Linda’s Tips and Travel Notes

Food and Dining Radio Show Restaurant Roundabout– 5.1.08

Linda Gassenheimer (LG)

Joseph Cooper (JC)

Fred Tasker (FT)

Jacques Pépin (JP)

LG: We have a very special guest today. His name is Jacques Pépin. He’s a television personality, a teacher and he was Chef to three French Presidents including Charles de Gaul. A little known side of him is that he’s a painter and has a Masters Degree. He has a new book out entitled Traditions and Rituals of Cook. Welcome Jacques. 

JP: I’m delighted to be here. Thank you.

LG: Sitting in his usual seat is Fred Tasker. He’s the wine columnist for the Miami Herald and he writes the wine suggestions for my dinner in minutes column. What are we drinking today?

FT: I’m going to talk about Syrah, a very French wine.

LG: Well Jacques is joining us from

New York City. Congratulations on your new book. I love the charming paintings in your book.

JP: I’m sure you recognize many of the pictures. It reminds you of mushrooming and frogging and picking up fish from the sea with you. This is a kind of a visual autobiography explaining what we do with cooking.

LG: I remember one summer afternoon you took me to get wild mushrooms.

JP: Tried to kill you [laughing].

LG: We brought them back to your house and cooked them up. They were just delicious. They were so good.

FT: Is this all walking distance from your house?

JP: Yes, I go walk with my dog when I’m there.

LG: As you mentioned this is a very personal look at your life. What are some of your most vivid food memories?

JP: I put about 100 recipes in that book and contrary to other books that I’ve done with special angles, this one I tried to pick recipes that meant something to me. So in that sense it’s very personal and a bit different from my other books.

LG: Who did the photos?

JP: Tom Hopkins who is a friend of mine who lives in

Connecticut as well. He’s a great photographer.

LG: I remember you were playing boules once with my husband for hours and then you made hamburgers for us for dinner. I mention this because people don’t think of you as making hamburgers.

FT: How is that viewed back in

France?

JP: No one knows me in France so it doesn’t make a difference. Some professionals know me but it doesn’t matter. I love hamburger. In fact I made them in

France. One time I did a show with Julia Child and we made hamburger without putting salt on the meat which is more American style and she made hers French style! She had sautéed onions and mixed them into the meat pressed it on the skillet. To me that tastes like meat loaf!

FT: I saw that show. It was charming.

LG: I love how unpretentious your cooking is and, along those lines, I remember another time I asked you where I should buy ingredients and you said, “just go to the super market.”

JP: The supermarkets are nicer than they have ever been in this country. When I came here, 50 years ago, there were packaged foods and no oil or vinegar or herbs like we have now. I remember I asked for mushrooms and they pointed me to the canned mushrooms! Now you go and there are 15 types of fresh mushrooms. Most of them have no taste but they’re there. But even better than that, the organic movement is exploding and there are markets opening all over the country. We have one in Madison Connecticut and we have a farmers’ market and there are vegetables, fruits and meats.

LG: Another point that you bring out in the book is that you go ahead and find local farmers. They are in the book…for example the woman with fresh eggs.

JP: Yes there are. If you start looking around and asking you will find farmers who grow one thing or another. It’s important to support local farming and to support people around you.

LG: We have a emailer who asks, “can you tell me how to do a simple French recipe?”

JP: Which one?

LG: For a beginner.

JP: A roast chicken is hard and easy at the same time. Chicken are tender now. I would advise you to buy an organic or at least a chicken without hormones. Salt pepper inside out and into a 400 degree oven on one side 20 minutes, other side 20 minutes and standing on its back for 20 minutes. Make your sauce out of the dripping juice. Use an aluminum pan, not stainless steel, and take some of the fat out and put in some water. Do a salad with that and have your chicken luke warm with salad and it’s a meal for a king!

LG: You’re making us drool!

FT: I just wrote down everything you said!

JC: You don’t put herbs on that?

JP: You can put herb but you don’t have to. But you can put them on the salad.

LG: Well I’m Linda Gassenheimer. We’ll take a short break and be back with more.

[break]

LG: Well it’s time for dinner in minutes. My recipe today is turkey with refried been enchiladas with fried corn. If you’d like the recipe see my website www.dinnerinminutes.com. So Fred, what are we drinking?

FT: We’re drinking Syrah today. It’s a great wine but it can be confusing sometimes. 30 years ago it was the most important grape in France’s

Rhône

Valley. Then the Australians got into the act and imported Syrah vines into their own, but they decided to call it

Shiraz. But

Australia is warm and sunny so it turned out quite different. It’s soft and sweet and sometimes you have to add cabernet to give it more backbone. Then

California imported some vines but they kept the Syrah wines. Here’s where it gets confusing. Now some California wine makers are starting to call their Syrah names

Shiraz. They say they do it when they make it in the Australian style. But now growers from

Australia are starting to make the wines under both names which makes the situation even more confusing. So the thing to remember is that Syrah is big and powerful and

Shiraz is ripe and jammy. But I’d like to ask Jacques if he finds himself serving French wines or are you more eclectic?

JP: It depends on the price. Unfortunately American wine is more expensive than Italian and

Portugal. French of course I can find a good bottle between 8 and 12 dollars.

FT: Even with the Euro?

JP: Yes, for some reason wine is too expensive here. Except or very ordinary wine it tends to be too expensive.

LG: Jacques you are the Dean of the French Culinary Institute in

New York City. Have you seen a change in the students in the last few years?

JP: Yes and no. The school is going well – we are full. It’s amazing how in a recession our enrollment goes up. Maybe people want to try a new business. For us the average age is 25-38. We also have people who were lawyers, doctors and accountants. We have 95 people who are having their second career. Certainly if you compare to 25 years ago the female enrollment is up. Now there are more women than men.

FT: Do the older students have the energy?

JP: It depends what you’re going to do. If you’re young and unattached you can work in the best restaurants and learn and really do it. When I spoke with a more mature students who are in their second career he already knew what he wanted to do. We sent him to a small restaurant so he can learn what’s happening to him when he’s running a place himself. So even at that age you can produce good food.

LG: Well we’re out of time. It has been excellent speaking with you Jacques.

JP: Thank you for having me. Say hello to all of my friends there.

LG: Jacque’s new book is Traditions and Rituals of Cook. It’s a treasure. Join us next week.