{"id":9208,"date":"2019-09-22T20:07:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T20:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/?p=9208"},"modified":"2024-01-05T15:55:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T15:55:38","slug":"jacques-pepin-chef-author-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/fall-2019\/jacques-pepin-chef-author-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacques P\u00e9pin: Chef, Author, Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Jacques P\u00e9pin\u2019s experience as a chef, author, and mentor spans almost eight decades and is still going strong. Learn more about and be inspired by Jacques P\u00e9pin in this feature article, how he\u2019s inspired my life and our favorite recipes:\u00a0<\/em>More Pepin: Personal Story, Books, Recipes<\/a><\/p>\n

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Les Legumes. Painting by Jacques Pepin<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

By Carolyn Worthington<\/p><\/p>\n

“Y<\/span>ou can go into an art studio and mix yellow and red. Does that make you an artist? You are first a craftsman. With talent you become an artist,\u201d said Jacques P\u00e9pin, one of the world\u2019s greatest chefs, who should know. He honed his craft and developed his talent over 83 years as a chef, author, TV celebrity, culinary instructor, and even as a painter.<\/p>\n

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Jacques Pepin, teacher, with student at Boston University culinary arts program<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

P\u00e9pin is best known as the author of 29 cookbooks, including Jacques P\u00e9pin Complete Technique<\/em>, the updated Jacques P\u00e9pin New Complete Technique,<\/em> Essential P\u00e9pin: More Than 700 All-Time Favorites from My Life in Food<\/em>, and, most recently, Menus: A Book for Your Meals and Memories.<\/em><\/p>\n

Many people are not aware of his other skill as an artist.<\/p>\n

The winner of 16 James Beard Awards, P\u00e9pin has starred in 13 PBS cooking shows out of his 26 shows over 35 years. In 2004, P\u00e9pin was awarded France\u2019s highest distinction, the Legion of Honor. For over 30 years, he has taught at Boston University where he developed the culinary arts program, BU Food and Wine, along with Julia Child and the program\u2019s founding director, Rebecca Alssid.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9pin\u2019s youthful demeanor, winning smile, and rugged good looks belie a man in his eighth decade.<\/p>\n

Here is a man, who along the way, has survived a life-threatening car crash resulting in multiple fractures, a mild stroke, and hip replacement, but he keeps going and never gives up. Standing for two hours to teach cooking classes is still part of his routine. P\u00e9pin is certainly an inspirational \u201cposter boy\u201d for successful aging.<\/p>\n

Being a Great Chef<\/h3>\n

P\u00e9pin\u2019s views on what makes a great chef are similar to his views on being a talented artist. \u201cI don\u2019t believe a professional chef can be a professional chef without being a technician first. That said, I know a fair amount of chefs who are technical but do not have talent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It is perhaps for this reason that P\u00e9pin has stressed the importance of learning techniques\u2014the basics of cooking and art\u2014throughout his teachings, cookbooks, and art.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9pin\u2019s rise from a blue-collar kitchen apprentice in France to a world-renowned chef and recognized artist is an amazing story.<\/p>\n

To begin to know P\u00e9pin, a good place to start is to read his memoir, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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(Left) Jacques Pepin, at eight months, holding a toy chicken. (Right) Jacques and brother, Roland, holding brother Bichon.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Early Life<\/h3>\n

P\u00e9pin was born in 1935 in Bourg-en-Bresse, France, 43 miles northeast of Lyon and at the base of the Jura Mountains. Nicknamed \u201cTati\u201d by one of his brothers, he was raised in a close-knit family. His father, Jean-Victor P\u00e9pin, was initially a cabinet maker, and his mother, Jeannette P\u00e9pin, would be labeled a skilled entrepreneur by today\u2019s standards. He was the middle son of two brothers, Bichon P\u00e9pin and Roland P\u00e9pin.<\/p>\n

\u201cMamam,\u201d P\u00e9pin said, \u201cwas strikingly beautiful, with proud, erect posture, high cheekbones, large brown eyes and masses of black curls swept from her forehead. She was a tiny, wrenlike bundle of energy, always on the move.\u201d Perhaps, P\u00e9pin became very much like his mother throughout his life.<\/p>\n

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Family at Chez Pepin<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

At age six, he was exposed to cooking while at his mother\u2019s side. She opened a restaurant, Hotel L\u2019Amour. This was her first entrepreneurial venture, and she only had the skill of a waitress combined with cooking for her family during wartime rationing and food scarcity.<\/p>\n

Alongside his father, P\u00e9pin foraged for wild mushrooms and was exposed to wine-making. Summers were spent working on farms, receiving food and board in exchange for doing chores. It was there that he began to learn about local food sources. He attended boarding school but left school early to follow his passion by working in restaurants.<\/p>\n

Life during the early war years was at the height of Italy\u2019s war with France, headed up by\u00a0Benito Mussolini, the fascist prime minister of Italy at the time. P\u00e9pin experienced the bombing of Bourg-en-Bresse when his apartment was decimated by the blasts, forcing his mother and brothers to flee. His home was bombed a second time by retreating Germans. He remembers vividly the liberation of Paris being celebrated in his town with an Allied tank coming through and American soldiers throwing chewing gum and candy. For P\u00e9pin, it was his first taste of milk chocolate.<\/p>\n

At age 13 1\/2, P\u00e9pin quit school to become an apprentice in a restaurant. As he said, \u201c[I] was an \u2018old\u2019 thirteen. I was hardened by the war with its restrictions and bombings with stints away from home and the long absences of Papa,\u201d At this young age, P\u00e9pin had already worked in four restaurants and knew that he wanted to be a chef. And so, he started his first apprenticeship in Bourg, France, at the Grand H\u00f4tel de l\u2019Europe.<\/p>\n

Next stop was Paris to work at the famed H\u00f4tel Plaza Ath\u00e9n\u00e9e. It was there that he continued to fine-tune his understanding of the techniques of cooking rather than memorizing recipes. He rotated through the brigade de cuisine (kitchen stations), working with the poissonier (fish cook); the garde manger (keeper of the food) where he prepared food to be cooked, such as cleaning fish and trimming lamb; and the saucier (sauce chef) where he helped prepare sauces.<\/p>\n

Military<\/h3>\n

P\u00e9pin was drafted into the military when France was at war with Algeria, which was seeking its independence. He was assigned to Paris to work at the officer\u2019s mess at the Navy\u2019s headquarters, fittingly called the P\u00e9pini\u00e8re. He was brought on to the French office of the treasury first as an assistant chef and then as head chef to F\u00e9lix Gaillard, the minister of finance. Four months later, the French government toppled, and Gaillard became France\u2019s prime minister. After several more changes in France\u2019s government, P\u00e9pin found himself as head chef to then-president of France Charles de Gaulle.<\/p>\n

New York<\/h3>\n

Finishing his military service, P\u00e9pin decided to \u201cvisit\u201d the United States. This visit has lasted 60 years.<\/p>\n

In 1959, at age 23, he secured his first job with the renowned New York restaurant Le Pavillon under Pierre Franey, who would later become famous for his own cooking shows and his \u201c60 Minute Gourmet\u201d column in the New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While at Le Pavillon, P\u00e9pin came to a life-changing crossroads. He was offered the job of White House chef under then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy and simultaneously received a job offer from Howard Johnson, the founder of the famous Howard Johnson\u2019s restaurant chain. P\u00e9pin decided to go with Johnson because he had already worked for heads of state with little national or international attention. This was a decision he said he never regretted.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9pin joined Franey to help Johnson develop new products. He traded in making beef Burgundy for 12 for making clam chowder in 2,500-portion batches. P\u00e9pin leaped from dealing in cups, ounces, and teaspoons to gallons, tons, and bushels. For ten years, P\u00e9pin learned about food service American-style. He said he still makes New England clam chowder from his \u201cHo Jo\u201d days \u2026 in smaller portions, of course.<\/p>\n

Arriving in the U.S. without knowing how to speak English, P\u00e9pin enrolled in an English for foreign students course at Columbia University in New York. As a young man who had not completed high school, he decided to apply to Columbia\u2019s School for General Studies for Adults. He was accepted to the program and later graduated. He must have been the perfect lab partner for biology, where rather than dissecting a rabbit, he boned it.<\/p>\n

Following Howard Johnson\u2019s, P\u00e9pin opened the first soup and salad restaurant in the U.S., La Potagerie on Fifth Avenue in New York in the spring of 1970.<\/p>\n

Standing in a restaurant kitchen came to a sudden end for P\u00e9pin in 1974 when he was in a horrific car crash, hitting a deer and flipping the car, which exploded. He broke his back and was left with 14 fractures.<\/p>\n

After a year of recovery and soul-searching, he decided to focus more on teaching and writing. In addition to the Boston University culinary program, P\u00e9pin co-founded the French Culinary Institute in 1984, which would later become the International Culinary Center<\/a> in New York\u2019s SoHo district. The school has been the launchpad for celebrity chefs such as Bobby Flay, Dan Barber, and Christina Tosi.<\/p>\n

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Wedding day with Gloria at Craig Claiborne’s house, 1966.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Family Life<\/h3>\n

During the 1960s and 1970s, many French chefs from the New York area gravitated upstate to Hunter Mountain. P\u00e9pin became a ski instructor and met his wife, Gloria, there, to whom he has been married for 53 years. They have one daughter, Claudine P\u00e9pin, who was his partner for two of his cookbooks (Jacques P\u00e9pin\u2019s Kitchen: Cooking with Claudine and Jacques P\u00e9pin\u2019s Kitchen: Encore with Claudine) and was his co-host for PBS cooking shows.<\/p>\n

Claudine and her husband, Rolland \u201cRolley\u201d Bailey Wesen, married in 2003 and have one daughter who has also been the inspiration for a cookbook, A Grandfather\u2019s Lessons: In the Kitchen with Shorey.<\/p>\n

Chef\u2019s Ski Race for Jacques<\/h3>\n

What started as a fun race between small groups of New York chefs who also chose Hunter for their getaway destination became the US Chefs Ski Race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1975, the year following P\u00e9pin\u2019s accident, the Chefs Ski Race was started by famous ski school director Karl Plattner and organized by restaurateur Jacky Ruette. It attracted an all-star group of chefs and restaurateurs, including Andr\u00e9 Soltner of Lut\u00e8ce, Seppi Renggli of the Four Seasons, Sirio Maccioni of Le Cirque, and the late Pierre Franey, a long-time friend of P\u00e9pin\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The race was inaugurated to honor Jacques P\u00e9pin. The event celebrated its 40th anniversary this past ski season.<\/p>\n

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Jacques Pepin’s painting, “Jean Michel’s Dining Room”<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The Artist Within<\/h3>\n

During stays at Hunter Mountain, P\u00e9pin and Gloria would often restore old furniture. In 1962, he started dabbling in painting. He said, \u201cI\u2019ve been painting for 60 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pepin’s art started with menus.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

It started with menus. Whether preparing a meal for his friends and family or a gala event for a celebrity host, the hand-written menu and colorful illustrated border became a signature of the meal as sentimental as the chef who created it. Over the years, the collection grew into 12 thick books of menus.<\/p>\n

When he flips through the pages, he reminisces about the menu he drew for his daughter\u2019s fourth birthday\u2014with her handprint in the middle\u2014made by dipping her hand in a plate of red wine. For other events, he also noted the wine itself, sometimes with the label. Guests would sign it, and, for special meals out, so would the chef who prepared it.<\/p>\n

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“The Cock” painting by Jacques Pepin<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Some of P\u00e9pin\u2019s menus have been turned into limited-edition prints using a gicl\u00e9e technique that requires specially formulated inks and specialty papers, resulting in the highest possible quality for each print. Just like any meal coming from P\u00e9pin\u2019s kitchen, if his name is attached to it, quality is expected.<\/p>\n

Many years ago, an art critic showed up at an informal showing of P\u00e9pin\u2019s work and assumed that the pieces were created by five different painters. The styles were that different. When Jacques replied that everything, from realistic to impressionist and abstract, was all his, the critic was astonished.<\/p>\n

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Jean Pierre’s Kitchen Acrylic on canvas. Painting by Jacques Pepin<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

His method? \u201cThe process is intuitive,\u201d P\u00e9pin said. Just like cooking. \u201cIt feels right, it belongs there, and it fits, just as a cook adds a dash of salt, pepper, or wine to a sauce to get the taste exactly right. You cannot suppress the subconscious, certainly in art, especially abstract or surrealistic, where the unconscious or subconscious is the source of inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although P\u00e9pin sees the similarity between cooking and painting because you use your hands for both, one obvious difference is that a meal is gone after you eat it. You can replicate it to a point, but the feeling and the mood and the subtle flavor differences of each fresh ingredient mean that each meal is savored and enjoyed, and then it\u2019s gone, leaving a memory. A painting, on the other hand, stays with you and brings that feeling back every time you look at it.<\/p>\n

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Pigs. Painting by Jacques Pepin.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Whether a culinary-inspired seasonal menu, an interpretation of fresh flowers, a glimpse outside the window, or one of the many fun chickens and roosters from P\u00e9pin\u2019s Chicken Coop Farm-to-Frame collection, the sentimental side of Jacques P\u00e9pin is visible through the artistry of Jacques P\u00e9pin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know whether my painting has helped my cuisine, or whether my cooking has helped my painting, and I don\u2019t know if one borrows from the other,\u201d said P\u00e9pin. \u201cAll I know is that, certainly for me, cooking and painting can live in harmony together. Both are different expressions of who I am and both enhance my life considerably.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his website, Jacques P\u00e9pin Art jacquesp\u00e9pinart.com<\/a>, his artistry is offered in the forms of original art, limited-edition, signed fine-art prints, gallery-size prints, hand-drawn menu prints, and small gift sets.<\/p>\n

Giving Back<\/h3>\n

Three years ago, in 2016, with Claudine and Rolley Wesen, the Jacques P\u00e9pin Foundation<\/a> was created. This provided an opportunity for the P\u00e9pin family to give back to the community. The mission is to support community kitchens that offer free life skills and culinary training to adults who have difficulty finding employment. The programs offer help to those who were previously incarcerated, homeless, involved in substance abuse, who have low skill or education level, or a lack of work history.<\/p>\n

To answer \u201cwhat makes a great chef,\u201d you need to understand the breadth of the chef\u2019s career. It must be more than a technician or a talented creator. The answer resides in P\u00e9pin, who has done it all and has kept going.<\/p>\n

The secret to his longevity can be summed up in his words,<\/p>\n

\u201cI like copious glasses of wine with my food and I do not like\u00a0to eat alone. <\/em><\/p>\n

I need family and friends to enjoy the dishes and<\/em>\n the pleasure of dining.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To learn more about Jacques Pepin’s art, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

To\u00a0try some of Jacques Pepin’s recipes, see some recipes below.<\/p>\n

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