Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you, M. Jacques Pepin. My secret crush. The smooooothest man on earth. He is the Jackie Chan of the kitchen. Nothing flusters him, there is nothing he can't do. You could put him on a remote island with no utensils and no kitchen and give him a wild beast to roast and dress and he would probably carve a chefs knife from a bamboo branch. He would build a fire in a pit that maintained the perfect constant temperature and turned out something fit for heads of state. Watching him cut up a chicken or butcher a side of beef into perfectly trimmed steaks is like watching a skilled surgeon put someone back together again (or deconstruct as it were). It doesn't hurt that he has a very soothing voice with a heavy french accent and that he has absolutely never, in probably 20 years of my show watching, had anything go wrong in the kitchen.
I am something of a big fan of cooking shows and have been for years. I actually ended up going to culinary school a few years back and became a trained pastry chef. I also was taught many classic techniques for general cooking too and it was at this time that ...I was honored to be able to meet Mr Pepin. I also met Pierre Franey who was a sweetheart and happened to have the gout at the time but that is another story. Back to Jacques.
He was doing a "demo" as we call it in the series of visiting famous chefs. I was one of his assistants. My job was to measure and weigh all the ingredients carefully and leave them out for him so his demonstration went off without a hitch. I did this with pleasure. I stood by in anticipation that he might need something extra during the demo and watched his every move. I was mesmerized.
After his "performance" I was able to meet him. He shook my hand and thanked me, and told me I was too pretty to be in the kitchen. Terribly sexist, terribly politically incorrect and I knew this, but I was swooning at the time because well, he's Jacques Pepin! He was a bit smarmy toward women and I can't justify that but he was just magnetic. I got the feeling that he was an incorrigible hound. Usually, men like this disgust me but not Jacques. I can't explain why, but I'm guessing his enormous talent in the kitchen over rode his sexism for me.
For years I have watched his shows, the ones alone and the ones with his daughter Claudine. The thing I admire about him is that he always makes every meal an occasion but it's never something that an average person couldn't do. Well, unless it's a theme show like "Christmas in Provence" and he is doing intricate specialties. Even then, anyone could do it following his instructions but it wouldn't be a quick easy preparation that most people would look to unless you are a serious cook.
I've tried to make a lot of his dishes and he is completely on the mark with his techniques and instructions. He is a true master. The thing is, most of what I make never makes it out of the pot and onto the table he sets with the glasses of wine, the flowers, each side dish in a charmingly rustic serving dish or bowl. When the man and I were together, I would always make special Sunday dinners and those were something to behold. Weeknights though, well, it just wasn't something I could manage. I will always aspire to be the Jacques of the kitchen. My dream is to have people sitting at my table as I present platters of Jacques-esque dishes that I just "whipped up" in a few minutes.
If Jacques didn't exist, Lidia Bastianich would be my number one. She is up there for me right now, I love her food and I love her show. She is almost an Italian version of Jacques as far as skill and ease of preparation and people pleasing dishes. Lidia however, is a little too heavy on the cheese, butter and olive oil for me. This makes her food not something I would prepare everyday but for special meals, she is on top for me and I love her. I also really like the mild conflict she occasionally has with her son Joe when he appears on her show. Once, she pointed something out to him that he disputed with her as being incorrect. In the end she was right and she made a jab at him that went something like "Oh, so your mother was right huh?? How about that?" It was pretty true to form of a real mother child relationship and cracked me up. She even lives not too far from me and she frequents a restaurant in my neighborhood a lot. It would be a dream of mine to actually run into her one day and tell her how much I respect her abilities and use her recipes and techniques.
There are other shows I enjoy as well but for me, Jacques was my first and there will always be a soft spot in my heart for him. So to you Jacques, I raise my glass in thanks and admiration.A votre sante!
That's all for now :)
No comments:
Post a Comment