Jacques Pépin: Biography and Background

Jacques Pépin (French pronunciation: [ʒak pepɛ̃]; born December 18, 1935) is a French chef, author, culinary educator, television personality, and artist. After having been the personal chef of French president Charles de Gaulle, he moved to the US in 1959. He worked in New York's top French restaurants and took a culinary development job with Howard Johnson's. Pépin has appeared on American television and authored more than 30 cookbooks, some of which have become best sellers. He was a longtime friend of the American chef Julia Child, and their 1999 PBS series Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home won a Daytime Emmy Award.

Pépin has been honored with 24 James Beard Foundation Award nominations and 16 awards, the American Public Television lifetime achievement award, the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2019, the Julia Child Award in 2015, and the Légion d'honneur, France's highest order of merit, in 2004.

Since 1989, Pépin has taught in the Culinary Arts Program at Boston University and served as dean of special programs at the International Culinary Center in New York City. In 2016, with his daughter, Claudine Pépin and his son-in-law, Rollie Wesen, Pépin created the Jacques Pépin Foundation to create culinary education opportunities, particularly for workforce development for adults with barriers to employment. He has lived in Connecticut since 1975.

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