WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Good morning! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Good morning, everyone! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Audience) Good morning! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Claudine and I are delighted to be with you this morning 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to be the first one. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I left home when I was 13 to go to apprenticeship, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that was in 1949. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Actually, home was the restaurant where my mother was the chef, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was already in that business. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, there was 12 restaurants through the years in my family 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and 12 of them owned by women, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'm the first male to enter that business in my family. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I went into apprenticeship from Lyon, where my mother had her little restaurant 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to Bourg-en-Bresse, where I was born a few miles away. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Prior to that, when we were about 8-9 years old, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 my mother had that little restaurant 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so, my brother and I, before going to school, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 would walk with my mother to the market, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the St. Antoine market along the Saône river, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and she would walk the market one way, about 1/2 a mile, and buy on her way back. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Buying a case of mushrooms which was getting dark, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 maybe for a third of the price or less. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We carried, of course, we didn't have a car at the time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 She'd get home and start doing her vegetables, peeling for the day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 She did not have a refrigerator at that time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 She had an ice box, that is a block of ice into a little cabinet, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so she'd have chicken of the day, meat, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 fish, usually, whiting or mackerel or skate -- inexpensive fish, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that she has to use it that day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the day after, we start all over again. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Everything was organic, everything was local. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The word organic did not really exist, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 chemical fertilizers did not exist either, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or fungicides, insecticides, pesticides, all that stuff did not exist, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so everything was, local and organic. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I went into apprenticeship, I was 13 years old and, at that time, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it was very structured, well, still is to certain extend, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you got to be there on time, you got to be clean, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you have to be willing, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's discipline, it's structure, that's the way a kitchen can work. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We learn through a type of osmosis. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The chef never really explained anything, he'd just say, "Do that". 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And if you say, "Why?", and he'd say, "Because I just told you". 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That was about the end of the apprenticeship. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Probably, just as good for someone 13-14 years old. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, we worked, repeating, and repeating, and repeating those techniques ad nauseam, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we were not allowed to go to the stove for a year. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, during that year, I plucked a lot of chicken, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 eviscerated a lot of chicken, scaled fish, chopped parsley, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all of that type of things, and then the chef called me -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My name was "you" at the time, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then by the time I went to the stove they called me Jacques, so I got the name. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He said, "You start tomorrow". 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "I start tomorrow?" I didn't know how to do it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but when I went to the stove, I knew how to do it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was through that type of osmosis, things that you show, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I've got a book called, "La technique", that I published in 1975 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so, it's 40-year old, and I don't cook the way I did 40 years ago. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the way I did an egg white, or sharpen a knife, or bone out a chicken, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to [inaudible]... it is that kind of permanence, that kind of continuity 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that you'll learn in the kitchen. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To be first a craftman. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And very often it's very difficult to explain in words 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 something that you can show -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's easier to show -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 than to explain in words -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You can do that to chocolate as well -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You'd do that at exactly the right temperature -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we used to -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 put the butter in a little container and that on top, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and now you can charge 20 bucks for it -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Put that in water that's cold -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you, Titine. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For me, first you have to be a craftsman. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You have to be a craftsman, and it's that repeat, and repeat, and repeat, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that is very important. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Just like -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you spend a 1-2 years in a studio in art school 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and learn the law of perspective -- it is perfectly fine, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you learn how to mix yellow and blue to make green, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 what to do with your sand, with your spatula, with the brush -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then you can come out and do one painting after another. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So that makes you a chef? Not really. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But you're by then, a good craftsman, and that's very important. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You have to first know your trade, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 whether you are a shoemaker, or a cabinet maker, like my father, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 first, you know your trade. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, those things that we boned out I learned as a child -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Then, I learned this from... I don't remember where I learn that but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when you learn something you learn it a certain way 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and after a while, you don't remember where it comes from, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you do it your way, eventually. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To do a type of lollipop like that as we used to do that you -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, those techniques, as I said, first make you a craftsman, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and if you are a good craftsman then you can run a restaurant. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There are about 20,000 restaurants in New York 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and 100 are well known, maybe 200, maybe 300, maybe 400 even, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but what happen to the 19,500 is that they are run by artisans, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people who know how to work properly, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and this is the only way if you become, in my opinion, a good craftsman, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if you have that type of knowledge then you can express yourself. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is half of yourself, the other half has to do with talent. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you happen to have talent like, if you have taste, a bit of a vision, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if you have a little bit of creativity, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then you can express yourself, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you now have the means to express yourself, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if you've gone through those techniques. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You have to repeat those techniques, as I said, long enough 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so you can afford to forget it after. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here we are, half of this, now the filet -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) If you have any questions you should shout them out, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's a good opportunity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There's going to be a test. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) This way -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There's my carcass. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, [inaudible] filet, you remove it here -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This one here -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, you free your hand by learning those techniques 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and as I said, you can think in term of texture and other things 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because, as I said, you free your hand by repeating and repeating. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, this is one part of yourself, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 half of yourself is there, it's the craftsman, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the other part of yourself 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 will depend on whether you have talent or not, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and even if you have a little bit of talent, not too much, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you can still run a little restaurant by being a good technician. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you have a lot of talent, then you can take it further, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but not all the chefs are René Redzepi, or David Chang, or José Andrés -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here we are -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) At that point you really don't want to cut the bone 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because the skin will shrink all over the place so, we break it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And you know, the interesting part, if you carve in the dining room, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or if you do a quail or a pheasant or a goose, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the morphology is the same. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you cut a chicken in pieces to do a skew, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you cut exactly in the sample place, at the shoulder joint, at the hip joint. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Okay. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, you have to be very proud of what you're doing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but you also have to be humble to a certain extend 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because there's always someone 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who can think with more creativity than you, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or who can think harder than you do. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We're all limited by the extent of our taste 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and they are different, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and sometimes you have a food critic who really doesn't know how to cook 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but maybe can taste better than you do. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We follow on that and sometimes it's difficult to take 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but that's the way it is. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For me, a young chef should work with a good chef, in a good place, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and at that point your [inaudible] is to try to visualize what that chef does, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if he or she works with you then you try to see -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Yeah, where there's no bones -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a little bit here -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you try to see the food through his or her sense of aesthetic, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 their sense of taste, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and even if it doesn't coincide with you, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 most of the time 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it won't coincide with your sense of taste or your sense of aesthetic, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but it doesn't really matter at that point, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you have to look at it through that, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you do it for a year or two, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then you work with another chef for a year or two, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and again looking at things from a different point of view, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 different sense of aesthetic, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then maybe with a third one a few more times, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then at some point you're going to give it back. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You're going to give it back, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and now you're going to filter it through your sense of taste, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 through your sense of aesthetic, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that's how it works 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because ultimately, at some point, you cannot escape yourself, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you are who you are, and that's the way how you are going to do it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's always a bit of a paradox for me 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because I work with young chefs at Boston University 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and everyone wants to do something special and different. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I do a class which I call a perfect meal, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which is a roast chicken, a bol of potatoes and a salad. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It used to be this way -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they all go to the stove to do the same type of things 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I say, "Don't try to blew my mind because I know that I have 12 people here 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I'm going to have 12 different chicken." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's the way it is so -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you don't really have to torture yourself to be different, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you are different, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there's no way that you can do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 exactly the same thing than the person next to you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is a good beef stuffing but -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 just to give you an idea. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Okay, Titine -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We have our galantine, that is if we poach it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and our ballotine if we roast it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, we put it this way -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) No questions? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Okay. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - (Jacques) Very quiet here -- - (Claudine) I know -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Do you want some wine? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Ah, my daughter knows me -- (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Our galantine, so -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause and cheering) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Up to that point -- (Claudine) You have five minutes -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Oh yeah... okay. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the technique to do something remain fairly constant -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but at that point this is what it'll change, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when you're happy with the way how you cook it, what you do with it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the seasoning and all of that become your own. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Okay -- (Eggs cracking) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - (Jacques) Pepper, Titine? - (Claudine) Yep -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - (Jacques) That's your salt -- - (Pepper mill grinding) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Everyone needs one of me in the kitchen, you all need me -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Now I cook with my granddaughter as well. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) She's twelve. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Yes, when I did a TV show with Claudine many years ago -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Why did you give me two of those? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) I get... I offer whatever you want it -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Okay, good. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) I learned to make three different types of omelettes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A flat omelette, à la piperade or omelette basquaise and so forth -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Western omelette or in the US, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then we did an omelette that my mother would do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with very large curd, brown, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then we did a more classic omelette - like this one - 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and loose, we want to make very small curds like scramble egg -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now there are three different types of omelettes that I would do, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 one is not better than the other, it's just different 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A few weeks ago I did that for television, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they came to my house and wanted me to do the three types of omelettes, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which I did -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then they realized they only have a minute and a half when they edited, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so they just took some stuff from one omelette to the other, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the other, and mix the whole thing together -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) What a waste! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here you bring it back here 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which you're rolling really like a carpet -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so you're just bringing one lid -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 one lid here and a half moon -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 nice half moon... bring that here -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 bring the other lid on top -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this is the time when you want to stuff it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 change hands, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that omelette should be -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the edge -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Ooooh! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - The chefs in my kitchen -- - (Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The chef in my kitchen would have seen the pleads on top 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and he would have done some reference to the behind of his grandmother -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As you can see it should be pale right on top, very creamy, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 very soft inside, like scramble eggs, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that's what a classic omelette is. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Yes, Claudine? (Claudine) Yes, papa! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Ok, will you drink to that? (Claudine) I will! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Whatever you take away from here, I hope -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it's so wonderful that you're taking the time to be here, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I hope you share your knowledge with everyone 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because that's how the craft continues, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that's how our trade continues, that's how it gets better. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Yeah, I realized quite well, all of you know those techniques, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 some better than me, yet I thank you for coming 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and listening to me, but for me the permanence is there, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to teach, to explain and to show at least the basic structure, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and at that point, when you have that type of manual dexterity 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or technical knowledge, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then you can run a kitchen quite well. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As I said, if you happen to have talent, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then you bring it to a another level 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and, like the person who works in a studio for a couple of years, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as I said, after that, you know how to mix all your paintings 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and know what you can do with a brush, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then you step outside you do one painting after another -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Does that make you an artist? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Not really, at that point you're a good craftsman. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If, however, you have talent, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 now you have the means to express that talent 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and take it somewhere. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As I said, you do have to transcend that level 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in which you have to concentrate on the manual task that you're at. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You see a beginner coming around and you said: "Do you have any parsley?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and he sayd: "Don't disturb me" - someone is slicing something - 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So you have to transcend that level you don't have to think about it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 things are there so you can think in terms of texture, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 combination of ingredients, or things like that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - Right, Titine? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Right. Do you have any questions? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) I think I was there at one and a half minute, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 now I'm back to seven minutes? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Oh, okay. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Yes, any questions? No questions... Yes, sir? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (inaudible speaking from the audience) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Oh, yeah -- (Jacques) Do I know that man here? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) I gave him 20 bucks before to say that. Thank you, Michelle! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine blowing a kiss) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Thank you, Michelle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Yes, I know that there are great, fantastic chefs here -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we had an extraordinary, extraordinary meal at Noma, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'm gratified to be here, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I know I'm the oldest of the group 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and now that I'm passed 80 years old I'm supposed to be wise -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I don't think that I'm wiser than when I was 30 years old 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but this is what happens when you get old. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You think I'm wise, Claudine? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Yes, yes, yes... of course, you are! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Ok, that's a good daughter. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Now I'm doing a show with my granddaughter, Shorey, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which we called "Lesson of a grandfather". 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, little things, even how to set up a table, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 eat properly at the table or -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but no, not enjoying wine yet -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) No, no, no wine yet, it's just to give us show, so -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Yes, sir? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (inaudible speaking from the audience) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a very interesting question... Do you want to repeat the question? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) The question is how are the kitchens today different than 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the kitchens my father was an apprentice in. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Pretty dramatic? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - Yes, well, no... but, yes! - (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There is a permanence there, the point is that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you still have to come on time, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you still have to be ready to work, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you still work in a place which is very structured, very disciplined, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like in the army, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you don't say, "Yes, captain!", but you say, "Yes, chef!", 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's about the same thing and you have to -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you have to so that the kitchen works properly. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You're a member of a team, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and if you're late or you don't show up to be part of that team, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you're going to destroy the structure, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so that remains the same. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That being said, when I was a kid, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when we cut a tomato we only cut it in one direction, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we never alternate to the other side when I worked at the Plaza and in Paris, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or whatever in the fifties. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, there's a much greater deal 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and innovation is part of yourself too. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And, of course, we, up to 20-30 years ago -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I've been in the kitchen 65-67 years -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the cook were at the bottom of the social scale. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Any good mother would have wanted her child to marry a doctor, an architect, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 certainly not a cook. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now we are genius! I don't know exactly what happened but -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this is great, this is terrific, so -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Papa, he has a question. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (René) I have a question for you. (Jacques) Yes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (René) You said you're more than 80, right? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Yes. (René) Yes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (René) So, I'm 39 and I think a lot of cooks 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that deal with this... what can I say, like, guilt, sometimes -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they feel like they should be yearning for something in the past, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that in the past things were better, kind of -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Can you please tell us how it used to be in the kitchen 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in whether you think the life in the kitchen is better today, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and actually, do you think that food has become better 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and is becoming better? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Or, is it better back in the old days? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) No, it is better (but) there's a cycle also; 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 certainly as I said, my mother used only organic products too 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but that's what we have, we didn't have anything else, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we're going back to that, which is a great thing, of course, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to be in communion with the Earth, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to be in communion with where you work 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and be local, and so forth. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Yes, absolutely. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The cooks now that the same structure that we used to have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but you have much more freedom than we ever had before. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Certainly, I got kicked in the rear end a few times by my chefs, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I mean it was the type of things that it was supposed at that time -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it was supposed to be difficult, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you were supposed to go to a rite of passage and all of that, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which is not really necessary, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you don't need to be yelled at -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I've seen a lot of show on television, certainly, reality show, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the kitchen is like mayhem and the chef is yelling all over the place. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is not conducive to good work, certainly. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There's a great deal of love, a great deal of yourself that you put in that food, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the yelling and other people's lack of respect, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 those things are not conducive, in my opinion, to learning well 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and teaching people how to cook. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 At a certain age, when I was 12-13, the best way of learning 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was probably through that kind of osmotic way: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you look, you repeat, you look, you repeat, and so forth. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We passed that level now. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Chefs come from cooking schools, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they come out from college to their older time, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they want to know how to do it, they want us to explain, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so it's a different way of teaching than what we're used to; 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and people are much more in a hurry than how we were too; 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we had at least three other apprenticeship without paid or anything, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so, you know, there are six other apprentices in front of you -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so, this is much better now. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A much greater respect for the chef, for what we do for our tradition, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and this is why, I mean, we're here today -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - Yes? - (Claudine) Wrap it up. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Wrap it up. Yes, ma'm, okay. But I still see one minute -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - (Claudine) Trust me. - (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) I don't know whether that's the right answer to your question, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or if it's specific enough but -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (René) Can you just say in a yes or no? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) You'll be the first one to ever get that answer, if it's possible. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you look back when you were 30 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you look at kitchens and chefs and cooking now, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 do you believe that is better now? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Oh yes, absolutely, no question at all -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (René) Thank you! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) No question at all. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) Thank you, of course, to the MAD team for working there, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 took us all to the extend that I find extraordinary 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and rather inspiring so, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I hope that everyone feels really good about the work here, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but, of course, thanks to all of you for caring so much about what we do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and about what you do and bringing it to the next level 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We hope you have a wonderful, wonderful couple of days. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - Thank you! - (Jacques) We are! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And drink a lot of wine! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Cheering and Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you very much! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Cheering and Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My daughter, Claudine! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Cheering and Applause) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Claudine) I'm going to bring this in the back for [inaudible] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Okay, good. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Hi Michelle! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacque) Jose is not here? (René) He's here -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Jacques) Okay. Everything I know, I learned from him, you know. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Laughter)