From the Archives: Jacques Pépin
Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 8.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
He’s worked as the personal chef for French President Charles de Gaulle, co-hosted a television series with Julia Child and has authored over 30 cookbooks. There’s simply no one in the world like French chef – and culinary icon – Jacques Pépin. The Emmy- and James Beard Foundation Award winner worked in more than 100 restaurants before becoming the Director of Research and Development for Howard Johnson’s. He then transitioned to educating the public in proper French cooking methods through his groundbreaking cookbooks like “La Technique” and his latest, “Jacques Pépin Cooking My Way: Recipes and Techniques for Economical Cooking;” as well as through his numerous television series like “Today’s Gourmet” and “Every Day Cooking.” He is also the co-founder of the culinary certificate program at Boston University and founder of The Jacques Pépin Foundation, which teaches underserved populations a path to employment through cooking. Alec speaks with Chef Pépin about how his family’s work in restaurants influenced his path, why he’s made the pivots he has throughout his career, and what a revered chef likes to eat in his downtime.
Originally aired February 6th, 2024.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.2 | This is Alec Baldwin, |
| 0:08.1 | and you're listening to Here's the Thing from IHeart Radio. |
| 0:13.0 | My guest today has worked in the best restaurants in the world, |
| 0:17.1 | taught thousands of hours of culinary technique, |
| 0:20.2 | authored over 30 cookbooks, |
| 0:22.5 | and at the age of 88, shows no signs of slowing down. |
| 0:27.6 | Legendary French chef Jacques Pepin. |
| 0:30.6 | Chef Pepin has enjoyed, by all accounts, |
| 0:33.9 | a most extraordinary life and career. |
| 0:36.8 | By 22, he was the personal chef for French President |
| 0:40.4 | Charles de Gaulle. In 1959, he immigrated to America and worked at Le Pavilion, the best French |
| 0:48.1 | restaurant in New York City, before moving to Howard Johnson's. His next frontier was the American Home, |
| 0:56.8 | instructing audiences on proper French cooking methods. |
| 1:00.4 | This began with his cookbooks, |
| 1:02.5 | including the groundbreaking La Technique, |
| 1:04.9 | and then through multiple PBS series like Today's Gourmet |
| 1:08.8 | and Cooking at Home. |
| 1:13.9 | Here, Chef Pepin taught the home chef, |
| 1:22.3 | both the basics for everyday meals, and experimentation with gourmet flourishes. His most recent cookbook is called Jacques Pepin, Cooking My Way, Recipes and Techniques for economical cooking. I wanted to know how growing up |
| 1:31.3 | in a small town in France, with his mother working in restaurants, put him on the path to where he is |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.