Essential Pepin

I have a list of celebrities I would like to meet before I die.  Some on the list I have already met and some I will probably, for logistical reasons (or restraining orders) never have the opportunity.  You can keep your actors, your Presidents and Prime Ministers, your Snookis and even your Dalai Lama.  My list consists of scientists, human rights workers, very few musicians, a couple of artists, a writer or two and five chefs.  At the very top of that list is Jacques Pepin who is without a doubt my favourite "Celebrity Chef".   

The very first cooking show I ever watched was the Galloping Gourmet, followed by Julia Child and then Jacques Pepin.  Of the three, the one who had the most lasting impact was Chef Pepin and I continue to judge all food shows against that standard.  Chef Pepin is unmatched in knife skills, except maybe for  Hiroyuki Sakai (watch him peel an apple with a chef's knife).  During his shows he patiently demonstrates how to get the most yield from every ingredient, how to make simple food look more glamorous and how to control heat and time to coax the best out of every dish.  When asked what are the most important tools in the kitchen, the ones he just couldn't live without, he said "my hands".  When you watch his shows you notice how often the cameras are focused on those hands.  

At the core of Jacques Pepin's teaching is the importance of technique and practice, practice, practice.  To be a great chef means learning the techniques that are required to make food great.  Anyone, and I do mean anyone, can follow a recipe and turn out food that is good (even my father makes a great minestrone soup).  But, to be a good cook, commercially or even in the home, requires knowledge of the ingredients and techniques that go into a recipe.  Getting home and having to make dinner on a deadline with no planning is a daunting task and opening a fridge door to check what is available is enough to send some people to a sanatorium.  But, this is the heart of what it is to be a cook: making a meal out of what you have at hand without the recipe.  This is food culture and has been practiced for generations, since those first humans left the trees and headed out on the savannah to see what there was to eat.  Jacques Pepin has been on a life long mission to teach North Americans those techniques to survival in a kitchen, which is why I always look forward to his shows on PBS.

The New York Times has an article on Jacques Pepin that is well worth the read and, as a bonus, there are video demonstrations to illustrate my point about his talents.  Go check it out.