Nightline Platelist: Eric Ripert

Feb. 14, 2008— -- When he isn't dancing to techno music or making medicinal teas, chef Eric Ripert is busy overseeing the restaurant Zagat rates as having the "best food" in New York City for the past four consecutive years: Le Bernardin.

"I had passion for food and cooking since a very early age. I was about 4 or 5 and I was already extremely passionate -- first eating, and then cooking," Ripert said. "But at 15 is when the teachers called my parents and said, 'Your kid is really bad in school. We have to find a solution. '"

The world-famous chef grew up in Andorra, a small country in the eastern Pyrenees on the border between France and Spain.

"An inspiration for me comes from my life experience," Ripert said. "It comes from the time when I was a kid and obviously I created certain tastes because of my education and near the Mediterranean border I have a lot of passion for olive oils and spice and herbs and garlic and onions."

In his hometown people cook on smooth split layers of slate rock mined from the mountains, a method he recommends in the U.S. as well.

"It doesn't stick and it gives an amazing flavor," Ripert said. "In Andorra we cook a lot of rabbit on it. "

"Nightline" followed Ripert into the kitchen where he explained how to make lamb chops on slate. CLICK HERE to see the recipe.

Ripert left Andorra at 15 to attend culinary school in Perpignan, and just two years later moved to Paris where he eventually began working at the well-regarded restaurant Jamin, where famous french chef Joel Robuchon made his mark.

His rapid ascension in the restaurant business continued after he left Europe for the United States in 1989, and spent time working with Jean-Louis Palladin at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Soon after moving to New York he was recruited as executive chef for Le Bernardin. By the time he was 29 he had been working in the food industry for 14 years, and he earned the first of many four-star ratings from the New York Times.