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Jacques Pépin has been doing a lot of interviews lately, and for good reason. He’s got a new cookbook, Essential Pépin, that boasts more than 700 recipes, not to mention Pépin’s 60-odd years of accumulated knowledge. But what stands out most in the chef’s numerous interviews is not so much the book itself—it’s Pépin’s 22nd—but the utter modesty of its author.
Pépin has cooked for world leaders, won a Daytime Emmy cooking alongside Julia Child, and received his mother country’s ultimate civilian recognition, France’s Légion d’honneur.
Two of his earliest books, La Technique and La Methode, inspired a generation of chefs—a teenaged Tom Colicchio was an early fan of both—and are still used as textbooks for teaching the fundamentals of French cuisine. Pépin’s 13th show on PBS, also called Essential Pépin, premiered last week. And he’s a dean at The French Culinary Institute, where he and his fellow deans André Soltner and Alain Sailhac form a sort of Gallic holy trinity.
Pépin, in other words, has every right to have long ago succumbed to the ego and hubris encouraged by our cultural obsession with celebrity chefdom. But to say that the chef, who turns 76 in December, has resisted seems beside the point: Rather, he appears to view such temptation as completely irrelevant. “I was asked several times to go to Food Network,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this month, “but at the same time they did not want me to continue with PBS.” Like Julia Child, he explained, “I'm very faithful to people when things are going well and they've been nice to me. I don't really have to cow to the sponsors. In fact, I don't even have the right to work with the sponsor, not that I'm such a purist.”
The fact that he’s not a purist—among other things, Pépin is a fan of nonstick pans and microwaved bacon—is another part of what makes him such a welcome alternative to typical celebrity chefs, who tend to be defiantly lowbrow (Paula Deen, Sandra Lee), unassailably highbrow (Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz), or stridently and self-consciously badass (David Chang: Momofuku I-IV). Pépin’s all of these things and none of them, a chef who is a legend among legends but doesn’t have anything to prove, and is a badass simply for doing his job and doing it well for six decades. If he has any agenda at all, it’s to share the joy he takes from food and cooking with others, and to instill in them the importance of learning the basics, no matter how unsexy.
“This is the age of instant gratification,” he told radio host Leonard Lopate last week. "We used to spend a great deal of time in the kitchen, repeating, repeating, repeating so that those techniques kind of become part of your DNA, practically.” A beginning chef’s task is simple, Pépin explained: “All of those years you just say, ‘Yes, chef,’ and you absorb.” It’s because of his work that so many American home cooks have learned this basic lesson—not to mention how to hold a knife—and for that reason alone Jacques Pépin is a national treasure.
Image source: Pépin signs a fan's apron, by Flickr member rockdoggydog under Creative Commons
I love Jaques Pepin - one of my favorite New York memories is of Jaques Pepin walking out of the Staples office store that is (or was in 2007) across from The French Culinary Institute. He was wearing his chef whites and carrying a and unwieldy load - in his hands, not even in bags - of all these pens, markers and offic-y things. My friend who I was walking with at the time was a student at FCI...+READ
I love Jaques Pepin - one of my favorite New York memories is of Jaques Pepin walking out of the Staples office store that is (or was in 2007) across from The French Culinary Institute. He was wearing his chef whites and carrying a and unwieldy load - in his hands, not even in bags - of all these pens, markers and offic-y things. My friend who I was walking with at the time was a student at FCI and said, "Hello Chef, do you need a hand?" and Jaques Pepin was like, "No no, I am fine but thank you!" and all smiles. He is the kind of celebrity chef that runs his own errands, apparently cares enough about the environment not to use plastic bags, and gets his own pens. Very cool.-COLLAPSE
Thanks for a revealing article on a gentleman. He is great to watch. It's nice to know he is a talented and loyal person.
I love Chef Pepin!! He is the GREATEST!!
I get the use of "badass". Chef Pépin is devoted to his craft and is classy without trying, with no need to be the celebrity chef of the moment. Good qualities.
He sounds like an accidental badass to me, if by badass you mean a cool person. Some of you commenters seem very uptight. Why don't you have a glass of wine, put on some nice music (some Tony Bennett, perhaps?), and have a nice meal--in other words, get a little Jacques Pepin in your soul.
He's the Tony Bennett of the food world!
You insult the man and everything you write about him with your headline. How sad.
I agree with others that the title of this article is misleading and inaccurate. I have had the pleasure of meeting Jacques several times, and badass he is not. Gracious, modest, humble, and a true gentleman? Yes. Badass, no. Shame on you, Chow.
Agree with Alkapal. I don't come to Chow/Chowhound for USA Today style nonsense. And this title wasn't silly - I like silly - it was just inaccurate.
Terrible title, but Jacques is a fantastic guy. If one hasn't I recommend reading 'The apprentice' excellent excellent book by him.
"Badass" patently does NOT make any sense as regards "the utter modesty of its author" - "has every right to have long ago succumbed to the ego and hubris encouraged by our cultural obsession with celebrity chefdom" (and Chef Pepin has not succumbed) - and so forth. Without the use of the absurd "badass" it would merely have been another dull recycling of other people's interviews. I would expect...+READ
"Badass" patently does NOT make any sense as regards "the utter modesty of its author" - "has every right to have long ago succumbed to the ego and hubris encouraged by our cultural obsession with celebrity chefdom" (and Chef Pepin has not succumbed) - and so forth. Without the use of the absurd "badass" it would merely have been another dull recycling of other people's interviews. I would expect far better from Chow.-COLLAPSE
the most idiotic, totally inaccurate title for an article that I may ever have seen - what a beastly misuse of language!
Agree with alkapal. However he is a badass. If you want proof just look up the youtube video of him deboning a chicken. He does it in 2 minutes without a problem but can easily do it in 45 seconds.
THIS is a "badass"? You guys are desperate for a grabber headline. Pathetic! Jacques is such a gentleman, but you want to intimate something else to get a "hit" on your page. Again, (and totally) PATHETIC.