Food for thought: Today’s Gourmet with Jacques Pepin

Jacques Pepin in KQED’s “Today’s Gourmet”.

I recently reconnected with the Today’s Gourmet series of videos which were produced by KQED, the public television station in San Francisco, featuring Jacques Pepin. The series ran from 1991-93 and all or many episodes are available on the KQED YouTube channel.

The show that popped into my feed was “Jacques Pepin’s Easy Coq Au Vin Will Impress Your Friends”. A remarkable amount of technique is packed into a 30 minute show. Jacques Pepin will as advertised prepare a coq au vin, but also a fish dish as a first course, tapenade as a base for the fish, mashed potatoes and even a dessert… all in real time. No recipes or superscript instructions are provided which is part of the fun. Jacques’ technique is clear enough that you can approximate in your own kitchen (assuming you could pause your video, something that would have been a novelty in 1991), but there was also a series of “Today’s Gourmet” books with recipes which as I recall were offered as a fundraising premium.

Steamed Cod with Tapenade. Nice serving plate!

1991 was at the end of the cuisine minceur era: we were still interested in cooking foods in a lighter way with less fat but lots of flavor. Jacques’ technique for mashed potatoes, for example, is to stretch them with turnips and use cooking liquid rather than cream in the final prep. Related: this episode is possibly where I picked up the technique for preparing croutons in the oven, rather than in the frying pan.

Burnt My Fingers had a personal experience during the taping because my wife’s company was one of the KQED sponsors, so we were invited to a private session. Chef taught me the technique of peeling garlic by smashing it with a knife, and some (now forgotten) trucs for decorative carving of tomatoes and orange peels.

Jacques Pepin is a kind, creative and genuine person who is still sharing food techniques many decades later through his Facebook page. The Today’s Gourmet shows feature him in his prime, and with brown hair. Check it out.