On the Line: The Stations, the Heat, the Cooks, the Costs, the Chaos, and the Triumphs: Inside the World of Le Bernardin

by Eric Ripert & Christine Muhlke
Artisan, 240 pp., $35

You can watch Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen till your eyes are crossed, but TV cooking shows don’t really give you an accurate and complete view of how a restaurant kitchen really operates, and they reveal nothing of how the business end of the restaurant is run. On the Line does both, with amazing revelation and focus. Eric Ripert is chef and partner of Le Bernardin, a Michelin three-star seafood eatery in New York City.

The book opens with a history of Ripert’s career and Le Bernardin and quickly provides the reader with the ultimate backstage pass into the inner workings of every stage of the restaurant kitchen and dining room. Each station is described in detail – illustrating the tools and equipment involved, the product dealt with, the personnel and their duties – all reinforcing how each stage contributes to a total team experience.

Especially fascinating are the details of how a dish is conceived and perfected before it gets served and a comprehensive look into the tightly synchronized mayhem of a night on the line. Ripert also explains the dining room and the lengths gone to in providing a polished dining experience. He also addresses the business side of the trade, a subject seldom covered in print beyond professional culinary manuals. The book finishes with 50 recipes, which are clearly written and well-organized but not intended for the amateur.

For anyone who aspires to be associated with the restaurant business in any way, this is required reading. For anyone who loves cooking or eating out, it provides riveting insight and a most enjoyable read.

This article appears in December 4 • 2009.

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Mick Vann is a retired Austin chef who is a food writer and restaurant critic, cookbook author, restaurant consultant, and recipe developer. He moonlights as a University of Texas horticulturist with a propensity for ethnic eats and international food, particularly of the Asian persuasion, but he also knows his way around a plate of soul food or barbecue.