There is a “Blank Space” in this world-famous dining room.
Although countless celebrities have wined and dined at Le Bernardin, there’s one A-lister who hasn’t sampled the French seafood the three Michelin-starred restaurant is known for — Taylor Swift.
“No, she never came,” Chef Eric Ripert told The Post.
“Maybe if she reads the article, she will be inspired to come here.”
The famed restaurateur revealed the notable names that have graced the star-studded reservation book at the Midtown mainstay on West 51st Street — and the star of “An Officer and a Gentleman” was the first to come to mind.
“Richard Gere likes to eat a lot at Le Bernardin and when he’s in town, always visiting us and it’s always a pleasure to feed him and speak to him a little bit,” Ripert, 61, said.
Ripert, who started at Le Bernardin in 1991 as chef de cuisine and is now its executive chef and co-owner, has also cooked for Jay-Z and Beyoncé as well as John Legend — and another superstar singer.
“Mick Jagger comes to Le Bernardin when he is in town and he’s friends with my business partner, so he’s always at ease and happy,” he added.
The celebrity chef said he doesn’t whip up anything special for VIPs, and in his 46-year career, he’s never been nervous about cooking for famous faces.
“They choose from the menu, or they ask me to choose for them whatever I want, which is generally from the menu,” said Ripert, whose ninth book, “Mindful Cooking,” will be released on Oct. 6.
“To me, every client is the same … we cannot have different standards.”
Paparazzi routinely stake out the renowned restaurant — and sometimes the guests call the shutterbugs themselves.
“Once it was a very powerful politician, I cannot say the name, but then suddenly we see like 20 paparazzi outside … and I said, … ‘If you want, we can get you out through other ways,’ and he said, ‘No, don’t worry, it’s me, we called them.’”
Ripert said the A-list eater who made the biggest impression on him was the Dalai Lama, for whom he cooked twice.
On the Dalai Lama’s first visit, Ripert prepared wild salmon, and on the second, filet mignon — but it was dessert that made an impression on the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader.
“He never really showed much emotion, except when he had the chocolate mousse,” he said.
The French native, who studies Tibetan Buddhism himself, said his new cookbook was inspired by his travels to Buddhist monasteries in Asia. There, monks follow a plant-based diet so as not to harm animals, and go without vegetables such as garlic and onions for spiritual reasons.
“Onions supposedly make you sleepy when you are in meditation and also give you bad dreams … Garlic makes your blood circulate a bit faster. And warming the blood is not helpful for meditation and also, as you can imagine, a thousand monks with garlic breath is a bit of a problem sometimes,” he said.
“They consider food as medicine … They believe everything that we put in our body will have a positive or negative effect depending on what it is.”
Ripert said Le Bernardin’s bestselling menu item is the carpaccio of tuna on a toasted baguette with foie gras.
It sold so well that he once took it off the menu so that customers could try other dishes.
“And for the first time in my career I saw really angry clients … They were very vocal in the restaurant and they were calling me to their table … explaining that it was a huge mistake and they were very unhappy,” he said.
“I kind of, through an analogy, understood. It’s like you go to a Rolling Stones concert and then they’re like, ‘No, we’re not going to play ‘No Satisfaction.’ No, it’s not happening today.’ You can’t do that.”
The post Famed chef Eric Ripert dishes on celebs who dined at famed Le Bernardin —and reveals the A-lister he most wants at his table appeared first on New York Post.
