Chez Jacques : Traditions and Rituals of a Cook

Author-autographed book plates while supplies last. Of the 20-plus cookbooks Jacques Pepin has written, Chez Jacques is his most personal and engaging. Now starring in his tenth PBS series, Pepin ranks among America's most beloved cooking teachers, and this book reminds us why. The book's 100 recipes--for soups and appetizers, main courses, side dishes, and desserts--are Pepin's own favorites among the thousands he has created over a lifetime of cooking. Using readily available ingredients and relying upon familiar techniques, these are the dishes he makes when preparing food at his Connecticut home. But Chez Jacques is more than a collection of well-liked recipes; it's also a captivating sentimental journey. Each dish is introduced by a recollection--of picking dandelion greens for a spring salad, of buying fresh eggs from the local farmer--that invites readers to share in the traditions and rituals of Pepin's most intimate circle. This treasury of great food, lore, and memory is exquisitely illustrated with a sampling of Pepin's own paintings, as well as hundreds of color photographs of the finished dishes and of Pepin in all his natural habitats--pitching boules with a group of friends, savoring a glass of chilled rose in the afternoon sun, painting landscapes, designing menus, and, of course, working in his kitchen. The master chef's most personal and visually stunning cookbook Pepin is one of America's best-known, most well-respected chefs, cooking teachers, and cookbook authors, starring in his tenth PBS cooking series Pepin has published more than 20 cookbooks with millions of copies in print worldwide, and his autobiography (2004) was a national bestseller The recipes are Pepin's personal favorites and are the essence of great home cooking More than 200 full-color photographs and 100 recipes.