Jacques Pépin: A Lullaby

There is something so comforting about watching somebody else cook. It’s like being a child again in the family kitchen just smelling something good and learning new things.

I remember Julia Child’s early episodes on PBS. I loved her pegboard with hooks containing all manner of mismatched kitchen equipment and her carefree approach to cooking. I wanted to be like her. I’ve been told by my mother that I could mimic her voice at the age of six. Even now, I have a pegboard like hers to store extra kitchen equipment in my basement.

When my husband and I were first married and living in Harvard Square, I would occasionally spot Julia Child—a giant of a woman in a tiny bright blue Citroen. I thrilled at those moments and knew if I ever got the question “If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?” it would most certainly be Julia Child, in her kitchen. For me, she was a movie star with intelligence and a madcap “Je ne sais quoi.”

Fast forward many years and I find that during this time of stay-at-home order, I am once again drawn to Julia Child. Trouble is, her cooking is from a time and place quite different from where we are right now. She is deliberate in her technique and exacting in her recipes, with multiple complex stages. In these days of staying and working at home, I find it all a bit daunting, like one of those ‘80s recipes in Gourmet—more detail than I can handle right now.

Enter Jacques Pépin, her frequent television comrade in the kitchen, who has a series on PBS not unlike Julia’s original TV show, but with an even more relaxed approach. It feels like the home cooking we all can do, even after a day at work in the next room. It’s called: Jacques Pépin, Heart and Soul. I have been following him since his days with Julia, and true to the mission of great home cooking, every episode speaks to me. Every night, I get new idea for tomorrow. He is one of the founders of Boston University’s Gastronomy program and if you Google that, you will find a photo of Edible Boston’s founder, Ilene Bezahler, introducing him at a forum. If I were to follow my true calling, I would enroll tomorrow.

Here is what I love about Jacques Pépin and his show:

First, he’s a very striking older man with kind eyes—all things that remind me of my grandfather. His hands are strong, capable and utterly resistant to heat. His fingers move food around a skillet with impunity.

Second, it doesn’t feel like a fully staged and produced cooking show. He seems to do a lot of his own prep. I am convinced that he is not a little proud of his knife skills, which are extraordinary. I could watch him chop vegetables or fillet fish every day of my life—it’s like a reality show, where a sharp knife threatens injury and ruin, but everything always comes out all right.

Third, he cooks with his daughter and granddaughter, often for his wife. He cooks things they like, and they are women with opinions. He doesn’t fuss at them about technique. He goes for cooperation and respect instead of slavish attention to detail. Best of all, I learn something new every time I watch his show. 

I have learned how to cook salt cod, clean calamari and seal salmon rillettes with a layer of clarified butter. His paté is so simple, yet I find I am salivating. I told my son about how I saw him make focaccia from refrigerated pizza dough. What real chef is willing to teach that? We made it and we squabbled over every last bite. What’s more, he has an intense focus on ingredients without pretenses. Surely, he has his sources, but he offers accessible alternatives for anything rare.

My guilty pleasure during the stay-at-home order is watching one episode every night, all on my own. Don’t get me wrong, I love my fellow inmates, but alone time isn’t so easy to carve out with everyone working and living all in the same place. Each episode is a lullaby from a person who demands nothing of me. He feeds my food-loving soul with interesting ideas I can do at home, with no reproof or challenge. He is the embodiment of a principle that I hold dear—good food, prepared with care, is an essential form of love.

A votre santé, Chef Pépin, bon nuit et à bientôt.