Chef Eric Ripert Shares His Favorite Recipe From Mom (2024)

Harper's Bazaar: You gave us your mother's recipe for Les Nems, aka Vietnamese spring rolls. When didshe make them for you?

Eric Ripert: We lived in St. Tropez when I was young, and there were a lot of Vietnamese refugees in France at the time, after the war. My mother had many Vietnamese friends who entertained a lot, and she was taught how to make that spring roll. She would make them all the time. As soon as I see them, it brings memories. I would eat dozens of them. I was unstoppable. To this day, I can eat 12 of them, no problem. My son is following in my path. He can have eight or nine.

HB: Does your son have any foodie ambitions?

ER: So far, in cooking, no. Just eating. He's very clear about that. He has no intention of cooking or cleaning; he just wants to eat. But we are very similar—exactly like me, he can eat nonstop.

HB: What's your earliest cooking memory?

ER: I was perhaps three or four. It's strange—I have very vivid memories of being a young child. My mother would create dinner as for us, and when she would bake, she would leave some dough for me. I would roll the dough into little sticks while she was cooking the apple tart of whatever. I was looking through the window of the oven and flipping the light, and then my bread would come out, and it was inedible, of course. But I thought it was delicious. I have more eating memories than cooking memories and many memories of being in the kitchen—I was always attracted to the kitchen—but nobody ever wanted me to touch anything.

HB: What other dishes remind you of childhood?

ER: Apple tart because, then, it was my favorite. My mother and my grandmother would make an apple tart in different styles, and I had one per day. Every day I would eat one full apple tart.

HB: Were you active as a child?

ER: Yes, I was—because I was very mischievous, and therefore I had to run for my life!

HB: What about now?

ER: Just walking in the kitchen (and we have three kitchens at Le Bernardin), I exercise quite a lot. I also walk in Central Park for 50 minutes from my house to Le Bernardin every day, rain, shine, snow.

HB: When did you realize you wanted to be a chef professionally?

ER: I had a passion for cooking, and I was a very bad student. At 15, I had to choose a vocational school, and I was delighted, of course, to go to culinary school. But learning the basics was not as exciting as being the chef I am today. When I started to work in Paris in fine dining, the passion really kicked in, and I knew that I would not, for the rest of my life, do anything else.

HB: Tell me about the recipe that gave rise to the title of your memoir, 32 Yolks.

ER: It was my first day working at Tour d'Argent, a famous restaurant in Paris, in 1982, and they were celebrating their 400^th anniversary. I am in the fish station and after many mistakes, including cutting myself after 30 seconds in that kitchen, the chef said, "Make a Hollandaise sauce with 32 yolks." It takes me forever to separate the yolks from the whites, and I put them in a bowl and try to go close to the stove, but the stove is way too hot for me. (I think, in retrospect, he may have pranked me.) Then I try to basically make a sauvignon, which is a foam from the egg yolks, but my arm is not strong enough. The mass of the yolks is too heavy; the stove is too hot. Instead of making that light sauvignon, I make basically, like, dry scrambled eggs. It's when I realized, "Hm, I'm not that good at all. It will take me weeks, maybe months, to master the 32 yolks." When I did, it was a turning point in my career.

HB: Are you going to be cooking a special Mother's Day dish for your wife this weekend?

ER: Yes. You have to cook for mom. I'll go to the market, and, depending on the vegetables I find, I'm either going to do a stuffed chicken with fava beans and asparagus or a lamb stew called navarin printanier.

HB: Does your mother still cook for you?

ER: Yes, actually she really wants me to eat her food, especially apple tart.

HB: Do you ever cook together?

ER: Actually no. It's either her or me. I heard her, when I was in culinary school, complaining that I was very messy. When I go visit her (she lives near Barcelona), she still pushes me out of the kitchen. When she comes here, I'm like, "This is my kitchen!"

HB: What's your favorite dish to make for yourself?

ER: I love eggs. When it's the season of truffles, scrambled eggs with truffles, and I'm happy. I'm smiling like that.

HB: Other than Le Bernardin, of course, where do you dine out?

ER: A new find was La Sirena, the new restaurant by Mario Batali. And it happened that I went to Del Posto, which is Mario again, last week.

HB: What are some of your non-food interests that may surprise people?

ER: I am an audiophile. It's almost like a virus. I'm completely crazy about the quality of sound. It's interesting and painful at the same time; you have to really spend a lot of money on the equipment.