Good vs Evil: Anthony Bourdain & Eric Ripert

When celebrity chef Eric Ripert first heard of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, the year was 2000. Ripert’s Manhattan restaurant Le Bernardin was still a hard table to land several years after a glowing four-star review in the New York Times.

“But everybody was talking about ‘Kitchen Confidential’ (Bourdain’s breakout book that was a gastronomic expose),” he remembers. “It was a sensation in the industry. Who was this guy? A lot of chefs were not happy about what he was writing.”

“Someone told me, ‘You know, you’re all over his book.’ I was like, ‘What? Oh my god, I’ve got to read this.’”

After discovering “he was very complimentary and respectful about Le Bernardin,” Ripert invited Bourdain to lunch at his restaurant and they’ve been fast friends ever since.

When the culinary odd couple drops by the Wells Fargo Center Friday Feb 10th, make sure you eat before you go. Flames will never touch a pan; foie gras will never sizzle. Instead, they’ll pull up a few chairs and chat — about sustainability, food poisoning, best meals and maybe even Guy Fieri.

So whose idea was it to launch what is being dubbed the “Good vs. Evil” tour?

“Guess who,” says Ripert.

Mr. Evil (Bourdain)?

“You got it.”

Last year, they took the show on the road to eight cities. This year, they’ve already signed on for 12 stops. Wherever they land, the night usually opens with the two of them roasting each other on stage.

Or, as Ripert puts it, “The beginning is like pure comedy.”

“What he likes to do is find the most crappy chair in the theater. He goes and searches for it. Then he puts it on stage and when the show starts, he makes me sit in it and he starts to roast me.”

Side by side, the differences are glaring. The fast-talking Bourdain is a beer guy. Ripert, more meditative and soft-spoken, prefers a nice Bourdeaux.

Bourdain trots around the globe in search of Carribean oppossum stew and rare wild-boar anus, which he once noshed on with an African tribe on his Travel Channel show, “No Reservations.”

Ripert, who first learned to cook from his grandmother while growing up in Andorra (the tiny mountain country wedged between France and Spain), is more of a creature of habit.

He rises every day by 7:30 a.m. His wife usually makes coffee and breakfast (he returns the favor on the weekends). After a 45-minute walk through Central Park, he arrives “no later than 11” at Le Bernardin, where he will stay until 10 or 11 p.m.

“It’s the same nearly every day of the year,” he says proudly.

In a nutshell: Bourdain is in-your-face, whereas Ripert would rather mull it over first.

“Sometime I am concerned for him,” Ripert says in the thick French accent that charms fans of TV shows like “Top Chef” and “Treme.” “I believe in karma. Basically what goes around comes around. Sometimes with him, I’m like — oof! When it comes back around, watch out.”

But their differences may be summed up best (in 140 characters or less) in Twitter reactions to butter-loving Paula Deen’s recent revelatory endorsement of a diabetes-fighting drug, nearly three years after she was first diagnosed with the disease.

Bourdain fired first: “Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later.”

Ripert responded this way: “Paula Dean (sic) scandal=opportunity for TV FOOD NETWORK to stop bombarding us with a majority of ridiculous shows promoting bad & unhealthy cooking.”

“I’m trying always to find a middle way and be less black-and-white,” Ripert says. “I’m definitely more diplomatic about my views. I don’t insult people. Sometimes he’s very opinionated and uses very strong language.”

Or maybe, to really tell them apart, all you have to do is ask their opinions on Santa Rosa Food Network celeb Guy Fieri — a name that comes up “very often” in the show.

Bourdain once told an interviewer, “I look at Guy Fieri and I just think, ‘Jesus, I’m glad that’s not me.’”

Ever the diplomat, Ripert doesn’t put it quite the same way.

“Actually, I like Guy Fieri,” he said. “I saw him doing a show once in Miami and I was very impressed. Obviously it’s an act. He’s not like that when he wakes up in the morning. But I think he is great at what he does.”

When he learns that Fieri lives in Santa Rosa, he lights up. “Oh really? I did not know. Maybe Anthony will not dish on him at all this time.”
How much do you want to bet?

“I’m not betting on that. No way!”

Bay Area freelancer John Beck writes about entertainment for The Press Democrat. You can reach him at 280-8014, john@sideshowvideo.com and follow on Twitter @becksay.