The topic at the World’s 50 Best Talks is kitchen karma. Is there anything you regret doing in the past?
Yes, of course. I regret being irrational to my team, and that’s something that I cannot change because those years are gone. Back then, I terrorised them, threw tantrums and threw plates when the food wasn’t done right. I was basically acting the same way my mentors did when I was younger. It was the culture back then — you break people mentally so they learn how to become champions. School teachers in France pulled our hair and kicked us in the butt. Maybe how it was in restaurants was just an extension of real life. But then, good people starting leaving [my kitchen] and I asked myself why I was feeling so lousy? It’s not right; you’re not supposed to humiliate people. Anger is a weakness. But that was a long time ago — I’m happy that I woke up and I changed.
Was it tough trying to be nice in the kitchen after being a, well, mean chef?
It was hard at first, ’cos I trained my sous chefs to be as mean as I was. Like how my mentors treated me. So everyday, I meditate. I have a Tibetan monk who comes to my house weekly to teach [me]. I take what I learn and transfer it through a secular message to my kitchen team. They seem to be taking it well.
You’re a devout Buddhist, the religion is about not being attached to things. How do you reconcile that with being involved in competitive, stressful restaurant rankings?
Ah, I do not think about that at all, and I’m teaching my team not to be focused on it too. I will give you a quick analogy: it’s like if you are an actor, and you keep thinking about winning an Oscar while on the set filming a movie. But you cannot win the Oscar because you are [too busy obsessing over winning and] not focusing on acting. So in the kitchen, when you go to work and if you’re thinking about the 50 Best Restaurant list or Michelin star all the time, then you’re not thinking about what you are supposed to do. And therefore you will not be giving your best.
Your restaurant Le Bernardin has won three Michelin stars for 14 consecutive years. It was #26 on last year’s World’s Best Restaurants list. Do you fear losing all of these accolades one day?
I’m not afraid of anything. Everything is about balance — Buddhism teaches that, and one day my restaurant will change. And when I’m old, maybe I’ll retire, maybe not. I don’t know. But I’m not afraid of the future — it’s natural evolution.