Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef’s Recipes and Stories of the Humble Bird

That old culinary workhorse, the chicken, gets a clever consideration in this delightfully illustrated combination cookbook and memoir. In laying out the dozens of recipes, venerable chef Pépin (Jacques Pépin Quick & Simple) offers a thumbnail sketch autobiography, with anecdotes from his life setting the scene and providing segues between the recipes. There are no ingredient lists or measurements here; the recipes are presented narratively, so that, for instance, in recalling a grilled chicken dish made by Pépin’s younger brother, Pépin writes that the birds were split in half, rubbed with butter, herbs, and spices, and grilled “until the skin had darkened.” The Ultimate Meal (roast chicken with potatoes and salad), as taught in a class at Boston University, culminates in the exhortation to “cook with your heart,” while Scrambled Eggs Done Right offers a twist on standard preparations by pouring in a few tablespoons of raw egg and “a bit of cream” at the end of the cooking process. Pépin’s whimsical paintings of chickens appear throughout, whether pecking at grain, in the guise of vegetables, or gazing plaintively. It’s a lovely book on its own, and also a winning companion volume to Pépin’s memoir, The Apprentice. (Sept.)