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Chef Eric Ripert reflects on lessons from mindful cooking, memorable kitchen experiences and the influence of Anthony Bourdain.
Key takeaways
- Learn from kitchen disasters by staying attentive during demanding cooking tasks.
- Embrace mindful cooking practices to create a calmer, more meaningful experience.
- Discover how curiosity about local food cultures deepens personal connections.
- Make mealtimes more enjoyable by focusing fully on food and dining.
Summary
Mindful cooking is at the heart of Eric Ripert’s reflections on food, learning and everyday kitchen life. He recalls a dramatic kitchen disaster from his youth in Paris when dozens of ducks were accidentally burned, shares details about his daily routine as a chef and highlights American foods that surprised him, including crab cakes and soft-shell crabs.
Ripert also reflects on the lasting influence of Anthony Bourdain, whose encouragement to explore local food cultures shaped his perspective on travel and connection. Drawing from experiences studying temple food with monks and nuns in Korea and Japan, he explains how the principles behind his new book, “Mindful Cooking,” can help make cooking and eating more joyful, relaxed and meaningful.
The key takeaways and summary were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
Full transcript
[0:00:00] This is the library of the restaurant.
[0:00:03] We have about 1,500 cookbooks in between here and there and there.
[0:00:16] I was 17 years old working in a restaurant in Paris specialized in
[0:00:20] ducks, and I was cooking about 30 ducks at the same time in different ovens.
[0:00:26] And I went to get my, uh, lunch, and I was interrupted by screaming.
[0:00:32] And when I went back upstairs to the kitchen, it was some huge flames
[0:00:37] coming out of the ovens, and the ducks became, uh, like the size
[0:00:41] of a piece of charcoal like that.
[0:00:43] The sous chefs and the chefs, they were looking for me.
[0:00:51] I start my day with my coffee, and then I have one cookie.
[0:00:58] I like to dip my cookie in the coffee.
[0:01:01] I have one fruit, usually it’s a pear or an apple, and then I come to work.
[0:01:06] I test all the sauce that we have in the restaurant, and then I try a lot of little preparations in the kitchen.
[0:01:13] Then I look at the menu, and I look at two or three dishes that
[0:01:17] I believe may need some love, and therefore I’m gonna test those dishes.
[0:01:22] At night I do not have dinner.
[0:01:29] Crab cakes.
[0:01:31] The French don’t know crab cakes.
[0:01:34] We don’t have cheesecake.
[0:01:36] Also soft-shell crabs.
[0:01:38] I have never seen soft-shell crabs outside America.
[0:01:46] The friendship with Anthony was very special, and I had the
[0:01:51] luck also to travel with him and do some of the shows with him.
[0:01:54] And he always said, “Get out of your hotel. Go in the streets. Go eat where
[0:01:59] the locals are eating.” And that curiosity about connecting with others through
[0:02:04] food is something that I’m very grateful that he did brilliantly, of course.
[0:02:16] I didn’t want to do only a collection of recipes, but I wanted to share
[0:02:21] what I have learned, uh, when I was in Korea and in Japan studying temple
[0:02:27] food with the nuns and the monks.
[0:02:29] For them, it’s a practice, uh, when they are in, in the monastery and cooking,
[0:02:34] and I thought it would be good to bring back some guiding principles that are
[0:02:40] important to make your experience in your own kitchen more pleasant, more
[0:02:44] joyful, more relaxing, more meaningful.
[0:02:54] When it’s time to eat, it doesn’t have to be an hour if, uh, I mean,
[0:02:59] like the French people like to, to have a two, three-hour lunch.
[0:03:03] But make sure that you take that time to have focus on your meal and enjoy it.
[0:03:11] It’s about enjoyment.
[0:03:13] Even if it’s something simple, just take the time.
[0:03:16] Don’t get distracted by other things.
[0:03:18] Just give yourself those 20 minutes selfishly just to enjoy your meal.
