Jacques Pepin Celebrates: 200 of His Most Cherished Recipes for Memorable Meals with Family and Friends

As a budding foodie, I have watched this excellent PBS series many times. This last run through I noticed something that completely freed my perfectionist cooking tendencies. It's just amazing watching Pepin at work. He's excellent but certainly not always precise or perfectionist. A little of this, a bit of that, or a pan a little too hot has all shown me that good cooking is like what a great artist told me once. "Being a good artist has nothing to do with perfection. It's just a long series of covering up your mistakes." Having the companion book to the series has helped me tremendously to lighten up and have fun. This book is filled with great recipes, many of which can be customized to your personal tastes. The photos are an excellent teaching tool and reference. Start with good quality ingredients, have everything prepared and ready to go, follow along in the book and have great time. This book has been worth every penny.

After living overseas and in SanFranciso, I moved to the Southwest and was unable to buy the European breads I was used to eating; then I discovered this book. The bread recipes are very simple to prepare, and my family and friends just love them. If you love wonderful bread and don't have alot of time to bake, these are the recipes for you!

Jaundiced by excess of every trend, I checked this out of the new book section at the library because I've always admired Pepin. I can only tell you that there are at least 50 recipes here I just have to make. And while I long ago learned how to chop an onion, there are tips galore worth exploring. I didn't really want to buy this, so I started marking every page that had something to offer. When I got to 25 marks I decided "enough--succumb." Special find? A recipe for calamari and broccoli rabe that Jacques doesn't seem to realize would make a great pasta sauce.

True to the French culinary tradition, Pepin is a master of technique; but even more, he is a wonderful teacher. This comes through in his latest offering, Jacques Pepin Celebrates. The book is being published in conjunction with a 26-part PBS series (hurray!) and begins with the 26 menus which will make up the shows. These include thirteen half-hour shows, among them: Country Luncheon, Dinner Party al Fresco, A Festive New Year's Eve, and Cold Snap Comfort; seven theme shows, such as: Puff Pastry Showcase, Bridal Shower Confections, and Tea for Ten; and six one-hour specials devoted to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, Graduation and Independence/Bastille Day. Menus include suggested wines.The recipes are organized traditionally into chapters on: stocks and soups; eggs; fish; poultry; meat; appetizers and salads; breads; pastries; and desserts. These are not recipes for beginners, but the techniques used are explained clearly and many recipes include informative step-by-step color photographs and pictures of the finished dish.In addition to the index, there is a separate list of the techniques which are illustrated throughout the book.Monsieur Pepin seems to be a talented and genuinely nice man. The book is adorned with his lovely sketches, and the only thing that could improve it would be having the author as a dinner companion.

Lucky owners of Pepin's "The Art of Cooking, vol. 1, 2", La Technique" and "La Methode" (the latter two now in "Complete Techniques") will recognize many of the recipes and techniqes in "Jacques Pepin Celebrates". This is not a replacement for those (or other) books. It is, however, his most general book to date in terms of mixing techniques and recipes. An avid reader of Pepin will also recognize how some techniques and recipes have evolved and improved since the early 70s.Many techniques are illustrated with step-by-step photographs, while recipes are mostly made up of illustrative descriptions accompanied by a photo of the dish. Not only does Pepin tell you what to do and how to do it, he also tells you _why_ to do it from a rational and scientific perspective. This is something that is hard to find in most cookbooks. Some recipes also have different techniques or ingredients listed, or even several versions depending on what you want to do and how much time you have on your hands. For example, there are three different versions of how to make puff-pastry.Each recipe (appetizers, main courses and deserts) is included in a suggested menu, accompanied by suggested wines. Most of the wines are readily available anywhere in the US. There are also enjoyable tidbits of information and thoughts in between recipes by Jacques and his daughter, Claudine."Jacques Pepin Celebrates" is a carefully planned and beautifully designed book. You will greatly enjoy it even if you own most of Pepin's previous books. If you only own one or two of them, this is almost a must!