Jacques Pepin: Man, Myth, Legend

[Anna N]

Huh.  I've done what Pepin showed for years without ever seeing it on Pepin's show or even knowing that Pepin showed it.  However, I only do a single cut through the leek (to give a "halved-but-connected" leek) through the wider part of the leek, i.e. in the plane of the axis of the speading leaves, then separating the leaves/bracts as needed under the tap.  I never needed to separate more than 4-5 levels from the outside to get all the grit out.  Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems to me that it is simply logical to do what Pepin showed - without needing to have Pepin show you what to do. 

 

At other times I simply remove the outermost leaves entirely then slit the inner leaves along the "rib" only as far as needed to check for grit.  I have never found it necessary to go inwards more than 4-5 "levels"; I've never found grit in the interior of the leaf bundle.  Of course, it helps to select "clean" looking tightly wrapped leeks in the first place.    These "more intact" leeks are nice for buttered leeks, say, or slicing into whole "rounds" (maybe 1-inch "thick") and sautéed/browned on the ends. 

 

FWIW I think Pepin is a nice guy and a good French chef but I hardly think of him (or Julia Child, for that matter) as Divine Personages.  In fact, I barely think of him at all.  But, of course, to each his/her own; diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, etc etc.

Oh huiray. You just gotta lighten up. I am in my 7th decade, Jacques is fast approaching his 8th and if he can still make me weak in the knees as he chops an onion....

[huiray]

No, rotuts, I'm quite fine. Thank you for your concern.  I think your snark is misplaced, however.  I believe you worship Pepin, however, and it may be that anyone who doesn't think the same way is somehow defective in your eyes.  That's too bad, for your sake.  Just saying.

[huiray]

Anna N, as I said - to each his/her own.  I did not say that you could not adore him.   I described what I did with leeks without benefit of Pepin and mentioned that I personally did not follow Pepin as avidly as some do.  I hardly think that is cause for needing to "lighten up" as it was merely a commentary on what seems logical to do with cleaning leeks.

[Porthos]

I worked with an electronics engineer who was open to help from anyone, from his peers to the janitor. I feel the same way about learning new techniques and tips in the kitchen. I am trying to watch the episode of Essential Pepin you mentioned and it keeps stalling out and taking me back to the start. I will wait for a while and try it again.

[huiray]

I worked with an electronics engineer who was open to help from anyone, from his peers to the janitor. I feel the same way about learning new techniques and tips in the kitchen. I am trying to watch the episode of Essential Pepin you mentioned and it keeps stalling out and taking me back to the start. I will wait for a while and try it again.

 

I trust you will be able to watch it in due course. 

 

Certainly one should look for tips and advice from folks of all sorts.  Those who did not know about something, or only knew one way to do something, would gain from others.  Nevertheless, there is always a danger of ascribing too much value to one or another person in any field, especially if one had not any knowledge or experience of doing something before. 

 

Then there is the issue of Holy Cows.**

 

edited for spelling

 

** ETA2: Or, more correctly, "Sacred Cows".

Edited July 24, 2014 by huiray (log)

[weinoo]

FWIW I think Pepin is a nice guy and a good French chef but I hardly think of him (or Julia Child, for that matter) as Divine Personages.  In fact, I barely think of him at all.  But, of course, to each his/her own; diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, etc etc.

 

 

No, rotuts, I'm quite fine. Thank you for your concern.  I think your snark is misplaced, however.  I believe you worship Pepin, however, and it may be that anyone who doesn't think the same way is somehow defective in your eyes.  That's too bad, for your sake.  Just saying.

 

Let us know, huiray, when you've cooked and made a career of it for 60-some years, including multiple cooking shows as well as seminal cookbooks.

[weinoo]

Also, you may want to accomplish some of this:

From 1956 to 1958, Pépin was the personal chef to three French heads of state, including Charles de Gaulle. In 1959 Pépin came to the United States to work at the restaurant Le Pavillon. Eight months later, in 1961, Howard Johnson, a regular Le Pavillon customer, hired Pépin to work alongside fellow Frenchman Pierre Franey to develop food lines for his chain of Howard Johnson's restaurants, while Pépin was attending Columbia University. Pépin received his B.A. degree from Columbia’s School of General Studies in 1970 and went on to earn a master’s degree in French literature at Columbia in 1972...                                                The success of his book La Technique, used to this day as a textbook for teaching the fundamentals of French cuisine, prompted him to launch a televised version resulting in an acclaimed 1997 PBS series, The Complete Pépin. Relaunched on PBS ten years after its initial run, the series included a new introduction by Pépin where he stressed that now more than ever the secret to being a successful chef and not a mere line cook lies in knowing and using the proper technique.  

Edited July 25, 2014 by weinoo (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I always wondered why Howard Johnson served ice cream in hot metal cups.  Technique may not be everything, however it sure does help.  Johnson could have saved a lot of money by asking any five year old.  In Pepin's defense I don't think I've eaten in a Howard Johnson restaurant since before Pepin came to the US.  But it brings back memories.

[gfweb]

Pepin was also the brains behind Craig Claibourne's NYT cookbook series, a seminal contribution that stands-up well today.

 

His own series was similarly great. Great recipes and great teaching.

 

Go get the NYT cookbook and show me one crappy recipe.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Pepin was also the brains behind Craig Claibourne's NYT cookbook series, a seminal contribution that stands-up well today.

 

His own series was similarly great. Great recipes and great teaching.

 

Go get the NYT cookbook and show me one crappy recipe.

 

Sorry to hear.  Nothing I have prepared from the NYT cookbook has been eatable.  How about leaden honey balls or equally leaden Cuban bread.

[gfweb]

Huh!?

 

The old NYT cookbook with Craig Claibourne's name on them?

[Norm Matthews]

If you want to do something, you gotta learn about it from someone. If they are good teachers, they make a lasting impression. I learned about cooking in the 60's from reading James Beard and watching Julia Child. In the 70's it was  Pepin's La Technique that was a source of instruction. I still enjoy watching him though I don't generally watch TV cooks very much anymore.

Edited July 25, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

[dcarch]

I have run into the guy a few times. I admire the guy for his skills, knowledge and humbleness.

 

I am surprised that no one has mentioned that he is a very accomplished painter, artist, a museum quality artist.

 

Google jacques Pepin artist painter, you will respect him, and his cooking even more.

 

http://www.artessexgallery.com/uploads/1/3/6/0/13605471/6853692_orig.jpg

 

dcarch

Edited July 25, 2014 by dcarch (log)

[HungryChris]

I have been a long time fan of JP. I read his book The Apprentice a few years ago and not only thoroughly enjoyed it, but admired him all the more afterwards. He has had quite a life!

 

 

HC

[weinoo]

I have run into the guy a few times. I admire the guy for his skills, knowledge and humbleness.

 

I am surprised that no one has mentioned that he is a very accomplished painter, artist, a museum quality artist.

 

Google jacques Pepin artist painter, you will respect him, and his cooking even more.

 

http://www.artessexgallery.com/uploads/1/3/6/0/13605471/6853692_orig.jpg

 

dcarch

 

He is well-known, amongst people who have had the pleasure of having food prepared by him, for his beautifully illustrated menus.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Huh!?

 

The old NYT cookbook with Craig Claibourne's name on them?

 

The New York Times Cookbook copyright 1961 by Craig Claiborne.

 

Honey Balls pp 560,561

 

Cuban Bread pp 462,463

[gfweb]

Huh.

 

Well then, no honey balls for me.

[huiray]

Let us know, huiray, when you've cooked and made a career of it for 60-some years, including multiple cooking shows as well as seminal cookbooks.

 

Also, you may want to accomplish some of this:

 

My Dear Weinoo,

 

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I have no intention of emulating Pepin or any other French chef.  Why would I?  It might not have come to your attention but I don’t cook French food (or very rarely) or use “French techniques”.  Nor do I feel a desire to carve out a career in food filmography or cookbook authorship, even though some may consider those pursuits the only routes to influence or fame.

 

I cook largely E/SE Asian food, with some pan-Indian as well.  (While my European-style food more often than not tends towards being Italianate in style or inspiration.**)  The techniques and methods (and ingredients) and ways of handling stuff were learned from folks and chefs who cooked in those E/SE Asian traditions.  It may be that various techniques between such cuisines and French cuisine look similar or are similar or even identical,^¶¶ but that does not mean that one had to learn said techniques from studying French cuisine, let alone learn it from Jacques Pepin.  (In anthropology I believe they call such things Parallel Evolution, setting aside issues like the predating of some cuisines compared with others.) 

 

In fact, even Pepin himself has said his cooking is influenced by Asian cuisines.

 

I completely agree that Pepin has had immense influence – but that is in large part in the context of French and Western European cooking.  By extension, that carries over into “American” cooking insofar as it applies to those expressions of it that are based on French cuisine.  It would seem that you (and various others here on eG) consider French cuisine to be the source of all cuisines, judging by your responses – but it might be an idea to consider that that may not be so.  Certainly BILLIONS of people do not cook French cuisine and have been happily cooking other sorts of cuisines with techniques developed in those cuisines, some for millenia; and all without benefit of Pepin.

 

I don’t shun Pepin.  However, I don’t idolize him either or consider him Divine or to be the Holiest of Holies.  The reasons include those I have outlined above regarding what I actually cook.  I do learn stuff from him as occasion arises or as needed, but also don’t consider him to be THE seminal influence in my cooking.  But that seems to be difficult for you to grasp.

 

Take care.

 

 

** So, in fact, Marcella Hazan is a greater influence on me (especially regarding Italian-American cuisine) or the cookbooks issued by other Italian chef-authors or by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina.

 

^¶¶ Another poster here in another thread has even commented that the technique of parboiling bones before using them to make stock in French cuisine seems to have been adopted from the Chinese Fei Sui technique.

[gfweb]

 

 

 

In fact, even Pepin himself has said his cooking is influenced by Asian cuisines.

 

 

I'd be careful about the word "asian". There are those on this board that would say it is meaninglessly non-specific.

[huiray]

I'd be careful about the word "asian". There are those on this board that would say it is meaninglessly non-specific.

 

Indeed.  Including myself.  Especially myself.  But that was what was ascribed to Pepin.  So one could even surmise that he was speaking in meaninglessly non-specific terms. Which could also be a reflection on his vagueness, or his (or his reporter's) Eurocentricity, or on whatever.  :-) ;-)