Jacques Pépin Biography

Fast Facts

• Was awarded the French government's highest honor, earning the title Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor
• Won a James Beard Foundation Award for best national cooking show for "Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home" in 2001
• Earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in French literature from Columbia University
• His mother, Jeanne Pepin, was also a chef, and his parents owned a restaurant called Le Pelican where he worked after school in his youth
• Began apprenticing in a kitchen at the age of 13 and moved to Paris work in some of the city's best restaurants at the age of 17
• Moved to New York in 1959 and was introduced to James Beard and Julia Child and spent 10 years as the director of research and development for Howard Johnson's restaurant chain
• Best known as a French chef and television personality who has appeared as a guest judge on Bravo's "Top Chef․"
• Was the personal chef to three French heads of state, including Charles de Gaulle from 1956 to 1958
• In addition to writing more than 20 cookbooks, he also had a long-running column in The New York Times and a quarterly column in Food & Wine magazine