The Rant

February 1, 2004

The Rant Archive - The Accidental Hermit - Winter Woes and Antidotes - Study War No More - Restaurant Disasters - Our Better Angels - Karaoke Karl - Summers Past - Metropolis North - Canada Now Sizzles - Food Chain - A Place for the Grape - Christmas and Nana M.

In today's popular culture, cooking shows, cookbooks and celebrity chefs are prominent and being enjoyed by all classes. It was only recently ( on CNN ) that I saw New York high society's Gloria Vanderbilt interviewing and fawning over the British cookery superstar, Nigella Lawson, star of the popular British series, Nigella Bites. Gloria, by the way, has never cooked in her life! Yet another good example of the kind of impact the hyping of the culinary arts ( by the media ) is having on today's society, even those who've never had as much as a fleeting acquaintance with a frying pan. It's a very interesting phenomenon. I remember back when Julia Child was celebrating her 80th birthday and the launch of her major solo work - a large, imposing volume called, The Way to Cook - the manager of a Toronto cookbook store commented to a television reporter that many who buy cookbooks, perhaps even books by Julia Child, don't ( or can't ) cook. They buy the books because either they like the 'idea' of cooking, or they just like to look at the appealing pictures and recipes. Even I have to admit that there have been times when I have purchased a cookbook because it was just too darn beautiful to ignore.

I must own close to a hundred cookbooks, I kid you not. However, not too many are by what you'd call "celebrity" chefs. There is an exception, however. Twenty years ago I was watching an episode of the Tomorrow show on NBC starring Tom Snyder. He had as his guest that night a trim, handsome Frenchman called, Jacques Pepin. Unlike Julia Child, whom I'd seen on late night television making a grilled cheese sandwich using a blow torch, Jacques did something quite sensible for Tom Snyder. If memory serves, he made an omelette, or something equally simple and classic. What struck me was the ease with which he did the task, his obvious skill, not to mention how delicious it looked. From that moment on I was a fan of this unassuming gentleman from a place called Bourg-en-Bresse, just northeast of the great French food city, Lyon.

The Apprentice

Now, all these years later, my cooking idol has written his biography. It is called, The Apprentice ( My Life in the Kitchen ), published by Houghton Mifflin. It cost me $38.95 for the hardcover, but it was worth it.. The cover picture compliments the title beautifully. It shows Jacques as a boy of 11 or 12, dressed in chef's whites, standing outside his mother's cafe in Lyon. He is holding a soup ladle that is almost the size of himself. It is, without question, the picture of the quintessential 'apprentice'. However, despite his tender years, this is not a kid who is 'playing at' being a cook. Jacques Pepin, as the book reveals early on, developed an appreciation for good food when he was about six years of age. It was during the Second World War when he was working on a farm and tasted, for the first time, flavourful buttery milk, fresh from the cow's teat. That's when he learned..."that food could be much more than mere sustenance." Later, as a boy, he worked in several kitchens, in several different restaurants owned and run by his entrepeneurial and beautiful mother, Jeannette Pepin.

Jacques, the newly minted chef

From his mother's small restaurants he would eventually go on in 1949 to apprentice for three years at Le Grand Hotel de L'Europe in Lyon. Next, it was his first paying job at L'Hotel d'Albion in Aix-les-Bains, France where he burned his fingers white because the chef ( a complete nutter by the sounds of it ) would not let him use anything other than his fingers when turning food on the grill. His boss insisted that a utensil would either pierce ( thereby releasing necessary juices ) or possibly taint a chop, steak or chicken breast. ( What a sadist! )

Eventually, during the fifties, Jacques Pepin found himself serving in the French military as a chef. It was as a military chef that Pepin was posted to work at Matignon in the most prestigious position of his career. He became the personal chef to the President of France, Charles de Gaulle. And it was as General de Gaulle's chef that Jacques developed confidence in his abilities as a cook. In addition to cooking for the most important man in France and his wife, he was called upon, from time to time, to cook elaborately for heads of state like President Nehru of India, as well as other world figures. Charles de Gaulle and Mrs. de Gaulle, however, had simple tastes and instructed Pepin to prepare basic meals. In the book, Pepin includes ( for example ) a recipe for Provencal Roast Leg of Lamb, apparently a favorite of France's famous military hero. ( By the way, that's another thing I really like about this book. It is peppered with many of Pepin's favorite recipes. Many are simple and homey, but they all relate in some way, to periods in his life. It's real 'value-added' material. )

At the time, Pepin's tenure at Matignon did not make a great impression on him. ( Years later he expressed a tinge of regret that, because cooking exclusively for the President of France did not seem very important to him, he totally misread the significance of a similar job offer in the United States. ) He rarely saw President de Gaulle himself. Most of Pepin's dealings were with Mrs. de Gaulle, who approved menus and the like, and told him what the General could, would and should not eat. Sadly, one of the rare times he saw de Gaulle was when he was leaving Matignon. He was summoned to the family quarters where de Gaulle gave him one of his best cigars and wished him well. He had heard that Pepin was bound for America.

In the U.S. he worked at the famous Le Pavillon restaurant in New York. Joe Kennedy, father of the future President, was a regular at the restaurant and got to know Pepin. When his son, John Kennedy was about to become President, Joe offered Jacques Pepin the job of White House chef. He turned it down. The feeling of 'been there..did that' prevailed. Unfortunately, he underestimated the American public's interest in their President, his family and everything connected to them. Later he realized his mistake, but it was too late.

Pepin's wedding ( Howard D. Johnson at end )

Despite his fumble on the White House offer, Jacques Pepin did go on to achieve fame and fortune in the United States. During the sixties he worked, along with his friend Pierre Franey, for Howard D. Johnson. Together, they completely changed food preparation standards at Johnson's restaurant chain. They 'raised the bar' by introducing real garlic, instead of garlic powder, real onions, instead of dehydrated onions, and so on. It was a period that allowed Pepin to make an important discovery about the differences between the way the French and the Americans approach food. He writes, "Perhaps the most important thing I came to understand at Hojo's was that Americans had extremely open palates compared to French diners. They were willing to try items that lay outside their normal range of tastes. If they liked the food, that was all that mattered". He used that information later, along with a few other key people, to really shape the way Americans look at food today.

Pepin with House Beautiful's McCully

After a serious car accident almost claimed his life in 1974, Jacques Pepin was no longer able to spend long hours on his feet in restaurant kitchens. Thankfully, for America, he became one of the first freelance cooking teachers. He would travel all over the country giving cooking seminars and made many converts to good food and good cooking techniques. This lead to food writing for people like Nova Scotia's Helen McCully at House Beautiful magazine. Then came his real shot at stardom, stints on many PBS cooking shows through the eighties and nineties.

With greats, James Beard and Julia Child