Eric Ripert
You don't become a chef to become famous.Collection: Famous
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.
I'm a very bad baker.
Chefs are leaders in their own little world.
The Cheesecake Factory's not that bad.
I just find the world very exciting and beautiful everywhere.
When I see someone who has responsibilities, most of the time I can pinpoint that person because of the way he carries himself.
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.
I don't like it when I go to a restaurant and I'm lectured from the menu.
I'm very inspired by other cultures and very often use what I perceive to be exotic ingredients.
I'm fascinated by Japanese cuisine.
America is a such a melting pot, I'm not sure if roast chicken is the classic comfort food for everybody.
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.
Cooks build muscles; we can stand all day long on our feet and not feel the pain.
Nobody wants an ugly book.
I find the organic wave much more interesting in America than in France.
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.
When you are 25, 30, you know, you have no responsibility, no mortgage, no kids, no retirement to think about, nothing.
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.
I like very much Louis Vuitton. My wife loves it too.
I am a Buddhist, therefore I should not be collecting anything - however, I have a collection of Buddhas. I have a lot of them.
To me, it's very important to have time at the restaurant but also time with family and time for myself.
There is great food in Vegas.
For me, I do not wish to build an empire.
Some chefs go crazy with one restaurant, and if I had 20, I would go nuts.
I like the dynamic of PBS. They're very honest and authentic.
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.
I don't follow the food trends.
As young cook, especially in France, they're very tough in the kitchen. The idea is to make you humble and learn fast.
Obviously California is fantastic in terms of produce, vegetables.
I come from a family of farmers on both sides of my family.
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.
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.
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.
I am totally anti-technology.
It has been stressful to be a French resident in America.
Factory farming's evil; you know that.
I barely speak English.
I am convinced that if you serve great value, people will come to you.
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.
Having sharp, great knives will enable you to cook very precisely. Knife skills are essential in cooking.
I don't think I have an obsession, however I do eat chocolate every day.
A lot of people believe that when you are Buddhist, you are the Dalai Lama. I'm certainly not.
It took me all my life to learn how to salt a tomato.
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.
I never pressure myself to do something I don't want to do.
I like working in silence.
One thing I don't like is complaints.
The importance of reading, for me, is that it allows you to dream.Collection: Dream
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.Collection: Spiritual