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tv   Charlie Rose  PBS  June 11, 2016 12:00am-1:01am PDT

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>> rose: >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by the following: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: for nearly five decades, brian de palma has been lighting up movie screens with his elaborately-stained genre films, hailed as a modern master of horror, suspense and
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cinematic voyeurism. including "scarface" and "the untouchables." here is the trailer for de palma. >> you've got to realize you're being criticized against the fashion of the day, and when the fashion changes, everybody forgets about that. being a director is being a watcher. you have a lot of egos in the room and you have to sort of watch how they interact with each other. there was marty and i, then george and francis and stephen. what we did in our generation will never be duplicated. you're battling a very difficult system, and all the values of that system are the opposite of what goes into making original good movies. the problem of working in the hollywood system is you can lose your way. my movies tend to upset people a
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lot, so you can imagine what things they're trying to take out of my movies. i did grow up in an operating room. i saw a lot of blood. i had been battling with the ratings board, and i kept on getting xs, and i said, absolutely i'm not changing it anymore. and what i did that really drove them all crazy is that i put everything back in. (laughter) when you do some of these things, they make perfect logical sense to you. then you put them in front of an audience and they go, holy cow! >> rose: joining me is brian de palma and the directors of the documentary and long-time
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de palma fans, noah baumbach and jake paltrow. i'm pleased to have them all at this table. you see all that. you're at this documentary front and center, but your films are front and center, too, and we saw a sampling of that. you said being a director is like being a watcher. what did you mean? >> well, you watch behind the camera, you watch what your actors are doing. one to have the essential shots in a movie is the point of view shot, which is we're seeing what the actors are seeing and the audience is seeing, exactly the same information. that's unique to cinema and it's a building block i use quite a lot. >> rose: how did you learn this? >> i guess hitchcock. he used a lot of the point of view shots. you know, the simple one is, like, walking up to the bates mansion and you see her close
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up, she goes up the step. you see the mansion getting closer. she goes up a few more steps on her and then on to the mansion. so we're seeing what she's thinking and saying, oh, my god, i don't want to go into that house! (laughter) >> rose: what do de palma films share? >> if you're watching television, flipping channels and come across a brian movie and don't know it's him, if you know his movies, you could guess it's him, just from the way the camera moves. you can talk about all the techniques specifically, point of view shot, all those things, but there is something that, u know, brian's personality is so strong, you know, and his visual sense is so personal that, you know, it's undeniable when you see it. i mean, he loves long following shots, he does long tracking shots. he does lots of things in one. he does split screen, there are
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all these techniques, but beyond all that, brian's personality is in the way the movies look and feel. >> rose: how did this come about? >> it really comes out of our times with brian. we would have these long, long dinners. there are weeks we would have three dinners a week with brian. one night noah and i would walk home and realized if he would speak on camera the way he speaks to us at dinner, it would be quite a compelling thing. >> rose: when you approached him, did he say, what a great idea, i can't wait? >> we were worried about it. brian doesn't mince words. if he was going to shut it down, he would do it fast, we wouldn't be able to revisit it. he was on board and a week later we shot it, and we did it for a week. >> rose: one week? one full week. >> rose: what is it about him that made you guys want to do this? >> brian is an elemental force
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in filmmaking and for me and noah, too, he is one of the few lenses we see movies through, the medium. he is the first strong director's vision i was aware of. in a lot of ways i associate movies through the way brian sees them, and that's something you can't shake. it's like a sense memory or something. so to have access to that person and actually be friends with them -- >> rose: how long has the friendship been? >> over ten years and you've known him 20. >> rose: you mentioned hitchcock. it was vertigo that made it for you. >> 1958. it's the director's wet dream, basically. (laughter) >> rose: oh, pray tell more. you're creating an image, a woman you make the audience fall in love with through jimmy stewart following her around and
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then you kill her and then you re-create her. in our movies, we create these characters that we want you, the audience to watch. many times, they are beautiful women. >> rose: what does he do and what is it that you most admire about what he does? i mean, what are the ingredients of that? >> you know, i was very interested in b movies and horror movies and special effects as a kid and brian, in a way, brought me into real movies through the way he makes them. the elements of genre. he's bringing this very personal point of view into these genre pictures and that's unusual. there isn't a lot of people that have done that before and there aren't a lot that are doing it now. so to make personal films inside genre is elemental. >> what he does is purely of cinema, there's no -- i mean, brian -- the hit i get off brian's movies is something i get -- i mean, i love movies,
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and i feel like, to love movies you look at a brian movie and how can you not love this. >> rose: it's so symphonic. yeah, and you feel his enthusiasm and investment in doing something purely cinematic. he talks in the movie about his visual approach is -- you know, he has a visual idea and he constructs entire movies sometimes out of this one idea. >> rose: i'm interested, too, in what makes a great movie. they're like the untouchables or "scarface" or others. >> you take a movie like "carrie," it's a great writer, his first novel, then you have all these great actors nobody's ever seen before except for piper laurie. because george lo cues and i were casting all the young actors in hollywood at the same time, we saw everybody, and because in my case i couldn't get my movie financed, i was waiting around for months, i had
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a tremendous amount of time to lay out the whole sequence of the movie, and we had a lot of time to work with these actors nobody had ever seen before. >> rose: take a look at this, a scene from "carrie." (shouting to open the door) (sinister music) (screaming)
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>> rose: did you once say, i don't watch scary films? >> right. >> rose: what was i this? i would rather be the puppet master than the puppet. you know, i like to construct sequences. >> rose: you don't like scary films? >> you know when things are come bug you don't like to be scared out of your seat. i don't like rollercoasters. do you? >> rose: yes! i love them! >> not me. i don't like being caught offguard. but can i set somebody up? >> rose: my instinct about you would be that, you know, you would exactly want to be caught offguard, you would exactly want to create something that you don't quite understand. >> no, i want to lay it out and
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get the rabbit in the hat and pull it out at the right moment, you know. i don't like movies where i don't know where the scares are coming. you know, the big key to most scary moments is you just have to do this -- because they usually boo you with the sound track. so if you go like this, you won't be scared because it's always suddenly somebody's banging. you know, they're getting very question et, and -- very quiet and there's a bump and you jump no matter what's going on screen. so if you go like this, you won't be scared. >> rose: what are the scariest scenes you've made? >> the prom queen, where you set it up and everybody is here and the madness begins. in "the untouchables," we've established where everybody is before the shootout begins.
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>> rose: what's your favorite film? >> well, it changes. it changed, i think -- >> rose: doing this? -- doing this, too. i mean, you know, i love "carrie," i love "blowout." >> rose: "scarface." yeah, "scarface." car lito's way, which brian in the movie talks about and talks about how it sort of underperformed at the box office and then when he watched it at
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the berlin film festival -- and it's kind of an emotional moment in the movie, he looked at it and he thinks, you know, i can't make a better movie than this. and that is my experience looking at that movie. i think it's like a filmmaker harnessing everything in his power and doing it, you know, really at its best. it's a kind of remarkable movie. >> rose: what you want to accomplish here jake is to see the world that brian sees through his eyes? >> that's one aspect of it, but i think the bigger thing is sort of sharing our friendship. you know, it's a very unique view into somebody like brian. brian doesn't talk a lot, you know, with the press, and hasn't told a lot about the way he works. >> rose: so that's why you haven't been here often. >> absolutely. he offers, i refuse. (laughter) >> in a lot of ways, the film started almost with us, a way of archiving the special
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relationship and the things he told us, and i think, once you start filming brian, he knows what his job, is and like a great actor, he knows how to make it funny, make it fast, keep the pace up. then you realize this is the stuff movies are made of. >> rose: what's it like directing the director? >> the directing is sort of the editing in a way. the shooting of it is just like the conversations we would have with him at dinner or coffee, and then your intuitive senses take over when you're selecting the footage and it becomes this thing when we're sitting there together and talking about things we like and we try to cast a spell like you would in a regular movie. so you want it to be a certain length, have a certain pace, and it has to keep going without ever breaking the spell, as best you can. so all the same sorts of rules seem to apply. >> rose: what's interesting going back to what you already said, it is in a sense, this is like you were documenting something for your own pleasure and decided it has a wider purpose. >> yeah. well, i think the feeling was
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from our just our casual conversations at dinner and, you know, directors get together, they talk about movies, and we sort of talked in a certain way that was specifically because we were all -- it's shared experience, having all made movies, it was sort of specific in that way, and we felt that, well, this is also happens to be brian de palma, whose movies we've grown up with and love, so let's see if that translates in front of a camera. >> rose: the conceit of this film or the joy of this film, whichever you choose, is it's just you. it's not your cinematographer, it is not your screen writer. >> and all my friends telling me how great i am. >> rose: yeah. you did the first film with dinero. >> out of graduate school. >> rose: the weeding party.
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did you see greatness? >> i have a long history with bob. he's very shy. but he has a kind of rapport with me because i'd known him when he was a kid, basically. so we're very matter of fact with each other. the interesting thing i discovered o "the untouchables," as i was shooting the film and looking at it through the monitor or the camera, i mean, i thought he wasn't doing enough, and i kept on thinking, bob, don't you have to do a little more here? you're so laid back, it's so underplayed. he said, believe me, just trust me. and what i discovered is that he was doing things so subtly, they would only be revealed on a big screen. that was a lesson i learned. no, just the fact that you needed a screen to see what he
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was doing. you can't see it from here to here. but when you put it on a 50-foot screen -- ah! now i see what he's doing. and it's very subtle. you know, very subtle. >> rose: can you give me an example of that that comes to mind? >> i'm just trying to think which scene it was. it was probably that crane shot where i'm coming down close to him and he's in the barber's chair and getting shaved, you know, and the crane is really high up and you see the whole top of the set and you come all the way down into this big closeup. and, of course, the shots are far away from him and then gets very close. and god knows how many takes i did, it was all one shot. i kept on saying, well, can't you do a little more? but the fact was, on the big screen, you could see all the things he was doing that you
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couldn't see on -- through the camera or through the monitor. >> rose: let's talk about things you like. you like split screens. >> in some places, but the one you just showed here is not a very effective split screen. split screen is not good for action. >> rose: what's it good for? parallel action? >> good point. >> rose: thank you, sir. intercutting or parallel action. it worked great in "sisters" because jennifer is talking to the cops and trying to get back to where the murderer is committed. meanwhile, bill finley and margo are cleaning up the room, getting the blood away and putting the dead person into the couch. so they're both going on simultaneously, and it starts with lyle writing, you know, on the window as seen from jennifer's point of view, and then it follows jennifer all the way around till she comes all the way into the apartment, then
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follows the guy dying and bill finley coming in and basically putting the body in the couch. >> rose: dream sequences. i like dream sequences because i do a lot of dreaming and try to make sense of them. >> rose: really? yeah. >> rose: do you hire people to interpret your dreams? >> no, but i get a lot of ideas from my dreams. >> rose: do you really? yeah. i don't know if this works with any of you guys, but if you're dealing with a problem and you go to sleep, somehow you work it out in your dream and you wake up and go, ah-ha! that's it! >> rose: does that happen to you? >> yeah, versions of it. i don't put it in my movies. >> yeah, plus it's very stylized and you can do really crazy things. >> rose: what is your favorite story he tells from the movie? >> that's a good one. (laughter) i don't know, there are many good ones, and i think there are a lot of things he says about
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directing that kind of crystallized things that all filmmakers go through and brian tells it in a personal and specific way, and it does kind of go right to the heart of the job. one of them there's a story about getting "carrie" financed and, you know, this is also coming after he'd been fired from "get to know your rabbit" because he stuck to his principles and -- i know i'm telling this in front of you -- but he basically goes back -- you know, he has an opportunity to sort of walk away again, and he decides to compromise. >> to lie. well, to lie. (laughter) >> in the way you tell the story, we think you're compromising, and what we really find out is he's finding a way around it, and it's very much about -- i think that story, while it's hilarious the way he tells us in the movie, but it's
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very much about what directors have to go through to do these things. >> rose: so if you're talking to a bunch of directors, and you say to them, look, there are a lot of things i'm going to tell you about how i see the making of movies, but if there is one thing that i want you to know about making movies, it is this -- what would that be? >> rely on your instincts. don't be talked out of things. because one of the important things you have to know is there are people who are paid a lot of money to convince you to do things you don't want to do. studios are filled with them. because you are spending a lot of money, and they don't know what's going on in your head. >> rose: do you think in the end, you know what makes him tick? >> no. >> rose: i don't think, so either. (laughter) >> the one thing that's misunderstood about brian is he
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talks about the hitchcock technique being a language, you know, and i think, you know, detractors would say it's derivative or something like that, and i think he's speaking in a cinematic language and carrying that on. some people have worked in a hitchcock-style way but nobody has worked in the consistently visual storytelling approach first. >> rose: the film "de palma" is in theaters june 10. brian de palma, noah baumbach and jake paltrow. back in a moment. stay with us. >> rose: eric ripert is here, chef and co-owner of the new york restaurant le bernardin, it holds three stars from the michelin guide and maintained a four-tar rating from the "new york times" for more than two decades. his new book is called "32 yokes: from my mother's table
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to working the line." it tells the story of his early life in the south of france and the discovery of his talent and passion for food. here's what some of eric's friends and fellow chefs had to say about him on cbs this morning. >> unlike most chefs, everybody seems to agree he's a great chef. >> he understands that the quality of the product is everything. he's not afraid to let it be naked. >> stars year after year after year. >> it's consistency over 30 years. >> four "new york times" stars. excellence over 30 years. what he does with food on the plate and with the entire ideology of one of the greatest restaurants in the world is respect of simplicity. >> he gave me a view of what excellence and commitment can look like. >> unlike every chef i know and me for sure, i've never seen him wish ill on another human being. >> he's a regular, normal guy operating at peak capacity. >> do you see how handsome h he
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is? >> i like eric because i'm attracted to tall, silver-haired men. >> so handsome! he's like oliver twist if he were french and middle class with perfect hair. >> rose: eric ripert is a friend of mine. pleased to have him at this table and i always look forward to being at his table. welcome. >> thank you so much. pleasure to be here. >> rose: tell me about the title, 32 yokes: from my mother's table to working the line ." 32 yokes. >> 32 yokes. it's a challenge for me. i just graduated and i think i am a good cook because i graduated with honors from culinary school and the chef is frustrated with me because i already cut my finger or i don't find the ingredients and he asked me to make a hollandaise sauce with 32 yokes, which is one pound and a quarter
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en masse. i'm built like a string bean. i'm trying to whip the 32 yokes to the consistency of a cloud. instead of making the beautiful eggs, i make pitiful scrambled eggs and it would take me weeks to master the 32 yokes. there is a line between believing i am a cook and being a real cook. >> rose: why did it take you so long to master that? >> you have to learn how to play with the fire. the temperature of the yokes has to be warm, not too much, you have to put a tiny bit of water to emulsify. you have to whisk for 30 minutes. it's no joke. when the arm is tired, you have to go to the left arm and do it again. you have to have form to touch all the sides of the pan. it takes a long time. a couple of weeks later i was
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starting to be good at it. >> rose: this is a book at your beginnings in france to washington, d.c. where you worked with jean paladine. >> yes, at the watergate. >> rose: what year? 1989. >> rose: and here you are writing about your youth. it is forming and shaping and we learn things we didn't know about you. >> yes, from age 4, and book stops at the greatgate when i'm taking the plane to come to america, but in betweeneth all my life -- it's all my life as a young kid. my parents in the 1970s, it was challenging. they divorced. my father died when i was ten. i had a very abusive stepfather. i had to deal with that. >> rose: that's the hardest part, i assume, to talk about.
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>> i am very candid to talk about. obviously, i don't go to a party and start to talk about my abusive stepfather, but i am very candid and tiptd book to be inspirational, i guess, and i really went into the process and i said, you know, i have to talk about those things, and i was very candid. it didn't feel like a therapy, let's put it this way. at one point -- >> rose: it didn't feel like therapy? what did it feel like? >> it felt like i was documenting what happened to me, and it will inspire maybe some coples who are on the verge of divorcing with children. sometimes divorce is good, but sometimes it can be a catastrophe. in my case, it was a catastrophe. i wanted to inspire young people who are coming into the workforce after graduation from not necessarily the culinary school, but they think a lot and
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think they will be very productive. when you get out of school, we all know you're a beginner, and i want to be inspiring for all those people, and i went through that process. i was in a boarding school at 8 years old. a priest tried to abuse me. that is also something i wanted to put in the book because not too many people talk about it, but it's really something powerful when you're a young kid. you believe you're making a friend, and it's very -- you make a friend and you realize you were naive and you're in a very difficult position. so i wanted to talk about all those things in this book. >> rose: there was a difference between the stepfather and the priest. >> the step faster was abusive verbally and physically. >> rose: right. he was a bully. it was war at home. but we will find peace at the table when it was lunch and dinner, my mother would create
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an experience. an appetizer, main course dessert, cheese in between and a different tablecloth, different china pattern, flowers, it was something very unique. >> rose: what did that tell you about food? >> first of all, food is delicious. >> rose: yes. and being at the table with your parents and with friends and having food on the table, it's very conducive to discussion, to -- it brings peace, basically. it creates, you know, relationship. >> rose: you and your mother literally communicated through food. >> yes, because she was working hard, she was challenged. she was a young mother. she was challenged with me. office very difficult child. -- i was a very difficult child. i wouldn't let her show her emotions too much because my parents were divorced, i blamed
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her a little bit for not having my father next to me, and for her to put the food and the love in the food and bring it to me was an act of showing love to her son, and i would understand that even at a very young age, i would understand that she was doing that. >> rose: when you look back, having reviewed all that and having read what you have written, do you say to yourself, my god, how did i survive? >> it's funny you say that because at one point i read the book entirely to make sure the edits were right, and everything came out at me like that in one shot and i'm, like, oh, my god, this is intense! i never realized it was so difficult at a young age and in my teenage years. this is really, really tough. >> rose: so your mother took you to a restaurant, jacques. >> yes. it was in a small country in spain, 50,000 people, and jacques was the celebrity chef
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of the country, famous for his good food, famous for being eccentric and for his temp and, therefore, people would go and say, mr. so and so, can i have a table, and he will say, who sent you? you say, the minister of the economy. get out of my restaurant! then friends would come and he would welcome them and treat them like kings. the table had only 20 seats and jacques allowed me not only to eat in his restaurant but to observe him every afternoon after school. >> rose: as he was cooking, you would come after school and watch him prepare? >> yes, i would. and we would talk about food and he was previously a legionnaires and he would explain the stories about vietnam. for me it was about the dance in the kitchen, eating, cooking, the smell, and him feeding me, too, because i loved his
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chocolate mousse and desserts. >> rose: i think you suggested his mousse as being analogous to prust biting into the mother land. >> yes, of course. >> rose: and what did you walk away from that experience with? >> well, he showed me what a professional kitchen was, and i saw the love in myself for the craftsmanship, for the artistry. i knew at a very young age, nine, ten, eleven, that i would become a chef. i didn't want to become a chef in a bistro, not because it's bad, but i wanted to do fine dining because of the experience with my mom and jacques. i wanted to be the chef i am today. >> rose: you wanted to be the best. >> i wanted to be at the top, be the best.
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>> rose: how did you intend to do that? >> well, i had to do to culinary school,. >> rose: yeah. which was kind of boring because we were learning the basics and i was already eating some very refined food, and i wanted to cook that kind of food. but then, after graduation, i wrote 18 letters to the 18 michelin guide restaurants in france in 1982. >> rose: 18 of them? it was only 18 three-star restaurants in france. >> rose: so each one of them got a letter from you. >> from me. nobody answered. >> rose: what was the letter like? >> i guess i wrote something like, hi, i'm eric ripert, i'm 17 years old. i graduated from culinary school. i want to come to your place because you are the best. >> rose: how many responses? one in paris asking me to call. i called on a friday. i talked to them and they said, we need you monday. monday, i got my suitcase and i was in paris working at a
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restaurant. >> rose: and what did that do for you. >> well, it was a very tough experience for me because i was coming out of the school, the youngest in a kitchen, never seen a three-star operating, never been in a big brigade with a lot of cooks, never cooks refined cuisine, very challenged. at the time the kitchens were kind of violent. it was a lot of physical -- >> rose: violent? violent, like you will get kicked in the butt, punched in the shoulder, a lot of insults. >> rose: if the chef didn't like what you'd done? >> yes, it was common practice most of the time in most of the cichens in -- kitchens in france. >> rose: you never doubted cooking was the right thing for you? >> no. >> rose: your early interest with your mother and then your
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step grandmother had influence, too. >> yes. my mother was cooking fine food inspired by the cuisine. and my grandmother was soul food that's the backbone of everything. if not, it's just pretty food. despite the challenges, i never doubted i would become the chef i am today. >> rose: many o joel was a huge influence? >> my main mentor, yes. >> rose: what did he give you? taught me rigor, discipline, the love for the beautiful products and the respect for that. >> rose: beauty, right. and i learned so many techniques with him. finally, at the end, three years later, when i wanted to come to america, he's the one who sent me at the watergate in
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washington. >> rose: you say he instilled fear in you? >> yes, but a he was not a screamer, and he was not physical. he was anti-violence. but he was a kind of very severe, austere professor. >> rose: demanding in his own way. >> super demanding for himself and for the team, and we were very scared of him because we wanted to please him, and his demands were almost irrational. he would ask us to go really, like, overboard in terms of quality, and we would start at 6:00 a.m., end up at 1:00 a.m., spend so many hours in the kitchen, 20 cooks for 40 covers and barely meet his demands. >> rose: do you think thank god he did that because it was a unique and defining experience? >> no doubt. without the rigor and the discipline i learned from him, i would not be where i am today
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because we were young kids, and, you know, we needed the discipline. you know, we were teenagers. >> rose: let me talk about not in this book but in terms of the restaurant that you run today. tell me what it is about le bernardin other than you and the owners, in addition to you, it's history, and the fact that you have brought it forward to the -- the 21st century. >> yes, le bernardin is a new york restaurant. >> rose: institution. well, it's a landmark in a sense, but -- >> rose: anybody who comes to new york and asks what are the top five restaurants, you are at the top of the list. >> thank you, charlie. >> rose: it's true, though. i'm not flattering you. it's true. you may not be first, you may be third, depending on the taste and experience of people, but you are on the list. >> we are part of the best
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restaurants of the city. >> rose: of the world. and, you know, we are inspired by what we find in new york, all the different ethnicities, cultures. i see new ingredients all the time, new techniques. i travel, i talk to chefs from china and asia and other parts of the world. >> rose: does that change what you do at the restaurant? >> you evolve, of course, with the new techniques and the new ingredients. i keep, i think, in my soul i'm a french chef inspired by different cultures, and that becomes in a way some kind of fusion but it's french food, ultimately. >> rose: how is a french chef different from a spanish chef, different from an italian chef? >> it all depends. let's suppose you are a chef in
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britain you are inspired by your surroundings. a cook in u.s., a city like new york, is inspired by the surroundings. my surroundings is the u.n., not the same as brittany. >> rose: and they're inspired by the ocean and the surrounding of the products. >> of course. but it doesn't mean i'm not inspired by things. we see many events. we see books. the world is becoming one, and influences are coming, and we're integrating that into our cuisine. but i think it's very important to keep your soul, to keep the backbone of what you have created which, for me, it's french techniques. >> rose: tell me how it's different from italian other than -- i mean, can you define what's different? can you eat the same meal and say this was by a french chef and this was by an italian chef
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and this was by a spanish chef? >> yes. >> rose: you could. you can because to have the the -- you can because of the balance of the flavors. the italian and the spanish may be similar because it's mediterranean. and the south of france may have similarities. >> rose: do the spanish. or the italians, depending which side. >> rose: yes, exactly. but in those regions, and in italy also is different from milan to the south in sicily. i mean, milan they, use butter, and -- in milan, they use butter, and in the south it's olive oil. but i take the challenge, i could tell you. >> rose: you could. yes, for sure. the palate has been trained for strong, potentially pungent flavors and an italian chef would cook with a lot of punch. someone with paris are more
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restrained in the flavors. >> rose: you and anthony bourdain are great friends, brothers almost. >> yes. >> rose: but seems to me there is within the best chefs in new york a kind of fraternity >> yes, it is. >> rose: or sorority, depending. but it's a fraternity for which there is a respect for each other. >> for sure. >> rose: you look at what each other's doing and go to each other's restaurants. how many times have i seen you in a restaurant not of your own? >> many times. >> rose: absolutely. we are fraternity and friendships. i'm very close to anthony bourdain. ry competitive but in a good way, and i think competition is excellent. >> rose: how do you measure the competition? it is in terms of how many michelin stars you get? is it in terms of you know people come to your restaurant and say it's better? >> it's about the food. you taste something and you're like, wow! how can he do that? i'm going to go back to my kitchen and i'm going to show
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him what i can do as well. >> rose: i'm going to my kitchen to see if i can duplicate that? >> not duplicate. do something different. duplicate, it's not interesting imitating. it would be boring. but you go back to your kitchen to do something very special, and it's inspired potentially by what your friends did. that's good. >> rose: how often does that happen to you? once every six months or -- >> no, very often. >> rose: very often? yes. >> rose: so you eat out on purpose to see what others are doing? >> i eat out for pure pleasure but, at the same time, i am a professional. if someone gives me something exceptional, i'm, like, appreciating so much, and then i want to go back and i'm, like, listen, when you're gonna come to my place, i'm going to show you something that you didn't think about. >> rose: you have said at some point in your career, i want to make sure that one-third of my life was for me, one-third for
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family and one-third for business. have you done that? >> i do that. you cannot calculate that in terms of hours, obviously. but i take time for myself. i really need to have that, and it brings balance in my life. then i dedicate time for the family, and i dedicate time, of course, for the restaurant. some chefs or some people dedicate too much time for their profession and, therefore, they are imbalanced and then sometimes the families don't support them, then they don't have time to think about it. when you have this kind of a system, the family supports you, which helps you to be a better boss, and the company will support you, that helps you to be a better father, and then you're happy in your life. but it's very important to take the time to think, to reflect on your success and on your mistakes. >> rose: you have also suggested that the adrenaline in
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a kitchen is addictive. >> yes, very addictive. where the service comes, which is when we serve people lunch and dinner, the team is ready to go to the battle. and the battle is peaceful, of course, but, you know, it's, like, we want that fast pace, and then when the night ends, we kind of like miss it. of course, we're tired, we need to rest. but the day after, we are looking for it again. we are waiting for that moment where we are going to really have that adrenaline coming up. >> rose: so not like an athlete. you can't simply go right to sleep. if you have finished a tough day or tough evening in the kitchen, meaning demanding, interesting people coming, wanting to combine both the social nicelities of being a famous chef with the great food that you're -- that is responsible, you come home 11:00, 12:00?
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and you can't just go to sleep. >> no, but again, that's time for myself. >> rose: that's self time. read, watch television? >> i read, i watch your show. >> rose: thank you. but you're also a buddhist. does that help? >> i am a buddhist. it doesn't help to go to bed, but -- >> rose: help in terms of peace of mind? >> for sure. you have a different understanding of life. for me, it has been essential, i am a participating buddhist for 20 years. >> rose: how did it happen? you were catholic. >> actually, it happens at the end of the book. i am at the airport and choosing between a magazine and a book about tibet. and finally i will choose about tibet and will be interested in buddhism, and i will find another book with the speech of
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acceptance, of th the nobel prie from the dalai lama that inspired me so much that i bowlgt more books and i went to his teachings. >> rose: he was the primary. he was the primary inspiration. i went to his teachings in new york. i have different teachers. it's part of my lifestyle, part of my spirituality, and i apply what i learn in booed i'm in a very secular way to people around me, and, you know, to the family, of course. >> rose: it gives you peace of gives me peace of mind. it brings tremendous pleasure in me in helping people to find happiness and to fight stress or anything that is contrary to them. >> rose: this is dedicated to adrian, andre, sondra and my
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mother. >> adrian is my son, andre is my father, sondra is my wife and monique is my mother. >> rose: you were how old when your father died? >> i was ten. he was 42 and i was ten. >> rose: heart attack? heart attack hiking in the mountains. >> rose: in the mountains. in the vast country. his last words were, oh, wow, it's so beautiful, i'm going to take a picture, and he collapsed. >> rose: and died when he hit the ground. >> yeah. >> rose: television. eric, it's already been on. >> yes,. >> rose: you're going to do a new season. >> yes, we are available now online for the three seasons. >> rose: doesn't get old, does it? >> no, because i go to the chefs of inspiration. obviously interact with farmers and fishmongers and people at
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the source and i get inspired and cook for my viewers and share the passion. >> rose: if you are going to make the argument that you're getting better if how would you make the argument that you are not simply going and doing what you know how to do remarkably well which earned you four stars in new york and three-star michelin, but that you are getting better, what would be the argument you would make to us? >> talking about professionally? >> rose: or a human being, either way, but i'm thinking as a chef, a human being consumed by food. >> i'm becoming better and better every year because i accumulate some wisdom through mistakes and success, through different experiences, and that becomes, you know, part of me and, therefore, today i am
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better than two years ago. >> rose: when i come, i simply say you choose, you decide what i should eat. >> because you allow me. >> rose: yes, exactly, i do. i do. >> yes. >> rose: and other people know exactly what they want and they are there because they want that. >> yes. >> rose: do you prefer the latter rather than me? >> i like to choose for you. >> rose: i do, too. it's the new discovery and i'm going to make a combination throughout the meal, not just one dish. it's going to be -- the flavors are going to go up and up and up and you're going to end your dinner on a higher note. so i prefer to choose. >> rose: you are different from some in that you have not opened 15 restaurants. why have you chosen not to open more le bernardin in san francisco, le bernardin in london, le bernardin in paris? >> it doesn't make me happy to
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be on planes and trains and go to other places. i enjoy very much the process of being an artisan with my team, and you can do that only if you have one place or two and that's it. and i also love my lifestyle, and i was mentioning before that i love to have time for myself and the family and the restaurant. if i was developing, i would not be able to have the fun that i have during the day with the team and to have the lifestyle. >> rose: and what's your passion beyond food? >> mmm, i have a lot of them. i love reading, skiing, in nature hiking. >> rose: and you love the politics around you, i know. >> very much so. lately, i'm very lucky with that. (laughter) >> rose: there is also this, this takes you through leaving for america. will the next book begin with arriving in america? >> i'm not sure about that. i think the next book that i'm
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gonna do will not be a memoir. i think i'm going to do a book inspired by temple food from korea. >> rose: korea. mm-hmm. >> rose: why korea? because in korea, the temple food is meant to take your body healthy. >> rose: buddhist temples? yes, buddhist temples. healthy body, healthy mind. it helps to have more focus and concentration. in the process, you can put -- i mean, they actually put love and compassion into the food. it's vegan. it's a very different exercise and i'm very, very intrigued and have been to korea for three years now to learn with the nuns. >> rose: but you're not a vegan. >> i'm not a vegan. >> rose: are you a trending vegan, or whatever they say? >> no, i'm not a vegan, but i think to add sometimes vegetarian dishes in your diet is not a bad thing. and if you're a villagetarian,
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there is nothing wrong about that either, of course, but i'm very intrigued by korean temple food. >> rose: i think it's important and i think it's happened in certainly the last five if not the last ten years, the focus on health, to eat well. we at long last have appreciated how what you eat is important to how health request you are. >> yes. >> rose: and to maintaining your health. >> yes. >> rose: at you get older, and that, therefore, to understand what is, in fact, unhealthy and what is healthy, you know, is important for you, for the person eating out or eating at home, but also for the person preparing the food. >> of course. >> rose: so that that option is there, so that consciousness is there that a modern lifestyle, you know, demands being selective. >> yes. >> rose: about how much, what and when you eat. >> yes. well, let's put it this way, let's suppose you have the
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budget and choice. do you want to eat eggs that have potentially growth hoar mondes in them, pesticides? >> rose: mo. do you want milk that has the same thing or a meat that is not organic? again, same thing, has antibiotics in it and so on. >> rose: if i don't want that, go ahead. >> do you want vegetables that are g.m.o., same thing, with pesticides and organic? if you can pay the price. unfortunately, it's more expensive. >> rose: they cost more to eat well. but you can argue the other way. >> women should think definitely about bringing healthy food for their family and themselves and support the farmers that cultivate the land, very important. >> rose: ten years from now,
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i'll go into le bernardin and you will be there in the kitchen? >> i'll be there. >> rose: thank you. "32 yokes: from my mother's table to working the line" eric ripert written with veronica chambers. thank you for joining us. see you next time. for earlier episodes, visit us online at charlierose.com and pbs.org. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
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>> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by the following: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide.
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this is "nightly business report." with tyler mathisen and sue herera. sharp slide. government bond yields