Jacques Pepin


One of America's best-known chefs, cookbook authors, and cooking teachers, Jacques Pepin has published 25 cookbooks and hosted nine acclaimed public television cooking series. Pepin's latest book, a visual biography entitled Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook, was published in April 2007 by Stewart Tabori & Chang. His most personal book to date, it contains 100 of his favorite recipes, showcases his art and his essays on food history and cooking, and includes stunning photographs of him enjoying life with family and friends. It follows his bestselling memoir, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, which was published in hardcover in 2003 and in paperback in 2004 by the Houghton Mifflin Company.

"Fast Food My Way" produced by KQED-TV in San Francisco, is Pepin's most recent PBS-TV series (2004), with a companion cookbook published by Houghton Mifflin. A follow-up series and cookbook, both entitled "More Fast Food My Way," will debut in 2008. Also on the horizon is the re-release of a 1997 KQED series featuring Pepin's renowned cooking techniques. Updated and renamed "The Complete Pepin," it is scheduled for broadcast nationally on public television stations beginning in the fall of 2007.

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 Pavillon 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.

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) since 1988, Pepin is an adjunct faculty member at Boston University. He is a founder of The American Institute of Wine and Food and a member of the International Association of Cooking Professionals. He and his wife, Gloria, live in Madison, Connecticut.