There is a \u201cBlank Space\u201d in this world-famous dining room. <\/p>\n
Although countless celebrities have wined and dined at Le Bernardin, there\u2019s one A-lister who hasn\u2019t sampled the French seafood the three Michelin-starred restaurant is known for \u2014 Taylor Swift. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo, she never came,\u201d Chef Eric Ripert told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe if she reads the article, she will be inspired to come here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ripert started at Le Bernardin in 1991 as chef de cuisine and is now its executive chef and co-owner. Getty Images for NYCWFF<\/p>\n
Taylor Swift recently ate at Ambassadors Clubhouse New York, an Indian restaurant in NoMad, with her husband, Travis Kelce, but still hasn\u2019t been to Le Bernardin. Tatiana \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n
The famed restaurateur revealed the notable names that have graced the star-studded reservation book at the Midtown mainstay on West 51st Street \u2014 and the star of \u201cAn Officer and a Gentleman\u201d was the first to come to mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cRichard Gere likes to eat a lot at Le Bernardin and when he\u2019s in town, always visiting us and it\u2019s always a pleasure to feed him and speak to him a little bit,\u201d Ripert, 61, said.<\/p>\n
Ripert, who started at Le Bernardin in 1991 as chef de cuisine and is now its executive chef and co-owner, has also cooked for Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9 as well as John Legend \u2014 and another superstar singer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMick Jagger comes to Le Bernardin when he is in town and he\u2019s friends with my business partner, so he\u2019s always at ease and happy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The celebrity chef said he doesn\u2019t whip up anything special for VIPs, and in his 46-year career, he\u2019s never been nervous about cooking for famous faces.<\/p>\n
Chef Eric Ripert, right, said Richard Gere is a frequent guest at Le Bernardin. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThey choose from the menu, or they ask me to choose for them whatever I want, which is generally from the menu,\u201d said Ripert, whose ninth book, \u201cMindful Cooking,\u201d will be released on Oct. 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, every client is the same \u2026 we cannot have different standards.\u201d <\/p>\n
Paparazzi routinely stake out the renowned restaurant \u2014 and sometimes the guests call the shutterbugs themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce it was a very powerful politician, I cannot say the name, but then suddenly we see like 20 paparazzi outside \u2026 and I said, \u2026 \u2018If you want, we can get you out through other ways,\u2019 and he said, \u2018No, don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s me, we called them.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Ripert said the A-list eater who made the biggest impression on him was the Dalai Lama, for whom he cooked twice.<\/p>\n
On the Dalai Lama\u2019s first visit, Ripert prepared wild salmon, and on the second, filet mignon \u2014 but it was dessert that made an impression on the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never really showed much emotion, except when he had the chocolate mousse,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The celebrity chef\u2019s ninth book, \u201cMindful Cooking\u201d is out on Oct. 6.<\/p>\n
The three Michelin-starred restaurant\u2019s bestseller is carpaccio of tuna on a toasted baguette with foie gras. Courtesy of Random House<\/p>\n
The French native, who studies Tibetan Buddhism himself, said his new cookbook was inspired by his travels to Buddhist monasteries in Asia. There, monks follow a plant-based diet so as not to harm animals, and go without vegetables such as garlic and onions for spiritual reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnions supposedly make you sleepy when you are in meditation and also give you bad dreams \u2026 Garlic makes your blood circulate a bit faster. And warming the blood is not helpful for meditation and also, as you can imagine, a thousand monks with garlic breath is a bit of a problem sometimes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey consider food as medicine \u2026 They believe everything that we put in our body will have a positive or negative effect depending on what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ripert said Le Bernardin\u2019s bestselling menu item is the carpaccio of tuna on a toasted baguette with foie gras.<\/p>\n
It sold so well that he once took it off the menu so that customers could try other dishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for the first time in my career I saw really angry clients \u2026 They were very vocal in the restaurant and they were calling me to their table \u2026 explaining that it was a huge mistake and they were very unhappy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of, through an analogy, understood. It\u2019s like you go to a Rolling Stones concert and then they\u2019re like, \u2018No, we\u2019re not going to play \u2018No Satisfaction.\u2019 No, it\u2019s not happening today.\u2019 You can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is a \u201cBlank Space\u201d in this world-famous dining room. Although countless celebrities have wined and dined at Le Bernardin, there\u2019s one A-lister who hasn\u2019t sampled the French seafood the three Michelin-starred restaurant is known for \u2014 Taylor Swift. \u201cNo, she never came,\u201d Chef Eric Ripert told The Post. \u201cMaybe if she reads the article,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[34007,9556,4969,1291,362,34008,413,34009,428,69,1957,34010,15939,392,152,8560,8848,332,396,389,302,17708,68,34011,567],"class_list":["post-42113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-beyonce","tag-books","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity-chefs","tag-chefs","tag-dalai-lama","tag-entertainment","tag-eric-ripert","tag-exclusive","tag-food-drink","tag-french-dining","tag-jay-z","tag-john-legend","tag-manhattan","tag-michelin","tag-mick-jagger","tag-midtown","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-restaurants","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-restaurants","tag-paparazzi","tag-restaurants","tag-richard-gere","tag-taylor-swift"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117379627971929737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}