Jacques Pepin…A culinary legend in his own time
By Lucia Adams

If you would like to meet a cooking legend of our times, Chef Pepin will be a guest at the Dish du Jour food event on May 11th for a special book signing of The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen. In the summer issue 2002 of Dish Du Jour’s publisher Frances Grace and Chef Armand interviewed the man whom Julia Child called “the best chef in America” on the publication of his 21st book Jacques Pepin Celebrates, an updated one volume version of the famous classics La Technique and La Methode both published in the 1970s. The new book had just won a James Beard Award in the Entertaining and Special Occasions category and the mood of the encounter was sunny, full of love and laughter since it also included chatting with Jacques’ daughter and cooking companion Claudine. Together they filmed three series of 26 shows “Encore with Claudine” and “Cooking with Claudine” in 1998.

Last March Claudine Renee Roland Pepin married chef Rolland Bailey Wesen whom she met in 2001 at the Upper East Side restaurant Jacques Brasserie. After dinner Claudine offered him a glass of superb Cognac, an Otard 1795 (yes the date is right) and made a toast to Chef Rolland and the rest as they say is history. They were married and last September moved to Portland, Oregon where they hope to open a restaurant. Fortunately for Pepin, the filming of his PBS series takes him often to the West Coast, and you just know that bond of love and laughter will remain forever. He recounts in his wonderful book of memoirs discussed below how Claudine began cooking with him at age one, but her palate began to develop even earlier, “She was still standing in her crib, not yet walking, the first time she sampled caviar, a beautiful beluga that I had spread on a piece of buttered bread. She licked off the caviar, handed me back the mushy bread and said, “Encore, Papa.”

In 2003 Pepin reveals in his memoirs his powerful sense of family, his love of good friends, mainly his passion for the kitchen. The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen (Houghton Mifflin) is a very moving book a personal history through one man’s eyes of post-War France and the ingenuity French families had when fighting the Nazis; his father was in Le Maquis, a French Resistance fighter and the young Jacques had to quit school and sent to work at early age. The story begins in 1935 when he was born the second child of Jeanne and Jean-Victor Pepin a cabinetmaker in Bourg- en -Bresse, northeast of Lyon. The family bought run down restaurants at low prices and his father would rebuild them while his mother cooked. Jacques with brothers Roland and Bichon were introduced to kitchen wonders at the family restaurant Le Pelican. At 13 Pepin became an apprentice at the distinguished Grand Hotel de L’Europe in his hometown and steadily worked his way up. From 1956 to 1958, Pepin was drafted into military service and instead of being sent to Algeria where his brother was already serving he became a chef to three French heads of state, including Charles De Gaulle. The intimate description of Mon General and his wife Tante Yvonne reveal very considerate and benevolent people concerned about their staff making this book a part of the history of the time, both political as well as culinary.

One of De Gaulle’s favorite meals was roast leg of lamb provencal, a typical centerpiece for a Sunday lunch in France. He often served this to the liberator of the country after church on Sunday who would eat en famille with children and grandchildren. This simple to prepare dish, would be served in the Elysee Palace with gratin dauphinois, potatoes with garlic, cream and cheese.

Pepin like so many other ambitious French chefs moved to the States in 1959 and cooked at Le Pavillon, then for ten years as Director of Research and Development for the Howard Johnson Company, a position that taught him about mass production, marketing, food chemistry, and American food tastes. He relates how he was invited to be the chef at the Kennedy White House but at the time had no idea how much publicity that position would have generated (he always had an eye for the main chance) so he ended up in Queens flipping burgers at a Hojo’s but he adored Mr. Johnson and always has had great respect and taste for the meals that he and his staff developed there. All of this is an important part of social history of the period with an emphasis on food in contemporary culture; he also discusses the changes in the food industry over the past fifty years, reflecting on the differences between French and American food in terms of the produce, the marketing and culinary styles.When all is said and done Jacques Pepin is an American chef schooled in French technique but as indigenous to this country as Oreos and Jello and Rueben Sandwiches which he loves.

The centerpiece of the book is his description of the “grandest picnic of all time” held on Gardiner’s Island with food prepared by Pepin, Craig Claiborne, Roger Fesaguet of La Caravelle, Jean Vergnes of the Colony and Rene Verdon, the White House chef. The picnic on the private island on Long Island Sound featured seviche, veal pate, bass, squab, mussels, stuffed lobster, and of course Dom Perignon in Baccarat. The sparkling personality and great humor of the author, beams through every page like the best champagne. His descriptions of food are incomparable: thus on Poulet a la Crème: “There is no question that the first and foremost dish cooked at the Hotel de l’Europe was chicken…….but the undisputed specialty of the house was poulet a la crème. The thick cream sauce, slightly pink in color, velverty, and wonderfully rich, was served not only with chicken, but with pike quenelles, frogs (in a tarragon cream sauce), as well as poured liberally on fresh farmer cheese and raspberries.” What wonderful prose!

Did you know that Danny Kaye was one of the finest cooks Pepin has ever known? Well, in The Apprentice it is revealed that he was and that he had flawless technique and speed on par with the fastest Parisian brigade de cuisine. The comedian cooked his famous Chinese-inspired chicken salad in his home in Los Angeles for Pepin. The secret was a perfectly poached chicken placed breast side down in a pot and kept submerged by placing knives, forks and spoons in the cavity. It was dressed with a vinaigrette of Dijon, white wine vinegar a touch of Tabasco, garlic and olive oil. Where else can you get such fascinating information than in the memoirs of one of the great chefs and culinary personalities of our time.

Pepin has received countless awards for his cookbooks and television shows. He is also dean of special programs at the French Culinary Institute and an adjunct professor at Boston university, where Claudine earned her master’s degree in international relations (Jacques has a master’s in 18th century French literature from Columbia University.) He was a founding member of the James Beard Foundation; after Beard died he and Julia Child with several others bought the house and its belongings and created a place where talented chefs could showcase their talents. He is also a contributing editor of Food and Wine and a founder of the American Institute of Wine and Food and a participant in the Aspen Food & Wine Classic.

He is perhaps best known for his collaboration with Julia Child with whom he shared the spotlight in a 22 show PBS series “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home” which received not only a Beard Award but a 2001 daytime Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is the recipient of two of the French government’s highest honors: a Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier de L’Ordre du Merite Agricole. What a contribution he has made to American and French culinary arts! When asked what his favorite foods are in a recent interview he claimed as he did to the Dish du Jour staff that he was “born hungry,” that he likes simple fare like lobster and corn in the summer and chicken and potatoes in the winter, and that family and food are essential to the good life. Bravo Jacques!