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05/24/2017 12:00 AMIt felt a bit like a old fashioned family reunion in the French countryside, in the 1930s, perhaps.
In fact, it was an advance screening of the new PBS documentary American Masters—Jacques Pépin, The Art of Craft at Madison Art Cinemas on a Monday evening near the end of May.
The documentary—part of the American Masters series that has featured luminaries like Mel Brooks, Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, JD Salinger, Julia Child, and Ella Fitzgerald—was produced by WNET-13 out of New York and will air Friday, May 26 at 9 p.m. on CPTV and CPTVHD.
But the crowd at Madison Art Cinemas that Monday night didn’t have to wait for it to air. Theater owner Arnold Gorlick arranged to have it shown in advance.
The event was potluck—but when your friends-like-family include the likes of Bob and Linda Zemmel from Alforno in Old Saybrook, Roy and Winnie Ip from Le Petit Café in Branford, Jonathan and Hu Ping Dolph from Taste of China in Clinton and Steamed in Madison, Dawn DeCarli from the Eclectic Café in Madison, and Jean Pierre Vuillermet of Bar Bouchée in Madison and Union League Café in New Haven—well, that potluck includes scallops ceviche, scallion pancakes, country pâté, red pepper and mascarpone/goat cheese crostini, cucumber mint soup, salmon mousse, and more spread out on two long tables.
There was red, white, and rosé wine and people armed with all three bottles enthusiastically roaming up and down the aisle of the theater to make sure no one ran dry. There was Gorlick conferring with Roxanne Coady, the owner of the R.J. Julia bookstore across the way, about the question and answer session she would host after the viewing. There were the Pepins’ boules buddies, who gather during the summer months to play the French lawn bowling game. There was Jacques’ scuba diving buddy from Mexico, and many other friends, along with the likes of chef, author, and food equity advocate Michel Nischan, who helped create and fund a program that doubles the value of food stamps when they are spent on fruits and vegetables.
Keeping an Eye on Things
The guests mingled and meandered down the aisle toward the two long tables under the theater screen, tables packed with tray after tray of that fabulous food, and there was the legendary Pépin, keeping an eye on everything, making sure everyone had enough, and taking time to chat with people before they found their seats. Hugs and kisses were as plentiful as the food and wine. Pépin was accompanied by his wife Gloria, his daughter Claudine, and his granddaughter Shorey, among other family members, all of them working hard and helping out, just as they have through the course of Pépin’s career, an extraordinarily effective collaboration that has resulted in cookbooks, television shows, and awards and honors almost too numerous to count.
As for the documentary, suffice it to say, see it. Even if you think you know Pépin’s story, see it. Even if you’re not an accomplished chef, or an aspiring chef, or a fancy foodie, or even if you have a hard time making a grilled cheese sandwich, see it. It’s a fascinating story of ups and downs and ups again, a classic immigrant entrepreneur-does-good tale artfully shot and well told.
During the question and answer period after, those attending learned a few more interesting facts about Pépin.
Nischan asks the question many were wondering after seeing the documentary: Did Pépin have any idea, any notion of how influential he would be when he started out on his career when only a teenager?
Pépin is reluctant to take full credit for some of the accolades showered down upon him during the course of his career.
“I just happened to be there at the right moment, in the right place,” he says. “So many chefs were as good or better. I was there at the right moment.”
Food and Love
The truth is, he admits, he “had no idea” how influential his work would ultimately be.
If he could cook for anyone, who would he cook for?
That answer comes easily.
“You cook for the people you love,” he says, looking at the crowd. “My wife first. My daughter...This is what food is all about.”
He adds that a big dinner table is an effective equalizer, that it doesn’t matter if you seat a dishwasher next to the CEO of General Motors, as long as the food is good and the spirit of the evening is generous.
What about the future of food, French and American?
Pépin says he sometimes thinks it funny that he is considered a “French” chef. He’s been married for 51 years to a native New Yorker of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent, and, while still traveling widely in the service of a variety of creative pursuits, is all settled in the land of steady habits. He says he is as happy and comfortable making arroz con pollo as he is clam chowder as he is any classical French dish.
What brought him to Madison?
It was an arbitrary decision, he says.
His daughter Claudine elaborates.
They decided they wanted to live between New York and Boston, she explains, so, “in the style of my parents,” they took a map and a piece of string and said “here are five towns,” and they could catch a train to New York and they could catch a train to Boston from Madison. “And that’s how they picked Madison,” Claudine says.
Her mom gets her attention, and indicates she’s left something out.
“Mom says ‘and the house was cheap,’” Claudine adds.
Does he have any advice for recent graduates of culinary schools? Yes he does.
Get a job with the best chef you can get a job with.
“And just say, ‘Yes, yes, yes chef,’” Jacques says. “Try to learn something of their aesthetic and taste. Work there for two years. And a couple of years with a quite different one. And another one. Then give it back and filter it through your own aesthetic. But not after three weeks in the kitchen.”
Out of every dish he’s ever cooked, what was his favorite?
His first answer, while perhaps not entirely suitable for a family newspaper, indicates just how much he is besotted with his wife.
Then, after that, roast chicken, he says. Maybe. He ponders the question a bit more, then reconsiders. He looks up. He knows.
“The greatest thing you can put in your mouth? Bread and butter,” he says.
Really great bread and really great butter, of course.
“It’s hard to beat bread and butter.”
The PBS American Masters has highlighted the remarkable lives of more than 225 people. After they are shown on PBS, they are archived and available for a time on the PBS website, and thereafter sometimes available through subscription. To find out more about the series, visit www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters. To find out more about the show featuring Pépin, along with clips from the shown, some of his recipes, and a video of his famous omelet techniques, visit www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/jacques-pepin-art-craft-film/8435.