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