Vegetable Simple: A Cookbook

Introduction

It may seem a bit strange to start a cookbook devoted to vegetables by saying that I have been drawn to fish as long as I have been in kitchens. But from age fifteen, when I started culinary school, to my training with Joe l Robuchon in Paris to my nearly three decades as chef of Le Bernardin in New York City, my entire career has been about seafood. Fish is incredibly delicate and requires a great deal of focus, technical skill, and experience to prepare in a way that enhances, rather than hides, its essential qualities. It was Gilbert Le Coze, self-trained chef and master of seafood (and my mentor in the early days of Le Bernardin), who first showed me the beauty of cooking seafood with a light touch and a lot of respect.

Over the years, we have developed a mantra at Le Bernardin: The fish is the star of the plate. And while that remains true, I have recently started to wonder why we weren t highlighting vegetables in the same way, with the same level of care. In 2014, we opened a wine bar next to the restaurant and created a menu consisting largely of small, shareable vegetable-based dishes. Inspired by that process, we introduced a vegetable tasting menu at Le Bernardin two years later. While my passion for seafood has not waned, it has started to become obvious to me over these past years that my focus is widening to include vegetables as a central ingredient not only in my life as a chef, but also as an enthusiastic eater. This shift has been subtle, at times even unconscious, but once I realized how important vegetables had become to my cooking and to my diet, I decided I had to write Vegetable Simple.

When I sat down and began to create this book, the realization dawned that the book had actually been inside me for a long time. It started, in fact, with my earliest experiences: dishes from my childhood, the kitchens of my mother and grandmothers, the gardens of my grandfathers, my yearlong sabbatical on a farm after my military

Eric Ripert is the chef and co-owner of the New York restaurant Le Bernardin, which holds three Michelin stars and has maintained a four-star rating from The New York Times for more than two decades. He is vice chairman of the board of City Harvest, a New York-based food rescue organization, as well as a recipient of the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest honor. He serves as a regular guest judge on Bravo's Top Chef and is the host of his own TV series, Avec Eric, which has won Emmy and James Beard awards. Ripert is the author of five cookbooks My Best: Eric Ripert, Avec Eric, On the Line, A Return to Cooking, and Le Bernardin: Four Star Simplicity and a New York Times bestselling memoir, 32 Yolks.

The latest cookbook from the chef of Le Bernardin focuses on simple, but stunning recipes for seasonal produce . What a delightful approach, especially with summer on the horizon.  
The New York Times
 
The acclaimed chef, known for his way with fish at Le Bernardin, turns his exacting eye and light hand on vegetables. His deep dive was born from changes both in his work and personal life: Le Bernardin has shifted to more vegetable-focused plates, while the chef has incorporated more vegetables into his diet. The result is a book featuring a collection of recipes that are almost shockingly simple.  
The Houston Chronicle
 
Task a Michelin-starred chef with writing a vegetable cookbook and you are likely to get multiple-ingredient and complex-instruction recipes. Not so with Eric Ripert s Vegetable Simple . His brilliance is clear in the simplicity and ingenuity of the preparations.  
The Post and Courier
 
The chef behind Michelin three-star Le Bernardin is known for seafood, but Eric Ripert has been branching out . With Vegetable Simple, he means the title. He gives you straightforward recipes to maximize the preparation of plants in your cooking. Inside he shows you better ways to sauté, roast, poach your way to success.  
Robb Report ( Best New Cookbooks to Buy This Spring )
 
I m in love with the new cookbook Vegetable Simple. Eric Ripert the chef and owner of one of New York s most revered Michelin-starred restaurants, Le Bernardin is known for his refined seafood dishes, but here, he turns his eyes towards his second love, vegetables. The most amazing thing about it is how actually simple the recipes are. Like not chef-pretending-to-be-simple simple. Real life simple!  
Jenny Rosenstrach, Dinner: A Love Story
 
An excellent celebration of the vegetable dishes that have sustained [Eric Ripert]