LeBernardin

Le Bernardin Launches Wine Club

Filed under: Dining, Wine

Eric Ripert, the chef/owner of the New York restaurant Le Bernardin, along with his wine director Aldo Sohm, has introduced the Avec Eric Perfect Pairings wine club.

Ripert is the host of a new show for PBS, Avec Eric, in which he explores his own vision of why we cook and where he finds his inspiration. Sohm, who oversees Le Bernardin's wine collection of over 15,000 bottles, recently received the 2009 James Beard Award for "Outstanding Wine Service" and was named "Best Sommelier in the World" in 2008 by the Worldwide Sommelier Association. Sohm is the first representative from America to win this title. Le Bernardin holds three stars from the Michelin Guide ,and has maintained its four-star rating from The New York Times for over 20 years.

In an interesting twist, the wines were picked with specific recipes from the chef in mind. Each month, Ripert and Sohm choose two bottles of wine for their members with the intention of pairing them with recipes inspired by his new series. The members will receive the recipes, as well as the wines, in addition to detailed tasting notes written by Sohm. Members also gain access to monthly online videos of the duo explaining each pairing. The wines are a mixed selection of reds, whites and sparkling chosen to complement the proposed dishes.

Ripert feels strongly that great food does not need to be complicated or intimidating for the home chef. Each show starts out with a trip to a vineyard, farm or four-star kitchen but finishes with the chef in his home kitchen demonstrating recipes for the home cook and enjoying the perfect glass of wine to accompany his meal. A Votre Sante!

Tags: Eric Ripert, EricRipert, fine dining, FineDining, food-awards, le bernardin, LeBernardin, Michelin Guides, MichelinGuides, pbs, wine

Chef Eric Ripert Projects $100,000 Donation to 'City Harvest', Charity of the Day

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity of the Day

Known as the first food rescue organization in the world, City Harvest pledges to bring fresh produce and other local foods to the hungry of NYC. Over the past twenty-five years they have been instrumental in providing high quality food to needy individuals expecting to rescue and deliver twenty-three millions pounds of excess food in 2009 which is a million pounds more than last year. Many city restaurants, corporate cafeterias and food vendors are already committed to the cause by donating unwanted and surplus food items to City Harvest but on Tuesday a particularly esteemed venue made a significant pledge.

Gallery: Le Bernardin Supports City Harvest

Chef Eric Ripert (Le Bernardin), Driver Dave Marshall, and Jilly Stephens (Executive Director of City Harvest)

Jilly Stephens, Executive Director of City Harvest, and Chef Eric Ripert, Le Bernardin

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Tags: chef eric ripert, chef ripert, ChefEricRipert, ChefRipert, city harvest, CityHarvest, eric ripert, EricRipert, food rescue, FoodRescue, jilly stephens, JillyStephens, le bernardin, LeBernardin, on the line, on the line book, on the line cookbook, OnTheLine, OnTheLineBook, OnTheLineCookbook, the salons, TheSalons

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The 10 Hardest to Get Restaurant Reservations

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

This is the time of year where special occasions and rare visits from family and friends are plentiful, and although home cooking is a big part of the season so is eating out -- because when people are in from out of town you hardly want to take them down to the local "all-you-can-eat for $4.99" buffet to celebrate their visit. But if you don't want to get stuck choosing between either the buffet or McDonald's then you might want to plan ahead, because as we all know everybody else in town is going to have the same idea!

If you have plans to hit the local fine dining hot spot this holiday season you better check to see if it's on this Forbes list of the top ten toughest to score restaurant reservations:

Gallery: Ten of the Toughest Restaurant Reservations