Question: What ingredients do you always have on hand?
Jacques Pepin: Well if I open the refrigerator, I’m going to have eggs. I’m going to have onion. I’m going to have certainly a shallot. Probably two or three type of vegetable or salad. I always have plenty in my refrigerator along with beer, and milk, and probably some cream as well. So those are ingredients that are in the refrigerator. And in the pantry I have a fair amount of cans . . . from canned tuna . . . But again they are quality – from extraordinary tuna in cans from Portugal or somewhere else. I had not long ago some apricot in can from Morocco. They were just fantastic, you know? And so again . . . Or beans. I mean different types of beans. And there is nothing wrong with canned beans, because if I cook beans I will take beans, water and salt and basically that’s what I’m going to have in that can. There is nothing foreign in that can that I wouldn’t want to have in term of chemical product or whatever.
Recorded on: 09/04/2007
Discuss
Scott Sieburth on January 8, 2008, 2:02 AM
How is it possible that so many smart people know so little about the meaning of the word "Chemical"?? If Mr. Pepin has "nothing chemical" in his refrigerator, there would be nothing, not even air. His salad and vegetables are made of cellulose and sugars and water and lots of other CHEMICALS! Using the term "chemical" as shorthand for something not found in nature debases the language.
Scott Sieburth on January 8, 2008, 7:02 AM
How is it possible that so many smart people know so little about the meaning of the word “Chemical”?? If Mr. Pepin has “nothing chemical” in his refrigerator, there would be nothing, not even air. His salad and vegetables are made of cellulose and sugars and water and lots of other CHEMICALS! Using the term “chemical” as shorthand for something not found in nature debases the language.
Brandon Stroy on January 9, 2008, 8:29 AM
Ssieburth is missing the point… Chef Pepin is obviously trying to illustrate his preference for fresh ingredients over processed foods. His use of the colloquial term "chemical" may not fall right into line with the use a laboratory chemist might make, but it is certainly enough to convey his intended meaning, and should not expose him to the wrath of lexicographic extremists.
Brandon Stroy on January 9, 2008, 1:29 PM
Ssieburth is missing the point… Chef Pepin is obviously trying to illustrate his preference for fresh ingredients over processed foods. His use of the colloquial term “chemical” may not fall right into line with the use a laboratory chemist might make, but it is certainly enough to convey his intended meaning, and should not expose him to the wrath of lexicographic extremists.
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