7 ms·

Jacques Pepin, unlike other celebrity chefs, will actually teach you how to cook

117 points by CarolineW 10y ago

WheelsAtLarge 10y ago
Try, Cooks Country https://www.cookscountry.com/ https://www.cookscountry.com/ is by far the best. You can grab the recipes on line, that's how they make their money so you pay, and they show you how to cook it on the show. You can't go wrong. Also, Jacques focuses on French recipes. Yes, it's nice but that's not the only type of food I want to cook.
- tootie 10y ago
  Everything on PBS is gold. Jacques Pepin is my favorite, but America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Country, Lidia, Ming Tsai, even Nick Stellino. All great.
  - hugodahl 10y ago
    I've always had an affinity, going back to my childhood, for Martin Yan for his cleaver style and catchphrase "If Yan can cook, so can you".
    - sn9 10y ago
      There are videos of that guy taking apart a whole chicken in 12 seconds. Just a truly impressive level of skill. (IIRC, the cleaver is actually a Chinese chef's knife, different in construction from western meat cleavers which are thicker and heavier to chop through bone.)
  - WheelsAtLarge 10y ago
    True PBS does rock. Food Network HAD some value a while back but it's turned into reality TV which blows.
  - aczerepinski 10y ago
    Don't forget Jose Andres!
  - ConroyBumpus 10y ago
    My local PBS station reruns 1970's Justin Wilson episodes in the middle of the night. Pure awesomeness.
- aczerepinski 10y ago
  Disclosure: I work there. We also have another site, onlinecookingschool.com, that's even more directly focused on teaching technique and so forth. I have access to the recipes as a job perk but have barely scratched the surface as the collection is enormous.
agumonkey 10y ago
Tempted to say "how to think". The now famous chicken deboning is a biomechanics tutorial in disguise.
tptacek 10y ago
Recurring reminder that Pepin's chicken deboning video is the best cooking video that has ever or will ever be put on the Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfY0lrdXar8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfY0lrdXar8
- Tomte 10y ago
  Damn, I've just re-watched it, like a dozen times before... But a question: all those TV cooks trade convenience in front of the camera for hygiene, do they? Jamie Oliver is my favorite offender, always mixing all kinds of dressings and sauces with his bare hands, then, without even touching a towel, grabbng the refridgerator door. Here in that video Pépin has just been handling chicken, his hands are covered in grease, and he picks up a pinch of salt from a bowl where the rest theoretically remains for the next five days. Am I just too extreme?
  - tptacek 10y ago
    You are mostly too extreme. Home cooks are way more squeamish about proteins than professional cooks and butchers are. But no part of his technique depends on how casual he is with his proteins. I'm pretty careful about chicken and cross-contamination, and I can execute Pepin's deboning technique in under a minute. I use paper towels, for instance, instead of side towels when breaking down birds.
    - Tomte 10y ago
      Technique is a good point, and the one I'm actually really interested in. I'm a beginner in cooking, and just today I made a bad trade: leave the big chef knife be and take the smaller serrated one, so I'd only have to clean one knife. The result should come as no surprise: a trip to the hospital to have a nasty cut desinfected and bandaged, because I didn't manage to staunch it. I thought I had already learned that lesson: Proper tool and good technique is important. Obviously not.
      - maxerickson 10y ago
weisser 10y ago
I grew up in the town next to Jacques and asked if he would take part in a project for French class. He invited me and my project partners to his house, gave us a tour of his TV production kitchen, let us film a segment for our video, and signed a copy of his book for or teacher. Needless to say we got an A+ but more importantly we got to spend time with an incredibly intelligent and empathetic master. Forever grateful that he took the time to meet with us silly but curious kids.
Natales 10y ago
What I learned the most from JP is the "no fuss" approach to cooking. A little bit of this and a little bit of that. A relaxed approach. I typically follow the school of though of the Modernist Cuisine, where precise measurements are everything. And don't get me wrong, they work great. But cooking like that feels more like an engineering project. Results are great, but it's "less fun". What I learned from JP is to be flexible within reason, and to relax, share with friends and family in the kitchen and have more fun in the process. Last year, KQED did a radio interview with JP, and people kept asking him what was his favorite knife brand, type, etc. He said "the sharp one". And he showed amazement at how chefs are now celebrities. "After all, we are just food preparers". His humility is the real teaching here.
- collyw 10y ago
  Reminds me of this article I was reading the other day, comparing writing code to cooking: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000024.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000024.html
mmgutz 10y ago
Jacques and Julia ... those were the days My boiled eggs always come out perfect and more importantly easy to peel thanks to him.
myrandomcomment 10y ago
He is fantastic if you want to learn how to cook. His shows are funny and entertaining and also teach and make things look simple. Another show I can highly recommend if you want to learn how to cook is Good Eats with Alton Brown. Both shows teach while being enjoyable to watch.
- oftenwrong 10y ago
  Good Eats and Fast Food My Way were my introduction to cooking. I think the latter was more influential for me because it helped me to stop measuring and cook by feel.
webkike 10y ago
I love Pepin. Mostly because of his delightfully pleasant accent but also because his no-nonse view of cooking as a craftmanship.
fotbr 10y ago
I'm late to the food-on-tv game. I learned a little in school, where we actually had mandatory "home economics" classes that taught basic food safety and a few simple dishes, along with things like balancing a checkbook (yes, there were people who didn't make the connection between that and math class) and basic hand and machine sewing. I learned more from my parents, but mostly I learned from my grandmother. As a result, I arrived at college in a little better shape than most of my peers, who could barely work a microwave. Driven partially by necessity, they watched a lot of food network back when it was mostly how-to shows and the only "competition" they aired was late-night translations of the Japanese iron chef show. A decade later, food network was nearly all competition and food-tour shows. They stood up a sister network -- cooking channel or something similar, which seemed to be mostly re-runs of their old how-to shows, some of which are surprisingly good. Unfortunately, it too is falling to the competition tv genre, and if you want actual cooking instruction you have to catch it early morning or late night, when the remaining non-competition shows are still on. It would be nice if, along with cookbooks, some of those shows were available in complete collections that I could purchase.
- jf271 10y ago
  My wife still teaches "Consumer and Family Studies" in one of the few school systems here that still has that curriculum. From how amazed the kids are that you can prepare things from scratch I don't think there are too many parents and grandmothers out there cooking dinner. Mostly takeout and packaged goods. PBS has a secondary channel here called Create that runs a lot of the older cooking shows during the evening and prime-time hours. Maybe take a look and see if it available in your area.
caf 10y ago
Perhaps oddly, another celebrity chef that you will learn worthwhile things from is Heston Blumenthal (despite the fact that the actual dishes he makes tend to be the sort of incredibly complex creations that you'd never think of making at home). You wouldn't use his recipes, but if you listen you'll learn much about the basic chemistry and physics that underlies a lot of the "why" of cooking and baking (things like: salt binds together the meat in patties / sausages; the purpose of oil on a pan is to increase heat transfer into the food). The "in search of perfection" series is pretty good in this vein, because he takes routine dishes (eg fried chicken, pizza) and analyses how to optimise them, which gives you an insight into the most important parts of the preparation.
ElCapitanMarkla 10y ago
If you like Jacques check out some of the videos with him and Julia Child. Especially the ones where she's getting on in years, the banter is hilarious.
ElCapitanMarkla 10y ago
If you like Jacques check out some of the videos with him and Julia Child. Especially the ones where she's getting on in years, the banter is hilarious.
wyclif 10y ago
I really hope they put those classic episodes on YouTube.

117 points by CarolineW 10y ago

Try, Cooks Country https://www.cookscountry.com/ https://www.cookscountry.com/ is by far the best. You can grab the recipes on line, that's how they make their money so you pay, and they show you how to cook it on the show. You can't go wrong. Also, Jacques focuses on French recipes. Yes, it's nice but that's not the only type of food I want to cook.

tootie 10y ago
Everything on PBS is gold. Jacques Pepin is my favorite, but America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Country, Lidia, Ming Tsai, even Nick Stellino. All great.
- hugodahl 10y ago
  I've always had an affinity, going back to my childhood, for Martin Yan for his cleaver style and catchphrase "If Yan can cook, so can you".
  - sn9 10y ago
    There are videos of that guy taking apart a whole chicken in 12 seconds. Just a truly impressive level of skill. (IIRC, the cleaver is actually a Chinese chef's knife, different in construction from western meat cleavers which are thicker and heavier to chop through bone.)
- WheelsAtLarge 10y ago
  True PBS does rock. Food Network HAD some value a while back but it's turned into reality TV which blows.
- aczerepinski 10y ago
  Don't forget Jose Andres!
- ConroyBumpus 10y ago
  My local PBS station reruns 1970's Justin Wilson episodes in the middle of the night. Pure awesomeness.
aczerepinski 10y ago
Disclosure: I work there. We also have another site, onlinecookingschool.com, that's even more directly focused on teaching technique and so forth. I have access to the recipes as a job perk but have barely scratched the surface as the collection is enormous.

agumonkey 10y ago

Tempted to say "how to think". The now famous chicken deboning is a biomechanics tutorial in disguise.

tptacek 10y ago

Recurring reminder that Pepin's chicken deboning video is the best cooking video that has ever or will ever be put on the Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfY0lrdXar8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfY0lrdXar8

Tomte 10y ago
Damn, I've just re-watched it, like a dozen times before... But a question: all those TV cooks trade convenience in front of the camera for hygiene, do they? Jamie Oliver is my favorite offender, always mixing all kinds of dressings and sauces with his bare hands, then, without even touching a towel, grabbng the refridgerator door. Here in that video Pépin has just been handling chicken, his hands are covered in grease, and he picks up a pinch of salt from a bowl where the rest theoretically remains for the next five days. Am I just too extreme?
- tptacek 10y ago
  You are mostly too extreme. Home cooks are way more squeamish about proteins than professional cooks and butchers are. But no part of his technique depends on how casual he is with his proteins. I'm pretty careful about chicken and cross-contamination, and I can execute Pepin's deboning technique in under a minute. I use paper towels, for instance, instead of side towels when breaking down birds.
  - Tomte 10y ago
    Technique is a good point, and the one I'm actually really interested in. I'm a beginner in cooking, and just today I made a bad trade: leave the big chef knife be and take the smaller serrated one, so I'd only have to clean one knife. The result should come as no surprise: a trip to the hospital to have a nasty cut desinfected and bandaged, because I didn't manage to staunch it. I thought I had already learned that lesson: Proper tool and good technique is important. Obviously not.
    - maxerickson 10y ago

weisser 10y ago

I grew up in the town next to Jacques and asked if he would take part in a project for French class. He invited me and my project partners to his house, gave us a tour of his TV production kitchen, let us film a segment for our video, and signed a copy of his book for or teacher. Needless to say we got an A+ but more importantly we got to spend time with an incredibly intelligent and empathetic master. Forever grateful that he took the time to meet with us silly but curious kids.

Natales 10y ago

What I learned the most from JP is the "no fuss" approach to cooking. A little bit of this and a little bit of that. A relaxed approach. I typically follow the school of though of the Modernist Cuisine, where precise measurements are everything. And don't get me wrong, they work great. But cooking like that feels more like an engineering project. Results are great, but it's "less fun". What I learned from JP is to be flexible within reason, and to relax, share with friends and family in the kitchen and have more fun in the process. Last year, KQED did a radio interview with JP, and people kept asking him what was his favorite knife brand, type, etc. He said "the sharp one". And he showed amazement at how chefs are now celebrities. "After all, we are just food preparers". His humility is the real teaching here.

collyw 10y ago
Reminds me of this article I was reading the other day, comparing writing code to cooking: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000024.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000024.html

mmgutz 10y ago

Jacques and Julia ... those were the days My boiled eggs always come out perfect and more importantly easy to peel thanks to him.

myrandomcomment 10y ago

He is fantastic if you want to learn how to cook. His shows are funny and entertaining and also teach and make things look simple. Another show I can highly recommend if you want to learn how to cook is Good Eats with Alton Brown. Both shows teach while being enjoyable to watch.

oftenwrong 10y ago
Good Eats and Fast Food My Way were my introduction to cooking. I think the latter was more influential for me because it helped me to stop measuring and cook by feel.

webkike 10y ago

I love Pepin. Mostly because of his delightfully pleasant accent but also because his no-nonse view of cooking as a craftmanship.

fotbr 10y ago

I'm late to the food-on-tv game. I learned a little in school, where we actually had mandatory "home economics" classes that taught basic food safety and a few simple dishes, along with things like balancing a checkbook (yes, there were people who didn't make the connection between that and math class) and basic hand and machine sewing. I learned more from my parents, but mostly I learned from my grandmother. As a result, I arrived at college in a little better shape than most of my peers, who could barely work a microwave. Driven partially by necessity, they watched a lot of food network back when it was mostly how-to shows and the only "competition" they aired was late-night translations of the Japanese iron chef show. A decade later, food network was nearly all competition and food-tour shows. They stood up a sister network -- cooking channel or something similar, which seemed to be mostly re-runs of their old how-to shows, some of which are surprisingly good. Unfortunately, it too is falling to the competition tv genre, and if you want actual cooking instruction you have to catch it early morning or late night, when the remaining non-competition shows are still on. It would be nice if, along with cookbooks, some of those shows were available in complete collections that I could purchase.

jf271 10y ago
My wife still teaches "Consumer and Family Studies" in one of the few school systems here that still has that curriculum. From how amazed the kids are that you can prepare things from scratch I don't think there are too many parents and grandmothers out there cooking dinner. Mostly takeout and packaged goods. PBS has a secondary channel here called Create that runs a lot of the older cooking shows during the evening and prime-time hours. Maybe take a look and see if it available in your area.

caf 10y ago

Perhaps oddly, another celebrity chef that you will learn worthwhile things from is Heston Blumenthal (despite the fact that the actual dishes he makes tend to be the sort of incredibly complex creations that you'd never think of making at home). You wouldn't use his recipes, but if you listen you'll learn much about the basic chemistry and physics that underlies a lot of the "why" of cooking and baking (things like: salt binds together the meat in patties / sausages; the purpose of oil on a pan is to increase heat transfer into the food). The "in search of perfection" series is pretty good in this vein, because he takes routine dishes (eg fried chicken, pizza) and analyses how to optimise them, which gives you an insight into the most important parts of the preparation.

ElCapitanMarkla 10y ago

If you like Jacques check out some of the videos with him and Julia Child. Especially the ones where she's getting on in years, the banter is hilarious.

ElCapitanMarkla 10y ago

If you like Jacques check out some of the videos with him and Julia Child. Especially the ones where she's getting on in years, the banter is hilarious.

wyclif 10y ago

I really hope they put those classic episodes on YouTube.