Still debonair if a bit creakier, Pépin turns 87 in December. He is among the last of the first wave of culinary legends who became household names — Julia Child, Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey. For four decades, he’s been a constant in many American kitchens. Pépin democratized formal technique. He instructed legions of American professional and home chefs, not in a constellation of exorbitant white-cloth restaurants but through cookbooks, and hosting 13 separate public television series.
Pépin may have made his name as Child’s TV kitchen comrade, but he has evolved beyond Poulet à la Crème and Maman’s Cheese Soufflé, while still celebrating the yumminess of both. He understands that a modern chef embraces change — even the microwave and Instagram.
Mention retirement and he looks mystified, possibly annoyed, an eyebrow cocked: “Retire from what? Retire from doing what I love? Retire from cooking?”
And he is always publishing. His latest: “Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef’s Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird.” It is a book most fowl. This gallinaceous volume — possibly his 32nd, who can keep count? — includes a gallery of his paintings of chickens, anecdotes from his remarkable life and recipes that are more story than instruction.
As its title suggests, “Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken” celebrates his paintings, which he has done for five decades, and his lifelong love of the chicken — the Bresse bird that’s a delicacy from his home region near Lyon. “Proust had his madeleine….