Jacques Pépin Heart & Soul in the Kitchen

August 3, 2015
Pépin—winner of the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award, television chef, and author of 25 cookbooks—extends “an invitation to come over to our house for a meal” in his latest recipe collection, the companion cookbook to his 13th and final PBS TV series. These 200 recipes reflect Pépin’s “culinary heart and soul” and are low-fuss dishes promoting enjoyment of “wine, food, and companionship.” Pépin draws from his childhood and family table, travels, and reminiscences. Interspersed are essays on wine, eggs, gardening, and cooking with friends and family. The recipes are organized by course. An hors d’oeuvre of tequila-splashed smoked salmon tostadas with yogurt horseradish cream whets the appetite. Soups and salads feature leek and potato potage and spicy greens with mustard vinaigrette. Fish and seafood recipes abound, starring sauced grouper and red snapper dishes, and meats include Russian-style grilled lamb skewers and rabbit sautéed in mushroom cream sauce. Two dessert chapters, with fruit-based, custard, chocolate, and baked desserts, round out the collection. Pépin encourages tinkering with recipes, appreciating them as living things that can evolve according to every cook’s heart and soul.

July 1, 2015

Nearing his 80th birthday, French chef Pepin (Essential Pepin) is a culinary icon who has starred in 13 TV cooking shows and published more than 25 cookbooks. In this companion to his final PBS series, Jacques Pepin: Heart & Soul, he's compiled 200 recipes that he loves to prepare for close family and friends. He shows no snobbery when it comes to ingredients; in fact, he incorporates Ritz crackers, Tabasco sauce, and canned beans into his recipes with as much enthusiasm as truffle oil, pressed caviar, and duck livers. Readers can expect effortless, entertaining-worthy fare (Camembert in pistachio crust, broiled sole with chive butter, Swiss chard gratin), along with humorous and informative anecdotes from Pepin's storied career. VERDICT Highly recommended for fans of the chef and most public libraries.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2015
He may have earned the title of grand old man of American chefs, but Pepin's energy and enthusiasm continue to turn out both new public-television cooking series and respected cookbooks. One of the earliest proponents of French cooking in the U.S., Pepin has collaborated with and inspired so many other professional and amateur cooks that his influence has extended to every corner of the country. Classically trained and master of French technique, Pepin is no purist. He loves and celebrates good food of any provenance. This latest and beautifully photographed book validates his command of French cuisine, but it further demonstrates signs of Mexican influence, with Yucatan ceviche and sole with pico de gallo. Anchovies, beans, and olives reimagine a traditional Italian pasta. But the Francophile in him resurfaces to conjure classic cheese puffs and plenty of organ-meat recipes. Pepin's new PBS series is documented here, so expect heavy demand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)