The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen (Paperback)

by Jacques Pepin (Author) "MY MOTHER made it sound like a great adventure..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Howard Johnson, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The sparkling personality, sense of humor, and charm familiar to Jacques Pépin's television audiences carries over to the page in the superstar chef's humbly titled memoir, The Apprentice.

A clever, mischievous, and very likable boy, Pépin's earliest food memories are hungry ones from his childhood in war-torn France. After World War II, his first restaurant job was peeling potatoes for his mother at her restaurant, and he became an apprentice in a hotel kitchen at age 13. In this delightful tale he works hard, plays fair, is kind to others and good to his family, and his efforts take him to Paris, and then New York. Except for the terrible car accident that required him to reinvent himself as a teacher and television personality, he seems to have always been in the right place at the right time. He cooked for Prime Minister Gaillard and then General Charles de Gaulle, met Pierre Franey, Craig Claiborne, and Julia Child, and turned down a job cooking for JFK to accept one with Howard Johnson. But just as entertaining and enjoyable to read about are his tender memories and thoughts about his relationships with his parents and brothers, and with his wife and daughter.

We all wish we could cook like Pepin (and every chapter ends with one of Pépin's favorite recipes), but this enchanting tale will make you wish you knew him. The clear, simple way he expresses himself and the honesty with which he tells his story will bring you to tears, and make you laugh out loud. --Leora Y. Bloom --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
In this fast-moving and often touching memoir, Pepin recounts his journey from the kitchen of his mother's humble restaurant in rural France after World War II to his current position as author of 21 cookbooks, star of 13 PBS cooking shows and dean of special programs at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. Along the way he describes everything from the tough French apprenticeship system that saw him dropping out of school at 13 to work in Lyon to the beginnings of the Howard Johnson's chain. Pepin accepted a job in the Howard Johnson's test kitchen over a stint at the White House cooking for John F. Kennedy , but shows no signs of regret. In fact, if there's a flaw here, it's that Pepin's eternally upbeat attitude is sometimes a little hard to buy-although he does seem to have been born under a lucky star. Pepin came to the U.S. just when a culinary culture was building and fell into friendships with Craig Claiborne, then food editor of the New York Times, and Julia Child. Even a bad car accident when he was 39 turned out to be a godsend, as it got him out of the restaurant kitchen and into the teaching profession. Pepin mines a lot of humor from the differences between French and American attitudes toward food, as when he recounts how he and a French friend once stopped by a farmsomewhere in the U.S. with a sign reading "Ducks for Sale" and wrung the neck of the duck they'd just bought in front of the horrified proprietress. Each chapter concludes with one or two recipes, many of them surprisingly earthy, such as Oatmeal Breakfast Soup with leeks and bacon.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (May 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618444114
• ISBN-13: 978-0618444113
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,227 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly Enjoyable, April 23, 2003

By	Anthony Bourdain (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen (Hardcover)

I've been waiting for this book my whole life! I sat down with the book last evening, intending to read for a while, maybe return later. Could not put it down. A well written, funny, sad, informative and always enchanting account of an incredible career. Pepin's account of coming up through the his family's bistros, then the old school European hotel/restaurant system--and later New York's legendary Le Pavillon-- is fascinating first person memoir--and terrific history. I can't say enough good things about this book. It's right up there with Orwell, Freeling, Bemelmans--but better, richer, more passionately drawn. An instant classic.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, Entertainging Read from Gourmet All-Star, July 21, 2003

By	rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this read tremendously, and if you're into food, so will you.

Pepin writes very unassumedly, and is most humble about his very productive career, from personal chef to DeGaulle to fame in America and TV star.

From his humble roots to his current fame which is spreading, this guy can cook and reflects significantly in his career of the changes in gourmet cooking.

The stories he provides are the highlight for me: the apprentice spook with the chicken boning machine, his incidents with learning the English language (e.g. the story of the word in French for shower when asked why his head was wet), the presentation of "sanitary napkins", his TV pilot shot with ingredients from the trash, etc. These all provide for just an absolutely magnficent read.

Recipes are provided for each segment of his career. Especially respectful of this chef who knows the finest of formal, rigid French classical cooking, but himself admitting that he likes American basic, comfort food and new style of combing old with new.

Refreshing read from a food Hall of Famer!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Light, Exquisite Dinner. Not too sweet and not too tart., October 31, 2003

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen (Hardcover)

I have always had the greatest respect for Jacques Pepin based on the high reputation of his culinary books, collaborations with Julia Child, and great good humor and skills displayed on various television appearances, but I have always wondered how he reached a position of high respect within his profession without a connection to a major restaurant for at least as long as I have known of him (the last 15 years). This book answers my question and a whole lot more, confirming my impression of Jacques as a major figure in culinary America and a great gentleman as well.
Without giving away too much of the book's story, I must point out that Jacques was, by some great good fortune, the chef to France's President Charles DeGaulle at a very young age. In fact, he appeared on the TV show `To Tell The Truth' and the panelists did not pick him as DeGaulle's chef because he was so very young. Upon coming to the United States, he quickly attained a position as a line chef under Pierre Franey at the great Le Pavillion, following Franey to a position in the test and development kitchens at Howard Johnson's. For those of you post baby boomers, I can assure you from first hand experience that at one time, Howard Johnson's was often considered a very desirable place to eat out.
Jacques would probably now be the owner / executive chef at a major restaurant but for a very serious automobile accident which broke most major bones and which left Jacques with only a slim chance to even be able to walk. Miraculously, he mended well to the point where he returned to an almost normal life, but without the ability to sustain the 12 to 14 hours on his feet at a typical chef's station. This lead to his career as a teacher, followed by cookbook writing and TV cooking series a la Julia on PBS.
This book ranks with some of the best culinary memoirs by being both engaging, inspiring, and revealing of the nature of culinary professionals' work in the kitchen. Aside from his associations with Julia Child and Pierre Franey, he was a close friend to Craig Claiborne and well known to James Beard and his company. Without doing any gratuitous name dropping, Pepin also relates revealing stories involving Danny Kaye, Alice Waters and `the great' Paul Bocuse. This is not the first Danny Kaye culinary story I have read, and these little peeks into his cooking skills make me wish he had done a culinary memoir / cookbook similar to many less skillful non-culinary celebrities. The encounter with Paul Bocuse casts some light on the nature of the nouvelle cuisine movement in France.
One of the most interesting insights obtained from this book is the picture of the American culinary scene in 1960, as seen by a very experienced and talented French chef and how this scene has changed in the last 40 years.
I heartily recommend this book to anyone with a taste for culinary memoirs. This is one of the best. My only reservation is that it left me wanting more, as it seemed to give very few details about the last 20 years of his life. I hope that is not because they have been dull!
The book includes 24 recipes, the most interesting being the two attributed to his mother (apple tart and cheese souffle) and the one attributed to Danny Kaye (poached chicken salad).