Jacques Pépin
Jacques Pépin is a French chef, cookbook author, artist and cooking teacher who shares kitchen techniques through public television, online videos and the Jacques Pépin Foundation.
At 100 nudges, fangea sends Jacques’s team an official invite.
🔒 Star boosts open once Jacques claims this page.
Latest
Jacques’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus their backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
Books
Knopf
KQED / PBS
HarvestOverview
- Born
- 1935 · Bourg-en-Bresse, France
- Based in
- Connecticut, home since 1975
- Craft
- Chef, author, teacher, television host and artist
- Early landmark
- La Technique, published in 1976
- Online chapter
- Cooking at Home videos began in 2020
- Family project
- Co-founded the Jacques Pépin Foundation in 2016 with Claudine Pépin and Rollie Wesen
Mini bio
A restaurant childhood.
Jacques grew up helping in his parents’ restaurant, Le Pélican, in Bourg-en-Bresse. At 13, he began an apprenticeship at the Grand Hôtel de L’Europe. Work in Paris followed, including cooking for three French heads of state, among them Charles de Gaulle.
A new life in America.
He moved to the United States in 1959 and worked at New York’s Le Pavillon. He later developed food for Howard Johnson’s while studying at Columbia University, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Teaching became the thread.
La Technique arrived in 1976, making kitchen skills visible through photographs. His first television series followed in 1982. Across books and public television, including his partnership with Julia Child, Jacques made demonstrations a lasting part of his work.
A kitchen on your phone.
During the pandemic, daughter Claudine encouraged him to record short cooking videos and managed his social media. A simple vinaigrette mixed in a jar became an early hit. The Cooking at Home videos brought his teaching to another generation of home cooks.
Sharing the opportunity.
In 2016, Jacques, Claudine and son-in-law Rollie Wesen founded the Jacques Pépin Foundation. Its work supports free culinary training through community organizations, helping people facing barriers to employment build skills and find work in food service.
Creditschronological, newest first
Books
- 2026Jacques Pépin Complete Techniques, 50th Anniversary EditionAuthor
- 2025The Art of Jacques PépinAuthor and artist
- 1999Julia and Jacques Cooking at HomeCo-author with Julia Child
Television and online teaching
- 2020Jacques Pépin Cooking at HomeCooking teacher and presenter
- 2015Jacques Pépin Heart & SoulHost
Awards
- Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award2019 · The first chef to receive this lifetime achievement honor.
- Julia Child Award2015 · Inaugural recipient.
- James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award2005 · Recognized for a lifetime of culinary work.
- Légion d’honneur2004 · Received France’s highest civilian honor.
- Daytime Emmy Award2001 · Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, with Julia Child.
Quotes
If you have talent, the techniques are the engine, the means by which you express that talent.Jacques Pépin, official website
On the role of technique in creative work. Source: https://jacquespepin.com/
Trivia
- His first cookbook, The Other Half of the Egg, appeared in 1967, the year his daughter Claudine was born.
- He has drawn and painted since his time as a Columbia University student.
- His early pandemic video showed how to shake up a vinaigrette in a jar.
- He opened a soup restaurant and lunch counter called La Potagerie on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in 1970.
Find Jacques
Follow Jacques’ cooking videos and the latest from his foundation.
Are you Jacques Pépin?
Fans built this page. Claim it to connect with them and unlock Star boosts, or request a takedown if you’d rather it not exist.