After sliding into a banquette at Brasserie Cognac, a French restaurant on Broadway, Eric Ripert didn’t even give the lunchtime menu a glance.

“I want cheese soufflé, steak au poivre and tarte Tatin,” he told Jolie White, the general manager. He asked for the steak cooked rare. He decided the meal deserved a glass of red wine.

“Voilà,” Ms. White said with a brisk nod of affirmation. “Classic.”

Mr. Ripert, 51, works a few blocks away as the chef at Le Bernardin, the holy seafood sanctuary that has been viewed for decades as a gold standard of culinary exquisiteness. (Since its debut in 1986, the restaurant has received four stars from The New York Times all five times it has been reviewed. Mr. Ripert landed there in 1991.) When he wants to come home to classic bistro fare, though, he often heads to this far more everyday place.

“To me, there’s something magical about soufflé,” he said. “To this day, when I see a soufflé rising, I’m mesmerized. I’m just like a kid again.”