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American Morning
Chef Jacques Pepin Discusses 'Food & Wine' Classic in Aspen
Aired June 13, 2001 - 10:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Father's Day is coming up, and a lot of folks are preparing to take dad out for a good dinner, but at least one father is cooking up his own favorites for the table.
Chef Jacques Pepin will prepare his special recipes for Father's Day at the "Food & Wine" Classic in Aspen, Colorado. The event is sponsored by "Food & Wine" magazine.
Jacques joins us now to talk more about the big food event and his Father's Day plans.
Jacques, I want you to know everyone's been trying to train me on the French. Say your last name for me?
JACQUES PEPIN, CHEF: Well, it goes from Jacques Pepin to "Hach- wes Pepino."
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: You're so wonderful. I'm going to stick with Jacques. That's much easier for me.
You've got a lot of fans here, my friend. I've got to tell you.
PEPIN: Oh, great. I love it, you know.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Why don't you come and visit? You can cook for us.
PEPIN: I'd love to. Just invite me.
PHILLIPS: You're invited -- it's official -- to all the nation.
PEPIN: Terrific.
PHILLIPS: You started cooking at a very early age. I know that you got your formal apprenticeship at 13. Give us a little background.
PEPIN: I've been in the kitchen 52 years; that's a long time, and when I was in my early 20s, I actually cooked for the French president -- three of them; the last one was de Gaulle. A friend of mine introduced me the other day and said that man cooked for three presidents -- the three of them are dead. That's how I was introduced. I didn't do it.
PHILLIPS: Maybe we don't want to taste your food, Jacques, I don't know.
So what stimulated the interest? Was it Mom or Dad?
PEPIN: Mom, Mom -- my mother had a restaurant in Leognan. My father was a cabinet maker by trade. I left home when I was 13 to go into formal apprenticeship, but home was already a restaurant. So I've been in that business forever.
PHILLIPS: Not only that, but we have another little twist to talk about, and that is the relationship with your daughter. Everybody talks about this show that you do with your daughter, and you're going to be launching another one. Tell us about this special relationship and how you guys starting doing this together.
PEPIN: I do my show at KQED, the PBS station in San Francisco. A number of years ago, we decided I would really like to have a partner with me that I can play off and who can become the vox populi to whom I can explain the dishes. I would if I had people working with me. Claudine was the perfect choice, and we did a series called "Cooking With Claudine," 26 shows; another series, "Encore With Claudine," 26 more shows; and now we have one starting in September, called "Jacques Pepin Celebrates," again with Claudine.
This is a bit more elaborate because we shot some of the stuff in Connecticut, at our house. You can know by my drawl I'm a Connecticut Yankee.
We had a great time together. Claudine worked here, in New York. She's representing Dom Perignon champagne. So she goes to the best restaurants, and I go with her. She invites me occasionally. We have a good time.
PHILLIPS: I like this. You can come cook. She can bring the Dom. We're going to have a party, Leon.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: I want to talk a little bit more about you and your daughter, and how you think that cooking has influenced your relationship. has is it sort of touched your soul in a unique way, the two of you?
PEPIN: Absolutely. I feel that the kitchen is most inviting, most mysterious, in some way, place in the house, and for a child coming from school to be immersed in those smells and the noise of kitchen, it is a place which is very comforting -- since Claudine was a year old, she tasted whatever I was doing. I'd hold her in my arm, and she'd stir the pot, so she "made it" when she stirred the pot.
So that part of her youth was probably very influential to her, although when she was a teenager, of course, she would never have dreamed of doing anything remotely close to what I'm doing, like any teenage kid. But now it seems that -- I mean, we do have our differences, our arguments, but we love one another, and we have a good time.
But the last series that I did was with Julia Child, so Claudine told me you dropped me for an older woman, which I did, so now I'm back with Claudine.
PHILLIPS: But I understand the American Council of Modern Father's Day has nominated you father of the year, right?
PEPIN: It was amazing. I was flabbergasted. I was with George Foreman. I have to take pictures to send to my brother in France, and Michael Powell, and a lot of very important people, so I was very flattered, and it was terrific.
PHILLIPS: What a great experience.
Finally, before we let you go, I know you are going to be cooking at the Aspen "Food & Wine" Classic. What are you going to be whipping up for Father's Day.
PEPIN: I tell you, this is an incredible place. From the 14th to the 18th, it's the "Food & Wine" Classic in Aspen. This is my 19th year. Last year, we drank close to 40,000 bottles of wine. So you guys have to come. I'm making some shrimp penne on watercress. I'm doing broiled fig, little mignon of pork with a pork sauce. I'm cooking with Claudine, of course, and I'm taking my cousin, who is here from France, so we're going to have a blast. This is the most incredible festival.
PHILLIPS: Sounds like party. Leon and I will book our tickets. We'll see you in a little bit, OK, Jacques?
PEPIN: OK.
PHILLIPS: Thanks for joining us. An absolutely pleasure, sir.
PEPIN: Thank you. Thank you very much.
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