The Geshe and the Chef: A Conversation Between Renowned Chef Eric Ripert and His Teacher Geshe Tashi Dorje

If anyone in our insanely fast-paced and hyper-connected age needs to stay calm, present, and on-point in the midst of the storm, it’s Eric Ripert, the executive chef of one of the world’s most renowned three star Michelin restaurants. Enter an unlikely cook in the kitchen, the saffron and burgundy robed Tibetan Buddhist monk and scholar, Geshe Tashi Dorje. A star in his own right, Geshe Dorje stands out as one of the brightest in the new field of English speaking masters impeccably trained at the great Tibetan universities transplanted into South India in the 1960’s. The pair met five years ago in New York City, and since then the Geshe has introduced the chef to the essential nectar of the Nalanda tradition, especially its key ingredients—the wisdom of interdependence and the art of universal compassion. Come take part in this uplifting afternoon conversation, and get a taste for how the Geshe and the chef are working together to adapt this timeless recipe to the growing hunger we all feel for universal peace and global community in our interdependent age.

Date: May 19th from 4–6pm

This event will be live-streamed on Facebook. Follow this link.

Co-sponsored with Tibet House and Reimagining Doeguling Tibetan Settlement (RDTS).

Geshe Tashi Dorje was born on March 28, 1974 on the border of Tibet in a remote Nepalese village. At 15, shortly after his father passed away, Geshe Tashi chose to become a monk at Sera Mey Monastic University in South India. He received the Getsul ordination blessing from His Eminence Kachen Lobsang Soepa, former abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, and the Gelong Ordination Blessing from His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama in 1993. After ten years of intensive study, he was awarded the Rigchung degree in 2003. Just two years later, Geshe Tashi was appointed “Chant Master” at Sera Mey, making him the third highest ranking official at the monastery, a position he held for 9 years. In 2012, after completing his graduate study of the Five Major Texts Core Nalanda Curriculum, he was honored with the exceptional Geshe degree (his Ph.D. in Buddhism) by His Holiness. Toward the end of 2012, Geshe Tashi was invited to visit the United States for the first time by a group of his Western students, and after several repeat visits, decided to stay. Geshe Tashi is the Founder and Director of the Center for Universal Peace in New York City.

Eric Ripert is the chef and co-owner of the acclaimed New York restaurant Le Bernardin. Born in Antibes, France, Ripert moved to Andorra, a small country just over the Spanish border as a young child. His family instilled their own passion for food in the young Ripert, and at the age of 15 he left home to attend culinary school in Perpignan. At 17, he moved to Paris and cooked at the legendary La Tour D’Argent before taking a position at the Michelin three-starred Jamin. In 1989, Ripert seized the opportunity to work under Jean-Louis Palladin as sous-chef at Jean Louis at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Ripert moved to New York in 1991, working briefly as David Bouley’s sous-chef before Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze recruited him as chef for Le Bernardin. Ripert has since firmly established himself as one of New York’s—and the world’s—great chefs.

Ripert also serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of City Harvest, working to bring together New York’s top chefs and restauranteurs to increase the quality and quantity of food donations to the city’s neediest.