Jacques Pépin

Jacques Pépin , the 85-year old chef and educator, has worked in professional kitchens since he was 13, from his parents’ restaurant to the Grand Hôtel de L’Europe to the private dining rooms of three French heads of state. He moved to the U.S. in 1959, worked at New York City’s famed Le Pavillon restaurant, and developed recipes for Howard Johnson, while receiving two degrees from Columbia University. And then he became an educator – on public television with longtime friend Julia Child, in magazines and as a columnist for The New York Times , as the author of over 30 cookbooks and a faculty member at Boston University and New York’s International Culinary Institute. In 2016, the recipient of 16 James Beard awards created the Jacques Pépin Foundation, dedicated to teaching job skills to disenfranchised workers.