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Chef Jacques Pepin

by Arie Boris, CruiseGourmet.com Editor-in-Chief

One of America’s best-known chefs, food columnists, cookbook authors, and cooking teachers, Pepin also appeared recently on public television in the acclaimed public television series, “Jacques Pepin Celebrates,” which featured recipes for holidays and celebrations. The companion cookbook to the series, also called Jacques Pepin 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 Pepin’s Complete Techniques (Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, New York, 2001) is an updated, one-volume version of Pepin’s earlier classics, La Technique (1976) and La Methode (1979).

Pepin 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 Athenee. From 1956 to 1958, Pepin was the personal chef to three French heads of state, including Charles de Gaulle.

Moving to the United States in 1959, Pepin worked first at New York’s historic Le Pavilion 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.

Pepin 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 Pepin’s Kitchen: Encore with Claudine” (1998) and “Jacques Pepin’s Kitchen: Cooking with Claudifle”(1998).

A former columnist for The New York Times, Pepin 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, Pepin 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 Merite Agricole in 1992. The Dean of Special Programs at The French Culinary Institute (New York), Pepin 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.

As the Executive Culinary Director for Oceania Cruise Lines, his craftsmanship and artistry influence the daily menus onboard the Oceania fleet as they sail to exotic ports around the world.

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