Jacques Pepin's Table: The Complete Today's Gourmet [Hardcover]

Jacques Pepin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1995

Emphasizing lower-calorie, health-conscious cooking, a collection of more than three hundred recipes from all three seasons of the PBS series, Today's Gourmet, includes menu and wine suggestions and culinary techniques. TV tie-in. 40,000 first printing. IP.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I think the best cook in America is Jacques Pepin. "Jacques Pepin's Table" is a wonderful book. The recipes work, and they are terrific. His new fruit dessert cookbook is also terrific. (From an interview with Christopher Kimball, editor of "Cook's Illustrated" magazine.) -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 28, 1999

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: KQED Books; 1ST edition (November 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912333197
• ISBN-13: 978-0912333199
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #589,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacques Pepin is the author of twenty-one cookbooks, including the best-selling The Apprentice and the award-winning Jacques Pepin Celebrates and Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home (with Julia Child). He has appeared regularly on PBS programs for more than a decade, hosting over three hundred cooking shows. A contributing editor for Food & Wine, he is the dean of special programs at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. Before coming to the United States, he served as personal chef to three French heads of state.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This might be the only cookbook you need, March 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Jacques Pepin's Table: The Complete Today's Gourmet (Hardcover)

There are so many things to say about this book that have notyet been said by other reviewers that I almost can't believe it. Firstof all, I love food and have been cooking for family and friends nowfor years and Jacques Pepin's books have been the most helpful to meby far. This particular book is wonderful because it not only providescomplete menus for every season and occasion you might imagine, but italso outlines how to prepare different recipes so that everything endsup on the table hot and in good time.

...It is a true indulgence tobe able to make and eat delicious food. This book permits bothpleasures without the guilt of unknown excesses of fat, cholesterol,sodium and the like. -- Eat what you like, but please...know what youare eating!

I have made nearly every beef, poultry and fish dish inthis volume with terrific and consistent results. -- The greatestthing is that the book teaches you how to spend your money wisely andget the most bang for your buck, usually with little more than a someminor attention to detail, which is free.

My mother-in-law who is avery well travelled, difficult to impress foodie consistently lavishesme with compliments when I whip up dinner with recipes culled fromthis book. She was so impressed with the stuffed chicken breast dish'Chicken Kiev Style' that she asked to watch me make it so that shecan serve it at her dinner parties! Very economical and easy for suchhigh praise!

The side dishes are exquisite, flavorful, andeasy. They are great to bring along when visiting, compliment avariety of meals, are generally inexpensive, and are a bit morespecial than other run of the mill recipes you might tend to fall backon. The simple recipe for potatoes persillade (pan fried potatoes withgarlic and parsely) is such a favorite in our house that is worth theprice of the book all by itself.

I cannot stress enough that when Ibegan cooking I was almost completely inept, and now I am a force tobe reckoned with in the kitchen. (Thanks in large part to this book.)With the help of Mr. Pepin's flawlessly executable recipes, I evenmake my own bread from scratch -- without owning a foodprocessor.

For me eating and entertaining well has become a part ofliving a good life. You can go out and pay someone else to cook foryou for the rest of your life or you can learn to make a few thingsand take tremendous satisfaction in it.The money you save on dinnersout will more than pay for this book and the inspiration andinformation it provides are priceless.

If you want to learn how tocook, there will never be a more qualified or humble teacher thanJacques Pepin. -- So often the quality of the result is dependent onsomething small like knowing how to thicken a sauce, the order to chopyour ingredients, or when during the cooking process to add aparticular seasoning. A lot of that extra know-how gleened during alifetime of hands-on effort is conveyed here.

Lastly, but worthnoting: all of the recipes in the book are made with readily availableingredients and without a huge investment in equipment.

Go on, getthe book. You're worth it, and your dinner companions will thank you.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of all my cookbooks, June 7, 2001

By 

G. Roukas "Buzzworthy" (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jacques Pepin's Table: The Complete Today's Gourmet (Hardcover)

I've got lots of cookbooks, and I find that in most of them only a few recipes are to my liking. Other books appear to have great recipes, but they're too complicated for me. This is the book I come back to again and again for great, and I mean great, food that is practical for me in the kitchen. I consistently get rave reviews from my guests and I don't have to cook all day to get them. His recipes are simply stated and always convey his love of the craft. I can't think of a way to improve this book. Period.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Basic Gourmet Cooking with Huge Menu Section, February 5, 2001

By 

rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Jacques Pepin's Table: The Complete Today's Gourmet (Hardcover)

This book stemmed from his TV series "Today's Gourmet". His stated goal is to give some "commsense cusine, one that demonstrated a rational approach to cooking. . . . a cooking style that exhibits elegance and joy while emphasizing aspects of health in a reasonable way."

He achieves this goal. What I really enjoy and use is the first section, 40 pages of menus using recipes from the book. This is unique and very well done. This section gives one not only ideas for complete meals from the book, but just plain ideas on how to combine dishes for wonderful meals.

The recipes themselves show great variety, and care to do just what he setted out: elegance for reasonable health. As an example, this menu is entitled: The light side of Classic Cuisine: Grilled Swordfish with Spicy Yogurt Sauce, Poached Turkey in Vegetable Consomme' Salad, Creamy Rice Pudding with Fruit Sauce. Calories per serving: 758.

There are many sidelights to this cookbook: sidebars on foods and techniques, and nice photos.

Perfect cookbook for someone looking for lighter, gourmet quality food.