On the Line | Eric Ripert, Christine Muhlke

On the Line | Eric Ripert, Christine Muhlke | I'm not sure what to call this book

books:

On the Line

	On the Line Eric Ripert, Christine Muhlke Artisan, 2008 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Take one top New York restaurant, add danger, drama, and dialogue, toss in their best recipes, and you have a cooking classic.

How does a 4-star restaurant stay on top for more than two decades? In On the Line, chef Eric Ripert takes readers behind the scenes at Le Bernardin, one of just three New York City restaurants to earn three Michelin stars. Any fan of gourmet dining who ever stole a peek behind a restaurant kitchen's swinging doors will love this unique insider's account, with its interviews, inventory checklists, and fly-on-the-wall dialogue that bring the business of haute cuisine to life.

From the sudden death of Le Bernardin's founding chef, Gilbert Le Coze, to Ripert's stressful but triumphant takeover of the kitchen at age 29, the story has plenty of drama. But as Chef Ripert and writer Christine Muhlke reveal, every day is an adventure in a perfectionistic restaurant kitchen. Foodies will love reading about the inner workings of a top restaurant, from how a kitchen is organized to the real cost of the food and the fierce discipline and organization it takes to achieve culinary perfection on the plate almost 150,000 times a year.

Meanwhile, Le Bernardin's modern French cuisine, with its emphasis on seafood, comes to life in sophisticated recipes, including Striped Bass with Sweet Corn Puree, Grilled Shishito Peppers, Shaved Smoked Bonito, and Mole Sauce, and Pan-Roasted Cod with Chorizo, Snow Peas, Piquillo Peppers, and Soy-Lime Butter Sauce.

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Extraordinaire

Eric Ripert knocked it out of the park with this one. What an incredible book. The story of Le bernardin and the spirit of Maguy, Gilbert and Eric radiates from the book. I wish I could eat there everyday...

I'm not sure what to call this book

Is it a cookbook? No, but it has recipes. Is it a biography? Yes, but of a restaurant rather than a person. More than anything it is a day-to-day look at the workings of a wonderful restaurant. Detail is not spared. How much fish...how many napkins...details about the workers and their lives. And it is all put together in a way that is cohesive and entertaining. The lavish photos are unabashed food porn. The book is pretty, entertaining, instructive and well-worth the modest expense.

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Fabulous Read, Fabulous Book

This is an informative, well written and fascinating book about Le Bernardian. Beyond that, however, it's a really true to life glimpse of life in an big city restaurant. You'll learn about how many people and how much time it takes to make your meal, all in a tiny little space. You'll never take restaurant food for granted again!

A visually very attractive book; well worth reading, too.

I'd expected some great recipes (they're there), and some interesting restaurant stories (ditto). What I didn't expect was a book with such high production values. The photography is great, the layout is quite attractive, and the quality of the writing is excellent. There are even enough little tidbits (food costs for meals, an idea what it's like to run a high-end restaurant) to maintain the interest of non-foodies.

You could put this book on your coffee table (it's pretty enough and has nice pictures throughout), read it for the recipes, or read it for the inside story from the restaurant. Three books in one!

Finally, I've eaten at Le Bernardin once in my life. Truly outrageous, and well worth the (considerable) cost.

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Beautiful, light, interesting

Having worked in a restaurant (a chain, nothing fancy) years ago, I picked this up thinking I'd hear a lot about the "drama" in restaurants - staff fights, romances, etc.

What it is, instead, is a quick and (despite the size) light read about how this one superstar restaurant is set up. Listings of various trivia points, such as how much the monthly flower bill is, or how many pounds of fish come through in a day, are fun and somewhat unbelievable. The vignettes and profiles of some of the employee's days are also quite amazing.

The "food porn" pictures are fantastic, and the included recipes look fascinating, though I don't know that I would ever use them.

Foodies who have been to Le Bernardin - or any big name, big city, luxury restaurant - would likely enjoy this, just to see what happens behind the scenes. This is definitely more of a coffee-table book than anything too deep or serious, but it's very well done.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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