May 10, 2022 • 40 mins
Eric Ripert is chef and part-owner of one of New York’s flagship fine-dining establishments, Le Bernardin. For three decades with Ripert at the helm, Le Bernardin has ranked at the top of the world's best restaurant lists and holds three Michelin stars, the maximum available. Ripert is also the author of several cookbooks and a best-selling memoir – and was host of the Emmy-winning tv show “AVEC ERIC.” Ripert shares with Alec stories from his culinary training, how he maintains Le Bernardin's excellence, and the unmatched power of dessert.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the
Thing from My Heart Radio. French chef Eric Repair is
the culinary virtuoso behind one of New York City's flagship
fine dining establishments, the Temple of Seafood. Le Bernardin. Repair
(00:22):
has kept the restaurant at its peak for three decades,
consistently earning three Michelin stars in addition to the accolades
he's earned for La Bernardin. Repair himself has been honored
as Top Chef in New York City and Outstanding Chef
in the US by the James Beard Foundation. He is
(00:44):
also the author of numerous cookbooks and a New York
Times best selling memoir, and he hosted the Emmy winning
TV series Avec Eric. All of this on top of
his charitable work feeding the hungry with City Harvest. Born
in the South of France, Chef Repair has a long
(01:04):
and storied history with food. I wanted to know when
he first fell in love with gastronomy. Actually it's linked
to eating because as a young kid, I was always
in the kitchen of my grandmothers, always in the kitchen
of my mother and my I had the Italian grandmother
(01:25):
one from province. They were cooking salt food and I
love the vibe in the kitchen and the smell and
the ingredients everywhere, the colors. I was going to the
markets with them. They didn't want me to cook. That
was allowed only to look and eat, and it's what
I was doing. And I wanted to become a chef
(01:45):
because I thought I would be in that environment. Those
kitchens were very dreamy, and it was in the south
of France, where you know, everything smells good. Old arms
are strong, and you smell the melons and the basil
and every think as as this fantastic smell and look.
And I was four or five. I was obsessed with cooking.
(02:06):
So when I was in school, instead of doing my
homework at night, I was looking at cookbooks. So as
you can imagine, I had bad grades. And then when
I was you should be ashamed of yourself here right then,
I was fifteen, and they called me at the principal
office and they said, that's it's for you. You can't
we have to find what they call a vocational school. Sure,
(02:27):
and I was like, same here, I want to be
a chef, that's it. And I went to culinary school,
thinking that I would be in those dreamy kitchens and
and so on. And then I started to learn the craft,
and on the beginning is a bit boring because it's
very academic, so I was not necessarily too excited. What
(02:47):
was the school? What was the first when you went
to Perpinion, which is in the south of France at
the border of with Spain almost And then when I
started in latour d round nineteen two and I'm seventeen
years old, that's a real, real kitchen with like thirty
fourty guys cooking, and and I'm like amazed and terrorized,
(03:09):
and I make all the mistakes in the world, but
I love it. And it's maybe that the moment. Maybe
you're right, it was not when I was a kid.
It was jin Paris nineteen When you're actually doing it,
not studying it, I'm really into it, like like with
my entire body and soul, and I'm giving everything. But
when you see the Julia Child documentary that I loved,
(03:31):
when she talks about her training and France, no women, No,
it was no woman at the time, And for you,
the same thing, yes, because the kids, First of all,
it was not a job that that was attractive, like
you were going in the kitchen because you were a
bad student, or you were dysfunctional, you had problems, and
your parents were like all the men in the kitchen
(03:52):
with thos, go to the kitchen. At least you would
have food. And and there was also very uh how
can I say physical, like we had we didn't have
the technology that we have in kitchens today. So it
was very hot and the pants were like super heavy,
and actually I burned myself. I burned my entire leg
with like fifty gallons of lobster bisk or something. I
(04:16):
mean like it was it was like so heavy I
couldn't even lift it. So it was not an environment
that women were really attracted. Then the media made the
idea of cooking in professional kitchens kind of romantic, glamorous,
but even today it's not that romantic and glamorous. It's
really like it's tough now if it's it's all men
(04:39):
back then, and you were two doors. When you're a
young man, you're seventeen and you've only been in cooking
school for a couple of years, how did they treat you?
Where they were they mentors and they helped you or
did they was like the military, and they were all
sharing at you all the time. No, it was really
very much like the military, except that the military sometimes
I never understood the logic of what we were supposed
(05:00):
to do because it was mandatory to be a military
in fruence for one year. But in the kitchen it
was the same, except that it was a logic. But
they were screaming at you, and the way they were
educating you was through humil humiliation, so you were going there,
they were breaking you and then the idea was to
rebuild you and make you a champion. Of course, in
(05:22):
the process we were losing so many good people because
it's not the right way to do it. But it
was being kicked in the bud, being punching the shoulders,
being insulted all day long, and so only with through
a process. Yeah. But the other difference between and the
military was at the end of the day, with the
morn works was over, you had a nice Sam and
Moose at the restaurant, not in the military, know, Sam
(05:45):
and Moose at the military. Not really How long we
went to jan two years? Two years? And where did
you go from there? I went to a restaurant called Jaman.
The chef was Royal Roberchan. He was considered at the
time the best chef in the world with another chef
in Switzerland. Fredit are they They were like no competition
(06:05):
with those two guys, like very different styles. But Roby
Shan was like wow, And for me it was a
revelation when I when I met him, I was like,
oh my god, Okay, now we're talking. And so two
years you're only now nineteen years old. Yeah. So when
you go to the kitchen with Robert Shan, what what
(06:26):
do you have that he wants? Why does he want
you in that kitchen? He wants young people because we
are more flexible, we don't have badabits. I had been
training lad around the classic way, so I know my basics.
I described that. So the basic the Blue Noon Blue
is more like how can I say? It's a cotton
(06:49):
place of school for people who are going to cook
at home. It's not a school that prepares you to
be in a professional kitchen like where I'm I am evolving.
If we can make an analogy, I'm going to formula
one and the other one is for you know, on
Sunday driving your caspas something. So so it's it's no comparison.
(07:10):
But Robbie Shawn wanted to have someone who knew the
basics because without the basics, you cannot really build and
evolve with more the precision that he wanted and for
him was very important to have a young kid that
was referred from my old chef to him. So he
(07:30):
said probably the chef said, okay, so repair his discipline.
He's not gonna answer. He's gonna work hard. He's going
he master this and that he wants it, and he
wants it. He wants to be there, which is always critical,
Which is always critical, of course. I mean I always
think about what is the space that I go into
in my profession that calms me and makes me feel
(07:53):
very centered. You can do a play and you can
be very still, and you wonder what their response and
after a very still response during the performance, they erupted
into applause. They're sobbing, and they're you know, it's very strange.
But for you, is that what this world became was
a place where things made sense to you. You found
(08:13):
out how it was home. Yes, when I entered the kitchen,
I was very familiar, even if it was very extreme.
The conditions of work, you know, like working sixteen to
eighteen hours a day, I think thirty thirty minutes break
and a little bit to it. I mean we were
all skinny like that and white like ghosts. But we
had the passion and we knew we were doing something
(08:34):
very special. I love the rigor at the time that
in that kitchen, that the discipline and the rigger and
the beautiful place, the challenge of course all the time
we were challenged, and the beautiful plates that we were
doing and sending, and and then we had the feedback
actually from the clients right away. I mean clients were
(08:55):
saying it's good, or clients sometimes we're living a little
bit of food in the plate and were terrorized because
the chef will go crazy, like if someone was living
in it was famous for looking at every plate coming back.
He wanted to date everything. Yeah, and if someone was
leaving something, it was a disaster. That's interesting. Yeah, it
was interesting, I'll say. But anyway, in those kitchens, it's
(09:19):
control chaos. It looks like it's chaotic, But the more
control chaos is happening, and the more pressure you have
when you know what you're doing, you have this kind
of revelation and you kind of like do things and
in a very heroic way. And it was. It was
like that, and it's still to day for me. When
(09:40):
I entered the kitchen and it's like lunchtime, it's one o'clock.
You have to feed every everyone in the dining room
good food, obviously, but in a timely manner, in a
clean plate and making sure that the food goes to
the person that has ordered that plate and so on.
It's an entire process, right, and I get sucked in
to the process. I love it. There was a restaurant
(10:02):
I worked in. It was called Enophelia. It was on
the Upper West Side and it was a real frontier
because there was almost nothing up there in the upper
eighties and nineties, back in this is back in the eighties,
and then the streets up there, way up in the
nineties on off of Broadway and Amsterdam and Columbus, there
was very little that was good in This guy opened
a place where the wine list was what was featured.
(10:24):
The food was very good. It was very small, and
we would come to work at three thirty or four
o'clock have the shift meal. They'd make us all a
meal to eat and then when the when the shift
was over, I was a service bartender. I made all
the cocktails for the table. There was no bar. When
we were done, we would sit down and the owner
was lovely man, and he'd say he and the manager
knew what the stock was to choose. You could choose
(10:46):
a really nice bottle of wine. No, not the most
expensive bottle, but you could have a forty bottle of
wine back then or fifty. Oh yeah, he was very nice.
The owner was a lovely guy, and he was never there,
and he'd say to the manager yes, and the manager
would open the bottle of wine. He'd pour us all
a drink. And then they would dump all the money
on the table that we made the money to divide
between the waiters, bus boys and the service partender. And
(11:08):
then they would roll a joint. They drove the biggest
joint they could, the size of a flashlight. And then
they would smoke pot, drink wine and count the money.
And I remember it was like the greatest experience. Yeah,
you don't do that, Aberna. In No, we don't up
the coins. But in France also it's it's again like
(11:30):
the military. You don't drink alcohol you don't smoke joints,
you don't work, you just yeah, you have this incredible
level of discipline and and that's it. Now when you left,
Robi Shan, how many more restaurants in Europe did you work?
And what year did you come to the United States? So,
(11:51):
Robbie Shan, I do one year. Then it's so hard.
I have to do my military duties. So I go
see him and I said, I have to leave. Unfortunately
it's mandatory, and he says, don't worry about it. I'm
going to send you to the Eliza. You'll cook for
me around president of friends at the time, I have
the connections, don't worry and you did no, I want
to get out of there. And I'm like, I need
to get out of there and said, no, no, no,
(12:11):
I thank you so much. I have I have already
my connections. Thank you appreciate. And I'm thinking I'll never
see this man again in my life. I'll move on
somewhere else, learn something else. On my last day of
my military dude is he called me and said to me,
I heard that is your last day. Do you want
to come back and you're going to be the chef
(12:32):
person you extracting, Yeah, he knew about I don't know
how we knew, but you know. And I said, you know,
sir chef, I need to think about it. I had
a girl friend and so on. I said I need
and he says, oh, for sure, think about it. You
have thirty seconds. And I was like what as I
said yes, and I went back to Paris and I
(12:52):
did two more years with him. So I worked with
Robbie Shawn for three and something else. Then, Um, we
did the military service. You will into the military. I
did my Yes. I thought you were gonna tell me
that's when you dumped the lobster best on yourself deliberately. No, no, no, no,
did you get out of I did the military service?
You did? Yeah? What you do in the PA? Come
you cooked? So they put me in the kitcher and
(13:13):
I was supposed to cook for the officers of the
whatever I was. And the food was so disgusting. I
had never seen that. They burned spaghetti is in the water.
I have never seen spaghetti is burning in water. It's
not possible. Well they did it. So I went to
see the general and I explained to my situation. I
was a young kid, and I said you know, I
(13:35):
don't mind to do it, but you know I can't
cook shoot food. And he said, I'm going to send
you to the commandos. What do you think of that?
So I look at him and I said, sir, look,
I'm so skinny. I can't do the commandos. And he
was laughing and said, what do you want? You would
be my waiter? I said yeah, So I became his
waiter for one year. I was the waiter of the
(13:56):
general and then I went back to and then he
sent me to do you to do us. So after
the military serviation, you go back with Robert Shaw. Right
after that you come to the States where there's more European.
So after two years, I want to get out of
rubbish from and I want to go to Brazil. So
I love Brazil and at the time, I'm like, I
(14:18):
find it very exotic, and I have a lot of
friends there, and you know, I'm thinking it's gonna be
a nice and it's gonna be a big party as well,
and I'm gonna have a good time. So I went
to see Robbie, you're very young at this time. I
want a party. And when I told him, he said, no, no, no,
I'm not sending you in a vacation, no way. So
I said, I would like to go. He said, truly
(14:39):
something else that's in Spain. He said, Spain. It is
you live in Andorra, which was between friends and Spain.
It's it's basically Spain. So I said to him, I said, well,
don't ask me, tell me where I'm going. And he said, well,
go in vacation. When you come back, I send you
to Washington, d CEA. I worked at the Water Hotel.
No what year nine, way after Nixon scandal, of course,
(15:04):
but I am at the Water Hotel. They have a
very good restaurant called Jean Louis French. It was probably
one of the first French chef celebrity in the US.
And from Robbie Strom kitchen, which is basically like the army,
like Catholic school. Almost I end up in Woodstock where
(15:24):
we're smoking cigarettes in the kitchen and different nbnce tiny kitchen.
I learned a lot with him. He was extremely creative,
as I recalled. Because I lived in Washington for three years,
I went to college there. I went to g w
first nineteen seventies six or nineteen seventy nine. I left
and you go there in eighty nine, and you are
in what is now the more of the modern Washington. Washington.
(15:47):
Then when I went, it was still a very quiet,
sleepy backwards when they make maybe three restaurants. It was
sleepy too. Because I was bored to death and I
wanted to come to New York. I was like, there's
no way where you went. So Washington a year and
enough because I had the visa, uh student visa eighteen months.
So I did my visa and then I came to
(16:09):
New York and I worked downtown with David Boulet for
short period of time, and then I started at Lebanon Lebernard.
And let's face it as like the Temple of restaurants.
I mean, many of them have come and gone. I
remember that I worked. One of my first jobs in
New York was I worked at the least like court
Pasque Pascal, who was the pastry chef. I worked for
(16:31):
Gi Pascal. I know him, he was my pastriy chef.
He said that the people from the court pass gave
him the name. She said to him, oh you can
have the name. And and and g who was a
man who he loved me. He loved me. He was
a very loving person. He was a very loving He
would walk up to me and he put his hand
on my face and said, oh, leck, I want for
(16:52):
you to come to work every day. For me, I
worked at the place delivering the pastries to uh look
renowl pronounce like all the old school sign of the dove,
all these. I delivered the pastries from Geat in a
truck to the restaurants. So I worked with him. Well,
Bernarden is all those spaces are gone? Bernardan is still here. Yeah,
(17:15):
I think we were still here and we're still relevant
and so on, because we basically question ourselves every day
and we push ourselves and we have no ego about
our accolades or anything like that. Whatever was yesterday doesn't
exist anymore. Every morning we start again, and we want
(17:36):
to create an experience for the clients. For the people
who come. We want to push to envelope with our cooking.
We want to create an ambience in the dining room
that is very warm, considering that we are for fine
dining restaurant. We want people to laugh. We want people,
if they want to scream, scream. We want the dining
room to be loud and so so we we always evolve.
(17:59):
We changed decre since I am there three times, keeping
some iconic items like the ceilings. You are a part
owner in the restaurant, yes, you're not just a chef
under contract. And as a part owner, obviously you have
control over and that's in the back of the house,
so to speak, and you have some significant control over
the front of the house as well. Yes, of course,
the fabric on the chairs, the flowers on the tail
(18:20):
as you have some say yes. And then we work
really well as a team with my business partner. It's
it's really it's really a great pleasure to work together,
which is I think very important to have partners that
are aligned with the vision. Alberada is evolving all the
time because we first of all, we refused to have
signature dishes because the day the day you have a
(18:42):
signature dish, you don't evolve anymore. And as you know,
New York is pretty quick and fast. If you don't evolve,
you behind the next day. The second is stop. That's it,
it's over. We just have the passion and we want
to do new things. Chef Eric Repair. If you enjoy
(19:06):
culinary conversations, check out my episode with the author of
in defense of food and cooked Michael Pollen, Amazing things
happen at the table, and you know, as you give
up cooking, you give up eating together. And when when
you start going to the microwavable meal, everybody gets their own.
And there's something about eating from the same pot that
(19:26):
puts people on the same page psychologically, I think, and
we give that up and increasingly we're eating alone. We're
eating in the car of American food gets eaten in
the car right now. Um, we eat alone way too often,
and so we're losing. It's not just about the food.
I mean, food is important, but there are the institutions
that come with it. To hear more of my conversation
(19:48):
with the author, Michael Pollen, go to Here's the Thing
dot org. After the break, Eric Repair and I discussed
the unparalleled importance of dessert. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're
(20:13):
listening to Here's the Thing. For a chef working at
the level that Eric Repair does, the standards that le
bernardin must be excellence, and not just in food, but
in presentation, design and hospitality. I asked Repair what he
thinks are the hallmarks of good service, and in particular,
(20:34):
what makes a good waiter. A good waiter is someone
who's passion it and rocks hard and understand that he's
here to create an experience for the clients. That's a
good waiter. Of course, he has to have a good
relationship with the kitchen and be knowledgible about the food
and so and the wines and so on. But we
(20:56):
are in a hospitality business. People come to the Banner then,
not to have a waither star or chef star. No,
we are here to make your experience the best we can.
And the way there has to be very generous in
this way, you know, has to be very given as
(21:16):
to read also the client really well, you may come
to the Bernarda and it could be a date and
you in love and so on. The way there shouldn't
be in the middle, and we say, right, we leave
us alone. You've been really you've been reading my mind
because right before you came, we were talking about over service.
Yeah no, you don't want that. But you may be
also celebrating a business deal. Okay, so it's the way.
(21:39):
There should be a standing stay away. But if you
have foodie and you traveled, and you you save money
and and you're looking at everywhere, and the waiter should
see that and then read your mind and know that
you want interaction and you want to talk up food
(22:00):
and you want to potentially visit the kitchen and what
the hell? Yes, the waiter should be invisible until you
need them. So, without naming the part of town you
live in where your home is, are there restaurants that
you walk out the door? For me, my wife and
I have four or five go two restaurants in the neighborhood.
We have dinner, rem united, We put our kids to
(22:20):
dead every night, and we walk out the door the
same restaurants. Is that the same way you live? Do
you walk out the door and there will go to restaurants?
Are you always reaching out and exploring new things always? Well,
First of all, the big difference in between you and
I is that when you go out, I'm cooking, right,
So during the week, five days a week, I am
in the restaurant. When you do go out to lunch
(22:42):
on the weekend, one day we go out, one day
we stay home. So when we stay oh my coop,
because it's fun to cook at home is different. And
then when we go out. I'm very loyal to places,
but I like to explore as well, and so it's
a mix of U. And sometimes I do trips like
I decide to go for two weeks in Scandinavia and
(23:03):
I do all the restaurant that I'm thinking that will
inspire me, and I come back trying new things. Yeah,
and when you travel the world, what's the difference between
the restaurant experience in Europe and in America? What do
the Europeans do that the Americans don't do or vice versasa? Right? Um, Well,
(23:24):
in Europe, the chef is always right. You don't discuss
the chef the ideas of the chef. In America, the
clients really challenge you if they don't like what you
are doing, or if they don't understand, or it's no
logic to have that without the But yeah, of course,
(23:47):
in Europe, no, it doesn't happen. And then in fine
dining in Europe, people are very quiet and silent. It's
almost like they are in church, which I dislike. I
like restaurant with ambience and good vibes and so on.
So in the US, I've in fine dining, especially in
the city like New York, the dining rooms are more
(24:09):
vibrant and then I have to say what I like
about Europe is the quality of the products that they are,
you know, like when they serve vegetables, the test like
what's supposed to taste here's a bit of a challenge.
It is a challenge because we do not cultivate the
same way, you know, like the soil is maybe not
(24:30):
the same. I don't know, Like an artichock in the
Mediterranean is not the same artichock that we eat here.
The artigine, for example, anichuck that you would serve at
Lebernardine is ground where California, California, where where most of
the artichos are grown. And you know, it's like those
gigantic farms and they have ways of cultivating and maximizing
(24:51):
the land and it's factories and it's difficult. So now
when in New York it's the good season which is
going to start now, we use small farmers, local, local,
and then you have a much much better product. So
that's the difference in between Europe and in terms of
quality of the food. My ex wife I loved Los
(25:12):
Angeles and I were to go out there and work
and I said, you know, what what is it you
love about living here, and she without flinching, we're at
Gelson's market and she picks up a tomato and she goes,
you see that tomato? Shees, you can't get that tomato
in New York. She said, that's a tomato, meaning that
all of the farming and all the fresh food in
(25:33):
the California experience just dwarfed the East coast and it
doesn't travel well. Right, So I'm wondering, how difficult is
it for you to get the things you need? The
chicken you want, the beef you want, the pork you want.
You have vendors you buy from. Are you in charge
of that of the shopping or someone does it for you?
(25:55):
Ultimately I am in charge, but of course people of
course with different tasks and so on, and learning how
to do it, and and so on. I have to
tell you. And and lebernarda is mostly specialized in seafood.
If you want to have good products, it's very simple,
pay your bills on time, and do not bargain. Well,
(26:18):
sometimes you have the exaggerate a little bit, but the
price is the price, and you pay a S A p.
And you get the best, and weever bargains and once
the cheap price and doesn't pay his bills nor he's
not going to get a good product. What was the
impact of the COVID Did you close for some period
that was really tough. We close on March thirteen, A
(26:39):
week later the mayor or the governor. I don't remember
close all the restaurants was, but I closed right away
when I saw the bad news on TV, I was like,
this is really bad. I don't want to have neither
the clients or the employees being exposed. And I thought
we were closing for three weeks, maybe a month. Night
it was closed a long long period of time, almost
(27:02):
like a year. And we couldn't take out because our
food doesn't go in a box, and I couldn't pull
the terraus because the experiences in our worlds. So what
we decided to do. It's a collaboration in between City
r Vest that rescue food that will go to waste
that is perfectly fresh, and World Central Kitchen, the organization
(27:22):
of Rossi Andreas, who's feeding people all over the world
when it's a catastrophe right now they are in Ukraine.
When it is the earthquake, they go to the earthquake
and so on, and we use our kitchen to do
four hundred meals a day every day on the beginning
for doctor and nurses from our of states that we're
staying in hotels, and the group paid for us. World
(27:45):
Central Kitchen was helping us and City r Vest was
giving us part of the food as well, so we
were able to basically break even. And we did that
from the military. Yeah, we did that from May to December. Now,
why is the focus of le Bernardin and seafood and
this is your philosophy obviously at your restaurant, Why don't
(28:05):
you focus on that. I didn't open lebernard I came
the opening eighty six in New York, the opening seventy
two in Paris. Seats in Paris was like a very
clearly restaurant dedicated to seafood because they were coming to
Brittany was a sister and brother. Dad was a fisherman.
Then you want to cook fish. They were cooking fish.
(28:26):
And then they got one star Michel and then to
star Micheland that they came to the US. Uh, New
York Times give them four star right away they open,
they get that huge accolade and it's an instant success.
And they were cooking fish because it's their passion. They
love that. And in NTE I was well trained because
(28:49):
as you remember, I was chef past only at rob
so I joined the team and I feel at home.
I'm like, this is easy. It's a cook fish. I
know to cook fish. And I get along really well
with the brother who passed away ninety four. He mentor
me with his style and these ideas and I we
have a good exchange. I know some techniques that I
(29:09):
have learned from Robbie Strom who was a great technician.
He has a great philosophy, and we worked together. And
then when unfortunately passed away, I took his position and
and move on with lebern Adam. Who is your pastry chef,
Orlando Soto? How important do you find? I mean, I
(29:29):
never I never tire of seeing the childlike glow of adults,
especially when they go to an expensive restaurant, very fancy restaurant,
and they know they're gonna have like the the highest
level of dessert. And I never tire of seeing their face.
They're like children, yes, and they say would you like
to see the dessert menu? And they're like oh yes,
(29:50):
oh yeah, and they bring in the dessert and you're like, oh,
and I want to have this and this and this.
What's your favorite dessert? What do you like a you do, yeah,
with a lot of repression and vanilla ice cream. Then
then I'll think about the colories. It's okay, Chef Eric Repair.
(30:14):
If you're enjoying this conversation, tell a friend and be
sure to follow Here's the Thing on the I Heart
radio app, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. When
we come back, Eric Repair discusses the future of food
and the movement of sustainability. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're
(30:48):
listening to Here's the Thing. Chef Repair is known for
creating the type of cuisine that defines a destination restaurant
full of pomp and pageantry. So I wouldn't help, but
wonder what he might enjoy in his downtime. If you
give me a cocoa van which is a stew of
a chicken in red wine in the winter, I'm like,
(31:11):
what can be better? Make that? You make it at home?
You do? Do you do with the blood or no blood?
It's illegal to told me you can, yes, I do
it with the blood. Yeah, because at home. But my
friend said to me. We used to go to uh
this is an ancient reference, but I used to go
to Fabia. Of course. I used to go to Tuva
(31:34):
all the time, all all the time, and they had
cocoa van And I asked him did they do the
rooster blood? Did they blew the blood of the chicken?
And they looked at me. They were like no, and
then they winked at me. All our team at the
time was going there every night. We went to Tuvambia
every night after when I would work in the theater,
and I would have coca every night and it was
good good you like, yes, of course, yes, I have
(31:58):
something in common with the Great Eric in terms of
what we crave in terms of food. That is a
that is incredible. It's incredible. Now, what's the first thing
you notice when you go to a restaurant? If it's clean,
it's clean. If it's clean or not clean, it's interesting.
You should say that, And for me, not clean, or
if it's a smell, I just can't interesting. Yeah, sometimes
(32:22):
it's a it's a restaurant near where I live and
I'm not going to say the name, obviously, and the
guy does a good job, but it's a sushi place
and I smelled the fish. I just can't. I just
cannot get in. I opened the door and I'm like,
oh no, no way. They wrote an article. They did
this research into fish served in Japanese restaurants in California
(32:46):
and particularly in l A and they identified that in
some cases, over fifty of the fish that was served
in the sushi restaurant was mislabeled. It wasn't what they said.
It was not only in Japanese restaurant, in all rest one.
Very often you find snapper is not a snapper stripe bus.
It's not a stripe bus. And very few people can
(33:09):
make the difference because how many times do you eat snapper?
You know? It's a lot. I mean, like me, I
just look at the fish. I know it's a snapper
without the skin. It doesn't have to be like yeah,
just look at the filly. I know, because it's my job.
I do, and I eat, and if I tasted, I
know immediately it takes me two seconds. Or codfish or
(33:29):
ache ors, things like that. But a lot of restaurants
are misleading. I see so much. Once I did a
story with the New York Time. We went to the
market it was about farm raised salmon versus wild salmon.
So is it? Well, is it farm raise? And then
they were analyzing. They took the samples and took it
to to a lab. So I was with the journalists
(33:49):
and they were like, what is that? And I was
like farm raised? And he was saying wild and that
one farm raise, and and and and in the market
it was like wild and wild and wild and wild
and out of the I don't know siry samples that
we add, I said, this one is wild. It was
the only one, and the and the lab confirmed that
(34:10):
I was right. It was the only one. Else wasn't wild?
Everything else wild. Obviously, people got a great lengths to
secure a reservation at your restaurant. Bernardin would probably be
the punchline and episodes of Signed Feld for how difficult
it is to secure reservations in your restaurant. It's it's
(34:30):
pretty bad. We have many people here who testified the
fact that they've had their stresses now. But you do
online reservations, correct, we do? And do you find that
that's a positive, a negative or both? No, it's positive.
It is why online reservation it's positive from on our
point of view. It's easier because we don't need so
(34:51):
many people on the phone to answer the phone. People
can do it online and it's less stressful also for
the people who are behind the phones. So that's one thing.
And then as a client, you can go online at
the time that you wish, you can make your reservation.
So I think it's very convenient for the clients to
(35:11):
be able to go online. And then sometimes you don't
get the table because we don't give all our tables online.
We save some of the tables and you have to
call family, not for family, family of the restaurant people
come over, so if someone else calls and we may
have a table and you may have an interaction with
(35:32):
someone with a real voice, and so on. The building
that you're in, does the company that you're with your
you and your party, Do you own the building? No,
it's a least. Yeah, we have a least in that building.
Since nine the building has changed ownerships a couple of times,
but we have a great support from the building. That's
what I was going to say, because many people who struggle,
especially during the even before and after that, they struggle
(35:55):
because this least situation is a difficult. You have a kind.
We have a very kind, very kind landlord, and and
they have always been since the beginning, very kind, And
I think it's a win wind. We bring to the
building a certain prestige, and we we bring a nice
and the amenity for their clients in the floors and
so on. So they like us, and we like them
(36:17):
because they like us, which works. It's a wind. The
reason I asked about the online reservation thing was because
I have a friend of mine whose mother eats the
same night, same time every week. She has dinner at
Le Bernadin once a week. She's an old New Yorker.
This is her thing that she loves. But I would
imagine that you come into a room and it's friends
(36:38):
and family people you've been cooking for them and their
children and on and on for a while now, and
then the online reservation runs the risk of the person
showing up who don't understand what they're getting into, someone
who might even attempt to send the meal back and say,
I'd like you to cook. These lamp shops are like
you know what I mean, It's like they're not friends
(36:58):
and family. We we don't have that problem because I think, yes,
because the restaurant has a certain reputation when we are
not beginners. I mean, if you don't want the place,
like google Le Bernard and you're like, Okay, it's an
expensive restaurant. It's fine dining. It's not what I want.
I'm not going to make a reservation. Oh they specialize
(37:19):
in seafood. I don't like fish. I'm not gonna go there.
I'm gonna go somewhere else. So today, with with information
that we get, we don't have that problem. But to
go back to the reservation quickly. You know, we have
people who come to three times a week, especially for lunch.
You know, they work in the building. It's convenient, they
do business at the table and so on. We always
have to keep few tables that we released twenty four
(37:41):
hours before, but two or three four tables for those clients.
I mean, the part of our family really for you,
do you sense that people are becoming more concerned about sustainability? Oh? Yeah,
for sure. For quite some time, especially with the young clientele.
(38:02):
The older clientele was less sensitive. But today I think
we have been really bombarded with informations about what's happening
on our planet, what's happening with the suffering of the
animals in factory farms and so on. Right every day,
it's NonStop, and it's not a trend. It's a movement sustainability.
(38:23):
It's in the mind of everybody, everyone in your profession,
certainly world for sure, we think about it. So what
do we do. We don't. We do not serve endangerous species.
We support local farmers, we support organic practices, we support
actually all good practices and in general and so on.
Because if we don't, if we don't do anything today,
(38:46):
your children might my child, they're gonna have a world
that has been sabotaged by the previous generations. We have
to do something. So avoiding too many fair fertilizers, avoiding pesticides,
and first of all, for your own good as well,
for your own health and the planet. You don't want that,
(39:07):
and for the planet, and you don't want to deplete
the planet. You don't want to pollute the planet. I
mean most the Earth is taking care of us, and
we all here and we have to take care of it.
And today people are really thinking about it. I want
to say, I was so looking forward to doing this
because I'm such an admirer of the more I read
(39:27):
about you and your life and what you've done. I thought, Wow,
what an amazing thing for any human being to be
able to get to a place where in your field
you are at the top of your field. You worked
so hard that the boy that was fifteen years old,
who's trying to lift the heavy paths in the kitchen
and all the men are yelling, and look at where
you've come to as a part of that line. And
(39:50):
now you're at the top of the mountain. The culinary
mountain takes you so much. I'm very unerable chef Rick repair.
This episode was produced by Kathleen Russo, Zack McNeice, and
Maureen Hoban. Our engineer is Frank Imperial. Here's the Thing
(40:10):
is recorded at c DM Studios. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's
the Thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio.
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the
Thing from My Heart Radio. French chef Eric Repair is
the culinary virtuoso behind one of New York City's flagship
fine dining establishments, the Temple of Seafood. Le Bernardin. Repair
(00:22):
has kept the restaurant at its peak for three decades,
consistently earning three Michelin stars in addition to the accolades
he's earned for La Bernardin. Repair himself has been honored
as Top Chef in New York City and Outstanding Chef
in the US by the James Beard Foundation. He is
(00:44):
also the author of numerous cookbooks and a New York
Times best selling memoir, and he hosted the Emmy winning
TV series Avec Eric. All of this on top of
his charitable work feeding the hungry with City Harvest. Born
in the South of France, Chef Repair has a long
(01:04):
and storied history with food. I wanted to know when
he first fell in love with gastronomy. Actually it's linked
to eating because as a young kid, I was always
in the kitchen of my grandmothers, always in the kitchen
of my mother and my I had the Italian grandmother
(01:25):
one from province. They were cooking salt food and I
love the vibe in the kitchen and the smell and
the ingredients everywhere, the colors. I was going to the
markets with them. They didn't want me to cook. That
was allowed only to look and eat, and it's what
I was doing. And I wanted to become a chef
(01:45):
because I thought I would be in that environment. Those
kitchens were very dreamy, and it was in the south
of France, where you know, everything smells good. Old arms
are strong, and you smell the melons and the basil
and every think as as this fantastic smell and look.
And I was four or five. I was obsessed with cooking.
(02:06):
So when I was in school, instead of doing my
homework at night, I was looking at cookbooks. So as
you can imagine, I had bad grades. And then when
I was you should be ashamed of yourself here right then,
I was fifteen, and they called me at the principal
office and they said, that's it's for you. You can't
we have to find what they call a vocational school. Sure,
(02:27):
and I was like, same here, I want to be
a chef, that's it. And I went to culinary school,
thinking that I would be in those dreamy kitchens and
and so on. And then I started to learn the craft,
and on the beginning is a bit boring because it's
very academic, so I was not necessarily too excited. What
(02:47):
was the school? What was the first when you went
to Perpinion, which is in the south of France at
the border of with Spain almost And then when I
started in latour d round nineteen two and I'm seventeen
years old, that's a real, real kitchen with like thirty
fourty guys cooking, and and I'm like amazed and terrorized,
(03:09):
and I make all the mistakes in the world, but
I love it. And it's maybe that the moment. Maybe
you're right, it was not when I was a kid.
It was jin Paris nineteen When you're actually doing it,
not studying it, I'm really into it, like like with
my entire body and soul, and I'm giving everything. But
when you see the Julia Child documentary that I loved,
(03:31):
when she talks about her training and France, no women, No,
it was no woman at the time, And for you,
the same thing, yes, because the kids, First of all,
it was not a job that that was attractive, like
you were going in the kitchen because you were a
bad student, or you were dysfunctional, you had problems, and
your parents were like all the men in the kitchen
(03:52):
with thos, go to the kitchen. At least you would
have food. And and there was also very uh how
can I say physical, like we had we didn't have
the technology that we have in kitchens today. So it
was very hot and the pants were like super heavy,
and actually I burned myself. I burned my entire leg
with like fifty gallons of lobster bisk or something. I
(04:16):
mean like it was it was like so heavy I
couldn't even lift it. So it was not an environment
that women were really attracted. Then the media made the
idea of cooking in professional kitchens kind of romantic, glamorous,
but even today it's not that romantic and glamorous. It's
really like it's tough now if it's it's all men
(04:39):
back then, and you were two doors. When you're a
young man, you're seventeen and you've only been in cooking
school for a couple of years, how did they treat you?
Where they were they mentors and they helped you or
did they was like the military, and they were all
sharing at you all the time. No, it was really
very much like the military, except that the military sometimes
I never understood the logic of what we were supposed
(05:00):
to do because it was mandatory to be a military
in fruence for one year. But in the kitchen it
was the same, except that it was a logic. But
they were screaming at you, and the way they were
educating you was through humil humiliation, so you were going there,
they were breaking you and then the idea was to
rebuild you and make you a champion. Of course, in
(05:22):
the process we were losing so many good people because
it's not the right way to do it. But it
was being kicked in the bud, being punching the shoulders,
being insulted all day long, and so only with through
a process. Yeah. But the other difference between and the
military was at the end of the day, with the
morn works was over, you had a nice Sam and
Moose at the restaurant, not in the military, know, Sam
(05:45):
and Moose at the military. Not really How long we
went to jan two years? Two years? And where did
you go from there? I went to a restaurant called Jaman.
The chef was Royal Roberchan. He was considered at the
time the best chef in the world with another chef
in Switzerland. Fredit are they They were like no competition
(06:05):
with those two guys, like very different styles. But Roby
Shan was like wow, And for me it was a
revelation when I when I met him, I was like,
oh my god, Okay, now we're talking. And so two
years you're only now nineteen years old. Yeah. So when
you go to the kitchen with Robert Shan, what what
(06:26):
do you have that he wants? Why does he want
you in that kitchen? He wants young people because we
are more flexible, we don't have badabits. I had been
training lad around the classic way, so I know my basics.
I described that. So the basic the Blue Noon Blue
is more like how can I say? It's a cotton
(06:49):
place of school for people who are going to cook
at home. It's not a school that prepares you to
be in a professional kitchen like where I'm I am evolving.
If we can make an analogy, I'm going to formula
one and the other one is for you know, on
Sunday driving your caspas something. So so it's it's no comparison.
(07:10):
But Robbie Shawn wanted to have someone who knew the
basics because without the basics, you cannot really build and
evolve with more the precision that he wanted and for
him was very important to have a young kid that
was referred from my old chef to him. So he
(07:30):
said probably the chef said, okay, so repair his discipline.
He's not gonna answer. He's gonna work hard. He's going
he master this and that he wants it, and he
wants it. He wants to be there, which is always critical,
Which is always critical, of course. I mean I always
think about what is the space that I go into
in my profession that calms me and makes me feel
(07:53):
very centered. You can do a play and you can
be very still, and you wonder what their response and
after a very still response during the performance, they erupted
into applause. They're sobbing, and they're you know, it's very strange.
But for you, is that what this world became was
a place where things made sense to you. You found
(08:13):
out how it was home. Yes, when I entered the kitchen,
I was very familiar, even if it was very extreme.
The conditions of work, you know, like working sixteen to
eighteen hours a day, I think thirty thirty minutes break
and a little bit to it. I mean we were
all skinny like that and white like ghosts. But we
had the passion and we knew we were doing something
(08:34):
very special. I love the rigor at the time that
in that kitchen, that the discipline and the rigger and
the beautiful place, the challenge of course all the time
we were challenged, and the beautiful plates that we were
doing and sending, and and then we had the feedback
actually from the clients right away. I mean clients were
(08:55):
saying it's good, or clients sometimes we're living a little
bit of food in the plate and were terrorized because
the chef will go crazy, like if someone was living
in it was famous for looking at every plate coming back.
He wanted to date everything. Yeah, and if someone was
leaving something, it was a disaster. That's interesting. Yeah, it
was interesting, I'll say. But anyway, in those kitchens, it's
(09:19):
control chaos. It looks like it's chaotic, But the more
control chaos is happening, and the more pressure you have
when you know what you're doing, you have this kind
of revelation and you kind of like do things and
in a very heroic way. And it was. It was
like that, and it's still to day for me. When
(09:40):
I entered the kitchen and it's like lunchtime, it's one o'clock.
You have to feed every everyone in the dining room
good food, obviously, but in a timely manner, in a
clean plate and making sure that the food goes to
the person that has ordered that plate and so on.
It's an entire process, right, and I get sucked in
to the process. I love it. There was a restaurant
(10:02):
I worked in. It was called Enophelia. It was on
the Upper West Side and it was a real frontier
because there was almost nothing up there in the upper
eighties and nineties, back in this is back in the eighties,
and then the streets up there, way up in the
nineties on off of Broadway and Amsterdam and Columbus, there
was very little that was good in This guy opened
a place where the wine list was what was featured.
(10:24):
The food was very good. It was very small, and
we would come to work at three thirty or four
o'clock have the shift meal. They'd make us all a
meal to eat and then when the when the shift
was over, I was a service bartender. I made all
the cocktails for the table. There was no bar. When
we were done, we would sit down and the owner
was lovely man, and he'd say he and the manager
knew what the stock was to choose. You could choose
(10:46):
a really nice bottle of wine. No, not the most
expensive bottle, but you could have a forty bottle of
wine back then or fifty. Oh yeah, he was very nice.
The owner was a lovely guy, and he was never there,
and he'd say to the manager yes, and the manager
would open the bottle of wine. He'd pour us all
a drink. And then they would dump all the money
on the table that we made the money to divide
between the waiters, bus boys and the service partender. And
(11:08):
then they would roll a joint. They drove the biggest
joint they could, the size of a flashlight. And then
they would smoke pot, drink wine and count the money.
And I remember it was like the greatest experience. Yeah,
you don't do that, Aberna. In No, we don't up
the coins. But in France also it's it's again like
(11:30):
the military. You don't drink alcohol you don't smoke joints,
you don't work, you just yeah, you have this incredible
level of discipline and and that's it. Now when you left,
Robi Shan, how many more restaurants in Europe did you work?
And what year did you come to the United States? So,
(11:51):
Robbie Shan, I do one year. Then it's so hard.
I have to do my military duties. So I go
see him and I said, I have to leave. Unfortunately
it's mandatory, and he says, don't worry about it. I'm
going to send you to the Eliza. You'll cook for
me around president of friends at the time, I have
the connections, don't worry and you did no, I want
to get out of there. And I'm like, I need
to get out of there and said, no, no, no,
(12:11):
I thank you so much. I have I have already
my connections. Thank you appreciate. And I'm thinking I'll never
see this man again in my life. I'll move on
somewhere else, learn something else. On my last day of
my military dude is he called me and said to me,
I heard that is your last day. Do you want
to come back and you're going to be the chef
(12:32):
person you extracting, Yeah, he knew about I don't know
how we knew, but you know. And I said, you know,
sir chef, I need to think about it. I had
a girl friend and so on. I said I need
and he says, oh, for sure, think about it. You
have thirty seconds. And I was like what as I
said yes, and I went back to Paris and I
(12:52):
did two more years with him. So I worked with
Robbie Shawn for three and something else. Then, Um, we
did the military service. You will into the military. I
did my Yes. I thought you were gonna tell me
that's when you dumped the lobster best on yourself deliberately. No, no, no, no,
did you get out of I did the military service?
You did? Yeah? What you do in the PA? Come
you cooked? So they put me in the kitcher and
(13:13):
I was supposed to cook for the officers of the
whatever I was. And the food was so disgusting. I
had never seen that. They burned spaghetti is in the water.
I have never seen spaghetti is burning in water. It's
not possible. Well they did it. So I went to
see the general and I explained to my situation. I
was a young kid, and I said you know, I
(13:35):
don't mind to do it, but you know I can't
cook shoot food. And he said, I'm going to send
you to the commandos. What do you think of that?
So I look at him and I said, sir, look,
I'm so skinny. I can't do the commandos. And he
was laughing and said, what do you want? You would
be my waiter? I said yeah, So I became his
waiter for one year. I was the waiter of the
(13:56):
general and then I went back to and then he
sent me to do you to do us. So after
the military serviation, you go back with Robert Shaw. Right
after that you come to the States where there's more European.
So after two years, I want to get out of
rubbish from and I want to go to Brazil. So
I love Brazil and at the time, I'm like, I
(14:18):
find it very exotic, and I have a lot of
friends there, and you know, I'm thinking it's gonna be
a nice and it's gonna be a big party as well,
and I'm gonna have a good time. So I went
to see Robbie, you're very young at this time. I
want a party. And when I told him, he said, no, no, no,
I'm not sending you in a vacation, no way. So
I said, I would like to go. He said, truly
(14:39):
something else that's in Spain. He said, Spain. It is
you live in Andorra, which was between friends and Spain.
It's it's basically Spain. So I said to him, I said, well,
don't ask me, tell me where I'm going. And he said, well,
go in vacation. When you come back, I send you
to Washington, d CEA. I worked at the Water Hotel.
No what year nine, way after Nixon scandal, of course,
(15:04):
but I am at the Water Hotel. They have a
very good restaurant called Jean Louis French. It was probably
one of the first French chef celebrity in the US.
And from Robbie Strom kitchen, which is basically like the army,
like Catholic school. Almost I end up in Woodstock where
(15:24):
we're smoking cigarettes in the kitchen and different nbnce tiny kitchen.
I learned a lot with him. He was extremely creative,
as I recalled. Because I lived in Washington for three years,
I went to college there. I went to g w
first nineteen seventies six or nineteen seventy nine. I left
and you go there in eighty nine, and you are
in what is now the more of the modern Washington. Washington.
(15:47):
Then when I went, it was still a very quiet,
sleepy backwards when they make maybe three restaurants. It was
sleepy too. Because I was bored to death and I
wanted to come to New York. I was like, there's
no way where you went. So Washington a year and
enough because I had the visa, uh student visa eighteen months.
So I did my visa and then I came to
(16:09):
New York and I worked downtown with David Boulet for
short period of time, and then I started at Lebanon Lebernard.
And let's face it as like the Temple of restaurants.
I mean, many of them have come and gone. I
remember that I worked. One of my first jobs in
New York was I worked at the least like court
Pasque Pascal, who was the pastry chef. I worked for
(16:31):
Gi Pascal. I know him, he was my pastriy chef.
He said that the people from the court pass gave
him the name. She said to him, oh you can
have the name. And and and g who was a
man who he loved me. He loved me. He was
a very loving person. He was a very loving He
would walk up to me and he put his hand
on my face and said, oh, leck, I want for
(16:52):
you to come to work every day. For me, I
worked at the place delivering the pastries to uh look
renowl pronounce like all the old school sign of the dove,
all these. I delivered the pastries from Geat in a
truck to the restaurants. So I worked with him. Well,
Bernarden is all those spaces are gone? Bernardan is still here. Yeah,
(17:15):
I think we were still here and we're still relevant
and so on, because we basically question ourselves every day
and we push ourselves and we have no ego about
our accolades or anything like that. Whatever was yesterday doesn't
exist anymore. Every morning we start again, and we want
(17:36):
to create an experience for the clients. For the people
who come. We want to push to envelope with our cooking.
We want to create an ambience in the dining room
that is very warm, considering that we are for fine
dining restaurant. We want people to laugh. We want people,
if they want to scream, scream. We want the dining
room to be loud and so so we we always evolve.
(17:59):
We changed decre since I am there three times, keeping
some iconic items like the ceilings. You are a part
owner in the restaurant, yes, you're not just a chef
under contract. And as a part owner, obviously you have
control over and that's in the back of the house,
so to speak, and you have some significant control over
the front of the house as well. Yes, of course,
the fabric on the chairs, the flowers on the tail
(18:20):
as you have some say yes. And then we work
really well as a team with my business partner. It's
it's really it's really a great pleasure to work together,
which is I think very important to have partners that
are aligned with the vision. Alberada is evolving all the
time because we first of all, we refused to have
signature dishes because the day the day you have a
(18:42):
signature dish, you don't evolve anymore. And as you know,
New York is pretty quick and fast. If you don't evolve,
you behind the next day. The second is stop. That's it,
it's over. We just have the passion and we want
to do new things. Chef Eric Repair. If you enjoy
(19:06):
culinary conversations, check out my episode with the author of
in defense of food and cooked Michael Pollen, Amazing things
happen at the table, and you know, as you give
up cooking, you give up eating together. And when when
you start going to the microwavable meal, everybody gets their own.
And there's something about eating from the same pot that
(19:26):
puts people on the same page psychologically, I think, and
we give that up and increasingly we're eating alone. We're
eating in the car of American food gets eaten in
the car right now. Um, we eat alone way too often,
and so we're losing. It's not just about the food.
I mean, food is important, but there are the institutions
that come with it. To hear more of my conversation
(19:48):
with the author, Michael Pollen, go to Here's the Thing
dot org. After the break, Eric Repair and I discussed
the unparalleled importance of dessert. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're
(20:13):
listening to Here's the Thing. For a chef working at
the level that Eric Repair does, the standards that le
bernardin must be excellence, and not just in food, but
in presentation, design and hospitality. I asked Repair what he
thinks are the hallmarks of good service, and in particular,
(20:34):
what makes a good waiter. A good waiter is someone
who's passion it and rocks hard and understand that he's
here to create an experience for the clients. That's a
good waiter. Of course, he has to have a good
relationship with the kitchen and be knowledgible about the food
and so and the wines and so on. But we
(20:56):
are in a hospitality business. People come to the Banner then,
not to have a waither star or chef star. No,
we are here to make your experience the best we can.
And the way there has to be very generous in
this way, you know, has to be very given as
(21:16):
to read also the client really well, you may come
to the Bernarda and it could be a date and
you in love and so on. The way there shouldn't
be in the middle, and we say, right, we leave
us alone. You've been really you've been reading my mind
because right before you came, we were talking about over service.
Yeah no, you don't want that. But you may be
also celebrating a business deal. Okay, so it's the way.
(21:39):
There should be a standing stay away. But if you
have foodie and you traveled, and you you save money
and and you're looking at everywhere, and the waiter should
see that and then read your mind and know that
you want interaction and you want to talk up food
(22:00):
and you want to potentially visit the kitchen and what
the hell? Yes, the waiter should be invisible until you
need them. So, without naming the part of town you
live in where your home is, are there restaurants that
you walk out the door? For me, my wife and
I have four or five go two restaurants in the neighborhood.
We have dinner, rem united, We put our kids to
(22:20):
dead every night, and we walk out the door the
same restaurants. Is that the same way you live? Do
you walk out the door and there will go to restaurants?
Are you always reaching out and exploring new things always? Well,
First of all, the big difference in between you and
I is that when you go out, I'm cooking, right,
So during the week, five days a week, I am
in the restaurant. When you do go out to lunch
(22:42):
on the weekend, one day we go out, one day
we stay home. So when we stay oh my coop,
because it's fun to cook at home is different. And
then when we go out. I'm very loyal to places,
but I like to explore as well, and so it's
a mix of U. And sometimes I do trips like
I decide to go for two weeks in Scandinavia and
(23:03):
I do all the restaurant that I'm thinking that will
inspire me, and I come back trying new things. Yeah,
and when you travel the world, what's the difference between
the restaurant experience in Europe and in America? What do
the Europeans do that the Americans don't do or vice versasa? Right? Um, Well,
(23:24):
in Europe, the chef is always right. You don't discuss
the chef the ideas of the chef. In America, the
clients really challenge you if they don't like what you
are doing, or if they don't understand, or it's no
logic to have that without the But yeah, of course,
(23:47):
in Europe, no, it doesn't happen. And then in fine
dining in Europe, people are very quiet and silent. It's
almost like they are in church, which I dislike. I
like restaurant with ambience and good vibes and so on.
So in the US, I've in fine dining, especially in
the city like New York, the dining rooms are more
(24:09):
vibrant and then I have to say what I like
about Europe is the quality of the products that they are,
you know, like when they serve vegetables, the test like
what's supposed to taste here's a bit of a challenge.
It is a challenge because we do not cultivate the
same way, you know, like the soil is maybe not
(24:30):
the same. I don't know, Like an artichock in the
Mediterranean is not the same artichock that we eat here.
The artigine, for example, anichuck that you would serve at
Lebernardine is ground where California, California, where where most of
the artichos are grown. And you know, it's like those
gigantic farms and they have ways of cultivating and maximizing
(24:51):
the land and it's factories and it's difficult. So now
when in New York it's the good season which is
going to start now, we use small farmers, local, local,
and then you have a much much better product. So
that's the difference in between Europe and in terms of
quality of the food. My ex wife I loved Los
(25:12):
Angeles and I were to go out there and work
and I said, you know, what what is it you
love about living here, and she without flinching, we're at
Gelson's market and she picks up a tomato and she goes,
you see that tomato? Shees, you can't get that tomato
in New York. She said, that's a tomato, meaning that
all of the farming and all the fresh food in
(25:33):
the California experience just dwarfed the East coast and it
doesn't travel well. Right, So I'm wondering, how difficult is
it for you to get the things you need? The
chicken you want, the beef you want, the pork you want.
You have vendors you buy from. Are you in charge
of that of the shopping or someone does it for you?
(25:55):
Ultimately I am in charge, but of course people of
course with different tasks and so on, and learning how
to do it, and and so on. I have to
tell you. And and lebernarda is mostly specialized in seafood.
If you want to have good products, it's very simple,
pay your bills on time, and do not bargain. Well,
(26:18):
sometimes you have the exaggerate a little bit, but the
price is the price, and you pay a S A p.
And you get the best, and weever bargains and once
the cheap price and doesn't pay his bills nor he's
not going to get a good product. What was the
impact of the COVID Did you close for some period
that was really tough. We close on March thirteen, A
(26:39):
week later the mayor or the governor. I don't remember
close all the restaurants was, but I closed right away
when I saw the bad news on TV, I was like,
this is really bad. I don't want to have neither
the clients or the employees being exposed. And I thought
we were closing for three weeks, maybe a month. Night
it was closed a long long period of time, almost
(27:02):
like a year. And we couldn't take out because our
food doesn't go in a box, and I couldn't pull
the terraus because the experiences in our worlds. So what
we decided to do. It's a collaboration in between City
r Vest that rescue food that will go to waste
that is perfectly fresh, and World Central Kitchen, the organization
(27:22):
of Rossi Andreas, who's feeding people all over the world
when it's a catastrophe right now they are in Ukraine.
When it is the earthquake, they go to the earthquake
and so on, and we use our kitchen to do
four hundred meals a day every day on the beginning
for doctor and nurses from our of states that we're
staying in hotels, and the group paid for us. World
(27:45):
Central Kitchen was helping us and City r Vest was
giving us part of the food as well, so we
were able to basically break even. And we did that
from the military. Yeah, we did that from May to December. Now,
why is the focus of le Bernardin and seafood and
this is your philosophy obviously at your restaurant, Why don't
(28:05):
you focus on that. I didn't open lebernard I came
the opening eighty six in New York, the opening seventy
two in Paris. Seats in Paris was like a very
clearly restaurant dedicated to seafood because they were coming to
Brittany was a sister and brother. Dad was a fisherman.
Then you want to cook fish. They were cooking fish.
(28:26):
And then they got one star Michel and then to
star Micheland that they came to the US. Uh, New
York Times give them four star right away they open,
they get that huge accolade and it's an instant success.
And they were cooking fish because it's their passion. They
love that. And in NTE I was well trained because
(28:49):
as you remember, I was chef past only at rob
so I joined the team and I feel at home.
I'm like, this is easy. It's a cook fish. I
know to cook fish. And I get along really well
with the brother who passed away ninety four. He mentor
me with his style and these ideas and I we
have a good exchange. I know some techniques that I
(29:09):
have learned from Robbie Strom who was a great technician.
He has a great philosophy, and we worked together. And
then when unfortunately passed away, I took his position and
and move on with lebern Adam. Who is your pastry chef,
Orlando Soto? How important do you find? I mean, I
(29:29):
never I never tire of seeing the childlike glow of adults,
especially when they go to an expensive restaurant, very fancy restaurant,
and they know they're gonna have like the the highest
level of dessert. And I never tire of seeing their face.
They're like children, yes, and they say would you like
to see the dessert menu? And they're like oh yes,
(29:50):
oh yeah, and they bring in the dessert and you're like, oh,
and I want to have this and this and this.
What's your favorite dessert? What do you like a you do, yeah,
with a lot of repression and vanilla ice cream. Then
then I'll think about the colories. It's okay, Chef Eric Repair.
(30:14):
If you're enjoying this conversation, tell a friend and be
sure to follow Here's the Thing on the I Heart
radio app, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. When
we come back, Eric Repair discusses the future of food
and the movement of sustainability. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're
(30:48):
listening to Here's the Thing. Chef Repair is known for
creating the type of cuisine that defines a destination restaurant
full of pomp and pageantry. So I wouldn't help, but
wonder what he might enjoy in his downtime. If you
give me a cocoa van which is a stew of
a chicken in red wine in the winter, I'm like,
(31:11):
what can be better? Make that? You make it at home?
You do? Do you do with the blood or no blood?
It's illegal to told me you can, yes, I do
it with the blood. Yeah, because at home. But my
friend said to me. We used to go to uh
this is an ancient reference, but I used to go
to Fabia. Of course. I used to go to Tuva
(31:34):
all the time, all all the time, and they had
cocoa van And I asked him did they do the
rooster blood? Did they blew the blood of the chicken?
And they looked at me. They were like no, and
then they winked at me. All our team at the
time was going there every night. We went to Tuvambia
every night after when I would work in the theater,
and I would have coca every night and it was
good good you like, yes, of course, yes, I have
(31:58):
something in common with the Great Eric in terms of
what we crave in terms of food. That is a
that is incredible. It's incredible. Now, what's the first thing
you notice when you go to a restaurant? If it's clean,
it's clean. If it's clean or not clean, it's interesting.
You should say that, And for me, not clean, or
if it's a smell, I just can't interesting. Yeah, sometimes
(32:22):
it's a it's a restaurant near where I live and
I'm not going to say the name, obviously, and the
guy does a good job, but it's a sushi place
and I smelled the fish. I just can't. I just
cannot get in. I opened the door and I'm like,
oh no, no way. They wrote an article. They did
this research into fish served in Japanese restaurants in California
(32:46):
and particularly in l A and they identified that in
some cases, over fifty of the fish that was served
in the sushi restaurant was mislabeled. It wasn't what they said.
It was not only in Japanese restaurant, in all rest one.
Very often you find snapper is not a snapper stripe bus.
It's not a stripe bus. And very few people can
(33:09):
make the difference because how many times do you eat snapper?
You know? It's a lot. I mean, like me, I
just look at the fish. I know it's a snapper
without the skin. It doesn't have to be like yeah,
just look at the filly. I know, because it's my job.
I do, and I eat, and if I tasted, I
know immediately it takes me two seconds. Or codfish or
(33:29):
ache ors, things like that. But a lot of restaurants
are misleading. I see so much. Once I did a
story with the New York Time. We went to the
market it was about farm raised salmon versus wild salmon.
So is it? Well, is it farm raise? And then
they were analyzing. They took the samples and took it
to to a lab. So I was with the journalists
(33:49):
and they were like, what is that? And I was
like farm raised? And he was saying wild and that
one farm raise, and and and and in the market
it was like wild and wild and wild and wild
and out of the I don't know siry samples that
we add, I said, this one is wild. It was
the only one, and the and the lab confirmed that
(34:10):
I was right. It was the only one. Else wasn't wild?
Everything else wild. Obviously, people got a great lengths to
secure a reservation at your restaurant. Bernardin would probably be
the punchline and episodes of Signed Feld for how difficult
it is to secure reservations in your restaurant. It's it's
(34:30):
pretty bad. We have many people here who testified the
fact that they've had their stresses now. But you do
online reservations, correct, we do? And do you find that
that's a positive, a negative or both? No, it's positive.
It is why online reservation it's positive from on our
point of view. It's easier because we don't need so
(34:51):
many people on the phone to answer the phone. People
can do it online and it's less stressful also for
the people who are behind the phones. So that's one thing.
And then as a client, you can go online at
the time that you wish, you can make your reservation.
So I think it's very convenient for the clients to
(35:11):
be able to go online. And then sometimes you don't
get the table because we don't give all our tables online.
We save some of the tables and you have to
call family, not for family, family of the restaurant people
come over, so if someone else calls and we may
have a table and you may have an interaction with
(35:32):
someone with a real voice, and so on. The building
that you're in, does the company that you're with your
you and your party, Do you own the building? No,
it's a least. Yeah, we have a least in that building.
Since nine the building has changed ownerships a couple of times,
but we have a great support from the building. That's
what I was going to say, because many people who struggle,
especially during the even before and after that, they struggle
(35:55):
because this least situation is a difficult. You have a kind.
We have a very kind, very kind landlord, and and
they have always been since the beginning, very kind, And
I think it's a win wind. We bring to the
building a certain prestige, and we we bring a nice
and the amenity for their clients in the floors and
so on. So they like us, and we like them
(36:17):
because they like us, which works. It's a wind. The
reason I asked about the online reservation thing was because
I have a friend of mine whose mother eats the
same night, same time every week. She has dinner at
Le Bernadin once a week. She's an old New Yorker.
This is her thing that she loves. But I would
imagine that you come into a room and it's friends
(36:38):
and family people you've been cooking for them and their
children and on and on for a while now, and
then the online reservation runs the risk of the person
showing up who don't understand what they're getting into, someone
who might even attempt to send the meal back and say,
I'd like you to cook. These lamp shops are like
you know what I mean, It's like they're not friends
(36:58):
and family. We we don't have that problem because I think, yes,
because the restaurant has a certain reputation when we are
not beginners. I mean, if you don't want the place,
like google Le Bernard and you're like, Okay, it's an
expensive restaurant. It's fine dining. It's not what I want.
I'm not going to make a reservation. Oh they specialize
(37:19):
in seafood. I don't like fish. I'm not gonna go there.
I'm gonna go somewhere else. So today, with with information
that we get, we don't have that problem. But to
go back to the reservation quickly. You know, we have
people who come to three times a week, especially for lunch.
You know, they work in the building. It's convenient, they
do business at the table and so on. We always
have to keep few tables that we released twenty four
(37:41):
hours before, but two or three four tables for those clients.
I mean, the part of our family really for you,
do you sense that people are becoming more concerned about sustainability? Oh? Yeah,
for sure. For quite some time, especially with the young clientele.
(38:02):
The older clientele was less sensitive. But today I think
we have been really bombarded with informations about what's happening
on our planet, what's happening with the suffering of the
animals in factory farms and so on. Right every day,
it's NonStop, and it's not a trend. It's a movement sustainability.
(38:23):
It's in the mind of everybody, everyone in your profession,
certainly world for sure, we think about it. So what
do we do. We don't. We do not serve endangerous species.
We support local farmers, we support organic practices, we support
actually all good practices and in general and so on.
Because if we don't, if we don't do anything today,
(38:46):
your children might my child, they're gonna have a world
that has been sabotaged by the previous generations. We have
to do something. So avoiding too many fair fertilizers, avoiding pesticides,
and first of all, for your own good as well,
for your own health and the planet. You don't want that,
(39:07):
and for the planet, and you don't want to deplete
the planet. You don't want to pollute the planet. I
mean most the Earth is taking care of us, and
we all here and we have to take care of it.
And today people are really thinking about it. I want
to say, I was so looking forward to doing this
because I'm such an admirer of the more I read
(39:27):
about you and your life and what you've done. I thought, Wow,
what an amazing thing for any human being to be
able to get to a place where in your field
you are at the top of your field. You worked
so hard that the boy that was fifteen years old,
who's trying to lift the heavy paths in the kitchen
and all the men are yelling, and look at where
you've come to as a part of that line. And
(39:50):
now you're at the top of the mountain. The culinary
mountain takes you so much. I'm very unerable chef Rick repair.
This episode was produced by Kathleen Russo, Zack McNeice, and
Maureen Hoban. Our engineer is Frank Imperial. Here's the Thing
(40:10):
is recorded at c DM Studios. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's
the Thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio.
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