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Jacques Pepin

Chef; Author

Jacques Pepin is one of America's best-known chefs. He is the author of 24 books, including a best-selling memoir, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen. He has also hosted nine public television cooking series, the most recent of which is called More Fast Food My Way. Pepin was born in rural France and his first exposure to cooking was in his parents' restaurant, Le Pelican. He began his formal apprenticeship at the age of thirteen and went on to work in Paris as the personal chef to three French heads of state, including Charles de Gaulle. He moved to the United States in 1959 and studied at Columbia University. Pepin is a former columnist for The New York Times and now writes a quarterly column for Food & Wine. He received France's highest civilian honor, the French Legion of Honor, in 2004. He lives in Madison, Connecticut.

What makes a great restaurant?

It’s that je ne sais quoi that clicks with you.

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4 min

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Whom would you like to interview, and what would you ask?

A hero who could feed the hungry.

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1 min

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How do we eat better?

Everyone was an organic farmer during WW II.

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2 min

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Good to be fat, or good to be thin?

Inverting the “fat is good”paradigm.

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3 min

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How has globalization changed the way we eat?

The pros and cons of Peruvian raspberries.

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2 min

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Genetically modified food: welcome improvement or risk?

If you can make a tomato that doesn’t need insecticide, why not?

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4 min

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How have our eating patterns changed?

Anything can be filtered through food.

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7 min

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How has technology changed cooking?

The food processor, saran wrap, plastic, and rubber spatula are welcome improvements.

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2 min

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What utensils do you always have on hand?

Hands and knives.

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1 min

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What makes a great dish?

Great ingredients, minus the fuss.

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5 min

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What ingredients do you always have on hand?

Nothing unnatural, nothing chemical.

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1 min

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The Art of French Cuisine

Learning how to cook starts with a glass of wine.

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7 min

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Cooking for the Stars

How do you cook for the King of Morocco, Charles de Gaulle and Ike.

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3 min

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The New York Food Scene

New York brings you the world on a plate.

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4 min

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Do you have a creative process?

Pepin finds his inspiration at the market.

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It makes sense economically, environmentally, and, of course, gastronomically.

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3 min

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What makes a great chef?

Pepin, on the importance of technique.

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6 min

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What do you make of celebrity chefs?

Pepin remembers a time when no respectable mother would want her daughter marrying a chef.

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4 min

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Taste Is a Narcissistic Reflection

To a certain extent, you can work with many different people, but you cannot escape yourself. At some point you are who you are, and that will be expressed in […]

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6 min

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What is your question?

When is the last time you sat down to a meal with the people you love?

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1 min

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What is your counsel?

We could all benefit from another point of view.

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2 min

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What is your outlook?

The problems we face now are not unsolvable, Pepin says.

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1 min

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Pepin talks about world hunger, globalization and genetically modified foods.

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12 min

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Food is at the heart of human history.

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6 min

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What do you believe?

Pepin believes that life’s most anything can be solved at the dinner table.

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6 min

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What inspires you?

Jacques Pepin: The creative process at the market.

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5 min

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How do you contribute?

Through his teaching and writing, Pepin has taught people how to cook and eat well.

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8 min

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What do you do?

Jacques Pepin talks about transforming nature into culture.

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24 min

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Pepin comes from a family of chefs in rural France.

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3 min

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