\u0097 — Chef Eric Ripert of the famed Le Bernardin in New York City is one of the world\u2019s best chefs, an Emmy-winning cooking show host and a cookbook author. But while Ripert was building a name for himself in the heat and the stress of a fine-dining restaurant kitchen, he also became a practicing Buddhist.<\/p>\n
The chef sat down with ABC News\u2019 Dan Harris for his live-stream podcast \u201c10% Happier\u201d to talk about his daily meditation rituals, how he found Buddhism after being raised Catholic and how he got to where he is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil I discovered Buddhism, I was kind of lost,\u201d Ripert said. \u201cLost in a sense that I was trying to be a good person and I couldn\u2019t succeed at the level of where I wanted to be, and Buddhism was, for me, a revelation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the full interview in the video player and download the “10% Happier” podcast on iTunes, Google Play Music and TuneIn.<\/p>\n
Since its opening in 1986, Le Bernardin has earned three Michelin stars and four stars from the New York Times all five times the restaurant has been reviewed. Ripert has been with the restaurant since 1991, but his road to success was not always smooth.<\/p>\n
In his memoir, \u201c32 Yolks,\u201d which came out in May, Ripert describes a tumultuous childhood growing up in France. His parents divorced and then both remarried. His stepfather was abusive, both physically and verbally, Ripert said, and he was sent off to a boarding school where he said a predatory priest tried to sexually abuse him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up being a very angry teenager that led into a very angry young man,\u201d Ripert told Harris. \u201cI wanted to be at peace…. I wanted to find guidance, I wanted to find life and Buddhism did that to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1989, Ripert said he was at the airport leaving France to come to the U.S. when he picked up a book on Tibet. As the story goes, he was actually going to buy a Playboy magazine but changed his mind at the last second. The book included some Buddhist theories and Ripert was instantly fascinated. He has since spent years reading and studying Buddhism and attending events given by the Dalai Lama.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a slow process but I like the spirituality of Buddhism,\u201d he said. \u201cI like that it can be proven, the theories of Buddhism can be proven in a secular way, in a scientific way. It\u2019s something that speaks to me and a great inspiration in my life today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ripert has a ritual he practices every day. Each morning, he said he goes into the meditation room he set up in his apartment — not even the cats are allowed in, he joked. He lights some candles and incense, \u201cI do some prayers and I study and I meditate,\u201d he said, for about one to two hours. He does the Tibetan Buddhist practice of \u201cwater offering,\u201d where he places seven bowls filled with water in front of a statue of Buddha.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, I do a confession of all my bad deeds,\u201d he said. \u201cThen I rejoice for all the good deeds that I have done, and then I ask to be lucky to have a long life and good health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ripert\u2019s meditation practice has helped change the way he operates in the kitchen, he said, to focus on being a good teacher to his staff instead of putting them down for mistakes. He hopes he can serve as an example to others to change the culture in high-stress restaurant environments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be proud of chefs who are screaming in the kitchen,\u201d Ripert said. \u201cI\u2019m always thinking about that TV show \u2018Hell\u2019s Kitchen\u2019 or \u2018Kitchen Nightmares\u2019 and that promotes this behavior of screaming at people, insulting them and humiliating them. This is not something that should be on TV actually. And it\u2019s sending the wrong message. We have to fight that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the kitchen is designed to challenge you to stay calm,\u201d he continued. \u201cI think I at least inspire people to think, \u2018Oh wow, maybe he\u2019s right, maybe screaming and being abusive is not the right way to manage. Maybe a good leader shouldn\u2019t be like that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Chef Gordon Ramsay, who starred in the reality TV cooking shows “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares,” did not return ABC News’ request for comment.<\/p>\n
Other famous chefs have gone on to build their cooking careers into giant brand empires, from opening multiple restaurants to hosting TV shows to producing cookware lines, but Ripert said he never wanted that. Today, he has Le Bernardin and another restaurant in the Cayman Islands, but doesn\u2019t have plans to expand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to conquer the world,\u201d Ripert said. \u201cI want to make the best black bass in the kitchen downstairs with the team…. I don\u2019t care about being No. 1. It\u2019s about doing something that I have passion for and transmitting the knowledge and the passion to the people who are with me and making a living out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u0097 — Chef Eric Ripert of the famed Le Bernardin in New York City is one of the world\u2019s best chefs, an Emmy-winning cooking show host and a cookbook author. But while Ripert was building a name for himself in the heat and the stress of a fine-dining restaurant kitchen, he also became a practicing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1455],"tags":[5103,1471,1557,5102],"class_list":["post-4648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eric-ripert","tag-buddhist","tag-eric-ripert","tag-le-bernardin","tag-meditation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117188627198776036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}