April 30, 2025 • 46 mins
How does a culinary legend celebrate turning 90 years young? Jacques Pépin, daughter, Claudine Pépin and son-in-law, Dr. Rollie Wesen, executive director of the Jacques Pépin Foundation, discuss family, cooking together, the Foundation's mission and 90/90 birthday celebration featuring 90 fundraising dinners around the USA hosted by chefs. Funds raised support community-based kitchens offering culinary training to underserved adults with high barriers to employment. Info: https://jp.foundation
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The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-connected-table-live--1277037/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The topics and opinions expressed and the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransome. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
enjoy bringing you the stories of the people we love
and meet around the world and wine, food, spirits and hospitality.
We love sharing their stories with you and inspire you
to get cook, get traveling, and eat well and enjoy
(01:03):
life to the fullest. Today's guests are practically family to
us for so many reasons. We have known Jacques and
Claudine Pepenn for many years. I've had the great privision
of working with Jacques on a couple of James Spirit
Awards events, including a tribute to France and with the
former French Culinary Institute and Claudine I interviewed when she
(01:25):
came out with her cookbook. We have a bigger purpose
to talk about today because both Jacques and Claudine have
been on this show before, and joining is Claudine's husband
and the executive director of what we're going to really
focus the conversation on, which is the Jacques pa Penn Foundation.
Rollie Veson has got an amazing career history. He is
(01:46):
a doctor, he has a PhD, and teachers at Johnson
and Wales University, and they are this the most ultimate
family unit creating really a purposeful foundation that will carry
on Jacques's legacy. What's kind of a cool is Jaque's
turning ninety this year. It's twenty twenty five, and they've
launched a ninety ninety program where they're doing ninety dinners
around the United States. We had the great pleasure of
(02:08):
attending the one at Miss River here in New Orleans.
Alan Shai I said he read all thirty plus of
Jacques's cookbooks to come up with the menu, which I
have to say was just amazing. One of the best
meals I think I've had in New Orleans in a
long time.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
It really was great.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And the research that he did to come up with
just the right type of menu for that dinner was
incredible and he had his whole team working with him
at the restaurant to do it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So a great Bandvenue bienvenue to roly Vson, Jacques Papen
and Claudie Papen, who are facing us on the screen.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
John.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
First of all, Jacques, your birthdays in December, but happy birthday.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
I believe in celebrating a birthday year right.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Thank you, Yes, the whole year, maybe especially when you're
turning nineteen.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
The year, but yeah, very exciting. So, as I said,
we've interviewed you before, but we really want to focus
on your purpose. There's a saying that we all know
called give a man a fish and you feed him
for a day. Teach a man to fish and you
feed him for a lifetime. The same goes with teaching
cooking skills to people who love to eat or are
(03:19):
curious about it, but maybe they lack the skills to
have the confidence in the kitchen. Why is this important
to you as a mission for so many reasons and
also as a family, Well.
Speaker 7 (03:33):
Make your life better.
Speaker 8 (03:34):
I mean basically, you know, if you learn how to
cook and cook with the family and cookle with your front,
you have a good life and that there is no
other breaks.
Speaker 7 (03:47):
That they're on the table where you know people and even.
Speaker 8 (03:52):
Stronger you know, bring them around the table, cooking with
them all all of a suddenly your prime and that's
going to be in it in any language too, in
any country, do you go.
Speaker 7 (04:04):
You get to know people through the food, usually through sharing.
Speaker 8 (04:09):
Food together, and so that's what we've done with our life,
you know, family and that.
Speaker 7 (04:16):
But Roddy does so well. So I pulled away telling
me to go.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You know, Wellie, we watched the video, a video where
you talked about meeting Jacques for the first time and like,
you know, you're a chef, he's a chef, and you
were kind of like, wow, you know you and Claude
have married I think twenty years now, right, congratulations, right.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
Twenty yeah, yeah, So what.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Was that like meeting him for the first time, knowing
his knowing how famous he is, author of thirty over
thirty cookbooks, TV shows Teacher Legend, Cook for French Presidents,
on and on.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Well, I mean obviously.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
As a as a cook, as a culinary professional. You know,
it was a great honor to meet to meet Jack
in the first place, let alone to be uh, you know,
dating Cloudine at the time. But you know people often
say it's uh it you know, was was there a
lot of pressure.
Speaker 9 (05:14):
Involved in that?
Speaker 5 (05:14):
And I never I never actually felt that there was
any pressure because from my perspective, you know, Jacques is
really like one of a kind. He's done so much
in the culinary industry, from all those books that he published,
all those years on KQED and hours of television demonstrations
and teaching people technique. You know, there was no way
(05:35):
that that we were ever going to actually be in
the in the same h space, So that I didn't
I didn't feel any competitive pressure. I was just really
really honored and grateful to have the opportunity and you know,
especially blessed to be with Claudine so well.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Cludine, you know, like me, you're an only child.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
Yeah, so and we've shared that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
What was it like growing up with you and your
mom and Joq and traveling with him and eventually collaborating
with him.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
It just was a very natural kind of evolution. Honestly,
it was just what we did.
Speaker 10 (06:10):
There are no weekends off or anything else.
Speaker 9 (06:14):
We cook, we eat, and we repeat.
Speaker 10 (06:17):
So it's and doing the shows and doing the demonstrations together.
Speaker 9 (06:24):
What most people don't believe.
Speaker 10 (06:26):
It's not that they don't realize it, they just don't
believe it is that when we started to do the
shows together and demos together, I didn't know how to cook.
Our daughter doesn't know how to cook. She's twenty one
and she can cook a few things. She's just starting now.
But it's not like she's like, Ooh, I'm going to
cook too. She like me, like, why would I cook?
Speaker 9 (06:48):
These people are all making great food for me. I
don't need to cook. So when we started working together,
I was really learning.
Speaker 10 (06:57):
So I think that that kind of translated nicely on
camera or endemos.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
And it was fun, except people didn't.
Speaker 9 (07:09):
I would call my mother like how why do I
bake a potato?
Speaker 6 (07:15):
Because I didn't know, you know, Colonia.
Speaker 9 (07:19):
It was always fun.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
It's a secret. When David and me, I didn't cook either.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I kept my shoes in the oven, so I kept
cashmir sweaters and shoes in the oven in my New
York apartment. And David, David who grew up with My
mother made reservations. She hated to cook, and there was
always spoiled food and the refrigerator. But David's mother was
a home cook, and he when he first said can
I cook for you? I'm like, we're going to actually
open the oven. But now we cook together.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
Because we've learned the.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Value of it and the health value of it in
the togetherness, and we have dinner parties and a lot
of times we use your cookbooks Shark Good.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
But that's an interesting challenge that we're facing as a
society now, is how do people learn to cook?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
And where do they learn to cook?
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Because we're not teaching people how to cook in schools anymore.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Lots of people.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Aren't learning how to cook from their parents, even if
their parents can cook, but many people's parents don't know
how to cook. So what do you do if you've
if you've not never been exposed to home cooking, and
you get into your twenties and all of a sudden
you realize that, well, oh, eating out all time is
really expensive. So how do I get around that? And
(08:29):
how do I eat more healthfully? If I'm at the
mercy of what's on everybody's menus. You know, I think
this is this a particular challenge that we have as
a society to teach and inspire people to cook, which is,
you know, exactly what we're trying to do at the
Jacca Penn Foundation, which.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
I think is a good way to segue into talking
about the foundation, Raley, why don't you give us some
details on when it was established in some of the
core programs that the Jaka Penn Foundation tries to put forward.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Sure, well, we incorporated in twenty sixteen, so we're going
to be ten years old next year, coming up on
our tenth anniversary, which seems kind of amazing to us.
And you know, basically we've taken you know, Jacques's lead,
and we try to teach and inspire people to cook.
Jack has produced, you know, so many assets for us
to use, from eight thousand literally eight thousand published recipes,
(09:23):
do hundreds of hours of video content, and you know,
he spent his entire career teaching people and mentoring people
and helping people to cook and eat better and to
share the pleasure of being around the table. And so
we think that's really important. And you know, Clutting and
I through our social media channels. We make sure that
(09:44):
lots of people have access to free videos and content
and free recipes. We have hundreds of recipes available on
our website, and then also through our JACQA Penn Foundation membership,
which gives you access to another three hundred and fifty recipes,
which is a really amazing compendium of a video and
(10:05):
recipe content together. And then our most visible program over
these first ten years has been our Community Kitchen Support program.
So community Kitchens our organizations all across the country that
provide these short term culinary training programs anywhere from like
ten to sixteen weeks long, where individuals who have experienced
(10:28):
barriers to employment such as homelessness or previous incarceration can
get fundamental skills so that they can join the workforce
in hospitality. So basically, it's a great win win win
of a program. It's a win for the individual, it's
a win for society which gets a willing worker, and
it's a win for the restaurant industry, the food industry.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
That we love so much, that's desperate for workers.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, that's interesting because so many people it's an entryway
the restaurant industry, and cooking is a gateway for so
many people who don't have other options.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Seaques, Would you like to comment on it?
Speaker 8 (11:04):
Yes, I mean that you know, I can't teach someone,
Rory can't teach someone in like five weeks, you know,
four five weeks out to peel potato, to cook an egg,
you know, how to wash leak. And if that person
is happy in the kitchen, then they said and five
years the earlier, the chef, they're in a small restaurant
(11:26):
and by then you have read on your life and
so it's it's a it's a good.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Thing to do.
Speaker 8 (11:32):
And usually I mean in the kitchen you do you
do a media it's a team work, but you do
have another front, people across together, you know, in the
regular kitchen. And then of course the cooking itself lead
to sitting down around the table and sharing the food,
and that's another level of, you know, of communication between people,
(11:54):
and that's very important for us.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Yes, And in addition, it's a great equalizer. Jack a
few years ago came up with this phrase that he
just sort of set off the cuff, which we've made
basically our motto for the foundation, which is we are
all equal in the eyes of the stove. Right in
the end, the stove doesn't care what color your skin is,
or where you came from, or who you worship or what.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Your history was. It's just what the food is that
you put on the plate.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
And I think that restaurants, in addition to being you know,
great team environments, as Jacques said, are also really welcoming.
You know, if you show up for work and you
put it on the jacket and you come in and
you pay attention and you learn, and you work hard,
and you contribute to the common goal of serving good
quality food, then then you're welcomed and and you can
(12:40):
get ahead in that organization.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
It's so true. And it's also about nourishing. We all
need to be nourished. We all need to be physically
nourished and emotionally nourished, and food provides that. And I
think now in a time where so many young people are,
you know, looking at their phones at the table, really
fostering conversation and togetherness, which is what the Connected Tables
mission is, by the way, is so.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
Critical, it really is.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
You know, Claudia, I loved I was reading your bio
this morning again and you say you cook every day,
so you came a long way from not knowing how
to cook to cooking every days. It's incredible that and
I'm sure Shrey, who I think is still in Paris
at this point, she'll end up cooking as well. You
become so I think cooking creates in their videos that
(13:27):
you're doing create confidence for people who may feel they
just don't have the skills or they don't know what
to do with I think a lot of people just
don't know what to do with certain types of food.
You go to stores and you don't know how to
cut something off, or that big bulb of fennel may
intimidate you. And your videos make it easy, Jacques, easy
and understandable. And I have to say the last book
(13:50):
that you wrote on economical cooking, that just speaks volumes
right now.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
Yes, man, you know clearly, Yeah knew about cooking mushball
that she thought she knew because.
Speaker 7 (14:03):
She was not eating.
Speaker 8 (14:04):
She was explosed to good food from the moment she
was bomb didn't even realize that my wife I did
a lot of cooking as well as as I did,
so you know, when Cludin started getting into the kitchen itself,
she realized that she knew much more than she realized
she knew, and she carried on the samething with with
(14:29):
my granddaughter. You know, she knows mush well that she
realized you don't give her bad caviar. She'd be personal
to the that's loudly caviar, where she will know the
quality of angradio and and so forth. The first thing
is to go to the market, I mean the country market.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
To go to a farm country, look at the vegetable,
look at the food.
Speaker 8 (14:49):
Get inspired there and it becomes an easy step after
to jump and do a salad or do a simple thing,
you know. I mean, if you have a tomato, which
is the right temple, Sure she's ripe and all that
bita vo. You don't need much more embedishment than this.
You know, you realize the quality of it. Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 10 (15:12):
I mean Sorey knows how to eat, so she knows
what it's supposed to taste like when she cooks.
Speaker 9 (15:18):
And that's kind of how I cook too.
Speaker 10 (15:20):
I know what it's going to taste like in the end,
or at least I hope so. So and Raley worked
in restaurants through throughout until we were here, and so
I cooked every day for Surey Srey and I sat
at the table and we had dinner together every night
at six o'clock.
Speaker 9 (15:38):
So it was just it's just the way to connect.
Speaker 10 (15:42):
And even through high school when Raley would be working
at Johnson and Wales, a lot of times the classes
would go, he wouldn't get home until nine o'clock.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
I cooked dinner. We stopped.
Speaker 10 (15:52):
I spent more time cooking and cleaning up than we
spent eating, I'm sure, but we stopped and we sat
down and we have did a twenty minute conversation and
that was it.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Every day.
Speaker 9 (16:04):
Yes, and now she misses it.
Speaker 6 (16:08):
I'm sure she does, but I'm sure she's having a ball.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Well, we set the table, we bring out the silver,
you know, we're bussed to have silver, and we have
cloth napkins.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
And I didn't grow up that way. Mother was like
disposable everything. It was kind of sad.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But it's nice making setting the table now and having
things be nice and just enjoying a meal.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Well, it's nice to have a meal as a family. Yeah, well,
you know one of them. Even though my dad was
an executive and worked long hours when we were growing up,
my mother always made sure that we always had dinner
together when we were every school night, even when we
were when when I was growing up, and it kind
of makes it was a great way to spend time
with the family as well.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
Really, where did you grow up, by the way, where
did you grow up?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Where did I grow up?
Speaker 9 (16:53):
Yeah? In Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, and uh, well I was I was the youngest
of five.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
And one of the great things about my childhood is
we had a nice, big garden in our backyard.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And you know, my mother was from New England.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
My father grew up on a dairy farm in Washington State,
so they were both very comfortable with growing their own
food and and you know, harvesting vegetables, and we would
can vegetables and we would can fruits in the summertime
and keep them through the winter. So our table always
had you know, whole, healthy, fresh foods on it. And
every night we would cook together. And you know, my
mom was not what I would say, a great cook,
(17:31):
but she was quite skilled. She could you know, put
out a meal and especially in a very short amount
of time, which was really impressive. You know, it wasn't
it wasn't elevated cuisine, but it started with great ingredients
that were lightly handled and everything tasted great.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
Yeah, this is the best way to express love with
already questioned on a family, whether the mother or the
father cooking. You express love by cooking for people or
your family every day. And that's a very important thing
that people from children don't realize when they are floored,
but they do realize they get older.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
You know, speaking of love.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
The Jackpa Penn Foundation has two grants. One is named
after your father, Rally, and one is named after your mother, Gloria.
Let's talk about them because they obviously were very important
in your life to name a grant after them.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Yeah, I mean, neither of them were particularly famous. Of course,
Gloria was well known because Jacques was well known. I
don't expect that very many people other than you know,
my immediate family would have known who my father was.
But both of them were sort of instrumental in bringing
us all together at the table and helping us to
(18:46):
share time together and to eat well together, and to share.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
That love that Jacques was talking about around the tables.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
And we just thought that it was important to honor
them and to be able to remember them from for
the long haul, because you know, I tell Jacques all
the time, we didn't build the foundation to outlive him.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
We built the foundation to outlive us.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
We expect that the Jacque Pin Foundation will be around
for decades to come and will be great if we
can continue to honor Gloria and my dad along the way.
Recently we added a couple of additional similar grants. In
the last couple of years, we lost Chef Alan Sayak,
who was one of the original deans at the French
(19:28):
Culinary Institute, and then just this last winter we lost
jeff Andre Sultner. So we've added two new grants in
their names that are also going to be targeted to
individuals are deserving of mentorship and education.
Speaker 8 (19:45):
Yeah, because all Night and I worked at the French
Criberinarial Stitute for many many years, so we were really
cloth front and the school itself is gone now you
knew Durte camp. That's what a big part of our
life food and I hope that we did teach a
(20:05):
lot of people how to cook the right way there.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I have happy memories of those days, Jacques, I really do.
It was a great time and Clonie and Jacques I
remember Gloria quite well because we go to Aspen and
see her it's just such a lovely woman. And I
know it's very hard to lose someone that you love
so much. And it happened in twenty twenty, which was
during COVID as well, and that's when you started those
videos and cooking for people. We saw that video which
(20:31):
is on the JACQUESA. Penn Foundation website and it's I
got teary watching it this morning.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
I had to a wipe away some mascara.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Because it showed how you, you know, Cldine, you talk
to your dad. So we got to do something, and
these videos really helped people.
Speaker 8 (20:48):
It is Cloudine idea. It wasn't my idea. I mean,
the foundation was not my idea either. It well, it
was Cloudine and Roddy. But when the pandemic started, including
told me, why don't you do to show a three
four minutes with what you have left in your refrigerator
and stuff, And this is what we started to do.
Speaker 7 (21:08):
And we've done four hundred of those, so four hundred
and show then right.
Speaker 10 (21:13):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the thing is everybody was stuck
at home, right, So the first one that we did
was making vinaigrette in a jar. You put your mustard,
your shallatt's your thing. You shape the jar and now
you have vinigrette for a week. That was the first one,
and you know, and then we just continued.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
We did and it was good.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
It was It was kind of hard to anticipate actually
at the time how powerful that was going to be.
But all of a sudden, everyone was stuck at home
and they didn't and lots of people who never hadn't
cooked in a long time.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Were being forced to cook.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
And so Jacques sort of had the perfect secret sauce
for the time of being able to help people use
what they had to do something simple, make it fast,
not too complicated, but still wholesome and delicious. I mean,
that's that's really what we've been trying to get at
through the Foundation, is this idea of teaching and inspiring
people to cook with whole, healthy, fresh foods.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Because when you do that, there's so many benefits.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Right, It's good for your health, it helps you save money,
it helps you save time, it brings people together around
the table. It's a great way to share love, you know,
and if you really love it, then then you can
get a job as well.
Speaker 8 (22:24):
And you know, it's interesting because we haven't really lost
people up to the pendemic.
Speaker 9 (22:29):
No, no, people, people keep watching.
Speaker 10 (22:32):
And it's also it's kind of a safe haven from
anything else that's going on in the world. So it's
not political, it's not religious, it's nothing. It's just this
is what you do with some cucumbers, you know, and
so it's kind of I think people sort of look
at it as a as a respite as well.
Speaker 7 (22:49):
Don't put it together a prer kitchen.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
That's right, No politics, you know, right now we're all
filling the economic pinch. I mean, eggs are twelve dollars.
It doesn't We used to go to the local far
and get them for three dollars a dozen, you know,
and put the money in the refrigerator. And you know,
shopping is expensive. I mean it could be a couple
of hundred dollars. And so you're most recent book, Jaqua,
I don't have a copy of it. I got to
get a copy of Chaka pen Cooking My Way Recipes
(23:14):
and Techniques for Economical cooking. Of course, I have heart
and soul in the kitchen right here, and they're all
about using everything possible. And I love, as I said,
I grew up in a house with incredible food waste.
My mother shopped and then just left the food and
it was it was really awful. And so I like
to see everything used. I'd love to hear a tip
(23:37):
on something that people tend to leave in the refrigerator
for too long, like wilted salad or stale bread, and
a way to repurpose it.
Speaker 10 (23:46):
Well, wilton salad, you know, you can just add to
your spinach and cook it. I mean it's a leafy vegetable.
Surely my father like the wilted cellar. Yeah right, yeah,
so yeah.
Speaker 8 (24:01):
And bread of course, but a hundred aware you think
bread to south with you went the bread that caba it,
You put it back in the oven and it chris
spagana and you eat it, or you cut it into
a little toast two bag, or you make it into
a powder, you know, to bread something else.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
There is no way.
Speaker 8 (24:19):
My father would never have thrown a piece of bread out.
And when he finally get it too moreddia to throw
it out, he threw it to the.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
Chicken anyway, And just for our listeners.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Grew up in a restaurant family, and you learn to
economize in when you're working in a restaurant because you know,
it's not a profitable business unless you know how to
economize and use everything right.
Speaker 7 (24:44):
Absolutely, so yeah, yes, certainly.
Speaker 8 (24:47):
My generation also we were raised to the economized. My
mother was a very thrifty cook during the war, you know,
we didn't have much sat so she used absolutely everything,
you know, making your own sugar, with some pizza, doing
one thing or another. Yes, that's part of the training.
(25:08):
And for me, I'm much more impressed if I cook
with someone and I see that person putting away, sing
using that, putting that on the side, than someone who
does a beautiful dish, but there is enough left over
for a week and so much stuff here, and then
that's a good cooking to me.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
Good cooking is good. But they couldn't be colored too. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I love that demonstration that you used to do at
FCI where you took a duck and you made five
different dishes out of it, right, Yes, yes, that was fun.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I remember hearing you at a discussion and you said
the egg was the most persatile food.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Do you still feel that way?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Oh?
Speaker 8 (25:48):
Yes, yes, I mean eggs for me is very secret
and very beautiful and very tasty and very economic, color
and very delicious in many many ways. If I had
to choose one thing, I'll probablysh the I gives.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
I think the question I asked you, what do you need?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
What would you take on a desert island to nourish
yourself when you sit an egg and we love that.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
Yeah, well I think the chicken.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I was going to say, maybe take a fertilized take.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
The chicken too, because you never know who came first.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
So you know what we also.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Loved when we learned when we were at the Miss
River event for the Jakapin Foundation is that a lot
of the money stays within the local community. And here
in New Orleans, Cafe Reconcile was a beneficiary of a
grant and is also the corossette cookwear that was used.
Cafe Reconcile for our listeners, is a wonderful restaurant that
(26:45):
trains young people in high school who come from underserved communities,
and there were many here in New Orleans to learn
about the restaurant business. And it's one of our favorite
lunch places.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah, they're a great community partner.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
I mean a lot of the work that we do
at the Foundation is in support of the of community
kitchens like Cafe reconcile. We actually support a network of
one hundred and twenty organizations all across the country, from
Anchorage to Miami to San Diego to Vermont, and it's
really been a great pleasure to get to know a
lot of these organizations and work with chefs around the
(27:18):
country in.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Our ninety for ninety campaign and connect with a lot
of these and if people are.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Interested, if there's going to be an event in their community,
they can go to celebrate Jacques dot org and find
a ninety for ninety event because we I think we
still have sixty more to go, so there's plenty more
opportunities to eat in your community and support the foundation
and show your respect and appreciation for jakat Celebrate Jack
dot Org.
Speaker 10 (27:43):
I was just going to say the idea when we
were creating the foundation was to support things that already existed,
because if you have an organization in your in your neighborhood,
in your town, and your city, in your state, chances
are the people that are creating that no what your community.
Speaker 9 (28:01):
Needs far better than we would.
Speaker 10 (28:04):
So supporting something that already exists was something that was
very important to us.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
So if somebody wants to host a fundraiser. Does it
have to be a restaurant or a club or can
it be a private individual who looks for dinner.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Well, that's a great question, Melanie, Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
We're about to launch the home Cook campaign, which is
aligned with our ninety for ninety campaign that's going to launch.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
In just a couple of weeks here officially on May first.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
And the whole idea around the home Cook campaign is
that everyone who appreciate Shock, who's learned something from him,
who's been watching him on PBS for over the years,
can get some friends together, invite some people over plug
into our home Cooked toolkit and get recipe ideas and
menu ideas and other assets, invitations, menu borders, all kinds
(28:54):
of things.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Invite a few people over cook a meal.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
Raise a glass and you wish shot happy birthday and
be part of the campaign.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
That's great because some people can't afford to go out
to expensive fundraisers, so that provides another option. I think
that's really important, the toolkits. And of course are you
going to be doing anything with Jacques Art? You know
everyone listening to Jock is an amazing artist, and I
feel so lucky to have the James Beard Foundation Award
framed poster from the French themed event.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Still and we have one of the serving platter.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, a serving platter which we have displayed in our
dining room. And your menus cookbook, your menus book to
write menus? Are you gonna do anything with the artwork?
Speaker 8 (29:33):
Well, actually have a new book coming out in September
which is going to be called the Auto jacquep pan
in the I did the Out of Cooking two very
large volume, and then a few years ago I did
the Out of the Chicken. Now I'm doing the Auto Jacquet.
I would have one hundred recipe and one hundred panning
in it, so I supput that people can't take too
(29:55):
spanning and you know, reproduce them and use them on
the menu.
Speaker 7 (30:00):
Beautiful Health audio.
Speaker 10 (30:03):
We also have an art site doctor pickbout Art and
you can purchase and some of the proceeds from some
of the prints and stuff go directly in support of
the foundation, and so that's really nice. You can buy
original art or gikles, which are very very high quality prints,
(30:24):
and that's that's been really kind of gratifying. But for
the Foundation, what we have in the toolkit, whether it's
for a restaurant or for a home cook We have
a selection of menus that you can download for free,
and you just download it and you do your menu
on there.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
And so have one. This is the one from Miss
River and jumplet two of them.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I've got one in the menu in the menu book
you did, and I have this one for this, and
then I have my cookbook. We had to give up
a lot of cookbooks and we moved twice, but I
was very careful not to give up certain ones. I
have a whole French section, home cooking section, and a
pastry section.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
But I thought this menu was great. That's wonderful, because
these are wonderful templates.
Speaker 9 (31:08):
Yeah, yeah, and I think people can have fun.
Speaker 10 (31:10):
They can use it for an indivitation or for a
menu or for whatever, you know, for whatever one would like.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Yeah, and for the home cooks. Really, people can throw
any kind of event they want. It could be a
runch or a lunch, or a dinner or a picnic.
There'll be a whole set of recipes that are available
to them to download for free if they like. And
you know, of course, we want people to support the
foundation and what I what I love for people to
know is that if you feel like you've learned something
(31:36):
from Jacques over the years, if you feel like Jacques
has a has a special place in your heart and
you have fond memories, that this is the time to
give back to the foundation because we're going to keep
that legacy alive and keep his recipes and his cookbooks
available for decades to come. So, but there's no there's
no minimum, right you can if you want to throw
a party for Jacques and make a five dollars donation
(31:57):
that that would be wonderful.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
We're happy to have you.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I think that's great that it's open for everyone, and
that's really what the foundation is about because it's helping people.
And right now, with government grants being depleted and people
need money and support from the community, it's more important
than ever for communities to come together around a table.
Because some of my favorite fundraisers that I ever produced,
whether it was for the James Spear Foundation or for
(32:22):
other numerous charities, were all around food and getting together.
That was really what my career was built on, and
that's how my favorite Jacques memory, of course, is the
year we did the French James Bear Tours. Jack do
you remember the can Can Dancer episode when all the
women were can can dresses.
Speaker 6 (32:42):
She's smiling.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
That caused a little bit of a stir but and
I still have the records. But it was a great event. Yeah,
it was a great event. And have such fond memories
of that, and of course David has them from your
singing Happy Birthday to his mom.
Speaker 8 (32:58):
Well.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Remember, for the first time I ever saw Zac in
person was you were doing a demonstration on how to
d bone a chicken or maybe it was a cornish
game at Bloomingdale's in New York City and I happened
to be walking through the store at that time and
I stopped and I saw you debone a chicken without
taking the chicken apart, and it was fascinating to me.
(33:20):
And that was the first time I ever ever met
you and saw you in person.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
You don't remember it, but I sure do.
Speaker 9 (33:26):
That's really cool.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Yeah, yeah, everybody has a memory.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
But as you said, this is about a foundation, and
that's what foundations are supposed to do. They're supposed to
live beyond the people who they're named after in honor
of and successful foundations. And you now know because you're
now running one to, you know, their nonprofit. You have
to follow rigid guidelines. You have annual reports on your website,
(33:50):
which is JP dot Foundation dot.
Speaker 6 (33:54):
It's JP dot Foundation.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
I guess that's a.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
New type of way to do a website.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
But there's annual re ports because you have to do
here to that, and I think that's important so that
you have accountability.
Speaker 7 (34:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, yeah, so it'll great.
Speaker 10 (34:08):
One of the worst and hardest times for our executive
director is is doing all of those things. Rally has
worked so hard to make the foundation successful.
Speaker 5 (34:18):
It's really really ultimately the goal is to serve the
public good. Right if to be a nonprofit, to be
a public charity, you have to serve the public good.
And I think we all agree here that, you know,
teaching people how to cook and inspiring people to cook,
whether that's at home or in a restaurant or just
to feed yourself, is in service to the public good
(34:38):
because it's good for your health and it's good for
the society and bringing people together. So that's really what
we try to do and what we intend to do
for a long.
Speaker 7 (34:46):
Time to come.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Is the Jock Papenn Foundation a five oh one C
three or five.
Speaker 7 (34:50):
Oh one C six C three Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Okay, yeah, okay. I learned a lot about that, you know,
from my foundation days. But I think that's really important
that you know, donation to be tax deductible and you
get these incredible videos, and there's the membership aspect.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
To it, which is really really important.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I mean, these days, some people can't even afford it
buy cookbooks, so to have this access to videos is
so important, and videos that teach correct cooking skills, because
there's a lot of videos out there that are not
correct cooking schools.
Speaker 10 (35:20):
I will also say that if you can't afford to
become a member, and a lot of people can't, if
you just go on the website for free, you can
search hundreds and hundreds of hours of free content without membership,
without anything, and that's important, you know.
Speaker 11 (35:37):
I want you to also talk about all of the show, yeah,
participating in the yes, yeah, well that organization for free
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
One of the things that came out of the pandemic
we were talking about before where Jacques started to do
those videos at home, was we realized that all of
our chef friends were also doing videos at home, and
that year in twenty twenty, we were very concerned about
the foundation because all of our the funds that we
had been raising had been through in person events, so
we weren't going to do that in twenty twenty or
(36:09):
twenty twenty one, and so we asked our chef friends
to make videos for us in support of the foundation,
and of course it.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Was for Jacques, so everybody said yes.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
So we got one hundred chefs right off to submit
these videos.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
And so now if you join the JACQUEA. Pinn Foundation as.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
A member, and the barrier to entry is quite low
this year, it's just ninety dollars per year, which is
a lot less expensive than a lot of subscriptions. But
what you get is access to three hundred and fifty
videos that and recipes buy the chefs that wrote them.
So everyone from Andrew Zimmern to Thomas Keller, to Jose Andreas,
to Rachel Ray to pad Ma Lakshmi, everybody that you
(36:49):
can name as a celebrity chef has done Alanshaya has done.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
A video recipe for us.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
And when you open up the page, you get a
video box where you can watch the chef make the
recipe and you get the written recipe that you can
follow along at the same time, and there's no ads
and no pop ups, not like any of these other
recipe websites that you just go to on the internet.
It's it's all just very very clean and easy to follow,
and you can look at hundreds of chefs. Like jaqu said,
(37:16):
we have three hundred and fifty videos on there, many
of them by Jacques of course, but all of the
best chefs around the country have participated.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
Well that's really incredible.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
I mean you could just go resource and a great tool.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
You pop this up in the.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Kitchen, which we often do, and you can just follow
the recipes and so many you know, we followed the
Daniel Blue fundraiser obviously in the Elan Shaia, and you've
got several coming up. This is an evergreen show, sore.
You know, people will be listening to it long be
after twenty twenty five. But if anyone is listening they
want to do an event, now is the time to
step up. And where should they reach you to sign
(37:52):
up to do an event?
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Yeah, so they can go to celebrate Jacques dot org.
So that's all together, Celebrate Jacques dot org. And on
that page you can see the restaurant events that are
coming up. Like I said, we still have sixty events
ahead of us. There's going to be a couple right
here in our local community in Rhode Island and Connecticut
over the next couple of months. We'll be in Chicago
for a week at the beginning of June.
Speaker 7 (38:15):
We'll be in.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
Napa, California for a couple of weeks in October and
November of this year, and then you'll also launching just
in a couple of weeks on May first, we'll start
our home Cook campaign in the same place at celebrate
Jacques dot org celebrated jog dot org sorry, where a
home cook can go and sign up and get access
to the home Cook home cook Toolkit.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
That's all I have to be a ninety ninety Oceania cruise,
That's what I want to know.
Speaker 9 (38:43):
Well, I mean we're still I'll still be on board.
Speaker 10 (38:46):
Rolly and I are going in May so for a
godmother cruise, but.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
A godmother to the cruise ship.
Speaker 10 (38:54):
Yes, But they have been so generous and so wonderful
with us. There really are generary sponsor and we're just
very grateful and honored to be working.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
With them and those parodies.
Speaker 8 (39:07):
You know that you're abided to go to old counter Privy,
probably go to like fifty dollars to go to five
thousand dollars right dinner, you know, at the French Levelder,
I think it's five thousand. Daniel was twenty five hundred dollars.
In some of the place it fifty dollars, so you.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Know, yeah, I think it was two fifty here in
New Orleans. But you know, like there's little towns and cities.
You know, it doesn't have to be all the big cities.
I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Chattanooga.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
Yeah, that Bob.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
You know, we got one coming up in Omaha, Nebraska.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Oh yeah, we had one coming up in Omaha, Nebraska
in June, which is going to be in support of
one of our communication partners there.
Speaker 9 (39:48):
And we had one in Buffalo Gap, Texas three Ranch.
So you know, I mean everywhere.
Speaker 6 (39:56):
So Shati travels these or who does do you do?
How much traveling do you do? Now?
Speaker 8 (40:02):
No, not much because I have a very bad, bad
problem walking and all that, and because of all the
accident that I had ago, So I know I don't
travel as much as you except.
Speaker 7 (40:16):
But I mean that you do.
Speaker 9 (40:17):
We're doing a like New York.
Speaker 7 (40:19):
Yeah, New York and Mary some next week.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Are you still he's going to go on that NAP Oh.
Speaker 10 (40:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, he beat us yesterday.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Every Sunday, right, yeah, Easter tournament, there's the Eastern Tournament.
Speaker 7 (40:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
And well you were saying you're going to Napa.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
Well, I would say Jacques isn't going to very many
of these ninety for ninety dinners, but he is going
to some. And so that whole group, I think we're
doing six or seven events in Napa and the last
week of October and first week of November, and a
couple of them, like Jaques said, are very affordable. Will
be at Copia for a big birthday cake event, which
I think is only sixty dollars per person.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
And Jack will be at all of those events in Napa.
Speaker 7 (41:03):
And in the fall.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
So I'm dying to ask this question. Have you guys
ever been to Costco?
Speaker 9 (41:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Of course, I was like, because I would learned to
go to Costco. I never if he's he's the supermarket chapera.
I was just wondering, what, because it's an amazing place,
what do you buy there?
Speaker 6 (41:19):
What do you think is interesting?
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Well, you can buy Jacqua pan cookbooks.
Speaker 9 (41:23):
Yeah, exactly, what don't you buy a cup?
Speaker 6 (41:28):
The help about that four ninety nine roast chicken?
Speaker 5 (41:30):
Was it?
Speaker 6 (41:31):
Four?
Speaker 9 (41:32):
It's good?
Speaker 3 (41:34):
It's good, we said.
Speaker 10 (41:35):
When we were in Colorado, we used to go more
than we do here, but but they have great stuff.
Speaker 9 (41:40):
What I think is good at Costco is if you
go and.
Speaker 10 (41:45):
You split everything with three or four families, because, like
I remember that, they were just like either it was
the avocados or tomatoes or whatever, you have to get
a lot, so it's nice to be able to share
it with other people.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
If I remember, Melanie, when we went to Costco last
fall and they had an entire skid of fresh Chantrell
mushrooms that had just come in and them anywhere else. Yeah,
and I'd never seen anything like it.
Speaker 7 (42:11):
It was great.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
So of course we bought a whole bunch of them.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
You know, like we said, in New Orleans, you don't
get a lot of vegetables certain times of the year,
so for us, it's a lifeline. We only started shopping
when we moved to New Orleans, and now we're kind
of like, wow, you know, we did David's entire birthday
on Costco.
Speaker 6 (42:27):
That trader Joe.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Sorry, that's because we were traveling.
Speaker 6 (42:31):
We were cooking, so you know, you.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Can find good food and it kind of it does
encourage you to cook at home. And and of course
we love our little country markets when they have things
in place.
Speaker 6 (42:41):
So just curious you had.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
This is the day out. We're recording this the day
after Easter. You said you had a big lamb meal.
How often do you all cook together as a family?
Speaker 9 (42:56):
Were together?
Speaker 8 (42:57):
We cooked together? Yes, well, I look at it. Look
at them cooking now, ball and cooking but a little bit.
But he's a big cook, Chas too, and so the kitchen.
Speaker 7 (43:10):
The dog out there too, he's going in the kitchen.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
Yes, we're together at least like two or three weekends
a month at this point, and prout and you know
that the amount of time that we're spending together is
growing and pretty much, you know, I would say seventy
five percent of the of the evenings that we're together,
we're still cooking in our own kitchen and eating together.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yes, And what's in your glass at the end of dinner?
I know you're enjoying champagne?
Speaker 6 (43:38):
What else?
Speaker 8 (43:40):
Well, yesterday we had a lot of very good wine, right, well,
some from California actually, and some from France.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
We had some really good wine.
Speaker 5 (43:51):
Yeah, we had a We had a beautiful bottle of
and U's Bush wine from Napa that actually on the
label had one of Jacques's artworks.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
On a label.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
Oh that's wonderful.
Speaker 5 (44:01):
And our friends there at the Amuse Bouche Winery have
been have been a great friend of ours. And Jack
and I do like a little bit of Kangnac at
the end of the night if we can get it.
So I think we had a splash of some hind
Exo last night, which is which is a really tasty kanya.
Speaker 8 (44:18):
Yeah, that's what I have to hangover today.
Speaker 6 (44:22):
Well, we opened we opened a bottle of what nineteen's.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Nineteen eighty seven Chateau Souvaring.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
My dad was a wine sure, and we have a
lot of wine. We have a lot of wine to
drink before we die. And the good news is you
Everybody I know that has a long life and is
very healthy drinks wine regularly with food. And I think
that's what's what's your address.
Speaker 5 (44:47):
Right over?
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Everybody loves coming to our place for dinner parties. Well,
we are so glad that you've joined us again. We've
been talking with Jacques pa Pin Claude and Papin and
Rollie Ways and their husband and wife and Papa and
we've been talking about the Jacques pa Penn Foundation and
the ninety ninety program to celebrate Jacques's ninetieth birthday, which
(45:09):
is in December twenty twenty five, I think December eighteenth, right, and.
Speaker 6 (45:13):
There's going to be ninety events around.
Speaker 5 (45:15):
The country and that we'll have a big finale dinner
in Madison on his birthday on that eighteenth of December
this year at the Madison Beach Hotel. So that one
will be posted up onto our website pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
If I saw you, yeah, the Madison Beach Hotel, shout
out to them, we saw you there site. That's where
we got the menus book with dinner parties, and we
saw you there and have a really great photo from
that event with you.
Speaker 5 (45:42):
Was that that was from the Julia Shout event right
in last year, Jovia, No, it.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Was a number of years ago. We were We actually
went up to the opening weekend of the Madison Beach
Hotel when they first opened.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
It was a whole no, it was a whole wine
making program. It was a whole all the Hilton people
were there.
Speaker 5 (45:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
So anyway, we want to thank you again for joining us.
We uh as always happy cooking and as I think
I have a quote from you, I think it's good.
Food doesn't have to be complicated. It needs to be wholesome,
nutritious and preferly well seasoned, and it's always best when shared.
Speaker 6 (46:18):
With those you love.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
We love you guys, You're like family. Thank you so
much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
Be well, thank you very much, thank you, Happy.
Speaker 6 (46:27):
Cooking, happy cooking.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
You've been listening to The Connected Table Live with Melanie
Young and David Ransom and the Papen family. Our message
to you, besides happy cooking is always stay insatiably curious.
Speaker 6 (46:40):
Thank you,
The topics and opinions expressed and the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability,
explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransome. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
enjoy bringing you the stories of the people we love
and meet around the world and wine, food, spirits and hospitality.
We love sharing their stories with you and inspire you
to get cook, get traveling, and eat well and enjoy
(01:03):
life to the fullest. Today's guests are practically family to
us for so many reasons. We have known Jacques and
Claudine Pepenn for many years. I've had the great privision
of working with Jacques on a couple of James Spirit
Awards events, including a tribute to France and with the
former French Culinary Institute and Claudine I interviewed when she
(01:25):
came out with her cookbook. We have a bigger purpose
to talk about today because both Jacques and Claudine have
been on this show before, and joining is Claudine's husband
and the executive director of what we're going to really
focus the conversation on, which is the Jacques pa Penn Foundation.
Rollie Veson has got an amazing career history. He is
(01:46):
a doctor, he has a PhD, and teachers at Johnson
and Wales University, and they are this the most ultimate
family unit creating really a purposeful foundation that will carry
on Jacques's legacy. What's kind of a cool is Jaque's
turning ninety this year. It's twenty twenty five, and they've
launched a ninety ninety program where they're doing ninety dinners
around the United States. We had the great pleasure of
(02:08):
attending the one at Miss River here in New Orleans.
Alan Shai I said he read all thirty plus of
Jacques's cookbooks to come up with the menu, which I
have to say was just amazing. One of the best
meals I think I've had in New Orleans in a
long time.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
It really was great.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And the research that he did to come up with
just the right type of menu for that dinner was
incredible and he had his whole team working with him
at the restaurant to do it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So a great Bandvenue bienvenue to roly Vson, Jacques Papen
and Claudie Papen, who are facing us on the screen.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
John.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
First of all, Jacques, your birthdays in December, but happy birthday.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
I believe in celebrating a birthday year right.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Thank you, Yes, the whole year, maybe especially when you're
turning nineteen.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
The year, but yeah, very exciting. So, as I said,
we've interviewed you before, but we really want to focus
on your purpose. There's a saying that we all know
called give a man a fish and you feed him
for a day. Teach a man to fish and you
feed him for a lifetime. The same goes with teaching
cooking skills to people who love to eat or are
(03:19):
curious about it, but maybe they lack the skills to
have the confidence in the kitchen. Why is this important
to you as a mission for so many reasons and
also as a family, Well.
Speaker 7 (03:33):
Make your life better.
Speaker 8 (03:34):
I mean basically, you know, if you learn how to
cook and cook with the family and cookle with your front,
you have a good life and that there is no
other breaks.
Speaker 7 (03:47):
That they're on the table where you know people and even.
Speaker 8 (03:52):
Stronger you know, bring them around the table, cooking with
them all all of a suddenly your prime and that's
going to be in it in any language too, in
any country, do you go.
Speaker 7 (04:04):
You get to know people through the food, usually through sharing.
Speaker 8 (04:09):
Food together, and so that's what we've done with our life,
you know, family and that.
Speaker 7 (04:16):
But Roddy does so well. So I pulled away telling
me to go.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You know, Wellie, we watched the video, a video where
you talked about meeting Jacques for the first time and like,
you know, you're a chef, he's a chef, and you
were kind of like, wow, you know you and Claude
have married I think twenty years now, right, congratulations, right.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
Twenty yeah, yeah, So what.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Was that like meeting him for the first time, knowing
his knowing how famous he is, author of thirty over
thirty cookbooks, TV shows Teacher Legend, Cook for French Presidents,
on and on.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Well, I mean obviously.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
As a as a cook, as a culinary professional. You know,
it was a great honor to meet to meet Jack
in the first place, let alone to be uh, you know,
dating Cloudine at the time. But you know people often
say it's uh it you know, was was there a
lot of pressure.
Speaker 9 (05:14):
Involved in that?
Speaker 5 (05:14):
And I never I never actually felt that there was
any pressure because from my perspective, you know, Jacques is
really like one of a kind. He's done so much
in the culinary industry, from all those books that he published,
all those years on KQED and hours of television demonstrations
and teaching people technique. You know, there was no way
(05:35):
that that we were ever going to actually be in
the in the same h space, So that I didn't
I didn't feel any competitive pressure. I was just really
really honored and grateful to have the opportunity and you know,
especially blessed to be with Claudine so well.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Cludine, you know, like me, you're an only child.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
Yeah, so and we've shared that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
What was it like growing up with you and your
mom and Joq and traveling with him and eventually collaborating
with him.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
It just was a very natural kind of evolution. Honestly,
it was just what we did.
Speaker 10 (06:10):
There are no weekends off or anything else.
Speaker 9 (06:14):
We cook, we eat, and we repeat.
Speaker 10 (06:17):
So it's and doing the shows and doing the demonstrations together.
Speaker 9 (06:24):
What most people don't believe.
Speaker 10 (06:26):
It's not that they don't realize it, they just don't
believe it is that when we started to do the
shows together and demos together, I didn't know how to cook.
Our daughter doesn't know how to cook. She's twenty one
and she can cook a few things. She's just starting now.
But it's not like she's like, Ooh, I'm going to
cook too. She like me, like, why would I cook?
Speaker 9 (06:48):
These people are all making great food for me. I
don't need to cook. So when we started working together,
I was really learning.
Speaker 10 (06:57):
So I think that that kind of translated nicely on
camera or endemos.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
And it was fun, except people didn't.
Speaker 9 (07:09):
I would call my mother like how why do I
bake a potato?
Speaker 6 (07:15):
Because I didn't know, you know, Colonia.
Speaker 9 (07:19):
It was always fun.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
It's a secret. When David and me, I didn't cook either.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I kept my shoes in the oven, so I kept
cashmir sweaters and shoes in the oven in my New
York apartment. And David, David who grew up with My
mother made reservations. She hated to cook, and there was
always spoiled food and the refrigerator. But David's mother was
a home cook, and he when he first said can
I cook for you? I'm like, we're going to actually
open the oven. But now we cook together.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
Because we've learned the.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Value of it and the health value of it in
the togetherness, and we have dinner parties and a lot
of times we use your cookbooks Shark Good.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
But that's an interesting challenge that we're facing as a
society now, is how do people learn to cook?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
And where do they learn to cook?
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Because we're not teaching people how to cook in schools anymore.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Lots of people.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Aren't learning how to cook from their parents, even if
their parents can cook, but many people's parents don't know
how to cook. So what do you do if you've
if you've not never been exposed to home cooking, and
you get into your twenties and all of a sudden
you realize that, well, oh, eating out all time is
really expensive. So how do I get around that? And
(08:29):
how do I eat more healthfully? If I'm at the
mercy of what's on everybody's menus. You know, I think
this is this a particular challenge that we have as
a society to teach and inspire people to cook, which is,
you know, exactly what we're trying to do at the
Jacca Penn Foundation, which.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
I think is a good way to segue into talking
about the foundation, Raley, why don't you give us some
details on when it was established in some of the
core programs that the Jaka Penn Foundation tries to put forward.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Sure, well, we incorporated in twenty sixteen, so we're going
to be ten years old next year, coming up on
our tenth anniversary, which seems kind of amazing to us.
And you know, basically we've taken you know, Jacques's lead,
and we try to teach and inspire people to cook.
Jack has produced, you know, so many assets for us
to use, from eight thousand literally eight thousand published recipes,
(09:23):
do hundreds of hours of video content, and you know,
he spent his entire career teaching people and mentoring people
and helping people to cook and eat better and to
share the pleasure of being around the table. And so
we think that's really important. And you know, Clutting and
I through our social media channels. We make sure that
(09:44):
lots of people have access to free videos and content
and free recipes. We have hundreds of recipes available on
our website, and then also through our JACQA Penn Foundation membership,
which gives you access to another three hundred and fifty recipes,
which is a really amazing compendium of a video and
(10:05):
recipe content together. And then our most visible program over
these first ten years has been our Community Kitchen Support program.
So community Kitchens our organizations all across the country that
provide these short term culinary training programs anywhere from like
ten to sixteen weeks long, where individuals who have experienced
(10:28):
barriers to employment such as homelessness or previous incarceration can
get fundamental skills so that they can join the workforce
in hospitality. So basically, it's a great win win win
of a program. It's a win for the individual, it's
a win for society which gets a willing worker, and
it's a win for the restaurant industry, the food industry.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
That we love so much, that's desperate for workers.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, that's interesting because so many people it's an entryway
the restaurant industry, and cooking is a gateway for so
many people who don't have other options.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Seaques, Would you like to comment on it?
Speaker 8 (11:04):
Yes, I mean that you know, I can't teach someone,
Rory can't teach someone in like five weeks, you know,
four five weeks out to peel potato, to cook an egg,
you know, how to wash leak. And if that person
is happy in the kitchen, then they said and five
years the earlier, the chef, they're in a small restaurant
(11:26):
and by then you have read on your life and
so it's it's a it's a good.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Thing to do.
Speaker 8 (11:32):
And usually I mean in the kitchen you do you
do a media it's a team work, but you do
have another front, people across together, you know, in the
regular kitchen. And then of course the cooking itself lead
to sitting down around the table and sharing the food,
and that's another level of, you know, of communication between people,
(11:54):
and that's very important for us.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Yes, And in addition, it's a great equalizer. Jack a
few years ago came up with this phrase that he
just sort of set off the cuff, which we've made
basically our motto for the foundation, which is we are
all equal in the eyes of the stove. Right in
the end, the stove doesn't care what color your skin is,
or where you came from, or who you worship or what.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Your history was. It's just what the food is that
you put on the plate.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
And I think that restaurants, in addition to being you know,
great team environments, as Jacques said, are also really welcoming.
You know, if you show up for work and you
put it on the jacket and you come in and
you pay attention and you learn, and you work hard,
and you contribute to the common goal of serving good
quality food, then then you're welcomed and and you can
(12:40):
get ahead in that organization.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
It's so true. And it's also about nourishing. We all
need to be nourished. We all need to be physically
nourished and emotionally nourished, and food provides that. And I
think now in a time where so many young people are,
you know, looking at their phones at the table, really
fostering conversation and togetherness, which is what the Connected Tables
mission is, by the way, is so.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
Critical, it really is.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
You know, Claudia, I loved I was reading your bio
this morning again and you say you cook every day,
so you came a long way from not knowing how
to cook to cooking every days. It's incredible that and
I'm sure Shrey, who I think is still in Paris
at this point, she'll end up cooking as well. You
become so I think cooking creates in their videos that
(13:27):
you're doing create confidence for people who may feel they
just don't have the skills or they don't know what
to do with I think a lot of people just
don't know what to do with certain types of food.
You go to stores and you don't know how to
cut something off, or that big bulb of fennel may
intimidate you. And your videos make it easy, Jacques, easy
and understandable. And I have to say the last book
(13:50):
that you wrote on economical cooking, that just speaks volumes
right now.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
Yes, man, you know clearly, Yeah knew about cooking mushball
that she thought she knew because.
Speaker 7 (14:03):
She was not eating.
Speaker 8 (14:04):
She was explosed to good food from the moment she
was bomb didn't even realize that my wife I did
a lot of cooking as well as as I did,
so you know, when Cludin started getting into the kitchen itself,
she realized that she knew much more than she realized
she knew, and she carried on the samething with with
(14:29):
my granddaughter. You know, she knows mush well that she
realized you don't give her bad caviar. She'd be personal
to the that's loudly caviar, where she will know the
quality of angradio and and so forth. The first thing
is to go to the market, I mean the country market.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
To go to a farm country, look at the vegetable,
look at the food.
Speaker 8 (14:49):
Get inspired there and it becomes an easy step after
to jump and do a salad or do a simple thing,
you know. I mean, if you have a tomato, which
is the right temple, Sure she's ripe and all that
bita vo. You don't need much more embedishment than this.
You know, you realize the quality of it. Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 10 (15:12):
I mean Sorey knows how to eat, so she knows
what it's supposed to taste like when she cooks.
Speaker 9 (15:18):
And that's kind of how I cook too.
Speaker 10 (15:20):
I know what it's going to taste like in the end,
or at least I hope so. So and Raley worked
in restaurants through throughout until we were here, and so
I cooked every day for Surey Srey and I sat
at the table and we had dinner together every night
at six o'clock.
Speaker 9 (15:38):
So it was just it's just the way to connect.
Speaker 10 (15:42):
And even through high school when Raley would be working
at Johnson and Wales, a lot of times the classes
would go, he wouldn't get home until nine o'clock.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
I cooked dinner. We stopped.
Speaker 10 (15:52):
I spent more time cooking and cleaning up than we
spent eating, I'm sure, but we stopped and we sat
down and we have did a twenty minute conversation and
that was it.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Every day.
Speaker 9 (16:04):
Yes, and now she misses it.
Speaker 6 (16:08):
I'm sure she does, but I'm sure she's having a ball.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Well, we set the table, we bring out the silver,
you know, we're bussed to have silver, and we have
cloth napkins.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
And I didn't grow up that way. Mother was like
disposable everything. It was kind of sad.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But it's nice making setting the table now and having
things be nice and just enjoying a meal.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Well, it's nice to have a meal as a family. Yeah, well,
you know one of them. Even though my dad was
an executive and worked long hours when we were growing up,
my mother always made sure that we always had dinner
together when we were every school night, even when we
were when when I was growing up, and it kind
of makes it was a great way to spend time
with the family as well.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
Really, where did you grow up, by the way, where
did you grow up?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Where did I grow up?
Speaker 9 (16:53):
Yeah? In Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, and uh, well I was I was the youngest
of five.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
And one of the great things about my childhood is
we had a nice, big garden in our backyard.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And you know, my mother was from New England.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
My father grew up on a dairy farm in Washington State,
so they were both very comfortable with growing their own
food and and you know, harvesting vegetables, and we would
can vegetables and we would can fruits in the summertime
and keep them through the winter. So our table always
had you know, whole, healthy, fresh foods on it. And
every night we would cook together. And you know, my
mom was not what I would say, a great cook,
(17:31):
but she was quite skilled. She could you know, put
out a meal and especially in a very short amount
of time, which was really impressive. You know, it wasn't
it wasn't elevated cuisine, but it started with great ingredients
that were lightly handled and everything tasted great.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
Yeah, this is the best way to express love with
already questioned on a family, whether the mother or the
father cooking. You express love by cooking for people or
your family every day. And that's a very important thing
that people from children don't realize when they are floored,
but they do realize they get older.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
You know, speaking of love.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
The Jackpa Penn Foundation has two grants. One is named
after your father, Rally, and one is named after your mother, Gloria.
Let's talk about them because they obviously were very important
in your life to name a grant after them.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Yeah, I mean, neither of them were particularly famous. Of course,
Gloria was well known because Jacques was well known. I
don't expect that very many people other than you know,
my immediate family would have known who my father was.
But both of them were sort of instrumental in bringing
us all together at the table and helping us to
(18:46):
share time together and to eat well together, and to share.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
That love that Jacques was talking about around the tables.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
And we just thought that it was important to honor
them and to be able to remember them from for
the long haul, because you know, I tell Jacques all
the time, we didn't build the foundation to outlive him.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
We built the foundation to outlive us.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
We expect that the Jacque Pin Foundation will be around
for decades to come and will be great if we
can continue to honor Gloria and my dad along the way.
Recently we added a couple of additional similar grants. In
the last couple of years, we lost Chef Alan Sayak,
who was one of the original deans at the French
(19:28):
Culinary Institute, and then just this last winter we lost
jeff Andre Sultner. So we've added two new grants in
their names that are also going to be targeted to
individuals are deserving of mentorship and education.
Speaker 8 (19:45):
Yeah, because all Night and I worked at the French
Criberinarial Stitute for many many years, so we were really
cloth front and the school itself is gone now you
knew Durte camp. That's what a big part of our
life food and I hope that we did teach a
(20:05):
lot of people how to cook the right way there.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I have happy memories of those days, Jacques, I really do.
It was a great time and Clonie and Jacques I
remember Gloria quite well because we go to Aspen and
see her it's just such a lovely woman. And I
know it's very hard to lose someone that you love
so much. And it happened in twenty twenty, which was
during COVID as well, and that's when you started those
videos and cooking for people. We saw that video which
(20:31):
is on the JACQUESA. Penn Foundation website and it's I
got teary watching it this morning.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
I had to a wipe away some mascara.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Because it showed how you, you know, Cldine, you talk
to your dad. So we got to do something, and
these videos really helped people.
Speaker 8 (20:48):
It is Cloudine idea. It wasn't my idea. I mean,
the foundation was not my idea either. It well, it
was Cloudine and Roddy. But when the pandemic started, including
told me, why don't you do to show a three
four minutes with what you have left in your refrigerator
and stuff, And this is what we started to do.
Speaker 7 (21:08):
And we've done four hundred of those, so four hundred
and show then right.
Speaker 10 (21:13):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the thing is everybody was stuck
at home, right, So the first one that we did
was making vinaigrette in a jar. You put your mustard,
your shallatt's your thing. You shape the jar and now
you have vinigrette for a week. That was the first one,
and you know, and then we just continued.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
We did and it was good.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
It was It was kind of hard to anticipate actually
at the time how powerful that was going to be.
But all of a sudden, everyone was stuck at home
and they didn't and lots of people who never hadn't
cooked in a long time.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Were being forced to cook.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
And so Jacques sort of had the perfect secret sauce
for the time of being able to help people use
what they had to do something simple, make it fast,
not too complicated, but still wholesome and delicious. I mean,
that's that's really what we've been trying to get at
through the Foundation, is this idea of teaching and inspiring
people to cook with whole, healthy, fresh foods.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Because when you do that, there's so many benefits.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Right, It's good for your health, it helps you save money,
it helps you save time, it brings people together around
the table. It's a great way to share love, you know,
and if you really love it, then then you can
get a job as well.
Speaker 8 (22:24):
And you know, it's interesting because we haven't really lost
people up to the pendemic.
Speaker 9 (22:29):
No, no, people, people keep watching.
Speaker 10 (22:32):
And it's also it's kind of a safe haven from
anything else that's going on in the world. So it's
not political, it's not religious, it's nothing. It's just this
is what you do with some cucumbers, you know, and
so it's kind of I think people sort of look
at it as a as a respite as well.
Speaker 7 (22:49):
Don't put it together a prer kitchen.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
That's right, No politics, you know, right now we're all
filling the economic pinch. I mean, eggs are twelve dollars.
It doesn't We used to go to the local far
and get them for three dollars a dozen, you know,
and put the money in the refrigerator. And you know,
shopping is expensive. I mean it could be a couple
of hundred dollars. And so you're most recent book, Jaqua,
I don't have a copy of it. I got to
get a copy of Chaka pen Cooking My Way Recipes
(23:14):
and Techniques for Economical cooking. Of course, I have heart
and soul in the kitchen right here, and they're all
about using everything possible. And I love, as I said,
I grew up in a house with incredible food waste.
My mother shopped and then just left the food and
it was it was really awful. And so I like
to see everything used. I'd love to hear a tip
(23:37):
on something that people tend to leave in the refrigerator
for too long, like wilted salad or stale bread, and
a way to repurpose it.
Speaker 10 (23:46):
Well, wilton salad, you know, you can just add to
your spinach and cook it. I mean it's a leafy vegetable.
Surely my father like the wilted cellar. Yeah right, yeah,
so yeah.
Speaker 8 (24:01):
And bread of course, but a hundred aware you think
bread to south with you went the bread that caba it,
You put it back in the oven and it chris
spagana and you eat it, or you cut it into
a little toast two bag, or you make it into
a powder, you know, to bread something else.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
There is no way.
Speaker 8 (24:19):
My father would never have thrown a piece of bread out.
And when he finally get it too moreddia to throw
it out, he threw it to the.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
Chicken anyway, And just for our listeners.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Grew up in a restaurant family, and you learn to
economize in when you're working in a restaurant because you know,
it's not a profitable business unless you know how to
economize and use everything right.
Speaker 7 (24:44):
Absolutely, so yeah, yes, certainly.
Speaker 8 (24:47):
My generation also we were raised to the economized. My
mother was a very thrifty cook during the war, you know,
we didn't have much sat so she used absolutely everything,
you know, making your own sugar, with some pizza, doing
one thing or another. Yes, that's part of the training.
(25:08):
And for me, I'm much more impressed if I cook
with someone and I see that person putting away, sing
using that, putting that on the side, than someone who
does a beautiful dish, but there is enough left over
for a week and so much stuff here, and then
that's a good cooking to me.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
Good cooking is good. But they couldn't be colored too. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I love that demonstration that you used to do at
FCI where you took a duck and you made five
different dishes out of it, right, Yes, yes, that was fun.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I remember hearing you at a discussion and you said
the egg was the most persatile food.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Do you still feel that way?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Oh?
Speaker 8 (25:48):
Yes, yes, I mean eggs for me is very secret
and very beautiful and very tasty and very economic, color
and very delicious in many many ways. If I had
to choose one thing, I'll probablysh the I gives.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
I think the question I asked you, what do you need?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
What would you take on a desert island to nourish
yourself when you sit an egg and we love that.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
Yeah, well I think the chicken.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I was going to say, maybe take a fertilized take.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
The chicken too, because you never know who came first.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
So you know what we also.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Loved when we learned when we were at the Miss
River event for the Jakapin Foundation is that a lot
of the money stays within the local community. And here
in New Orleans, Cafe Reconcile was a beneficiary of a
grant and is also the corossette cookwear that was used.
Cafe Reconcile for our listeners, is a wonderful restaurant that
(26:45):
trains young people in high school who come from underserved communities,
and there were many here in New Orleans to learn
about the restaurant business. And it's one of our favorite
lunch places.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah, they're a great community partner.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
I mean a lot of the work that we do
at the Foundation is in support of the of community
kitchens like Cafe reconcile. We actually support a network of
one hundred and twenty organizations all across the country, from
Anchorage to Miami to San Diego to Vermont, and it's
really been a great pleasure to get to know a
lot of these organizations and work with chefs around the
(27:18):
country in.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Our ninety for ninety campaign and connect with a lot
of these and if people are.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Interested, if there's going to be an event in their community,
they can go to celebrate Jacques dot org and find
a ninety for ninety event because we I think we
still have sixty more to go, so there's plenty more
opportunities to eat in your community and support the foundation
and show your respect and appreciation for jakat Celebrate Jack
dot Org.
Speaker 10 (27:43):
I was just going to say the idea when we
were creating the foundation was to support things that already existed,
because if you have an organization in your in your neighborhood,
in your town, and your city, in your state, chances
are the people that are creating that no what your community.
Speaker 9 (28:01):
Needs far better than we would.
Speaker 10 (28:04):
So supporting something that already exists was something that was
very important to us.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
So if somebody wants to host a fundraiser. Does it
have to be a restaurant or a club or can
it be a private individual who looks for dinner.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Well, that's a great question, Melanie, Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
We're about to launch the home Cook campaign, which is
aligned with our ninety for ninety campaign that's going to launch.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
In just a couple of weeks here officially on May first.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
And the whole idea around the home Cook campaign is
that everyone who appreciate Shock, who's learned something from him,
who's been watching him on PBS for over the years,
can get some friends together, invite some people over plug
into our home Cooked toolkit and get recipe ideas and
menu ideas and other assets, invitations, menu borders, all kinds
(28:54):
of things.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Invite a few people over cook a meal.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
Raise a glass and you wish shot happy birthday and
be part of the campaign.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
That's great because some people can't afford to go out
to expensive fundraisers, so that provides another option. I think
that's really important, the toolkits. And of course are you
going to be doing anything with Jacques Art? You know
everyone listening to Jock is an amazing artist, and I
feel so lucky to have the James Beard Foundation Award
framed poster from the French themed event.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Still and we have one of the serving platter.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, a serving platter which we have displayed in our
dining room. And your menus cookbook, your menus book to
write menus? Are you gonna do anything with the artwork?
Speaker 8 (29:33):
Well, actually have a new book coming out in September
which is going to be called the Auto jacquep pan
in the I did the Out of Cooking two very
large volume, and then a few years ago I did
the Out of the Chicken. Now I'm doing the Auto Jacquet.
I would have one hundred recipe and one hundred panning
in it, so I supput that people can't take too
(29:55):
spanning and you know, reproduce them and use them on
the menu.
Speaker 7 (30:00):
Beautiful Health audio.
Speaker 10 (30:03):
We also have an art site doctor pickbout Art and
you can purchase and some of the proceeds from some
of the prints and stuff go directly in support of
the foundation, and so that's really nice. You can buy
original art or gikles, which are very very high quality prints,
(30:24):
and that's that's been really kind of gratifying. But for
the Foundation, what we have in the toolkit, whether it's
for a restaurant or for a home cook We have
a selection of menus that you can download for free,
and you just download it and you do your menu
on there.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
And so have one. This is the one from Miss
River and jumplet two of them.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I've got one in the menu in the menu book
you did, and I have this one for this, and
then I have my cookbook. We had to give up
a lot of cookbooks and we moved twice, but I
was very careful not to give up certain ones. I
have a whole French section, home cooking section, and a
pastry section.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
But I thought this menu was great. That's wonderful, because
these are wonderful templates.
Speaker 9 (31:08):
Yeah, yeah, and I think people can have fun.
Speaker 10 (31:10):
They can use it for an indivitation or for a
menu or for whatever, you know, for whatever one would like.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Yeah, and for the home cooks. Really, people can throw
any kind of event they want. It could be a
runch or a lunch, or a dinner or a picnic.
There'll be a whole set of recipes that are available
to them to download for free if they like. And
you know, of course, we want people to support the
foundation and what I what I love for people to
know is that if you feel like you've learned something
(31:36):
from Jacques over the years, if you feel like Jacques
has a has a special place in your heart and
you have fond memories, that this is the time to
give back to the foundation because we're going to keep
that legacy alive and keep his recipes and his cookbooks
available for decades to come. So, but there's no there's
no minimum, right you can if you want to throw
a party for Jacques and make a five dollars donation
(31:57):
that that would be wonderful.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
We're happy to have you.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I think that's great that it's open for everyone, and
that's really what the foundation is about because it's helping people.
And right now, with government grants being depleted and people
need money and support from the community, it's more important
than ever for communities to come together around a table.
Because some of my favorite fundraisers that I ever produced,
whether it was for the James Spear Foundation or for
(32:22):
other numerous charities, were all around food and getting together.
That was really what my career was built on, and
that's how my favorite Jacques memory, of course, is the
year we did the French James Bear Tours. Jack do
you remember the can Can Dancer episode when all the
women were can can dresses.
Speaker 6 (32:42):
She's smiling.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
That caused a little bit of a stir but and
I still have the records. But it was a great event. Yeah,
it was a great event. And have such fond memories
of that, and of course David has them from your
singing Happy Birthday to his mom.
Speaker 8 (32:58):
Well.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Remember, for the first time I ever saw Zac in
person was you were doing a demonstration on how to
d bone a chicken or maybe it was a cornish
game at Bloomingdale's in New York City and I happened
to be walking through the store at that time and
I stopped and I saw you debone a chicken without
taking the chicken apart, and it was fascinating to me.
(33:20):
And that was the first time I ever ever met
you and saw you in person.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
You don't remember it, but I sure do.
Speaker 9 (33:26):
That's really cool.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Yeah, yeah, everybody has a memory.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
But as you said, this is about a foundation, and
that's what foundations are supposed to do. They're supposed to
live beyond the people who they're named after in honor
of and successful foundations. And you now know because you're
now running one to, you know, their nonprofit. You have
to follow rigid guidelines. You have annual reports on your website,
(33:50):
which is JP dot Foundation dot.
Speaker 6 (33:54):
It's JP dot Foundation.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
I guess that's a.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
New type of way to do a website.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
But there's annual re ports because you have to do
here to that, and I think that's important so that
you have accountability.
Speaker 7 (34:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, yeah, so it'll great.
Speaker 10 (34:08):
One of the worst and hardest times for our executive
director is is doing all of those things. Rally has
worked so hard to make the foundation successful.
Speaker 5 (34:18):
It's really really ultimately the goal is to serve the
public good. Right if to be a nonprofit, to be
a public charity, you have to serve the public good.
And I think we all agree here that, you know,
teaching people how to cook and inspiring people to cook,
whether that's at home or in a restaurant or just
to feed yourself, is in service to the public good
(34:38):
because it's good for your health and it's good for
the society and bringing people together. So that's really what
we try to do and what we intend to do
for a long.
Speaker 7 (34:46):
Time to come.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Is the Jock Papenn Foundation a five oh one C
three or five.
Speaker 7 (34:50):
Oh one C six C three Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Okay, yeah, okay. I learned a lot about that, you know,
from my foundation days. But I think that's really important
that you know, donation to be tax deductible and you
get these incredible videos, and there's the membership aspect.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
To it, which is really really important.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I mean, these days, some people can't even afford it
buy cookbooks, so to have this access to videos is
so important, and videos that teach correct cooking skills, because
there's a lot of videos out there that are not
correct cooking schools.
Speaker 10 (35:20):
I will also say that if you can't afford to
become a member, and a lot of people can't, if
you just go on the website for free, you can
search hundreds and hundreds of hours of free content without membership,
without anything, and that's important, you know.
Speaker 11 (35:37):
I want you to also talk about all of the show, yeah,
participating in the yes, yeah, well that organization for free
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
One of the things that came out of the pandemic
we were talking about before where Jacques started to do
those videos at home, was we realized that all of
our chef friends were also doing videos at home, and
that year in twenty twenty, we were very concerned about
the foundation because all of our the funds that we
had been raising had been through in person events, so
we weren't going to do that in twenty twenty or
(36:09):
twenty twenty one, and so we asked our chef friends
to make videos for us in support of the foundation,
and of course it.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Was for Jacques, so everybody said yes.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
So we got one hundred chefs right off to submit
these videos.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
And so now if you join the JACQUEA. Pinn Foundation as.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
A member, and the barrier to entry is quite low
this year, it's just ninety dollars per year, which is
a lot less expensive than a lot of subscriptions. But
what you get is access to three hundred and fifty
videos that and recipes buy the chefs that wrote them.
So everyone from Andrew Zimmern to Thomas Keller, to Jose Andreas,
to Rachel Ray to pad Ma Lakshmi, everybody that you
(36:49):
can name as a celebrity chef has done Alanshaya has done.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
A video recipe for us.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
And when you open up the page, you get a
video box where you can watch the chef make the
recipe and you get the written recipe that you can
follow along at the same time, and there's no ads
and no pop ups, not like any of these other
recipe websites that you just go to on the internet.
It's it's all just very very clean and easy to follow,
and you can look at hundreds of chefs. Like jaqu said,
(37:16):
we have three hundred and fifty videos on there, many
of them by Jacques of course, but all of the
best chefs around the country have participated.
Speaker 6 (37:23):
Well that's really incredible.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
I mean you could just go resource and a great tool.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
You pop this up in the.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Kitchen, which we often do, and you can just follow
the recipes and so many you know, we followed the
Daniel Blue fundraiser obviously in the Elan Shaia, and you've
got several coming up. This is an evergreen show, sore.
You know, people will be listening to it long be
after twenty twenty five. But if anyone is listening they
want to do an event, now is the time to
step up. And where should they reach you to sign
(37:52):
up to do an event?
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Yeah, so they can go to celebrate Jacques dot org.
So that's all together, Celebrate Jacques dot org. And on
that page you can see the restaurant events that are
coming up. Like I said, we still have sixty events
ahead of us. There's going to be a couple right
here in our local community in Rhode Island and Connecticut
over the next couple of months. We'll be in Chicago
for a week at the beginning of June.
Speaker 7 (38:15):
We'll be in.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
Napa, California for a couple of weeks in October and
November of this year, and then you'll also launching just
in a couple of weeks on May first, we'll start
our home Cook campaign in the same place at celebrate
Jacques dot org celebrated jog dot org sorry, where a
home cook can go and sign up and get access
to the home Cook home cook Toolkit.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
That's all I have to be a ninety ninety Oceania cruise,
That's what I want to know.
Speaker 9 (38:43):
Well, I mean we're still I'll still be on board.
Speaker 10 (38:46):
Rolly and I are going in May so for a
godmother cruise, but.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
A godmother to the cruise ship.
Speaker 10 (38:54):
Yes, But they have been so generous and so wonderful
with us. There really are generary sponsor and we're just
very grateful and honored to be working.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
With them and those parodies.
Speaker 8 (39:07):
You know that you're abided to go to old counter Privy,
probably go to like fifty dollars to go to five
thousand dollars right dinner, you know, at the French Levelder,
I think it's five thousand. Daniel was twenty five hundred dollars.
In some of the place it fifty dollars, so you.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Know, yeah, I think it was two fifty here in
New Orleans. But you know, like there's little towns and cities.
You know, it doesn't have to be all the big cities.
I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Chattanooga.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
Yeah, that Bob.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
You know, we got one coming up in Omaha, Nebraska.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Oh yeah, we had one coming up in Omaha, Nebraska
in June, which is going to be in support of
one of our communication partners there.
Speaker 9 (39:48):
And we had one in Buffalo Gap, Texas three Ranch.
So you know, I mean everywhere.
Speaker 6 (39:56):
So Shati travels these or who does do you do?
How much traveling do you do? Now?
Speaker 8 (40:02):
No, not much because I have a very bad, bad
problem walking and all that, and because of all the
accident that I had ago, So I know I don't
travel as much as you except.
Speaker 7 (40:16):
But I mean that you do.
Speaker 9 (40:17):
We're doing a like New York.
Speaker 7 (40:19):
Yeah, New York and Mary some next week.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Are you still he's going to go on that NAP Oh.
Speaker 10 (40:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, he beat us yesterday.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Every Sunday, right, yeah, Easter tournament, there's the Eastern Tournament.
Speaker 7 (40:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
And well you were saying you're going to Napa.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
Well, I would say Jacques isn't going to very many
of these ninety for ninety dinners, but he is going
to some. And so that whole group, I think we're
doing six or seven events in Napa and the last
week of October and first week of November, and a
couple of them, like Jaques said, are very affordable. Will
be at Copia for a big birthday cake event, which
I think is only sixty dollars per person.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
And Jack will be at all of those events in Napa.
Speaker 7 (41:03):
And in the fall.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
So I'm dying to ask this question. Have you guys
ever been to Costco?
Speaker 9 (41:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Of course, I was like, because I would learned to
go to Costco. I never if he's he's the supermarket chapera.
I was just wondering, what, because it's an amazing place,
what do you buy there?
Speaker 6 (41:19):
What do you think is interesting?
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Well, you can buy Jacqua pan cookbooks.
Speaker 9 (41:23):
Yeah, exactly, what don't you buy a cup?
Speaker 6 (41:28):
The help about that four ninety nine roast chicken?
Speaker 5 (41:30):
Was it?
Speaker 6 (41:31):
Four?
Speaker 9 (41:32):
It's good?
Speaker 3 (41:34):
It's good, we said.
Speaker 10 (41:35):
When we were in Colorado, we used to go more
than we do here, but but they have great stuff.
Speaker 9 (41:40):
What I think is good at Costco is if you
go and.
Speaker 10 (41:45):
You split everything with three or four families, because, like
I remember that, they were just like either it was
the avocados or tomatoes or whatever, you have to get
a lot, so it's nice to be able to share
it with other people.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
If I remember, Melanie, when we went to Costco last
fall and they had an entire skid of fresh Chantrell
mushrooms that had just come in and them anywhere else. Yeah,
and I'd never seen anything like it.
Speaker 7 (42:11):
It was great.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
So of course we bought a whole bunch of them.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
You know, like we said, in New Orleans, you don't
get a lot of vegetables certain times of the year,
so for us, it's a lifeline. We only started shopping
when we moved to New Orleans, and now we're kind
of like, wow, you know, we did David's entire birthday
on Costco.
Speaker 6 (42:27):
That trader Joe.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Sorry, that's because we were traveling.
Speaker 6 (42:31):
We were cooking, so you know, you.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Can find good food and it kind of it does
encourage you to cook at home. And and of course
we love our little country markets when they have things
in place.
Speaker 6 (42:41):
So just curious you had.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
This is the day out. We're recording this the day
after Easter. You said you had a big lamb meal.
How often do you all cook together as a family?
Speaker 9 (42:56):
Were together?
Speaker 8 (42:57):
We cooked together? Yes, well, I look at it. Look
at them cooking now, ball and cooking but a little bit.
But he's a big cook, Chas too, and so the kitchen.
Speaker 7 (43:10):
The dog out there too, he's going in the kitchen.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
Yes, we're together at least like two or three weekends
a month at this point, and prout and you know
that the amount of time that we're spending together is
growing and pretty much, you know, I would say seventy
five percent of the of the evenings that we're together,
we're still cooking in our own kitchen and eating together.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yes, And what's in your glass at the end of dinner?
I know you're enjoying champagne?
Speaker 6 (43:38):
What else?
Speaker 8 (43:40):
Well, yesterday we had a lot of very good wine, right, well,
some from California actually, and some from France.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
We had some really good wine.
Speaker 5 (43:51):
Yeah, we had a We had a beautiful bottle of
and U's Bush wine from Napa that actually on the
label had one of Jacques's artworks.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
On a label.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
Oh that's wonderful.
Speaker 5 (44:01):
And our friends there at the Amuse Bouche Winery have
been have been a great friend of ours. And Jack
and I do like a little bit of Kangnac at
the end of the night if we can get it.
So I think we had a splash of some hind
Exo last night, which is which is a really tasty kanya.
Speaker 8 (44:18):
Yeah, that's what I have to hangover today.
Speaker 6 (44:22):
Well, we opened we opened a bottle of what nineteen's.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Nineteen eighty seven Chateau Souvaring.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
My dad was a wine sure, and we have a
lot of wine. We have a lot of wine to
drink before we die. And the good news is you
Everybody I know that has a long life and is
very healthy drinks wine regularly with food. And I think
that's what's what's your address.
Speaker 5 (44:47):
Right over?
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Everybody loves coming to our place for dinner parties. Well,
we are so glad that you've joined us again. We've
been talking with Jacques pa Pin Claude and Papin and
Rollie Ways and their husband and wife and Papa and
we've been talking about the Jacques pa Penn Foundation and
the ninety ninety program to celebrate Jacques's ninetieth birthday, which
(45:09):
is in December twenty twenty five, I think December eighteenth, right, and.
Speaker 6 (45:13):
There's going to be ninety events around.
Speaker 5 (45:15):
The country and that we'll have a big finale dinner
in Madison on his birthday on that eighteenth of December
this year at the Madison Beach Hotel. So that one
will be posted up onto our website pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
If I saw you, yeah, the Madison Beach Hotel, shout
out to them, we saw you there site. That's where
we got the menus book with dinner parties, and we
saw you there and have a really great photo from
that event with you.
Speaker 5 (45:42):
Was that that was from the Julia Shout event right
in last year, Jovia, No, it.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Was a number of years ago. We were We actually
went up to the opening weekend of the Madison Beach
Hotel when they first opened.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
It was a whole no, it was a whole wine
making program. It was a whole all the Hilton people
were there.
Speaker 5 (45:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
So anyway, we want to thank you again for joining us.
We uh as always happy cooking and as I think
I have a quote from you, I think it's good.
Food doesn't have to be complicated. It needs to be wholesome,
nutritious and preferly well seasoned, and it's always best when shared.
Speaker 6 (46:18):
With those you love.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
We love you guys, You're like family. Thank you so
much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
Be well, thank you very much, thank you, Happy.
Speaker 6 (46:27):
Cooking, happy cooking.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
You've been listening to The Connected Table Live with Melanie
Young and David Ransom and the Papen family. Our message
to you, besides happy cooking is always stay insatiably curious.
Speaker 6 (46:40):
Thank you,
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