My name is Jeffrey Z Carreen and you're listening to four Courses with Jeffrey Z. Carrion from I Heart Radio. In four courses, I'll be taking you along for the ride while I talked with the top talent of our time. In each conversation, I focus on four different areas from my guest life and career. And during those four courses, I'm going to dig deep in and cover new insights and inspirations that we can all use to fuel ourselves to push forward. My guest for this episode is a
world renowned chef. He built his career working for some of the oldest and best restaurants in France, and today his flagship restaurant in New York City ranks as one of the best in the world. Without further delay, let's get into my conversation with Eric Repair and jeff For our first course, I wanted to ask Eric what parts of his childhood drew him into the kitchen. He spent his early life gathering fresh fruits and vegetables from local markets and a part of the world most of us
can only dream of vacation. I was born in on Teabe and then my parents live in um next to can and then to Saint Tropez, and so I was in the front review for about nine years here. So when you think of like those times when you visit back there, what smell or memory of smell or food when you walked into your house grabbed you. What do you remember walking into your house now that once in a while you walk by another restaurant, like you know that smells sort of like what was cooking in my
house or what we did all the time. What I remember the most, it's the smell of the basil, the basil, because over there is so vibrant. You can be like fifty yards from the market and and from the stand and you can smell the basil or the sweetness of the melons or something like that. If at home I have basil from the garden, or I have some melons that I never put in a fridge by the way, so they don't lose their flavor, then it minds me the market. So how old were we about them when
you realize that that smell was like intoxicating. I was very young. I was maybe four or five years old, because my grandmother was taking me to the market every day, you know, like in France, that the generation was going to buy the bread every morning and whatever they needed for the day, and the day after they were going back to the market again and visiting the butcher and stopping at the vegetable stand and some days going to
the fishery and so on. So it was you know, they took but takes an hour or two to do that every day. I mean, it takes time and you have to do it, but you get the ability. First of all, I believe that buying more often you you spend less because you getting much smarter and you have an inventory in your head about what you have, so you don't you're not buying you know what, I'll just get it anyways in case I need it. You don't
do that. That's not in case I need it. You know, you buy what's on sale or what's fresh or what's in season, and you buy a lot of it and you eat that for three or four days. Yes, it's fantastic because you are so connected with the season just by visiting the market, just by talking to the people
who sell their products. And sometimes we talk about seasons like the spring and the summer and the fall, but the beginning of the spring is very different than the middle of the spring at the end of the spring, so we we were connected to the season. Just by doing that, we knew exactly when was the best tomatoes of the year, of the best strawberries, or the sherris
when the season was starting and so on. I grew a vegetable garden this past year and never had done one for a long time, and it was so much work. And I had forgotten once zucchini comes, man, you're gonna be eating zucchini a lot because it all comes on. It's yes, it's the same for the salads. Right. This year I planted some salads, and what I forgot is that all the salads comes at the same time, and so you get the same romane or the same letters
in huge quantities. What I like about it is that we eat a lot of it because there's delicious, But we are also connecting with the neighborhood because we give them some salads and they're happy and they give us something else and so on. There you go, and that's what it's all about. So, so your grandmother went to the market, did your mom monique r your mom's monique, right? Yeah?
And my mother was her name is still Monique, yes, And did she go to market to or was she just doing preparation and her mother helping your buying and all that sort of stuff. So my mother was going to the market as well, but not the way my grandmothers were going to the market. So I had an Italian grandmother and a provincial grandmother and they were going there on the daily base, and it was like soul food from their region northern Italy and the region of
province near Avignon. And my mother was going to the market, but she was buying slightly differently, and she was very inspired by nouvelle cuisine and by what chefs like Paul Bocuse and Michelle Gerrard and all the generation we're doing. And she was cooking for us very elaborate food. So it was slightly different in terms of preparation and shopping. However, for me it was a blessing because I was exposed to salt food and I was exposed at the same
time to something that it was very refined. And I didn't know that I was privileged. I thought every kid in the world was eating exactly like me, and so didn't really you like you wanted to do something in the food world, or did you have college on mine on your mind, or did you want to, you know, learn a trade. Well, I was obsessed with eating because I was so spoiled and my experience were so powerful, and I was always trying to get inside the kitchen.
But nobody led me because they claim I would thrash the kitchen or leave some disaster there. But I was very young. I was five, six seven years old, obsessed with the kitchen. Not necessarily to really work hard in that kitchen. I wanted just to play a little bit, but I wanted to eat well, and that's why I was there. And then when I became older, instead of studying in high school, I was reading cookbooks and I remember Paul bocus Are like within the Marche and and
so on, and I was reading recipes. Therefore I had bad grades, right, And because I had bad grades, at one point they called my mother and said, your son is really, really bad in school. He has to find what they call in friends, vocational college. And I was like, yeah, I'm going to culinary school. That's what I want to do. I want to cook and I want to eat well. And I no no idea how hard it would be to go to a clinary school and study because as you know, we are not born with knife skills and
all those those important details. Right, yes, but you're you're into at this time or you still on the side of France. So I was living in a principal of Andorra, but the school was in Perpinion, which is the south of France, which was about three hours by cal from where I was living. So I was in that school
and they had a reputation of being tough. All the teachers were coming from the the yacht Le France, and that boat was very iconic in the seventies and eighties, and those guys were very well trained and very tough. So they were training the cooks in the in the school with a lot of rigor, which is of course beneficial at the end, right, And they knew their craft very well. I had very good teachers, but I was not the best cook in the class. There was a
lot of kids that were really excelling. I was doing a good job. I was really bored in culinary school because my parents were taking me to the best restaurants in France, and I was exposed to grid cuisine and then in culinary school, we were learning the basics, which is normal obviously, and so the basics a mayonnaise and vinegar it and sas beshamal and and things like that, and I was like, oh my god, this is so boring. So I was not that excited, but I was cooking
pretty well. So then they decided that I was a great waiter because the first year in cleanery school you had to be a waiter a little bit for part of the weekend in the kitchen for about It's a business in the business. So they tried to push me to become a waiter, and I didn't want to do that. And a big accident happened at the end of the year, just before they took their decision. I basically dumped on top of a general from the French army a trail
of cocktails, and and then it was not enough. I had to go back to the table because the teacher told me I had to go back. And then I served the table, and when it was time to serve his wife, the trail tilted and the glass fell on the neck of his wife. And that was not over again.
They told me to go back to the bar and come back so I I came back and I slid on the ice cube that was on the floor, and the trail went back on the table and that was sent forever in the kitchen for the second year, and in between, they send me in training to work in a very tough kitchen to make sure that I had a passion and the fire for cooking, which I had, and I started to really enjoy being an in those
kitchen and then I graduated and moved to Paris. In our second course, I had to understand how Eric's career as a chef took off when he arrived in Paris, because, unlike most people straight out of Connory School, Eric cut his teeth at one of the most renowned restaurants in France, latur Jon. In fact, the institution celebrated it's four d
anniversary the very year Eric started. They were basically the first restaurant that introduced the fork in rents because the King didn't want to eat with his fingers anymore, and they created the fork, and uh, he was going there, the restaurant of the King. I never knew that. That's incredible. So four years or so, two six D something, I mean,
that's just unbelievable. Yeah. During the French Revolution, because it was a sign of royalty, they basically burned the restaurant and destroy it, but they rebuilt it again on top of the ashes of the old restaurant. And then in the beginning of the twentieth century the name changed from Latin became Cafe only so Jan. So what's Tota Jan is known for other than it's incredible seller. It's like located on top of like I think it looks over Notre Dame. I think I haven't been in a long time.
And they have the famous Tacolo range or the duck per se correct which the giant doctor gets smashed. Did you do that? Did you learn that process? Were you there long enough to go to the entire station? Yes? I was. I was, so I started and I was seventeen years old. I was the youngest coup in the kitchen, not the most brilliant one, I have to tell you, because coming from culinary school, going to a brigade like that is a definitely a culture whole change and the challenge.
But I did all the stations except past three because they put me in pastry and one afternoon while everybody was away I ate twenty five raspberry tartlets and I didn't know they were counting them, and they kicked me out of the past three. I never went back, but I did all the station from from the fish station to the duck station. Don't they have a number system? I remember back then they had how many ducks they sold,
and then they had like a prize. I believe at one point, not too many years ago, that there was the one million duck or something like that. Yes, they reached the one million. So each time that someone eats a duck, they gave him a postcard with a number. I have to tell you don't believe that story because I burned so many ducks and they didn't issue numbers for them. One day, I went for the family meal and when I came back, it was flames coming out of the hood. It was twenty four ducks burning in
the oven. Oh my god, I mean duck. People understand, duck is a dangerous animal. I mean, there's so much fat on them. They're very You've got to really understand how to coca duck. It's easy to overcook it, but probably cooked ducks so the leg and the thigh is almost impossible. Probably if you haven't been to a lot, Toldo Young, I would put it on anybody's bucket list. I don't care how many stars it has now. It's just such a spectacular place to go. And it's just
it's like you feel like the movie rather too. You know that when they sit down and you look it over the Paris. That's what it's like. It's that magical. It really is. Yes, it's one of the most dining room in the world. Actually, I mean you have a view of Notre Dame de Paris. It feels like it's it's in the dining room basically made of gigantic windows, and it's amazing. On inside, you see the lascent, which
is the river and and Paris and Notre Dame. And on the other side you have those kind of what they called duck theaters, which are like small areas that look like a mini theater where the waiters are cutting the ducks and they are preparing the ducks and making the sauce with the press and so on. I mean, it's it's one of those very unique experience. And then they have one of the most beautiful wines set over in the world. I mean, it's i was very young
when I saw it and I understood it. I would love to go back again, and just taking it as someone who just wants the experience. And I remember what I remember was going up to the window and seeing the barges going by all lit up and people are having dinner on the barges as they were going down the scene. I'm like, this is just magnificent. And that was like I thought, it was like, wow, it was a show that we was just doing it. No, that's how it's every day like that. It's just it's a lifestyle.
Back then, I think it was three stars. Yes, if I'm not it was. So you went from you know, Colninary school to a couple of places three stars. That's a big leap. A lot of people work a long long time before they gave recruited for a three star restaurant. Yes, but in my mind there was no other way. I wanted to work in a three star restaurant. I didn't
want to work in anything else. So when I graduated, I went to buy the Michelin Guide and it was eighteen restaurants in France that at three stars, and I sent I wrote by end of course, at the time it was no computers. I wrote eighteen letters saying, hey, I'm a re repair I just graduated, blah blah blah, I'm seventeen years old. I wanted to work in your kitchen, and nobody answered and and finally a month and a half later, I received a call and it was a
suche from lad Brand who said are you repair? And I said, yes, I am repaired. While we got your letter and we have a job for you. And I said when, Yeah, great, okay, when can I start? And it was a Friday afternoon and I remember because I was coming back from ranging in the forest for Portugue. And the guy said, well, I need you on Monday. In between Friday afternoon and Monday, we were able to find an airline ticket. I made my suitcase and I was in Paris in a subway on Monday morning on
my way to rang. I just hearing that, I get chills because when you get to the door, you know, the hallway to the kitchen is always fluorescent, like it's not pretty, it's always the feeling is like you're out of body feeling. It's like where am I? What's that so foreign? You're not in any comfort zone. Whatsoever, and you're like, at the same time, you're like, oh my god, this is amazing. Yes, it was amazing and fascinating. But I was so scared because I was pretty protected in
my lifestyle because Andorra is a very small country. Everybody is happy. I have never seen professional kitchens. It was all about reading in books and dreaming about it and so on. And suddenly you are in that kitchen with thirty or forty cooks. And when I walk in that kitchen, they were already like in full speed. It was eight o'clock in the morning, but the stocks were boiling and the guys were working and running and so on and and actually I was very surprised. Nobody was my age.
They were all like twenty five thirty years old, and they look at me like I was someone coming from a UFO. And uh, it was very intimidating. But I mean after a couple of days, I mean, was it just like You're like, oh my god, it's pinched me because you know you're at some place that's extraordinary. Yes, I was extremely happy and challenge at the same time, because when you come out of a culinary school, as much as you believe that with your graduation. You are
a great cook. When you work in those restaurants, you realize you know so little and you make so many mistakes and so on, and you the challenges are enormous. It was a very intense experience for me, but I have no regret at all. I will do it in a heartbit. Yeah. I So what's the first station that you worked? Where did they put you first? Obviously didn't
work a station. And then what was the first time when someone noticed that you were really very capable and they're like said, okay, let's you know, the world got around that, you know what you were doing so specialized in ducks. However, they put me in a fish station. H And the fish station it was not so easy. I mean you had to take care of yourself of filting your fish and taking care of the shellfish and
making your sauce and garnishchees and so on. So I was helping the main chief in that station, and I had a lot to learn. I mean from making an lands with thirty two yolks that became scrambled eggs after on my first day, after an hour in that kitchen, to cutting my fingers, slicing shallotte again on the first day was the beginning was a bit rough. But after I would say three or four months, finally that came
to me and they said, you know, we believe. Now now it's time for you to move to the next station. And that was a big deal. When they were moving you, it was like a very big compliment. You were accomplished in one station, you could go to the next and learn something else, and then you were moving again and again and again. So the fish station. So you're at the fish station, is there anything now knowing fish like
you know now? Was there anything there that stood out knowing what it was then as being exemplary since they weren't known for fish. Yeah, I thought that the way they were preparing fish was extremely light and very original. Actually, the chef Dominick Bush at the time was trying to change a little bit the reputation of Latron and get away from the ducks and have a reputation for a broader cuisine. So it was really putting a lot of efforts into the fish station, which was my luck because
we we're using a lot of different techniques. It was a blessing because I really really started my love for cooking fish in there. It seems like like looking back at your career, like told Jean, could have been a place that really cemented fish for you, even though it's not known for fish. I mean I never ate fishy to Jean, No, because nobody, I mean, if everybody hits
the duck. However, again, the fish was really delicious, and I really started to enjoy very much cooking fish because when you cook meat, and I love I don't have a preference in between meat and fish or vegetables. When I cook, I cook with my heart and with my knowledge and and so on and my instinct. But when you cook meat is a very sensual way of cooking, right, But when you cook fish, it's a very sensual way.
But also it's a very technical way. And I love the fact that you have to be so focused because ten seconds could be the biggest mistake and the fish becomes are cooked and he has no flavor and so on. The meat is much more forgiven you cooked meat an extra minute, you don't have consequences for the fish. You have to be so cautious, and you have to be so cautious also with whatever goes in the plate, because
the fish is so delicate. That any ingredients could overwhelm the qualities of that filly of fish in the plate. So I learned that from La Daran and moving to Robbie Shaw and to other restaurants, I learned that respect for the techniques and for the ingredients, and especially for
cooking fish for our third course. I wasn't just gonna let Eric class all the time working with world class chef Joan robber Shan at his restaurant jam Robbishan ran one of the strictest kitchens in the business, and I wanted to know how these extremely high standard shaped Eric's style as a chef. Tell me about Jamain. I mean I remember eating a Jamin and then I remember the next time I had his. This cuisine was the Latalier
and he did a very big deal. But tell me about the working as German, Like what, you were assistant chef the party, which is a big deal. Yes, So he hired me um as the chef the party. So after a chef the Party, which is like, it's a pretty good title. I mean, chef the party means you're responsible for a station. And I was actually in garde manger, which is the cold pitier section, and I was in charge of Garde Manger. With him, Joel Robbie Jamain was
doing miracles every day. And he's the most rigorous, knowledgeable, precise and demanding chef that I have ever seen in the world. To this day, he's no longer with us, but he was considered God at the time and his his entire career, he was extremely respected for the fact that he was probably with Freddy Rillard Gerardin in Switzerland, considered the best chef of the planet. So I walk in Jamin and I come. I'm coming from lat Dar ground. We are about thirty cooks in La round. We do
and read and something cover the night. I go at rubbish round. We are about thirty cooks and we do fourty covers. And everybody start at six o'clock in the morning as a break of half hour in afternoon and we end up at midnight at the earliest, or sometimes one or two o'clock in the morning. And that is five days a week, so you basically have four hours to go to your house, take a shower, have breakfast,
brought your teeth, put some clothes, come back. So tell me why, tell me what you saw that was remarkable that stayed with you. Robbi Shawn was caring so much about the attention to the detail, and he was the first and I think the only chef that I know who was able to bring the precision and the stat of the cuisine that they do in competitions. But usually that cuisine in competition is not really delicious. It looks beautiful and it takes three days to make, so three
days later your fish is fishy, obviously. But Robi Shaw was able to bring that exercise of making competitions and he won all of them, and he was bringing that in the plate, and it was done in a timely manner for the clients, and everything was super freshy, and we had the best thing radiants and so on. So it was basically mission impossible. You were going to robbish On knowing that you will not be capable to make
him happy and to meet the standards. However, you will try to get as close as you can, and it will take you hours and hours and hours of work to try. And at the same time you knew he would never be happy. Just amazing. So I remember I remember distinctly the ravioli languesstea u. This is amazing. Jeffrey that's ravioli of langostein. You know, we were making the ravioli when you were ordering. So you were saying, I want an order of ravioli, which was on the bed
of cabbage with flua grad trafle sauce. Right, you had some guy running with some lingos tein's, going to the pasta machine, making the door, putting the langosteins in it, poaching the langosteins in a broth. And while someone was doing all that, we were preparing the cabbage, and we were preparing the flag. Oh my god. That was the
way Roby Shron was cooking for his clients. So imagine we were, yes, thirdly cooks for four recovers, but you were ordering one order of langostein and you had three or four guys involved for fifteen minutes just for you. And then he was touching the revoli with his finger and sometimes the langostins wouldn't be as firm as he likes, so we will have to read the dish. It was
an interesting time. How long did you stay there? So I stayed one year and then I was struggling because it was really really challenging, and I was called to go to do my military duties because it was mandatory at the time in France. So I went to see him and I told him that I had to live because I was called. And he said, don't worry about it. I'm going to send you to the Eliza. You will cook for the President of France, but you're staying with
me for now. And I said, very flattering. It was very flattering, but I said, no, I cannot do that because I really have to go back to the south of France. So anyway, let me go. And on my last day of my military duties, I thought it was a joke. I received a call at the office of the sergeant and the sergeant said, you have a call. Is Joel Robby Shaw on the phone? And I was like, yeah, sure of course, and I grabbed the phone and it seemed and he says to me, he says, I hear
that you're finishing your duties and so on. I have a positive for you. Would you like to come back at jama and you will be the chef person in charge of the fish station. And I said to him, thank you so much. I have to think about it. And he said to me, of course, you have thirty seconds and you can imagine in thirty seconds how many things goes in your head. And of course I had to say, yes, I had no choice. So therefore I was back with him again for two more years in
a fish station. So tell me how he cooked fishback then? How did he use his poal? What did he do about he roast palet jose? What did he do? So he was identifying the qualities of the fish in his mind. He knew that some fish are better when they are poach or steam. Some fish are better when they are soute and the skin is crispy. Some fish needs to be backed and hauled and then potentially of the boat,
and so on. We were using all those different techniques we had about I was six different recipes of fish on the menu as main course. They had, of course different source and different techniques and different garnishes that were all meant to elevate the qualities of the fish. And that is what I learned with him before I came to America. It's how to elevate the qualities of every
individual shellfish and and fish that we are cooking. So I mean, you came to us eighty nine, what the hell was on your my New has been the Second Revolution. I remember eighty nine. It was it was crazy. New York City was crazy to eighty nine. I was in Washington. Disease it was not the word at all because politicians and lawyers are pretty boring at night. However, I was with Georgean Riparadan, great great Jean Riparada was an extremely creative chef. It was kind of a hipy gypsy, crazy, fun,
creative guy. And I learned so much from him because he said to me said, look, you come from Robbish, from kitchen, and he he made you a great technician. But basically you cannot create anything. You can only duplicate. So he said, I'm going to take care of you and I'm gonna make you creative. You have to open your mind. So Jean Louis was on a mission to make me creative with all the techniques that I had to related from La. That's a deadly assassin, right you have,
knowing Judo and carrying an M sixteen. So anyway, if I can make a comparison its own analogies like coming from Catholic school and going to Woodstock directly. Anyway, I was having fun in the kitchen with Jean Riparada, but I didn't want to stay in Washington. I was very young, and I was very attracted by New York because it was a lot of things happening in New York in every industry, and and the city is always very active, as we know, so I wanted to party as well.
So I came to the city and worked for David Boule. I worked with him for eight or nine months, and then Sheberlocas offered me the position of being his chef the cuisine, and I came to Lebernarda. How did he know about you? Did he know that you worked in Robberation? Did they have a hotline into all these new guys friends? So Shelberlacaus wanted to replace Elbera Miller, who opened Lebernardan with him in nine six, So it was one and
he called Jean Upaada in Washington. They were good friends, and Jean Louis said, I had this kid in my kitchen now is at Boule, but I think he can do the job. Try to get in touch with him and we will see if he can go to lebernard And and become the chef. I started actually Junie leven at seven for the am of and I remember because I look at my watch, the energy was very strange. I felt it was something very special. My sixth cents said,
this restaurant's going to be very important for you. Do not forget when you arriving here at and and then I never forgot. So you have the technician, and you had Happy and now you have Yourbert. Where is he stand? Where is he lie? So Gilbert knows how to cook fish, and his fish is delicious, and I'm learning from him. But I have learned already a lot from my previous chefs and mentors, and I muster pretty well all the
techniques that are used at Lebernardre. So Gilbert basically says to me, look, I want you to be the chef here. You're going to be in charge of managing the team. For me, it's something very new, because until then I was managing very small teams, like two guys with me in my station. Suddenly I'm I'm basically in charge of a kitchen of forty five cooks or something like that. At the time, it's something that was completely new. And Gilbert was very kind and very patient and very supportive,
and he let me make all the mistakes. Always always defended me and and stood up for me, knowing that I was wrong anyway, It meant her meaning like that, and it was my luck. And I worked with him for three full years until he passed away. Very sad day. I remember that, how did you reconcile with that where you then became the person? How do you replace someone that's such a dynamic person. What did you think to yourself at that time? If you can remember, It was
very difficult. But Magilos called me a few days later and she said, look, my brother always told me that he trusted you to run his kitchen, and I would like for you to to now run the kitchen on your own. And I don't want to create a museum to the memory of my brother. I want you to continue to create and find your style and your voice, and I'm going to support you, and we are going to keep it down out there, open, and we are going to make it better than ever. Wow, what a
remarkable lady to see that. That's a big leap. But obviously she's a very smart lady, because look what happened top fifty in the world, and you've taken it from that pressure laden restaurant in Paris, and you moved through the ranks and you just came up with your own style and actually happened the way it was actually supposed to happen. Yeah, sometimes you know, destiny is full of mystery, right. But I am very grateful to be at lebernarda. I'm
having fun. Of course, we have been challenged throughout the years, in between nine eleven and a good recession and lately the COVID and so on, but I still have tremendous joy in being in Le Bernard and working with the team, and it's extremely motivating, rewarding. Of course, the ultimate goal is to create an experience and the delicious meal to our clients, and that makes me happy. But you also
you've given that if you let your staff shine. I think you've let what Maggie do to you to your other people with Aldo and it's such a fun place to be and it's you've made it very unpretentious, I must say. And that's you feel. I think you said you were grateful. You feel the gratitude, you really do. Your staff loves you, and you feel the gratitude they have for what they what they're doing. They're able to
have this incredible experience and work there. Thank you. Yes, I mean I really try to create an experience that is warm and friendly, and restaurants, fine dining or not, should be always very welcoming, and it should be always we are here to please, right, I mean, they don't come to the better then to be miserable. They come to to have good food and to have a good time,
and that makes it interesting. For our fourth and final course, I got to ask Eric about how he finds contentment and the way he keeps himself anchored in a fast paced world. But first I wanted to hear more about his inspiration behind his latest cookbook, Vegetable Simple. I've read a lot about you, your books two Yolks, and this wonderful book, this best seller, Vegetable Simple, which is it's actually so simple, it's almost I'm like, I'm looking in
the recipe, I'm like, that's all there is. Let me like clicks that again. There's only four ingredients, and like, yes, treated with respect for ingredients is absolutely enough if you have a really good product, and so that that thank you for doing that, because it really is vegetable Simple. You really restrain yourself. Yeah, thank you. It's inspired really by my lifestyle outside the restaurant and by my childhood.
And when I entertained in Hampton's in the summer, I go to the farm stand and I get inspired by the vegetables that I see. And then I entertained and I put a lot of different dishes on the table that are very easy to make and and that pay respected to the ingredients of great quality. And then I said, why not make a book like that? Well, it is amazing, and I you know, I was watching your Instagram during the pandemic, but you're putting out things like rat TWI
you made like uh, mozzarella dish and uh. It was just so inspiring to see you cook things like with such simplicity and elegance. It was like wow, Yeah, I mean,
overnight I became the private chef of the family. The restase was closing, and I was in charge of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and and therefore I had to go shopping and and then I was creating food for the family that was nutritional and well balanced and at the same time that was delicious, because I cannot have my family saying that my food is not delicious, So I was putting a lot of passion in it. So you've had five,
i think five or six books. You know, you've won so many accolades, and you really love just doing one one restaurant. You really love this, and I still respect that about you. There's very few people that are very like, just you really love doing this thing. What is it that makes you want to say? You know what? This is great? I love this. I want to continue this. I just want to keep getting better and better because
it's such a stressful environment. Yes, of course it's stressful, but as you know, Jeffrey, we'll learn how to manage to the stress, and we'll learn how to strive on the stress, and and so on. For me, I came in this industry because I love eating, I love cooking. I love to be with my team, and I love to create an experience. I never came in in our industry because I wanted to become a model, and I didn't think that I was coming in this industry to
open fifty restaurants. Not like it's wrong. Obviously, I admire where as fifty restaurants, and if they are happy, I'm I'm super happy for them as well. And for me, it doesn't do it, it doesn't make me happy. I tried, actually, and I didn't like to be in a plane. I didn't like to be in a train. I didn't like to be away from my house. I didn't like to be away from the kitchen of le Bernard. And I didn't like to lose not the control, but basically the influence that I have in the kitchen or in a
team when I am here. I didn't like the distance and so on. So they afore I decided that Lebernard and was sufficient. And I think I have learned over the years how to recognize contentment. And I am content. And when you are content, why do something else? So where are you moving to? What? What is your your mental state, in your spiritual state? Saying about where the restaurant has to go, where you have to go, and where you have to lead your team, because you have
to be going somewhere. Right, You can't just stay still, Yes, especially in New York, if you stay still, everything moves forwarth so fast suddenly you are going backwards. So you have to always evolve. But evolving, for me, it's instinctive.
It's a reaction to what's happening in fashion, to what's happening in technology, to what's happening in the world around us, and I respond to it in a creative way, in an artistic way, by changing lebernardance slowly but surely, and changing the way we hook, the way we deliver the experience to the client, by renovating the dining room. By all of that text a lot of time, and then I have a lot of pleasure doing books. I did a bit of TV at one point, and I loved it.
It was fun. It's always something going on. I am very busy, just evolving and learning and and so on. And also I have the luck to basically divide my my time to find balance. I dedicate a third of my time to the business and le Bernard and and so on, a third of my time to my family, and a third of my time for myself. And by doing that, I find balance. And I believe that if you have time for yourself, like just being selfish, you
will be a better family member. Family support you. Therefore you will be a better boss, and the team support you, and therefore you can again support your family better. And it's a circle, is a cycle, and all of that it's a blessing for me to feel like that and to be able to play with an instrument, which is the restaurant, the way I want to play. It's like almost like a miracle. So therefore, I'm never board. I'm always motivated. I always have projects and visions and I
accomplished them. I have challenges, of course, a lot of it, and you can see that in my white hair. But it's fantastic. It's life. I mean, I just love the way you said that. I think, honestly, some balance is hard. The recipe of balance, I tell people it's very hard. You're always putting out fires and you're always there's three balls in the here all the time, so you really it is juggling. But the way you put it is more spiritual than juggling. So it's sort of a spiritual juggling,
you would say. But I really believe that when you do bring energy to your family, you have a better family. You're able to support and make your partner better. If she can be better, your family can be better. You you you got their back, And that's really what I hear a lot of people talking about. They say, well, what's the what's the hardest thing to do is just the really make everybody around you better, and it's probably why you're so content because you're always doing that. Yes,
and and again it's not easy every day. Obviously, it's challenging in a way, right, but it's fantastic to try and to succeed and to see the results, to try to find systems for your employees for them to have happiness and have also some balance because in our industry, as you know, Jeffrey, it's a lot of people who burn,
and they burn because they don't have that balance. So we we have to create that to protect ourselves and to protect the people that support us, and that may make us successful because our families and team are our success. Without them, we are nothing. As you know. The thing
for me we're just listening to is it's extraordinary. I think that endure, that remote little place in the south of France and the smell of Basil, I think it affected you deeply, and I think that you try to recreate that, and you have recreated that, and you're you're very fortunate, but you've not gone through all the things you've gone through. So my hat's off to you, and uh, thank you so much for spending time with me on
Four Courses. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Jeffrey for having me, and thank you thanks very much for listening to Four Courses with Jeffrey Zcrian, A production of I Heart Radio and Corner Table Entertainment. Four Courses is created by Jeffrey Zcarrion, Margaret Zecarrion, Jared Keller, and Tara Helper. Our executive producer is Christopher Hasiotis. Four Courses is produced by Jonathan Habs Dressler. Our research is conducted by Jesselyn Shields.
Our talent booking is by Pamela Bauer at Dogtown Talent. This episode was edited and written by Priya Maha Davon and mixed by Joe Tistle. Special thanks to Katie Fellman for help as recording engineer. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.