This 85-Year-Old Chef Saves My Bacon Every Day
By: Alice Goldbloom
Tags: Food, Inspiration, Cooking, Facebook, Pandemic

This 85-Year-Old Chef Saves My Bacon Every Day

Help for your pandemic cooking

Photo by Katherine Lou on Unsplash

I am aware Jacques Pépin is a famous chef and has written many cookbooks — 30 to be exact. But I never paid much attention to him. I had no idea how old he was (85 and going strong) or the multitude of accolades bestowed upon him, including five honorary degrees. He wasn’t even on my radar until recently.

At the beginning of the pandemic, he started posting a short video on Facebook almost every day sharing how to make an easy but delicious dish.

“Here’s something simple I love to make for my family,” he intones at the start of the video in his charming French accent.

I got hooked and looked forward to seeing what yummy meal he would prepare next. I join up to half a million viewers; not bad for an octogenarian.

These days we are cooking at home

Most will relate: the most significant change in my life these last few pandemic months is being homebound — our busy lives surrounded by friends, family events, social obligations, and activities, ground to a halt. The second change was my husband and I began having dinner together every night for the first time in our 30-year marriage. Who’s counting, but we have had 244 dinners in a row. We catch up on our day and know what each other is doing and thinking more than ever before — a silver lining in an otherwise bleak situation.

I am an excellent cook, and in my pre-pandemic life, I prepared meals for my family and friends with pleasure and ease. I can’t wait to have friends and family around the table again — the more, the merrier.

But I have my limits. I can’t make a cake to save my life. I am never tempted to bake bread, even if I could grow a sourdough starter like everyone was enthusiastically documenting on their Instagram at the beginning of the pandemic. And 244 dinners later, my repertoire for something tasty, without spending hours planning or looking at recipes, is stretched thin.

Jacques Pépin is my kind of chef

I am happy to have found Chef Pépin’s short videos — between 2 to 4 minutes long. He prepares easy and accessible recipes in his Connecticut kitchen, standing in front of counters packed with cookbooks and mixing bowls. His steps are simple — toss in a handful of chopped parsley or add approximately a 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. He is an intuitive chef — he throws together ingredients most have in their kitchen — and in addition to encouraging approximations, he often suggests substitutions.

There is nothing formal about his offerings: this week he showed me how to make a souffle with leftover mashed potatoes (does anybody have that leftover from Thanksgiving?). Last week, he gave me an excellent idea for using frozen vegetables. I love his recipe for Chicken with Cream.

Jacques Pépin started his career training at the Plaza Athénée in Paris sixty years ago, served as the personal chef to three French heads of state, including Charles De Gaulle, and enjoyed a career equivalent to a rock star. Today he is in my kitchen via social media, saving my pandemic bacon. I am sure he can save yours as well.

Bon appétit!

Alice Goldbloom is a recovering serial entrepreneur (aka she is retired). She finds that writing is therapeutic, and it smooths the edges of her day, just like a couple of glasses of chardonnay used to.