CELEBRITY INTERVIEWS

JACQUES COOKS AT CATHY'S

For decades I have admired culinary icon Jacques Pepin. I greatly respect his culinary talents, both as a renowned chef (he once was Charles de Gaulle’s personal chef), and as a teacher via his cookbooks and TV shows.  What a thrill it was for me to cook with him in my home kitchen. We shot a cooking video together and I did my best to remain calm.

His latest cookbooks, "Jacques Pepin Fast Food My Way'' (Houghton Mifflin, $30) and “Jacques Pepin More Food My Way” (Houghton Mifflin, $32), reveal quick-to-prepare dishes that the busy PBS television star makes at home when time is tight, or when unexpected guests drop by. Fast, but fresh.

“Quick cooking is nothing new,” he told me. “My mother did it, and I remember my sister-in-law, who lived in the suburbs of Paris, did it. She'd come out of the train, pick up a baguette, veal roast and a piece of cheese (on her way home). She would put the veal in the pressure cooker before she took her jacket off. After browning it for five to six minutes and putting an onion around it, she would cover it, then take her coat off. In 35 minutes she would have a beautiful roast.”