Avec Eric is Ripert's cooking and food show (and a cookbook as well). Now in the second year on PBS (after winning an Emmy for the first year) each episode is built around a theme, which may be a cuisine or an ingredient or something else; we see the ingredients in their original, often still-living form, and then we see Eric use them in his cooking. There are several related segments that appear in many of the episodes. All the episode are available via streaming on Hulu and linked on the show's Avec Eric Web site episode guide for season 1 and season 2. All the episodes emphasize good food, fresh sustainable ingredients, and simple reproducible techniques in the kitchen that don't require exotic apparatus.
As part of every dish Ripert makes on the show, he carefully explains why he is doing something a particular way, even something as simple as sprinkling the salt a foot or so above the dish, so that gravity forces the salt to spread evenly. These are matters of technique, and they are explained so very clearly that his procedures are simple to follow even if you are fairly new to cooking. On of the regular segments featured on the Ave Eric Web site is Get Toasted, about cooking "real food" using a (admittedly high-end Cuisinart) toaster oven.
In Episode 6 of the first season, Ripert prepared his grandmother's Roasted Chicken with Zaatar Stuffing and Romaine Salad with Garlic Vinaigrette; you can watch the video and follow the recipe, here. Alternatively, for those with a toaster oven, Ripert shows you how to prepare Herb Roasted Chicken Tenders. One might quite respectably pair the chicken with Caramelized Mangos with Rum (and vanilla ice cream). In addition to the videos, all the recipes are designed with a convenient link to print a properly formatted version.
Image credit: Avec Eric
