On the Line
by Christine Muhlke, Eric Ripert
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Book Reviews of On the Line
Book Review: A beautiful peek into the operations of Le Bernardin and Eric Ripert
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
You might be most familiar with Eric Ripert from his frequent appearances on the hit BravoTV show, Top Chef. If you run in culinary circles then you know of Eric already and his incredibly famous Le Bernardin restaurant (he's been there since 1994).
On The Line presents an insight into the operations of the restaurant, the do and do not, the why and the how, and the what you're getting into if you're thinking of opening a place of your own some day. You'll also learn a bit more about Eric Ripert - where's he's from, his experience, and what he's up to today.
Major book sections: The History, In the Kitchen, The Dishes, The Dining
Experience, The Business, The Recipes.
Here's a summary...
The History - with a series of beautiful photographs and quotes from Ripert and others you learn the history of Le Bernardin from its beginnings in 1986 to receiving Michelin's highest rating (3 stars). Note that the original Le Bernardin opened in Paris in 1972, but this book is referring to what we consider the current NY location.
In the Kitchen - Forty cooks and 100 seats makes this restaurant spacious but intimate. This section includes a "kitchen lingo decoder" so you can learn what words like: call out, expedite, line, mise en place, sous-chef, and tournant mean. If you're opening your own place these words will need to become second nature to you. One of the coolest parts of this section is a typical daily timeline of what is happening in the kitchen from open to close. You'll also find tips and tricks on what every kitchen needs - and it's not just blenders and dishtowels. The section then goes into incredible detail about the role of each member of the kitchen team - you'll learn the difference between a chef de cuisine and a sous-chef and saucier - all with pictures directly from the kitchen. My second favourite part of this section was the full colour spread of fish and a discussion about the role of the fish butcher.
The Dishes - ever wonder how they pick new recipes? It's by committee often, and you'll read about the process used to select food items and how to present them on the plate. This is the most beautiful section of the book with full colour images of dishes (with references to their associated recipes which are at the back of the book). While this is only a sampling of some of the dishes you will find at the restaurant, it's absolutely mouth watering!
The Dining Experience - for me this is a make or break in a restaurant. Even great food can't overshadow a bad dining experience. Again this section provides a glossary of terms such as: maitre d', sommeliers, captain, back watier, and more. You're also treated to a diagram of the seating area in the restaurant along with table designations. You'll learn how orders are taken, what's important in a waiter's skillset, expectations of performance and more. The best part in this section is the "Cardinal Sins" - that is, a list of 129 things that should absolutely NEVER happen in the customer/staff relationship. Example: 77 - Not clearing one course completely before serving the next.
The Business - This is how they make it all happen, from the director, to charity relationship, to determining food costs. This is a very small section of the book, really only a few pages, but you'll pick up some excellent tips such as food costs should be 30% of sales and how to deal with a food inspector.
The Recipes - The largest section of the book are the recipes. These are the step by step instructions to make the gorgeous dishes that you saw pictures of in The Dishes section - including other tips and tricks like how to temper chocolate and how to make a chocolate/caramel/maple "egg".
On The Line is a must have for people who appreciate fine dining, or are
considering opening their own restaurant that hopes to receive 3 stars one day. My opinion is that you should pay VERY close attention to the dining experience, regardless of how big your place will be...if your customers have a bad experience you don't just lose them, but you lose everyone they tell about it.
Enjoy!
Book Review: Fascinating look behind the scenes at a 4-star restaurant
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Because it is not simply a cookbook, there are two good reasons to buy this book. The first, because half the book contains recipes, is because you want to learn how to make some of Le Bernardin's famous dishes. The second is because you are curious how a top restaurant staff makes and serves its food. For either or both of those reasons, this is a fascinating book.
I got the book for the second reason. I love reality cooking shows like Top Chef and Hells's Kitchen for the look they provide inside the world of a restaurant chef. I always wonder what it would be like to cook at that level. After reading the book, I can see those TV programs barely scratch the surface. The reality of cooking and serving food of top restaurant quality is so much more involved and labor-intensive than I dreamed it would be.
Le Bernardin is a famous restaurant in New York City that has achieved a 4 star rating from the New York Times and a 3 star (out of 3 tops) Michelin rating. Eric Ripert is the chef and part owner. The restaurant opened while I was living in NYC, but I never ate there. From the name I guessed it was a fancy French restaurant and assumed the menu was full of classic French food (whatever that might be). In fact, the menu is almost exclusively fish and seafood and the recipes are inventive and unusual.
Most of the first half of the book is about the restaurant, starting with the history of both the restaurant and chef Ripert. The next part is about the kitchen, starting with an overview of the various cooks' roles, the kitchen layout and stations, and a glossary of "cook speak." Then there are sections on various roles in the kitchen: the chef de cuisine, the executive sous chef, the saucier (who, as the name implies, makes the sauces), the porter, and the pastry chef. There is a section on how they create new dishes and a description of a night on the line. Despite a large staff, all the cooks and chefs work longer and harder than I ever imagined!
The third part is about the dining experience at Le Bernadin. This part is about the service. It takes an army of waiters and captains to deliver food to the diners and make sure they have a 4 star dining experience. The fourth part is about the business aspect of the restaurant.
The fifth part, and the last half of the book, contains almost 50 of Chef Ripert's favorite recipes. These are not for the beginning cook! None of them are completely beyond a cook who is willing to put in the work, but to make the dishes up to Le Bernadin's standard you'd need a source of absolutely fresh and, in some cases, sushi grade fish and other seafood. It also might help to have help in the kitchen.
There are recipes for cold appetizers, warm appetizers, entrees, and desserts. The recipes give fairly detailed instructions on plating the dishes as well as preparing them. The photos of approximately half of these recipes show exactly what they look like when prepared by the Le Bernardin chefs. The food is visually beautiful; some of the dishes look like little works of art. As far as taste, the combination of ingredients (particularly in the sauces) is like no other fish recipes I have seen.
I am particularly impressed by the photography in this book. In addition to the beautiful photographs of the prepared food, the section on the fish has amazing photography that makes the fish look like they are swimming. Simply gorgeous.
I doubt I will try any of the recipes; my cooking skills are not that developed and it is more difficult to get super fresh fish here in the Midwest. But I was completely fascinated by the descriptions of how a restaurant like Le Bernardin works and what cooking in its kitchen is like. I loved reading it from beginning to end!
Book Review: One of the best books on the restaurant business I've ever read.
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Where you're a gourmet, a gourmand, a foodie (such an awful term), professional chef, food historian or just someone curious about the restaurant business, you won't find a better book than "On the Line." It's divided into five distinct sections, which allows for non-linear reading of the book, and also lets readers of varying interests walk away with just the information they are interested in.
Part One is the history of Le Bernardin which has spent the last twenty years as the best French restaurant in New York City. I suppose I would have liked this section better had Maguy Le Coze been more the focus as she is the last surviving Le Coze who founded Le Bernardin. I suppose I'd have liked more on the late Gilbert Le Coze as well, but what can you do? What was here was still an interesting read. I liked that Eric Ripert kept his autobiographical piece to under half a dozen pages. It made for a face read and also kept it interesting. The rest of Part One is a nice little history on the restaurant, from its humble beginnings to a look at how it is run today.
Part Two is sixty pages and contains everything from Le Bernardin specific terminology, a discussion of stations, profiles of important staff members, a huge section on seafood (the mainstay foodstuff of Le Bernardin an example of the menu and even a walkthrough of how a new dish is created. The last half of Part Two changes radically from being a non-fiction book about the way this three star establishment is run into a coffee table book of nothing but pictures of dishes served at Le Bernardin. Oh my god, the caviar pasta alone had me drooling.
Part Three is The Dining Experience and was a fascinating read. Here you'll read about the restaurant from the point of view of the wait staff , why Le Bernardin still doesn't use computers, how staff is trained, how to fold a napkin, what wines goes with what dishes, and the 129 "Cardinal Sins" of wait staff. Some readers may find this section a bit pretentious or pompous, but I found it quite informative as I never thought about a restaurant from this aspect before.
The shortest section is Part Four. This surprised me as I was expecting this book to be about the numbers, facts and figures of Le Bernardin instead of about the people and players. I'm very happy this is the case. Because this section is so brief though, it is very light without any real substance to it. The only real informative bit in Part Four is the section on how to secure a table.
Part Five is the longest section at nearly 100 pages, but it is also my favorite. Here we have recipes from Le Bernardin and they are all winners. This section alone is worth the cover price. I will warn you that there are no pictures of the finished recipes - just the walkthrough and some occasional sketches. Even the paper in this section is of a different texture and quality then the rest of the book, helping to really make that "Stand-Alone" feeling of the sections reach fulfillment. If you are not a seafood fan, many of these recopies will be lost on you, but for those of us that do enjoy a good piece of fish, you will want to be trying out these dishes as soon as possible. There are also a dozen or so desert recopies as well.
In all, "On the Line" is part coffee table book, part cookbook and part collection of essays on Le Bernardin. It's an excellent read for fans of cooking in all aspects, and it certainly doesn't disappoint. I heartily recommend this to everyone, as there is something for every non-fiction reader in here to absorb and love.
Book Review: Great Book On How A Top Restaurant Is Run.
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I picked up On The Line because I had seen Eric Ripert on some food shows and I am fascinated on how busy restaurants manage to create good meals on a daily basis. It is an excellent book, which introduces the reader to Chef Ripert and Le Bernardin, explores in detail every aspect necessary for creating a successful restaurant and includes recipes from Le Bernardin.
My only disappointment is that the book does not really examine in detail any problems faced by Chef Ripert in his running of Le Bernardin. I really did not get an idea of any flaws in the running of the restaurant past or present under Ripert. Most great businesses do not start off great and often deal with problems on a regular basis. The great businesses are the ones which overcome these obstacles. Still, the end result is a fascinating look into the world of how Le Bernardin and restaurants work.
The book is structured well. It is broken into five parts which include:
1. The History part which looks at the history of Le Bernardin from creation to the present;
2. The Kitchen part which looks at the structure of the Kitchen at Le Bernardin and interviews people ranging from the Chef de Cuisine to the porter. The section addresses the importance of everyone down to the dishwashers;
3. The Dining Experience part which looks at the role of those in the dining area from the Maitre d to the Wine Director. It explains the role of waiters, hostesses and even busboys;
4. The Business part which looks at the business end of Le Bernadin from the cost of food to business partnership and charity work;
5. The Recipes part which includes a number of recipes from Le Bernadin. The book includes pictures of the completed recipes in earlier sections.
Included throughout the book are great photographs as well as charts and drawing which all compliment the text. The charts include lists of all the positions at the Le Bernardin, a section on the hiring process at the restaurant, a list of what's in the pantry and a drawing of the layout of the kitchen.
As mentioned, my only problem with the book is that there are no sections dealing with people who have concerns about the restaurant (other than the age of the building) whether they be, current employees, former employers, critics or other restaurant owners. There really isn't even much about mistakes that were made at the restaurant and the lessons learned which have made Le Bernardin one of the best restaurants in the country, being one of only three to earn three stars in the Michelin Guide which is the Guides best rating.
For instance, in one section on the "Director of Moving Parts" the reader learns the building is old and pipes have broken and refrigerators stopped in the middle of the night. Yet no real detail is given on any of these events and whether they affected service on that day or how they were fixed.
I gave On The Line five stars because it does go into great detail on how Le Bernardin functions and gives insights into how, in general, restaurants work. There are great color photos and great recipes at the end. Still, for me, it could have shed much more light on the restaurant business and Le Bernardin if it took a more critical look at how this top restaurant manages to be so good.
Book Review: "On The Line" Provides An Education
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
"On the Line", the new cookbook by Eric Ripert, chef of "Le Bernadin" is perhaps an example of the next, inevitable mutation of cookbooks.
With the Food Network creating stars out of normal people, and other cable channels broadcasting shows featuring chefs and scrambling to create the next "Top Chef", both our airwaves and bookshelves are becoming crowded with cookbooks. In an effort to make some of them stand out, certain very well regarded chefs are producing books that are more a mix of cookbook and diary. Eric Ripert's "On The Line" is such an example. And a stellar example at that.
Ripert, chef of Le Bernadin, in New York, is one of the most well regarded chefs in the world. His restaurant is frequently regarded as one of the world's best and he has made many guest appearances on cooking shows, everything from "Top Chef" to "East Meets West with Ming Tsai".
Le Bernadin is well known for two things; Ripert's recipes and the emphasis on fish and pastry chef Michael Laiskonis' unique desert creations. "On The Line" features recipes from both.
But the book is more interested in providing a chronicle, a day in the life of Le Bernadin. "On The Line" seems to chronicle, maybe exhaustively, every position at the restaurant, what they do, what they are responsible for, what happens at 7:03 am, who is responsible for that, when various personnel arrives, what time the ice cream is made and who is responsible for that, etc.
Granted, this book is not for everyone. But I think it definitely serves a purpose. A lot of budding chefs could gain some inspiration from Ripert (his food is supposed to be brilliant) and by reading this book, they are likely to learn a lot about he runs his kitchen, perhaps providing the reader with even greater inspiration.
Do I want this type of cookbook to replace the more traditional? No. When I buy a cookbook, I buy it because I am interested in the years of experience that particular chef has. I want to try to recreate some of their recipes at home. I want to use these recipes to provide enjoyment for my family and friends. When so much of the book is about the day-to-day routine of running the restaurant, there is just naturally less I can do with that as a home cook.
But I also read through cookbooks like a novel, placing post-its on recipes that I want to try. Reading through "On The Line" was not difficult and was, in fact, very interesting. It is interesting to learn as much as possible about the inner-workings of a restaurant regarded by many to be one of the best in the world.
Another aspect about these new 'behind the scenes" cookbooks that rubs me the wrong way is that they often seem to be vanity projects. "We are an acknowledged great restaurant and here is why." But Ripert's book doesn't have that feeling. Perhaps it is because he is so humble and self-effacing whenever I see him on television that I just don't believe he has this in him.
"On The Line" is informative, interesting and would make a great gift to a new Culinary Student.