père pépin

my parents never worshiped any god or attended any church. they had more important and better ideals and concerns to pass down to their kids.

my father preached the importance of current events and politics and knowing and caring about what was going on half way around the world. my mother, well my mother baptised my brother and i in her kitchen. she bestowed upon us a curious palate and a great deep love for food - high quality, fresh ingredient, simply made, beautifully presented and brilliantly delicious food. she worshiped jacques pepin and julia child and lidia bastianich and practiced what they preached daily in her kitchen. she would sit, notepad in hand, watching pbs in the afternoon, taking notes as her apostles led the way. she learned from them how to make and master the most amazing everything and to this day, there has not been a single home kitchen that has produced in my opinion, the perfect meals that hers did. 

i have 3 of her jacques pepin cookbooks now, our families version of the passed down bible.

here is a recent new york times article about the master himself, and here are a couple of his classic cookbooks that hold a great many of my mother's secrets.