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Apple tart12/28/2022 Two of my books, La Technique and La Méthode, are being reprinted this winter with new color photographs, in Jacques Pépin's New Complete Techniques I first published them 40 years ago. But technique in general is very important for me. #APPLE TART HOW TO#What's one technique everyone should know? I suppose it should be how to sharpen your knife properly. I have to write recipes because that's what I do for a living, but the pleasure for me is to cook without one, to go to the market and cook what I find there. But in general it's hard for me to cook out of a cookbook. Do you have a favorite cookbook of all time? If I need to look at certain things in French, I probably would look at Larousse Gastronomique for American cooking, Joy of Cooking. I've never seen that dish anywhere, so it's kind of a signature dish, if you want. Then you have a little bit of the stuffing leftover, which we make into a mustard sauce to serve with it. Then the eggs are restuffed and sautéed, stuffed side down, in a skillet with olive oil. When I was a kid, my mother made a dish that I call Eggs Jeanette: a hard-cooked egg cut in half, the yolk taken out and mashed with a lot of garlic and parsley with salt, pepper and a tablespoon or so of milk. What's your signature dish? Maybe hard-cooked eggs. For dessert we have a bûche de Noël, the classic Christmas log. What is a typical menu for a holiday feast at the Pépin house? For the holidays, we always do poultry of one kind or another, like capon, or goose if I can find a good goose, then braised chestnuts, and as long as we can find them, we have oysters or some kind of pâté or terrine, which sometimes I make, sometimes I buy. #APPLE TART FULL#The Bee and Thistle in Lyme, Connecticut, looks like an old British inn, full of antiques, and the food is quite good. The town of Chester, Connecticut, is very picturesque, and there are a lot of decorations, people put up lights and flowers, so that's a good place to visit in the wintertime. That's where we usually do New Year's Eve. The same people own Union League Café in New Haven, it's much larger and fancier, but it's a beautiful place with great food. You know exactly what to expect, the food is good, and they have a great wine list. It's very cute, and they have the classic fare from pike quenelles to snail to steak tartare. There's a lovely, typical French bistro here in Madison called Bar Bouchée. What are 4 don't-miss places on a holiday trip to Connecticut? But then she throws a party for 25 people, and the soufflé is a disaster! Then you need four soufflés, to juggle the oven, the timing. I'll do a class on raspberry soufflé, and a student will come back and say how she hosted a party for eight people and the soufflé was fantastic. It's a question of what you can do and what you cannot. By the time it gets to 30 or 40 people, I may do three-fourths of the meal, and so forth. If it's for 300 people, maybe I'll cook something. On the other hand, if you ask me if I can do something for 1,500 people, I'll say yes, but what am I going to do? I'm going to buy 10 prosciutto legs and smoked salmon and the best possible cheeses and nuts I can find for a big buffet. I read somewhere that it's impossible to cook well for more than 10 people. Can you give one great entertaining tip? Plan your menu, and you can do a lot ahead, if you plan correctly. It's got a slight bitterness and a nice sweetness, and I've used it for so long now, I guess I'm used to it, but you can use any French or Italian sweet vermouth. For many years I've used an American vermouth from California called Gambarelli & Davitto. I like a regular Manhattan, too, but this one's easier to drink. I call mine a Reverse Manhattan, with bourbon and vermouth in the opposite ratios as in a real Manhattan: several ounces of sweet vermouth, a lot of ice and a wedge of lime, with only 1 or 2 tablespoons of bourbon. I do one inspired by Julia Child's husband, Paul Child, who did something similar with gin. What's your favorite holiday cocktail? Champagne, without question. You can use white chocolate for lime peel, dark chocolate for orange. You dip them after the peels have been candied, pressed in dry sugar and completely air-dried. Sometimes we dip the peels halfway in chocolate, sometimes we don't. What are your favorite holiday food gifts? I like to give candied citrus peel: orange, lemon, lime, sometimes grapefruit, which we put in little jars to give to friends. F&W Star Chef " See All F&W Chef Superstars Cooking legend Jacques Pépin offers a fun and thrifty homemade holiday gift to give, his favorite places to visit on a holiday trip to Connecticut and a surprising strategy for cooking for a crowd.
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