For Jacques Pepin and His Family, Menus Are the Most Sacred Memories
When his daughter Claudine asked him if he knew what she’d eaten on her fourth birthday, he said he couldn’t remember, but that they easily could check. His beautifully illustrated “menus books” have become his family’s lore — and something anyone can emulate.
Courtesy of Harper Collins
You may know Jacques Pepin as the distinguished French chef, and likely learned how to prepare a delicious chicken, souffle or tart from one of his cookbooks or television shows. Pepin is a steward of culinary education and pleasures of cooking — one of his pastimes is creating illustrated menus for the many dishes and events he's hosted over the years. Numbering in the thousands, Jacques Pepin’s mouthwatering and colorfully illustrated menus have quite the history. As he recalls in Menus: A Book for Your Meals and Memories, his concept for illustrated menus was born in early 1960, when Pépin became friends with Craig Claiborne, the legendary food editor at The New York Times.
On summer weekends, Jacques, Craig and friends would gather for meals, and Craig eventually asked Jacques to record the menus and those in attendance. Along with comments and signatures by guests, Ed Giobbi, a mutual friend and professional artist, started adding illustrations to the menus. Soon Jacques, by then a budding artist himself, started illustrating the menus as well. And the rest is a tasty historical record of Pepin meals and memories.
Courtesy of Harper Collins
Jacques reports that several menus from the 1960s appeared in The New York Times Cook Book, including the wedding day menu from his marriage to Gloria, his beloved wife of 54 years. Now almost as well-known for his painting as his cooking, Pepin is quick to remind his fans that he’s been painting for more than 50 years, but cooking for more than 70. Even in his latest cookbook, Cooking My Way, Jacques features carefully illustrated menus next to his most economical recipes, celebrating the beauty in the perhaps otherwise routine of everyday life.
In early 1970, Jacques and Gloria bought a house in the Catskills that needed a lot of work. "This was a labor of love, and it took many months and countless hours, but happily, many friends came to help, and afterward, we would eat together," he recalls. To memorialize those meals, they decided to create a book of menus, memories and artwork, a regular practice that has continued for more than five decades and resulted in a dozen (and counting) large books containing 1,200-plus menus.
"These books have great sentimental value for us," Jacques writes in the Menus introduction. "They are testament to our lives over the past fifty years. They remind us of who was with us at a specific time, what we did, and what we ate and drank." When asked what he likes best about keeping the menus books he says: "The memories. Being able to go back and remember the moments. And elevating simple meals and honoring them."
Jacques says he also enjoys seeing how his cooking has changed over the years. He knows it certainly changed when he cooked with Claudine on his shows, including the long-running "Jacques Pepin’s Kitchen: Cooking with Claudine," where American home cooks fell for the father-daughter duo. "With teaching Claudine, I really thought about teaching the average person and explaining basic things in an approachable way," he recalls.
Courtesy of Harper Collins
Of the now-infamous menus books, Claudine says, "Don’t wait for a super-special occasion. Great strawberries or a beautiful day with family are reason enough."
When asked for tips about keeping menus books like his, Jacques concurs with his daughter, saying, "Just start! It doesn’t have to be a big fancy dinner with caviar. It can be a simple roast chicken dinner on a Sunday night."
Claudine says her daughter has embraced the menus in a big way, saying, "Kids love to draw. Let them! Let them be a part of the menu decisions and design. It will inspire them to look forward to family meals and all kinds of celebrations. Cook, eat, and clean up all together."
So what did Claudine have for her fourth birthday? She smiles and says, "I don’t remember, honestly, but I do know it was made with love by my parents and friends." But once she checked the menu books she found it: her French-leaning fourth birthday menu included pate, saucisson, oeufs mimosa (a French version of deviled eggs), and gateau mousse.
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