On the Line
by Christine Muhlke, Eric Ripert
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Book Reviews of On the Line
Book Review: Confidential Laundry
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
ATTENTION: if you are a big fan of 30 Minute Meals or Semi-homemade Cooking, this is not a book for you. If you only go to chain restaurants that call each location a "store," this is not a book for you. If you're the sort of person for whom food is akin to fuel and you don't view eating as an aesthetic experience, this is not a book for you.
Who IS this book for, then?
1) Armchair chefs
Fans of inside-the-restaurant-business books, such as Kitchen Confidential (Bourdain) and The Soul of a Chef (Ruhlman), will enjoy reading about the history and personalities behind Le Bernardin. On The Line is written in a very matter of fact style though, so don't expect anything like the gonzo rants of Bourdain or the hushed and reverential tone of Ruhlman.
2) Anybody interested in how a top-end restaurant operates
Most of On The Line is devoted to an in-depth discussion of the daily operations at Le Bernardin. Comprehensive descriptions of each kitchen station, detailed run downs of how dishes are prepared during service, and a fascinating overview of the business side are highlights of the book. And unlike most books written by chefs, the focus is on the entire restaurant staff, not just the chef, which helps reinforce how running a restaurant is truly a team effort.
3) Accomplished or ambitious home cooks
While On The Line includes a selection of recipes, they are aspirational in that they are scaled down renditions of highly refined and luxurious restaurant cooking. As in The French Laundry Cookbook, one needs access to premium ingredients and a solid repertoire of cooking skills to replicate the dishes successfully.
Bottom line: On The Line is a fascinating and realistic look into the world of running a top restaurant, with the bonus of recipes for actual dishes served at Le Bernardin. Don't expect any flashy writing or chef worship talk though. Four stars, with the caveat that this isn't a book for beginning cooks or those who don't enjoy eating at destination restaurants.
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Complementary books:
Garlic and Sapphires (Reichl)--the high end restaurant experience from a restaurant reviewer's perspective.
Down and Out in Paris and London (Orwell)--a funny and shocking exposé of what really goes on in hotel and restaurant kitchens, but NOT from the chef's point of view!
Book Review: The arts behind the art of good food!
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Eric Ripert is one of the best known unknown chefs. When the famous guys whisper who *they* revere, he's often one of the dropped names. Like a carefully guarded secret. Most foodies haven't yet heard of him, but he's been a significant figure in the culinary world for some time. A god among chefs, as it were. Le Bernadin is his baby - an acclaimed restaurant that specializes in seafood, and is a masterfully wonderful place to go dine. It's a thoughtful place. The food is rich and luxurious, but also done with an extreme amount of care...from finely crafted dishes to its enviornmental awareness (they do not serve certain endangered species, such as shark, here).
On The Line is his book. It's a cookbook - sort of. Primarily, this tells you how a restaurant is run. Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain started this trend, and On The Line is the next level of that. It's pages and pages of details, from ordering the good, to running the floor, to chef stations. There are some delightful gems. One is when his co-writer/journalist is asked to help the monkfish station one night, giving a keen perspective of being plunged into the back shop however briefly. The story of one of his masters, cutting thousands of pounds of fish for the evening, portioning each correctly so they are uniform. ("You can't serve uneven fish to people at the same table", he admonishes, "They would complain!") In the back of his book, he mentions he hopes the lease is up again. They've made a home here, infusing the restaurant with the soul of the business and people who have been there. I hope it is too.
There are recipes. The second half of the book switches from glossy modern photographs to smooth, almost-burlap, cardboard-like pages, with recipes printed on them. They are a bit hard to read. Like the pages (which were unexpectedly aesthetic), the recipes themselves are almost disarmingly simple. It's a reminder that what makes food good is as much the food as what you do to it. Don't get me wrong, there are some complex renderings of the edible, but as with all good chefs, they merely accent already wonderful things to eat.
The pictures are great, and how a kitchen and entire restaurant is run becomes an engrossing enjoyment. The recipes are secondary here for me, I admit, to the infodump that is the truly delicious morsel of the book. It's not often a master divulges their secrets. This time when the great Oz's curtain is pulled back, you are fascinated rather than disappointed.
I'd definitely get this if you are a hard core foodie. It's a shame that Eric Ripert isn't better known. He really is a master. If you can ever get a chance to eat at La Bernadin (there's even advice on the best times to get tables at busy restaurants), I encourage you to! In the meantime, savor over the book!
Book Review: Unique and fascinating
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Le Bernardin is one of only three NYC restaurants to revive Michelen's highest three star rating, and reading this book shows you how they earned them.
If a behind-the-scenes look at Le Bernadin is what you're craving, this will sate your desire. Every aspect of the restaurant and its staff is covered in glorious detail. There are elucidating and fun chapters on restaurant terms, a minute-by-minute walk-through of a typical day, the kitchen's layout, and myriad revealing factoids. A couple of these sections would have given Freud more ballast for the term anal retentive than he ever encountered, like the preparation of black bass broken down into milliseconds. Actually, on reflection, it was amusing--if a bit bizarre. On the other hand there were all sorts of interesting numerical tidbits, like the 300 pounds of tomatoes, 60 pounds of garlic, and 1,000 pounds of bass they serve weekly.
The devotion of every employee is beyond belief: the pastry chef works a 12 hour day, along with all the other major players. Eric Ripert is a chef extraordinaire, constantly creating and perfecting dishes until they meet his incredibly high standards. Here's a glimpse into his culinary genius, including a section on how a new recipe is readied for the menu.
The stunning photographs aptly show how pure and appetizing everything looks. Of course, it's Le Bernardin's gestalt: the service, ambience, exclusivity, and food, that make the restaurant so distinctive.
Reading about 128 Cardinal Sins and Monumentally Magnificent Trivialities showed how meticulous attention to detail is what sets Le Bernardin apart.
The sheer number of people required to run this place is simply mind-boggling, and orchestrating the whole enterprise is more complicated than a Mozart symphony.
At the back of the book is an outstanding recipe section, though I am not rushing to the kitchen to replicate any of these remarkable dishes.
I often suggest products for gifting, this one is no exception. If you have a would-be chef, or restaurant groupie on your holiday list I can't imagine a better gift for the money.
Book Review: An appetizer but not the main course
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
On the Line is a difficult book to review, because it is never sure whether it wants to be a behind the scenes tell-all or a picturesque cook book. The book attempts to do both, and succeeds in many ways, but trying to do both it does not succeed at either goal.
The behind the scenes tell-all books about restaurant kitchens became really interesting when Anthony Bourdain wrote Kitchen Confidential, which he has successfully translated into a TV show and celebrity status. While on the line does not delve into the personal lives of the cooks and staff at the restaurant, we do see a lot of the behind the scenes work that is required to run a restaurant. From this perspective I would have enjoyed learning more about the economics of the restaurant business - how to create great food and still make money, how to ensure that people are aware of your restaurant and the necessary marketing involved. There wasn't as much discussion about these topics as I would have expected.
The book also contains a number of recipes for dishes served at the restaurant, many of which look exceptionally tempting. Some of these appear a bit difficult or include ingredients that might be difficult to acquire unless one lives very near a thriving seafood market. Again, the recipes fall a bit flat, although they are well presented and some of the presentation of the food and the pictures are very appealing.
After all is said and done, the behind the scenes material is interesting but does not dig deeply enough or broadly enough to be satisfying, while the recipes offer a delectable but difficult menu. I think the author would have been better served with a more conventional approach - either a tell-all or a cook book, but has tried mightly to deliver both in one book. What he has given us are two delectable appetizers that ultimately don't satisfy.
Book Review: Six Million Dollars Worth of Great Food!
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This book is TOP quality! It is a delight to the eye with lots and lots of fabulous, artsy photos and is a very interesting read but would be great just sitting out to browse through too.
I read the book cover to cover and really enjoyed all the facts about running a top quality restaurant, the number of people involved just with accepting the raw food from the sellers, the amount of table linens, the wine cellars incredible inventory, what they do with the leftover food...
The book starts with the history of restaurant Le Bernadin, "that caused a shift not only in how New Yorkers perceived French restaurants, but also in how Americans ate fish." And there is a lot of information and recipes for seafood, salmon, tune, fluke, hamachi, oysters, crab... but great desserts are included too.
But wait, there's more, it gives you some very helpful information and tips for restaurants but is also really practical for the home entertainer as well. We get an interesting run down on the pastry chef, the wine director, and maitre d'. For example, maitre d' Ben Chekroun lists 129 cardinal sins of good service: Forks with bent tines, improperly chilled beer or wine, incomplete orders, walking past items dropped on the floor!!
The book is well organized and very easy to read, fascinating to read. The chapter, " In The Kitchen " does what it says, takes you in the kitchen, decodes the language of the kitchen, sous-chef, tournant, gives you a sensible kitchen lay out and an example of schedules for preparing the food, and what they keep in those huge refrigerators.
Really a very interesting book if you are interested in food or what make a restaurant run smoothly and serve incredible food, six million dollars worth of food!