Mythologies are built up and around famous chefs, layer upon layer, with the same amount of labor it takes to make daily batches of buttery croissant dough. The biographies of Julia Child, Anthony Bourdain and Alice Waters are all informed by a series of apocryphal stories drawn from their own anecdotes or those recited by their acquaintances, coworkers and loved ones. In addition to their cookbooks and public appearances, an on-screen presence is key to establishing a chef’s identity in viewers’ imaginations.
Jacques Pépin’s affable TV persona, once it was honed, is approachable but formal, always irreproachably professional. His rapport with the camera is at once congenial and direct, which is to say he takes a no-nonsense approach to a career that has inspired thousands of cooks to follow, if not in his footsteps, then on a parallel path towards the demanding work required of a restaurant chef.
The non-professional watching at home not only wants to taste what Pépin is cooking on any one of his TV series but also wants an invitation to eat a meal at his dinner table. Brave attempts to make the companion recipes are not a requirement. It’s compelling enough to watch Pépin dice an onion or disassemble a plucked chicken. Each episode is verifiable proof that the chef who wrote the seminal book, La Technique (1976), knows how to wield a knife.
In the context of Pépin’s life, “farm to table” takes on a new meaning. An American Masters episode, Jacques Pépin: The Art of Craft, respectfully documents the pivotal moments that carried him from the outskirts of Lyon to a Parisian kitchen, where he cooked meals for Charles de Gaulle and co. But Pépin made his name in the United States. As Fareed Zakaria points out in The Art of Craft, Pépin’s story is also an immigrant’s story. Albeit as lived by someone who embraced his natural culinary gifts and enhanced them with industry, ambition and a sense of joyfulness.
To mark the occasion of his 90th birthday, alongside the publication of his latest book, The Art of Jacques Pépin: Favorite Recipes and Paintings from My Life in the Kitchen, Pépin will take part in a series of food- and wine-related events in Napa this fall. From Oct. 23 through Nov. 2, friends, family members and a legion of fans will be by his side to celebrate. A benefit dinner at The French Laundry for the Jacques Pépin Foundation has already sold out, but there are several other opportunities for the public to interact with Pépin and his acolytes.
At the time of this writing, tickets are still available for dinner at TORC with chefs Kyle Connaughton and Sean O’Toole (Oct. 23); a reception and family-style dinner at The Culinary Institute of America at Copia (Oct. 25); a book-signing at Hestan Vineyards (Oct. 28); a multi-course dinner paired with wines from Penfolds (Oct. 30); and an on-stage interview moderated by KQED public media’s Cecilia Phillips at Napa’s Uptown Theatre (Nov. 2).
When Pépin and I spoke in August about some of the highlights in his career, he responded to my questions with a characteristic lack of vanity. After three years of kitchen apprenticeships in Lyon, from the ages of 13 to 16, Pépin moved to Paris to try his luck on a bigger culinary stage. Eventually, he got a job at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée. The Art of Craft pans across a photograph of Pépin lined up with 47 other cooks at the famous hotel. The idea of America pulled him away from his cohorts.
“Most people come to America for economic, political, racial or religious reasons,” he said. “But I had a good job in Paris, and I was doing well.” At the time, Pépin was intrigued by the American way of life. But when he was much younger, his spirits were buoyed by World War II soldiers who distributed food. “I was small during the war, but I still remember running after the American tanks, and it was probably the first time I ate, or that I remember, eating chocolate,” he noted. It’s fitting that America came to life in his imagination with a memorable first taste of chocolate.
Pépin only intended to stay abroad for a year. But after working at Le Pavillon in New York City, he discovered a different approach to the work day. In France, it was the norm for cooks to work back-to-back double shifts. At Le Pavillon, one shift was the equivalent of half a day back home. “Things were more open. People were very welcoming. I loved it and stayed,” he said.
Bourg-en-Bresse, where Pépin was born, is celebrated in France for their chickens. Pépin has retained a lifelong affection for them. In Art Of The Chicken: A Master Chef’s Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird (2022), he paints them the way that other artists paint their human models, with a range of tones and moods and colors. Pépin also provides recipes along with reflections about his origins. But from the myriad chicken recipes in the book, I asked him to identify a couple of his favorites.
“I can count 12 restaurants in my family, all of them run by women,” he recalled. Each had their own chicken specialty. His mother made a chicken in cream sauce with tarragon. His aunt made chicken with morels. “Some of those dishes take me back to my apprenticeship and my youth,” he said. “If I closed my eyes and you served me my mother’s chicken, I would say it is hers.”
That transportive quality of a dish indirectly informs Pépin’s catchphrase, “Happy cooking.” But the cheerful words are also a toast to his audience, an expression of good will. In turn, the fall celebrations are an extension of all those televised toasts returning to cheer him on, their grateful arms raised with flutes of chilled, bubbling Champagne.
‘Napa Valley Celebrates Jacques Pépin’s 90th Birthday’ takes place from Oct. 23-Nov. 2. For ticket information, go to celebratejacques.org/napa.
Well said! You impart a congeniality Pépin would appreciate. Thank you.