Jacques Pépin: Heart and Soul in the Kitchen

Pépin—winner of the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award, television chef, and author of 25 cookbooks—extends “an invitation to come over to our house for a meal” in his latest recipe collection, the companion cookbook to his 13th and final PBS TV series. These 200 recipes reflect Pépin’s “culinary heart and soul” and are low-fuss dishes promoting enjoyment of “wine, food, and companionship.” Pépin draws from his childhood and family table, travels, and reminiscences. Interspersed are essays on wine, eggs, gardening, and cooking with friends and family. The recipes are organized by course. An hors d’oeuvre of tequila-splashed smoked salmon tostadas with yogurt horseradish cream whets the appetite. Soups and salads feature leek and potato potage and spicy greens with mustard vinaigrette. Fish and seafood recipes abound, starring sauced grouper and red snapper dishes, and meats include Russian-style grilled lamb skewers and rabbit sautéed in mushroom cream sauce. Two dessert chapters, with fruit-based, custard, chocolate, and baked desserts, round out the collection. Pépin encourages tinkering with recipes, appreciating them as living things that can evolve according to every cook’s heart and soul. (Oct.)