Pépin - Jacques Pépin: heart & soul in the kitchen

Copyright 2015 by Jacques Ppin

Paintings 2015 by Jacques Ppin

Photographs copyright 2015 by Tom Hopkins Studio

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

isbn 978-0-544-30198-6 (paper over board); 978-0-544-30226-6 (ebook)

Book design by Endpaper Studio

v1.1015

The making of Heart & Soul, the book and the companion PBS TV series, was a complicated process that required the combined efforts of many, many good people and took several years. I always count on my wife, Gloria, for advice and ideas and, of course, Norma Galehouse, my longtime assistant. She has worked on two dozen books with me, and I continue to rely on her to make something readable out of the notes I give her. Thanks, also, to Doe Coover, my agent, who was very involved in the production of the book; to Rux Martin, my editor, for her confidence, enthusiasm, and guidance; and to Barry Estabrook, for looking at many of my notes and editing and polishing my writing. I am most grateful, too, for the very thorough copyediting of Judith Sutton, who improved the book greatly. I am indebted to Tom Hopkins for his friendship and the great photographs he tooknot only of the food in the book, but also of the artwork I have included. Thanks, too, to Rich Kosenski, who worked with Tom on this project.

I want to thank Jean-Claude Szurdak, my best friend, who spent a great amount of time helping megoing to the market, helping me prepare the food, and then organizing it for the photography sessions. I want also to thank Claudine, my daughter, as well as Rollie Wesen, her husband and my son-in-law, for assisting me with the preparation of some of the dishes.

The television series based on this book is the thirteenth of my series filmed at KQED, the PBS station in San Francisco, over the last twenty-eight years. I want to thank my friends at the station, especially John Boland, the president of KQED and a great supporter, and Michael Isip, the stations Chief Content Officer and series executive producer, whose guidance, confidence, and friendship I rely on. I also want to thank Laureen Chang, who raised money for the series; DeLinda Mrowka, for her work on series promotion and advertisements; and Janet Lim Young, our capable liaison in marketing and client services. And thanks to Wendy Goodfriend, the very talented person in charge of KQEDs website, for all her hard work.

In the back kitchen during the filming were, as always, my friends Jean-Claude, David Shalleck, and Michael Pleiss. In addition, Im grateful to the incredible kitchen staff, Richard Ju and Kelly Gladstone and assistants Kim Kaechele, Carrie Dove, and Hubert Garcia. They not only were competent, but were always happy and smiling.

More than anyone else, I want to thank Tina Salter, my producer of many, many years, for her dedication, professionalism, passion, humor, and kindness, and Christine Swett, her assistant, for her talent and commitment. Thanks, too, to June Ouellette, who did a great job as associate producer. A heartfelt thank-you to Paul Swensen, our director, who replaced our dear departed friend Bruce Franchini. Paul did a great job and was very patient with me, and I thank him for his technical knowledge and endurance.

Thanks again to my friend Jean-Claude, for appearing on several of the shows with me, and thanks to Claudine; to Shorey, my granddaughter; and to Rollie, for being with me on the series too. I also want to give a big thank-you to the technical crew and cameramen for their efficient and skilled work.

Finally, to everyone involved in the book and the series, your cooperation, dedication, and hard work made me look good and I am grateful for that.

Introduction

Think of this book as an invitation to come over to my house for a meal. Like most gatherings here, it will be accompanied by plenty of interesting conversation about food (French people like to talk about food almost as much as they enjoy eating it), spiced with reminiscences, stories, perhaps a little gossip, and, of course, generous pourings of wine.

Most of the two dozen cookbooks I have written over the past four decades have had specific themes: fast cooking, French cooking, economical cooking, healthy cooking.... For this book, mindful that as I approach the age of eighty I have a limited number of cookbooks in my future, I decided to gather a collection of the recipes that I cook at home today.

Youll find the dishes I prepare for quiet evenings when my wife, Gloria, and I are alone. Many of these recipes are also ideal when we have small gatherings of family or friends. Ive included some true standbys that I rely on when guests drop by on the spur of the moment. And then there are the festive dishes that I set out when we have large gatherings, particularly in the summer, when dozens of hungry and thirsty folks descend upon our place for afternoons and evenings of spirited boules matches on our backyard court. Although the recipes in this book typically serve four or six, almost all of them can be expanded to accommodate bigger groups. In all cases, the recipes are for the food I love to eat and enjoy with those dearest to me. They represent my culinary heart and soul.

The first requirement for anything I serve at my house is that it taste good. No compromises! I dont want people to come away from my table feeling that they have had some sort of culinary experience. I just want them to say to themselves, This was really good. I also prepare food with as little fuss as possible, not the least because I want to be able to enjoy the wine, food, and companionship myself.

Creation in the kitchen, for me, means constantly improving the familiar, tweaking and whittling my recipes over the years in a never-ending process of making them better and reducing complication until I arrive at their essential qualities. The result is really tasty food that I (and you) can make as quickly and easily as possible.