Eric Ripert

I'm very bad, but I like to dance. — Eric Ripert

It was my first day working at Tour d'Argent, a famous restaurant in Paris, in 1982, and they were celebrating their 400th anniversary. I am in the fish station and after many mistakes, including cutting myself after 30 seconds in that kitchen, the chef said, "Make a Hollandaise sauce with 32 yolks." It takes me forever to separate the yolks from the whites, and I put them in a bowl and try to go close to the stove, but the stove is way too hot for me. — Eric Ripert

It took me all my life to learn how to salt a tomato. — Eric Ripert

I like working in silence. — Eric Ripert

I find the organic wave much more interesting in America than in France. — Eric Ripert

I had a passion for cooking, and I was a very bad student. — Eric Ripert

Cooking is a holistic process of planning, preparing, dining and sharing food. I place food at the center of our humanity, as it nourishes not only our physical bodies but also our emotional and spiritual lives. Food is truly a cultural phenomenon that informs our traditions and our relationship with the earth. I genuinely believe that food connects us all. — Eric Ripert

At 15, I had to choose a vocational school, and I was delighted, of course, to go to culinary school. But learning the basics was not as exciting as being the chef I am today. — Eric Ripert

I like the dynamic of PBS. They're very honest and authentic. — Eric Ripert

America is a such a melting pot, I'm not sure if roast chicken is the classic comfort food for everybody. — Eric Ripert

I don't think I have an obsession, however I do eat chocolate every day. — Eric Ripert

Chefs are leaders in their own little world. — Eric Ripert

Everybody wants to support his own region and economy and farming. If we can preserve the land and if we can preserve the ocean, we all know, deep inside that we're doing the right thing. — Eric Ripert

For me, I do not wish to build an empire. — Eric Ripert

One thing I don't like is complaints. — Eric Ripert

my father...there was never any mistaking his love for me. When I walked into the room, his eyes lit up and he wrapped me in his arms as if it was Christmas morning and I was the best gift imaginable. — Eric Ripert

When I was twelve, I decided to become a chef. I stole a book from the library about the greatest restaurants in France. I'd flip the pages and dream. I should return that book to the library some day. — Eric Ripert

I'm fascinated by Japanese cuisine. — Eric Ripert

I am not a picture guy. I like to live in the present and keep the image of the past vivid in my mind. I don't need the precision of the picture. — Eric Ripert

When you are 25, 30, you know, you have no responsibility, no mortgage, no kids, no retirement to think about, nothing. — Eric Ripert

Nobody wants an ugly book. — Eric Ripert

I love garlic, and I use it often. — Eric Ripert

It's a very naive idea to think that the chef is cooking everything, and, on top of it, is irreplaceable. That would mean that basically he is the only genius, and there are idiots all around him, which doesn't make sense. — Eric Ripert

My mother and my grandmother would make an apple tart in different styles, and I had one per day. Every day I would eat one full apple tart. — Eric Ripert

It has been stressful to be a French resident in America. — Eric Ripert

When I see someone who has responsibilities, most of the time I can pinpoint that person because of the way he carries himself. — Eric Ripert

As young cook, especially in France, they're very tough in the kitchen. The idea is to make you humble and learn fast. — Eric Ripert

When I realized, "Hm, I'm not that good at all. It will take me weeks, maybe months, to master the 32 yolks." When I did, it was a turning point in my career. — Eric Ripert

I like very much Louis Vuitton. My wife loves it too. — Eric Ripert

The Cheesecake Factory's not that bad. — Eric Ripert

Factory farming's evil; you know that. — Eric Ripert

When I started to work in Paris in fine dining, the passion really kicked in, and I knew that I would not, for the rest of my life, do anything else. — Eric Ripert

Just walking in the kitchen (and we have three kitchens at Le Bernardin), I exercise quite a lot. I also walk in Central Park for 50 minutes from my house to Le Bernardin every day, rain, shine, snow. — Eric Ripert

I never pressure myself to do something I don't want to do. — Eric Ripert

A lot of foreign people say, when asking about eating habits, 'What is your guilty pleasure?' I have no guilt. Whatever I do, I enjoy and it's the point. I think if you start to feel guilty about it, that's a problem. So, no guilty pleasures. I have pleasure and no guilt at all. — Eric Ripert

I love eggs. When it's the season of truffles, scrambled eggs with truffles, and I'm happy. I'm smiling like that. — Eric Ripert

I don't follow the food trends. — Eric Ripert

A lot of people believe that when you are Buddhist, you are the Dalai Lama. I'm certainly not. — Eric Ripert

My New Year's resolution is to cut my diet sodas down to two cans a day! — Eric Ripert

The fish is the star of the plate. — Eric Ripert

I just find the world very exciting and beautiful everywhere. — Eric Ripert

I am an audiophile. It's almost like a virus. I'm completely crazy about the quality of sound. It's interesting and painful at the same time; you have to really spend a lot of money on the equipment. — Eric Ripert

In a professional kitchen, the idea is to have your cooks not moving much while they're cooking. You want them to stay in the same spot. — Eric Ripert

There is great food in Vegas. — Eric Ripert

Fast food is both evil and genius. Because of it we can feed a large number of people fairly decently at an affordable price. However, all the artificial flavors and artificial ingredients in some of their products are unacceptable. And it's designed so you can eat fast so you get back to work more quickly. Not good. — Eric Ripert

I'm a very bad baker. — Eric Ripert

I am convinced that if you serve great value, people will come to you. — Eric Ripert

For me, food is about memories, feelings, emotions, and so is Le Bernardin, and that's why it's not just a restaurant. — Eric Ripert

We lived in St. Tropez when I was young, and there were a lot of Vietnamese refugees in France at the time, after the war. My mother had many Vietnamese friends who entertained a lot, and she was taught how to make that spring roll. She would make them all the time. — Eric Ripert

Money is not necessarily, although it helps a lot for happiness, it's not necessarily the best way to be happy, to be rich, you know. — Eric Ripert

You don't become a chef to become famous. — Eric Ripert

I have more eating memories than cooking memories and many memories of being in the kitchen - I was always attracted to the kitchen - but nobody ever wanted me to touch anything. — Eric Ripert

When you serve lobster, you've taken a being's life away. Therefore if you create a recipe, you have to be very dedicated to elevate the lobster, to make it good and tasty of course, but at the end of the day it's a matter of paying homage. — Eric Ripert

Obviously California is fantastic in terms of produce, vegetables. — Eric Ripert

Today, because I want to be gentle on my back, I listen to jazz. — Eric Ripert

The nature of human beings is to eat meat and fruits and vegetables, and therefore we have to kill animals. I don't have a problem with that. But it's a sacred moment. It's a gift of life. — Eric Ripert

The importance of reading, for me, is that it allows you to dream.
Reading not only educates, but is relaxing and allows you to feed your imagination - creating beautiful pictures from carefully chosen words. — Eric Ripert