Jacques
Pepin
Jacques Pépin’s most recent public television series, his
9th, and companion cookbook, both entitled Jacques Pépin: Fast
Food My Way, debuted in the fall of 2004. The book and 26-show series,
taped at KQED-TV in San Francisco, pay tribute to a very simple cuisine,
with recipes that require little work and fit nicely into the fast-paced
lifestyles of people today. Pepin’s memoir, The Apprentice: My Life
in the Kitchen, was published in paperback last spring (2004) by Houghton
Mifflin after the hardcover edition of the book, published in 2003 by
Houghton, became a national bestseller.
One of America's best-known chefs, food columnists, cookbook authors,
and cooking teachers, Pépin also appeared recently on public television
in the acclaimed public television series, “Jacques Pépin
Celebrates,” which featured recipes for holidays and celebrations.
The companion cookbook to the series, also called Jacques Pépin
Celebrates (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2001) was named best book in the
Entertaining and Special Occasions category at the James Beard Awards
in May, 2002. Also published in 2001, Jacques Pépin’s Complete
Techniques (Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, New York, 2001) is an
updated, one-volume version of Pépin’s earlier classics,
La Technique (1976) and La Methode (1979).
Pépin was born in Bourg-en-Bresse, near Lyon. His first exposure to cooking was as a child in his parents' restaurant, Le Pelican. At age thirteen, he began his formal apprenticeship at the distinguished Grand Hotel de L’Europe in his hometown. He subsequently worked in Paris, training under Lucien Diat at the Plaza Athénée. From 1956 to 1958, Pépin was the personal chef to three French heads of state, including Charles de Gaulle.
Moving to the United States in 1959, Pépin worked first at New York's historic Le Pavillon restaurant, then served for ten years as director of research and new development for the Howard Johnson Company, a position that taught him about mass production, marketing, food chemistry, and American food tastes. He studied at Columbia University during this period, ultimately earning an M.A. degree in 18th-century French literature in 1972.
Pépin shared the spotlight with Julia Child in an earlier PBS-TV series. Their twenty-two show series, entitled “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home,” was the winner of The James Beard Foundation’s Award for Best National Cooking Show—2001, and the duo received a 2001 Daytime Emmy Award from The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. There is a companion cookbook to the series he did with Child and to two earlier public television series he co-hosted with his daughter, “Jacques Pépin’s Kitchen: Encore with Claudine” (1998) and “Jacques Pépin’s Kitchen: Cooking with Claudine” (1998).
A former columnist for The New York Times, Pépin writes a quarterly column for Food & Wine. He also participates regularly in that magazine’s prestigious Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and at other culinary festivals and fund-raising events worldwide. In addition, he is a popular guest on such commercial TV programs as The Late Show with David Letterman, The Today Show, and Good Morning America.
In October, 2004, Pépin received France’s highest civilian
honor, the French Legion of Honor, at a presentation in New York. He is
also the recipient of two other of the French government’s high
honors: he was named a Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
in 1997 and a Chevalier de L’Ordre du Mérite Agricole in
1992. The Dean of Special Programs at The French Culinary Institute (New
York), Pépin is an adjunct faculty member at Boston University.
He is a founder of The American Institute of Wine and Food, a member of
the International Association of Cooking Professionals, and is on the
board of trustees of The James Beard Foundation. He and his wife, Gloria,
live in Madison, Connecticut.