The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen Paperback – Illustrated, December 8, 2015

Enjoyable memoir about the life of a chef, the evolution of his career, French cuisine and his coming to the US and the beginnings of nouvelle cuisine. I enjoyed reading about famous restaurants and chefs, his family and his love of simple dishes , the Howard Johnson era-overall sorry to come to its conclusion.

What a delightful book! I had trouble putting it down, it is wonderfully fascinating, his life was so well lived , and well told.! I am a foody, but I don’t think you have to be to enjoy this book.

Jacques Pépin is a personable, talented, and leading teacher in his field. He's a very good writer and I enjoyed getting glimpses of his culinary experiences and friends during his long career. He touches interested home cooks as well as noted professionals...a person who cares for the people he feeds and the food he puts before them.

I became aware of the existence of M. Pepin's "The Apprentice" while searching Amazon for various cookbooks. As a recently returning professional cook - after a 14 year exploration of other professions - I decided to see what was "new" in the world of cookbooks.I just finished reading "The Apprentice" and I decided that, though it probably wasn't necessary to add one more positive review to this offering, I felt it was one of the few ways I could convey my appreciation for Chef Jacques Pepin and his influence in my life.Back around 1980 while working as a newly promoted dishwasher turned cold prep-cook at a hotel near Buffalo, NY in my last year of High School with no real idea what I wanted to do with myself I decided to pursue a career in food service specifically as a chef. I didn't think about attending a cooking school even if I knew where to go, I decided the best way to learn was hands-on in the kitchen, which I supplemented with loads of reading whatever decent professional-level cookbooks I could get my hands on. The first few purchases included J. Pepin's La Technique and La Methode, The Larousse Gastonomique (suggested by the chef I was working under), Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and Giuliano Bugialli's "Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking". I have been a fan of Jacques Pepin ever since. Thanks to his two books he became my "mentor" and inspiration to try to do it right.The Apprentice is an excellent reminder to today's Culinary School students and graduates that at one time there was another way to become a professional cook/chef that didn't have anything to do with shelling out a bunch of cash expecting to learn everything you need to know. As M. Pepin says on page 242-243 while discussing his experiences as the dean of the French Culinary Institute (FCI) - "When I began teaching at the FCI, I could not help but compare the training my students got during their six-month crash course, designed to impart 250 basic culinary competencies....with the long years I spent learning many of the same techniques as an apprentice and as a commis. I don't want to romanticize my training. It was an artifact of a different era, and although it worked then, it is unacceptable in today's fast-paced world. But there is something to be said for carefully learning techniques and absorbing long-established culinary traditions. If nothing else, it gives a young cook perspective that can help in avoiding some of the mistakes common in kitchens run by chefs who rely on gone-wild notions of `creativity' instead of common sense." It is this common sense, no-nonsense perspective that pervades The Apprentice (and his approach to cooking) and shows how M. Pepin's success laid in his willingness to work hard, his ability to adapt to new situations and be open to new ideas, ingredients, and techniques.While reading The Apprentice, right after starting a new cooking position this past April, I found Pepin's perspective gave me new hope and encouragement to continue to do my best after returning to a career which I once felt was a waste of time and effort (burned out after 14 years and a desire to try something else). Even after selling off or giving away most of my cookbooks, I still hung on to my copies of La Technique and La Methode, just in case.For new cooks, reading The Apprentice is worth the money just to get M. Pepin's perspective on Nouvelle Cuisine, his views on the differences between home cooking and professional cooking (both have their place, both are important), and his need to try to convince various University faculty the importance of "a program in which students would learn about the social and historical phenomena of food - food production, food habits, beliefs about food. Such a program would address the core concerns on human existence."Before I read The Apprentice, I thought I knew enough about Jacques Pepin the chef, now I know something about the man. I am also glad to see that he is appreciated above many of today's so-called "celebrity chefs".Merci, merci mille fois M. Pepin!!

I could not put the book down! Great nostalgia for a "home cook" who began experimenting with cooking in 1968.Growing up my Mother, a very capable farm style cook, who had begun cooking for thrashers (farm workers who helped with the harvest) at age 12 during the height of the Depression in 1930 basically said "I'll cook...you study! If you excel in school you can always hire someone to cook!" She also made sure that everyday we had lovely simple meals made with tons of fresh ingredients, loaves of freshly baked bread and never wasted a thing.Fast forward to 1968 when upon graduating from college and soon to be married my friends threw a bridal showerfor me where every single friend knowing I'd never boiled an egg, but loved to eat and made a decent "lab partner" in Chemistry each gave me a cookbook. Thank God my future Mother-in-law gave me the "Joy of Cooking" and I diligently went through it page-by-page...made a different blind pie crust everyday for a year surreptitiously until I finally could "pretend I was a natural" at creating the perfect flaky pie crust. I READ the recipe faithfully every morning for scrambled eggs as I'd make breakfast and if it had said "Stand on one leg and cluck like a chicken while beating the eggs" I'd have done it until my new husband pointed out after about 6 months of watching this procedure that I could probably make the scrambled eggs without looking at the pictures of how to do it in my "Better Homes and Garden" looseleaf binder cookbook. Little did he know that only a few weeks before I had had to call my Mother (over 500 miles away and a long distance phone call) to get the "recipefor baked potatoes" because I scoured the cookbooks and couldn't find it anywhere. I knew you washed the potato, left the skin on, put it in the oven...but for how long and what temperature (the knob on the oven went from 200 to 550)?Anyone that devoted, hungry, interested and with at least another six years of student poverty ahead while my husband finished medical school and his internship and two small children would be "pedal to the metal" to learn about everything I could about how to turn out great food on $50 a month! We became "locavores" before we ever heard the word...I never dared tell our dinner guests that the Escargot came from the Arboretum at UC Davis...you put enough garlic and butter on anything and it's delicious.Again Thank God...people like Julia Child, Craig Claibourne, James Beard, Jacques Pepin were all trying to help people like me who were clueless but oh so willing and fascinated.Reading "The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen" was like reading a love letter. A behind the scene of view of how the books that became such "good friends and trusted teachers" like James Beard's "Menus for Entertaining",Craig Claibourne'a "The New York Times International Cook Book", Jacques Pepin's "Technique", Julia Child and Simone Beck's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" that I wore out a few copies of some only to be quickly replaced while tattered spineless copies are kept for sentimental reasons, lovingly spattered and annotated for things I observed in my initial attempts.Maman reminded me of my Mother (no recipes, no measurements, delicious food). I got quite sentimental reading Pepin's book and tearing up a few times while laughing aloud at other episodes.I think "The Apprentice" is a must read for really anyone who enjoys making and cooking delicious food but it is perhaps particularly touching for those of us who remember learning so much from these great, talented, generous creative and innovative "teacher" chefs through the years. Life would have been infinitely less rich without them.