WEBVTT 00:00:06.220 --> 00:00:08.288 (Jacques) Good morning! 00:00:08.478 --> 00:00:10.452 Good morning, everybody! 00:00:10.452 --> 00:00:11.699 (Audience) Good morning! 00:00:11.699 --> 00:00:14.547 Claudine and I are delighted to be with you this morning 00:00:14.547 --> 00:00:16.348 to be the first ones. 00:00:17.350 --> 00:00:22.007 I left home when I was 13 to go to apprenticeship, 00:00:22.939 --> 00:00:24.674 that was in 1949. 00:00:26.278 --> 00:00:30.172 Actually, home was a restaurant where my mother was the chef, 00:00:31.132 --> 00:00:33.189 I was already in that business. 00:00:33.189 --> 00:00:37.839 In fact, there was 12 restaurants through the years in my family 00:00:38.238 --> 00:00:40.399 and 12 of them owned by women, 00:00:40.539 --> 00:00:44.067 I'm the first male to enter that business in my family. 00:00:45.467 --> 00:00:49.175 I went into apprenticeship from Lyon, where my mother had her little restaurant 00:00:49.175 --> 00:00:52.740 to Bourg-en-Bresse, where I was born a few miles away. 00:00:53.741 --> 00:00:57.078 Prior to that, when we were about 8-9 years old, 00:00:57.078 --> 00:00:58.798 my mother had that little restaurant 00:00:58.798 --> 00:01:02.209 so, my brother and I, before going to school, 00:01:02.209 --> 00:01:04.759 walked with my mother to the market 00:01:04.759 --> 00:01:08.507 - the St. Antoine market along the Saône river - 00:01:09.268 --> 00:01:14.370 and she would walk the market one way, about 1/2 a mile, and buy on her way back. 00:01:14.942 --> 00:01:17.918 Buying a case of mushrooms which were getting dark 00:01:17.918 --> 00:01:20.404 maybe for a third of the price or less. 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:24.630 We carried, of course, we didn't have a car at the time. 00:01:24.630 --> 00:01:28.587 She'd get home and start doing her vegetables, peeling for the day. 00:01:29.779 --> 00:01:33.171 She did not have a refrigerator at that time. 00:01:33.300 --> 00:01:37.427 She had an ice box, that is a block of ice into a little cabinet, 00:01:37.728 --> 00:01:41.504 so she'd have chicken of the day, meat, 00:01:41.921 --> 00:01:48.127 fish, usually, whiting or mackerel or skate - inexpensive fish - 00:01:48.659 --> 00:01:51.679 and that she has to use it that day. 00:01:51.679 --> 00:01:55.473 And again, the day after, we start all over again. 00:01:55.878 --> 00:01:58.893 Everything was organic, everything was local. 00:01:59.238 --> 00:02:01.990 The word organic did not really exist -- 00:02:02.098 --> 00:02:06.368 well, since chemical fertilizers did not exist either, 00:02:06.368 --> 00:02:09.958 or fungicides, insecticides, pesticides, all that stuff did not exist, 00:02:09.958 --> 00:02:14.594 so everything was, you know, local and -- 00:02:14.924 --> 00:02:17.261 (Claudine) Organic. (Jacques) Organic, that's it. 00:02:17.261 --> 00:02:22.157 So, I went into apprenticeship, I was 13 years old and, at that time, 00:02:23.380 --> 00:02:27.245 it was very structured, well, still is to certain extend, 00:02:28.038 --> 00:02:30.669 you got to be there on time, you got to be clean, 00:02:30.669 --> 00:02:32.638 you have to be willing, 00:02:32.638 --> 00:02:36.532 it's discipline, it's structure, that's the way a kitchen can work. 00:02:37.029 --> 00:02:39.819 We learn through a type of osmosis. 00:02:39.819 --> 00:02:45.226 The chef never really explained anything, he'd just say, "Do that". 00:02:45.509 --> 00:02:49.129 And if you say, "Why?", and he'd say, "Because I just told you". 00:02:49.129 --> 00:02:51.266 That was about the end of the apprenticeship. 00:02:51.948 --> 00:02:55.958 Probably, just as good for someone who's 13-14 years old. 00:02:57.268 --> 00:03:02.468 So, we worked, repeating, and repeating, and repeating those techniques ad nauseam; 00:03:03.168 --> 00:03:06.250 we were not allowed to go to the stove for a year. 00:03:06.638 --> 00:03:09.851 So, during that year, I did pluck a lot of chicken, 00:03:09.854 --> 00:03:14.439 eviscerated a lot of chicken, scaled fish, chopped parsley, 00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:17.857 all of that type of things, and then, the chef called me -- 00:03:17.857 --> 00:03:20.049 My name was "you" at the time, 00:03:20.049 --> 00:03:24.740 then by the time I went to the stove, they called me Jacques, so I got the name. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:28.268 So, he said, "You start tomorrow". 00:03:28.818 --> 00:03:31.648 "I start tomorrow?", I didn't know how to do it; 00:03:31.648 --> 00:03:33.889 I went to the stove and I knew how to do it. 00:03:33.889 --> 00:03:38.549 There was that type of osmosis, things that you show, that you mentor. 00:03:38.549 --> 00:03:43.083 I've got a book called, "La technique", that I published in 1975, 00:03:43.083 --> 00:03:44.590 so it's 40-year old, 00:03:45.131 --> 00:03:48.540 and I don't cook the way I did 40 years ago. 00:03:48.540 --> 00:03:51.906 But the way I did an egg white, or sharpen a knife, 00:03:52.735 --> 00:03:55.284 or bone out a chicken, to give you a sense; 00:03:55.284 --> 00:03:58.707 it is that kind of permanence, that kind of continuity, 00:03:58.707 --> 00:04:00.797 that, you learn in the kitchen; 00:04:00.797 --> 00:04:03.986 to be first a craftsman. 00:04:04.299 --> 00:04:11.109 And it's very difficult, very often, to explain in words 00:04:11.109 --> 00:04:13.031 something that you can show -- 00:04:14.850 --> 00:04:16.939 It's easier to show -- 00:04:21.339 --> 00:04:23.419 than to explain 00:04:24.913 --> 00:04:26.388 in words. 00:04:30.320 --> 00:04:32.547 You can do that to chocolate as well. 00:04:32.547 --> 00:04:34.972 You'd do that at exactly the right temperature. 00:04:36.109 --> 00:04:37.620 And we used to 00:04:38.670 --> 00:04:41.103 put the butter in a little container, that on top, 00:04:41.790 --> 00:04:43.698 and now you can charge 20 bucks for it. 00:04:43.698 --> 00:04:46.298 (Laughter) 00:04:47.258 --> 00:04:51.802 Put that in water, that's cold, so we could do whatever. 00:04:51.802 --> 00:04:54.270 (Applause) 00:04:54.270 --> 00:04:55.430 Thank you, Titine. 00:04:55.430 --> 00:04:58.174 For me, first you have to be a craftsman. 00:04:58.499 --> 00:05:02.838 You have to be a craftsman, and is that repeat, and repeat, and repeat, 00:05:02.838 --> 00:05:05.368 that is very important. 00:05:06.598 --> 00:05:08.036 Just like 00:05:08.140 --> 00:05:13.579 you can spend a year, two years, in a studio in art school 00:05:13.579 --> 00:05:18.041 and learn the law of perspective, it is perfectly fine, 00:05:18.041 --> 00:05:20.848 and you learn how to mix yellow and blue to make green, 00:05:20.848 --> 00:05:24.238 you know what to do with your thumb, with your spatula, with the brush; 00:05:24.238 --> 00:05:27.938 then you can come out and do one painting after another. 00:05:27.938 --> 00:05:30.480 Does that make you a chef? Not really. 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:35.759 But you're by then, a good craftsman, and that's very important. 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:38.349 You have, first, to know your trade, 00:05:38.349 --> 00:05:40.061 whether you are 00:05:41.554 --> 00:05:45.180 a shoemaker, or a cabinet maker - like my father - 00:05:45.599 --> 00:05:47.871 first, you know your trade. 00:05:47.871 --> 00:05:53.490 So, those things that we boned out 00:05:54.629 --> 00:05:57.358 I learned, as I said, as a child. 00:06:01.728 --> 00:06:04.029 And then, I learned this from -- 00:06:04.239 --> 00:06:06.760 I don't remember where I learn that but -- 00:06:07.629 --> 00:06:10.198 when you learn something you learn it a certain way 00:06:10.198 --> 00:06:13.189 and after a while, you don't remember where it comes from, 00:06:13.189 --> 00:06:16.357 and you do it your own way, eventually. 00:06:16.771 --> 00:06:21.349 To do a type of lollipop like that, as we used to -- 00:06:23.488 --> 00:06:29.285 So, those techniques, as I said, first make you a craftsman, 00:06:29.688 --> 00:06:33.128 and if you are a good craftsman, then you can run a restaurant. 00:06:34.898 --> 00:06:37.893 There are about 20,000 restaurants in NY 00:06:38.912 --> 00:06:45.054 and 100 are well known, maybe 200, maybe 300, maybe 400 even, 00:06:45.054 --> 00:06:51.468 but what happen to the 19,500 is that they are run by artisans, 00:06:51.848 --> 00:06:56.177 people who know how to work properly, 00:06:58.037 --> 00:07:04.221 and this is the only way if you become, in my opinion, a good craftsman, 00:07:04.381 --> 00:07:08.221 if you have that type of knowledge, then you can express yourself. 00:07:10.520 --> 00:07:11.739 This is half of yourself, 00:07:12.739 --> 00:07:15.308 the other half has to do with talent. 00:07:15.378 --> 00:07:17.036 If you have talent -- 00:07:17.106 --> 00:07:18.788 If you happen to have talent, 00:07:18.958 --> 00:07:22.341 by this I mean, if you have taste, 00:07:22.341 --> 00:07:26.417 if you have a bit of a vision, 00:07:26.417 --> 00:07:30.539 if you have a little bit of creativity, 00:07:30.539 --> 00:07:31.980 then you can express yourself, 00:07:31.980 --> 00:07:35.556 you now have the means in your hands to express yourself, 00:07:37.069 --> 00:07:39.696 if you've gone through those techniques. 00:07:40.388 --> 00:07:44.020 You have to repeat those techniques, as I said, 00:07:44.020 --> 00:07:47.563 long enough so that, you can afford to forget it after. 00:07:52.049 --> 00:07:55.279 Here we are, half of this, now the filet. 00:07:58.738 --> 00:08:01.758 (Claudine) If you have any questions you should shout them out, 00:08:01.758 --> 00:08:03.633 it's a good opportunity. 00:08:06.448 --> 00:08:08.259 (Claudine) There's going to be a test. 00:08:08.259 --> 00:08:11.151 (Laughter) 00:08:11.769 --> 00:08:13.329 (Jacques) This way. 00:08:13.329 --> 00:08:14.997 There's my carcass. 00:08:17.469 --> 00:08:21.430 Now, the tip of the filet, you remove it here. 00:08:27.398 --> 00:08:29.070 This one here -- 00:08:34.310 --> 00:08:38.120 So, you free your hand by learning those techniques 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:40.524 and as I said, you can now 00:08:40.524 --> 00:08:44.161 think in term of texture, in term of other things 00:08:45.809 --> 00:08:50.116 because, as I said, you free your hand by repeating and repeating. 00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:52.978 Now, this is one part of yourself, 00:08:52.978 --> 00:08:55.640 half of yourself is there, it's the craftsman; 00:08:55.640 --> 00:08:57.552 the other part of yourself 00:08:58.979 --> 00:09:01.506 now depend on whether you have talent or not, 00:09:02.499 --> 00:09:06.358 and even if you have a little bit of talent, not too much, 00:09:06.358 --> 00:09:10.651 you can still run a little restaurant by being a good technician. 00:09:11.020 --> 00:09:14.755 If you have a lot of talent, then you can take it further. 00:09:15.019 --> 00:09:18.357 Not all the chefs are René Redzepi, 00:09:19.207 --> 00:09:20.683 or David Chang, 00:09:22.556 --> 00:09:24.498 or José Andrés -- 00:09:33.229 --> 00:09:34.864 Here we are. 00:09:35.104 --> 00:09:40.118 (Applause and cheering) 00:09:40.958 --> 00:09:43.861 (Jacques) At that point you really don't want to cut the bone 00:09:43.861 --> 00:09:48.826 because the skin will shrink all over the place so, we break it. 00:09:49.998 --> 00:09:53.869 And you know, the interesting part is that if you carve in the dining room, 00:09:53.869 --> 00:09:57.022 or if you do a quail or a pheasant or a goose, 00:09:57.022 --> 00:09:59.034 the morphology is the same. 00:09:59.034 --> 00:10:02.199 If you cut a chicken in pieces to do a skew, 00:10:02.199 --> 00:10:06.729 you cut exactly in the sample place, at the shoulder joint, at the hip joint -- 00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:10.619 Okay. 00:10:12.638 --> 00:10:17.498 Now, you have to be very proud of what you're doing 00:10:17.498 --> 00:10:23.997 but you also have to be humble to a certain extend 00:10:23.997 --> 00:10:26.921 because there's always someone 00:10:26.921 --> 00:10:31.328 who can think with more creativity than you are, 00:10:31.328 --> 00:10:34.978 who can think harder than you do. 00:10:34.978 --> 00:10:38.969 We're all limited by the extent of our taste 00:10:38.969 --> 00:10:40.934 and they are different, 00:10:40.934 --> 00:10:44.208 and sometimes, you have people, 00:10:44.208 --> 00:10:46.842 like a food critic, who doesn't really know how to cook 00:10:46.842 --> 00:10:49.429 but maybe who can taste better than you do. 00:10:49.429 --> 00:10:52.049 We fail on that and sometimes it's not easy to take, 00:10:52.049 --> 00:10:54.190 but that's the way it is. 00:10:55.318 --> 00:11:01.173 For me, a young chef should work with a good chef, in a good place, 00:11:01.909 --> 00:11:07.728 and at that point your aim is to try to visualize what that chef does. 00:11:08.518 --> 00:11:15.001 If she or he works with you, then you try to see -- 00:11:15.880 --> 00:11:18.665 Yeah, that's where there are no bones -- 00:11:18.959 --> 00:11:20.509 a little bit here -- 00:11:20.868 --> 00:11:25.088 you try to see the food through his or her sense of aesthetic, 00:11:25.088 --> 00:11:26.990 their sense of taste, 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:32.657 and even if it doesn't coincide with you, 00:11:32.657 --> 00:11:34.630 most of the time it won't coincide 00:11:34.630 --> 00:11:37.139 with your sense of taste or your sense of aesthetic, 00:11:37.139 --> 00:11:39.219 but it doesn't really matter at that point, 00:11:39.219 --> 00:11:41.987 you have to look at it through that, 00:11:41.987 --> 00:11:44.320 and you do it for a year or two, 00:11:45.179 --> 00:11:48.463 then you work with another chef for a year or two, 00:11:48.908 --> 00:11:52.529 and again looking at things through a different point of view, 00:11:52.668 --> 00:11:54.935 different sense of aesthetic, 00:11:56.531 --> 00:12:00.054 and then maybe with a third one a few more times -- 00:12:00.649 --> 00:12:04.188 then, at some point, you're going to give it back. 00:12:05.098 --> 00:12:06.891 You're going to give it back, 00:12:07.493 --> 00:12:11.075 and now you're going to filter it through your sense of taste, 00:12:11.468 --> 00:12:13.464 through your sense of aesthetic, 00:12:13.938 --> 00:12:15.159 that's how it works 00:12:15.159 --> 00:12:18.677 because ultimately, at some point, you cannot escape yourself, 00:12:18.677 --> 00:12:21.952 you are who you are, and that's the way how you are going to do it. 00:12:21.952 --> 00:12:25.861 It's always a bit of a paradox for me 00:12:25.861 --> 00:12:28.680 because I work with young chefs like at Boston University 00:12:28.680 --> 00:12:33.554 and everyone wants to do something special and different. 00:12:33.920 --> 00:12:36.921 I do a class which I call a perfect meal, 00:12:36.921 --> 00:12:41.003 which is a roast chicken, a bowl of potatoes and a salad. 00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:42.899 It used to be done this way: 00:12:42.899 --> 00:12:47.320 They all go to the stove to do the same type of things 00:12:48.219 --> 00:12:54.778 and I say, "Don't try to blew my mind because I know that I have 12 people here, 00:12:54.778 --> 00:12:56.982 I'm going to have 12 different chicken." 00:12:56.982 --> 00:12:58.380 Because that's the way it is, 00:12:58.380 --> 00:13:02.039 you don't really have to torture yourself to be different, you are different, 00:13:02.039 --> 00:13:04.870 there's no way that you can do exactly the same thing 00:13:04.870 --> 00:13:06.715 than the person next to you. 00:13:08.649 --> 00:13:11.275 This is a good beef stuffing - not really - but 00:13:12.589 --> 00:13:14.255 just to give you an idea. 00:13:22.149 --> 00:13:23.571 Okay, Titine -- 00:13:26.988 --> 00:13:32.360 So, we have our galantine, that is if we poach it, 00:13:32.688 --> 00:13:35.383 and our ballotine if we roast it. 00:13:35.529 --> 00:13:36.910 Thank you. 00:13:37.228 --> 00:13:38.931 So, we put it this way -- 00:13:52.109 --> 00:13:53.908 (Claudine) No questions? 00:14:09.088 --> 00:14:10.600 (Jacques) Okay. 00:14:21.099 --> 00:14:22.459 (Jacques) Very quiet here. 00:14:22.459 --> 00:14:23.790 (Claudine) I know. 00:14:24.239 --> 00:14:25.987 (Claudine) Do you want some wine? 00:14:26.128 --> 00:14:29.497 (Jacques) Ah, my daughter knows me -- 00:14:29.693 --> 00:14:31.648 (Laughter) 00:14:33.339 --> 00:14:35.294 (Jacques) Our galantine, so -- 00:14:35.294 --> 00:14:41.068 (Applause) 00:14:44.970 --> 00:14:46.480 (Jacques) Up to that point -- 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:48.401 (Claudine) You have five minutes -- 00:14:48.401 --> 00:14:50.078 (Jacques) Oh yeah, okay. 00:14:50.078 --> 00:14:54.229 The technique to do something remain fairly constant, 00:15:01.158 --> 00:15:03.209 but at that point this is what it'll change: 00:15:03.209 --> 00:15:06.329 when you're happy with the way you cook it, what you do with it, 00:15:06.329 --> 00:15:09.241 the seasoning and all of that become your own. 00:15:11.221 --> 00:15:12.439 Okay. 00:15:18.071 --> 00:15:20.821 - (Jacques) Pepper, Titine? - (Claudine) Yeah. 00:15:21.030 --> 00:15:22.994 (Jacques) That's your salt -- 00:15:26.484 --> 00:15:28.118 (Pepper mill grinding) 00:15:28.667 --> 00:15:32.099 (Claudine) Everybody needs one of me in your kitchen, you all need me -- 00:15:32.099 --> 00:15:34.311 (Laughter) 00:15:34.999 --> 00:15:37.857 (Jacques) Now I cook with my granddaughter as well. 00:15:39.430 --> 00:15:40.885 (Claudine) She's 12. 00:15:42.428 --> 00:15:43.783 (Jacques) Yes -- 00:15:44.229 --> 00:15:49.250 when I did a television show with Claudine many years ago -- 00:15:50.889 --> 00:15:53.231 (Jacques) Why did you give me two of those? 00:15:53.231 --> 00:15:56.009 (Claudine) I offered whatever you want it -- 00:15:56.009 --> 00:15:57.544 (Jacques) Okay, good. 00:15:58.358 --> 00:16:03.462 (Jacques) I learned how to make three different types of omelettes. 00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:08.814 A flat omelette, called à la piperade 00:16:11.174 --> 00:16:13.128 or omelette basquaise and so forth -- 00:16:13.248 --> 00:16:15.149 Western omelette, as it's called the US, 00:16:15.149 --> 00:16:17.599 and then, we did an omelette that my mother would do 00:16:17.599 --> 00:16:20.480 with very large curd, brown -- 00:16:24.550 --> 00:16:29.058 and then we did a more classic omelette - like this one - 00:16:30.967 --> 00:16:37.579 and for those we want to make very small curds, like scramble egg. 00:16:51.521 --> 00:16:54.760 Now, there are three different types of omelettes that I would do, 00:16:54.760 --> 00:16:58.138 one is not better than the other, it's just different. 00:16:58.568 --> 00:17:00.998 A few weeks ago, I did that for a television 00:17:00.998 --> 00:17:04.291 who came to my house and wanted me to do the three types of omelettes, 00:17:04.291 --> 00:17:05.709 which I did -- 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:10.488 and then they realized they only have a minute and a half when they edited, 00:17:10.488 --> 00:17:13.499 so they just took some stuff from one omelette to the other, 00:17:13.499 --> 00:17:15.828 to the other, and mix the whole thing together -- 00:17:15.828 --> 00:17:16.838 (Laughter) 00:17:16.838 --> 00:17:17.988 (Jacques) What a waste! 00:17:17.988 --> 00:17:20.183 So, here you bring it back here, 00:17:20.183 --> 00:17:22.706 so that you're now rolling really a carpet -- 00:17:23.151 --> 00:17:25.309 so you're just bringing one lid -- 00:17:26.770 --> 00:17:28.858 one lid here and a half moon -- 00:17:29.619 --> 00:17:31.124 nice half moon -- 00:17:31.749 --> 00:17:33.330 bring that here -- 00:17:34.158 --> 00:17:36.676 bring the other lid on top -- 00:17:36.929 --> 00:17:39.354 this is the time when you want to stuff it, 00:17:40.488 --> 00:17:41.781 change hands -- 00:17:42.100 --> 00:17:43.780 and then that omelette should be -- 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:47.210 to the edge -- 00:17:49.298 --> 00:17:50.433 Ooooh! 00:17:51.178 --> 00:17:52.556 The chef in my kitchen -- 00:17:52.556 --> 00:17:55.829 (Applause) 00:18:01.150 --> 00:18:04.079 The chef in my kitchen would have seen the pleads on top 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:08.209 and he would have done some reference to the behind of his grandmother -- 00:18:08.209 --> 00:18:10.541 (Laughter) 00:18:12.701 --> 00:18:16.938 As you see, it should be pale right on top, very creamy, 00:18:16.938 --> 00:18:19.828 very soft inside, like scramble eggs, 00:18:19.828 --> 00:18:23.216 and that's what a classic omelette is. 00:18:25.049 --> 00:18:26.170 Yes, Claudine? 00:18:26.170 --> 00:18:27.258 (Claudine) Yes, papa! 00:18:27.258 --> 00:18:28.834 (Jacques) Will you drink to that? 00:18:28.834 --> 00:18:29.811 (Claudine) I will! 00:18:29.811 --> 00:18:31.241 (Jacques) Thank you very much! 00:18:31.241 --> 00:18:33.949 (Applause and cheering! 00:18:39.958 --> 00:18:45.488 (Claudine) Whatever you take away from here, I hope -- 00:18:45.718 --> 00:18:48.694 and it's so wonderful that you're taking the time to be here, 00:18:48.828 --> 00:18:52.873 I hope you share your knowledge with everyone 00:18:52.991 --> 00:18:55.850 because that's how the craft continues, 00:18:55.979 --> 00:18:58.689 that's how our trade continues, that's how it gets better. 00:18:58.709 --> 00:19:03.582 (Jacques) Yeah, I realized quite well, all of you know those techniques, 00:19:03.582 --> 00:19:09.468 some better than me... yet, I thank you for coming 00:19:09.468 --> 00:19:13.589 and listening to me, but for me the permanence is there, 00:19:13.589 --> 00:19:19.208 to teach, to explain and to show at least the basic structure, 00:19:19.208 --> 00:19:22.339 and at that point, when you have that type of manual dexterity 00:19:22.339 --> 00:19:24.508 or technical knowledge, 00:19:24.508 --> 00:19:26.448 then you can run a kitchen quite well. 00:19:26.448 --> 00:19:29.390 As I said, if you happen to have talent, 00:19:29.390 --> 00:19:31.689 then you bring it to a another level 00:19:31.689 --> 00:19:37.609 and, like the person who works in a studio for a couple of years, 00:19:37.949 --> 00:19:40.652 after that, you know how to mix all your paintings, 00:19:40.652 --> 00:19:42.542 and know what you can do with a brush, 00:19:42.542 --> 00:19:45.088 you step outside you do one painting after another -- 00:19:45.088 --> 00:19:47.149 Does that make you an artist? 00:19:47.149 --> 00:19:49.704 Not really, at that point you're a good craftsman. 00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:52.188 If, however, you have talent, 00:19:52.188 --> 00:19:54.999 now you have the means in your hands to express that talent, 00:19:54.999 --> 00:19:56.783 to take it somewhere. 00:19:57.680 --> 00:19:59.909 As I said, you do have to transcend that level 00:19:59.909 --> 00:20:03.894 at which you have to concentrate on the manual task that you're at. 00:20:03.926 --> 00:20:07.499 You see a beginner coming around and you say: "Do you have any parsley?" 00:20:07.499 --> 00:20:10.400 and he says: "Don't disturb me, someone is slicing something." 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:13.740 You have to transcend that level so you don't have to think about it, 00:20:13.740 --> 00:20:17.259 things that are there, so you can think in terms of texture, 00:20:17.259 --> 00:20:20.312 combination of ingredients, or things like these. 00:20:20.312 --> 00:20:21.497 Right, Titine? 00:20:21.497 --> 00:20:23.610 (Claudine) Right. Do you have any questions? 00:20:23.610 --> 00:20:26.228 (Jacques) I think I was there at one and a half minute, 00:20:26.228 --> 00:20:28.018 now I'm back to seven minutes? 00:20:28.088 --> 00:20:29.828 (Laughter) 00:20:29.988 --> 00:20:31.628 (Claudine) Okay! 00:20:31.698 --> 00:20:32.735 (Jacques) Yes -- 00:20:33.438 --> 00:20:35.533 Any questions? 00:20:37.841 --> 00:20:39.595 No questions? Yes, sir? 00:20:39.595 --> 00:20:41.198 (speaking from the audience) 00:20:41.198 --> 00:20:43.779 (Claudine) Oh, yeah. (Jacques) Do I know that man here? 00:20:43.779 --> 00:20:47.359 (Claudine) I gave him 20 bucks before to say that. Thank you, Michelle! 00:20:47.479 --> 00:20:49.318 (Claudine blows a kiss) 00:20:49.429 --> 00:20:51.200 (Jacques) Thank you, Michelle... yes! 00:20:52.887 --> 00:20:56.459 I know that there are great, fantastic chefs here -- 00:20:56.459 --> 00:21:00.012 we had an extraordinary, extraordinary meal at Noma, 00:21:00.012 --> 00:21:02.899 I'm gratified to be here, 00:21:02.899 --> 00:21:05.559 I know I'm the oldest of the group 00:21:05.559 --> 00:21:09.849 and now that I've passed 80 years old I'm supposed to be wise. 00:21:09.849 --> 00:21:12.520 I don't think that I'm wiser than when I was 30 years old 00:21:12.520 --> 00:21:16.019 but this is what happens when you get old. 00:21:16.019 --> 00:21:17.468 You think I'm wise, Claudine? 00:21:17.468 --> 00:21:21.329 - (Claudine) Yes, yes, of course, you are! - (Jacques) Ok, that's a good daughter. 00:21:21.329 --> 00:21:22.428 (Laughter) 00:21:22.428 --> 00:21:26.841 (Jacques) Now I'm doing a show with my granddaughter, Shorey, 00:21:26.841 --> 00:21:29.228 which we called "Lesson of a grandfather". 00:21:29.228 --> 00:21:32.749 So, little things, even how to set up a table, 00:21:32.749 --> 00:21:35.969 eat properly at the table or -- 00:21:35.969 --> 00:21:38.088 But no, not enjoying wine yet. 00:21:38.088 --> 00:21:41.368 (Claudine) No, no, no wine yet, it's just to give us show, so -- 00:21:41.368 --> 00:21:43.021 (Laughter) 00:21:43.021 --> 00:21:44.479 (Claudine) Yes, sir? 00:21:44.479 --> 00:21:47.108 (speaking from the audience) 00:21:52.498 --> 00:21:56.819 It's a very interesting question. Do you want to repeat the question? 00:21:56.819 --> 00:21:59.588 (Claudine) The question is how are the kitchens today 00:21:59.588 --> 00:22:03.426 different than the kitchens that my father was an apprentice in. 00:22:04.409 --> 00:22:05.588 Pretty dramatic? 00:22:05.588 --> 00:22:08.563 (Jacques) Yes, well, no... but, yes! 00:22:08.563 --> 00:22:10.128 (Laughter) 00:22:10.128 --> 00:22:12.289 There is a permanence there, the point is that 00:22:12.289 --> 00:22:14.189 you still have to come on time, 00:22:14.189 --> 00:22:16.289 you still have to be ready to work, 00:22:16.289 --> 00:22:20.139 you still work in a place which is very structured, very disciplined, 00:22:20.139 --> 00:22:21.359 like in the army, 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:24.079 you don't say, "Yes, captain!", but you say, "Yes, chef!", 00:22:24.079 --> 00:22:26.668 it's about the same thing and you have to -- 00:22:26.668 --> 00:22:29.570 you have to, so that the kitchen works properly. 00:22:29.570 --> 00:22:30.968 You're a member of a team, 00:22:30.968 --> 00:22:33.929 and if you're late or don't show up to be part of that team, 00:22:33.929 --> 00:22:35.748 you're going to destroy the structure, 00:22:35.748 --> 00:22:37.708 so that remains the same. 00:22:37.708 --> 00:22:40.511 That being said, when I was a kid, 00:22:40.511 --> 00:22:44.181 we would never up there to cut a tomato -- 00:22:44.181 --> 00:22:45.739 we only cut it in one direction, 00:22:45.739 --> 00:22:49.449 we'd never alternate to the other side when I worked at the Plaza and in Paris, 00:22:49.449 --> 00:22:50.749 or whatever in the fifties. 00:22:50.749 --> 00:22:53.027 Now, there's a much greater deal 00:22:53.027 --> 00:22:55.401 and innovation is part of yourself too. 00:22:55.401 --> 00:22:59.878 And, of course, we, up to 20-30 years ago -- 00:22:59.878 --> 00:23:05.568 I've been in the kitchen 65-67 years -- 00:23:05.568 --> 00:23:08.300 the cook were at the bottom of the social scale. 00:23:08.300 --> 00:23:12.828 Any good mother would have wanted her child to marry a doctor, an architect, 00:23:14.998 --> 00:23:16.809 certainly not a cook. 00:23:16.809 --> 00:23:20.388 Now we are genius! I don't know exactly what happened but -- 00:23:20.388 --> 00:23:23.101 this is great, this is terrific, so it's quite different. 00:23:23.101 --> 00:23:25.859 - (Claudine) Papa, he has a question. - (Jacques) Yes, sir. 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:32.271 - (René) I have a question for you. - (Jacques) Yes. 00:23:32.271 --> 00:23:34.318 (René) You said you're more than 80, right? 00:23:34.318 --> 00:23:36.628 (Jacques) Yes. 00:23:36.938 --> 00:23:39.049 (René) I'm 39. 00:23:41.543 --> 00:23:44.285 I think a lot of cooks that deal with this -- 00:23:45.695 --> 00:23:48.379 what can I say, like, guilt, sometimes -- 00:23:48.379 --> 00:23:51.572 they feel like they should be yearning for something in the past, 00:23:51.572 --> 00:23:53.889 that in the past things were better, kind of -- 00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:58.774 Can you please tell us 00:23:58.904 --> 00:24:00.899 how it used to be in the kitchen 00:24:00.899 --> 00:24:04.429 and whether you think the life in the kitchen is better today, 00:24:04.429 --> 00:24:08.319 and actually, do you think that food has become better 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:10.401 - and is becoming better? - (Jacques) Yes. 00:24:10.401 --> 00:24:13.211 (René) Or, was it better back in the old days? 00:24:14.115 --> 00:24:16.718 No, it is better, there's a cycle also -- 00:24:16.718 --> 00:24:19.872 certainly as I said, my mother used only organic products too 00:24:19.872 --> 00:24:22.408 but that's what we have, we didn't have anything else, 00:24:22.408 --> 00:24:25.357 so we're going back to that, which is a great thing, of course, 00:24:25.357 --> 00:24:27.388 to be in communion with the Earth 00:24:27.388 --> 00:24:29.259 and in communion to where you work, 00:24:29.259 --> 00:24:30.910 and be local, and so forth. 00:24:30.910 --> 00:24:32.501 Yes, absolutely. 00:24:32.951 --> 00:24:34.305 The cooks now still have 00:24:34.305 --> 00:24:36.229 the same structure that we used to have 00:24:36.229 --> 00:24:40.630 but you have much more freedom than we ever had before. 00:24:41.888 --> 00:24:45.340 Certainly, I got kicked in the rear end a few times by my chefs, 00:24:45.340 --> 00:24:49.183 I mean it was the type of things that it was supposed at that time -- 00:24:49.183 --> 00:24:50.709 it was supposed to be difficult, 00:24:50.709 --> 00:24:53.181 you have to go to a rite of passage and all of that, 00:24:53.181 --> 00:24:54.770 which is not really necessary, 00:24:54.770 --> 00:24:56.892 you don't need to be yelled at -- 00:25:00.302 --> 00:25:04.532 I've seen a lot of show on television, certainly, reality show, 00:25:04.532 --> 00:25:09.279 and the kitchen is like mayhem and the chef is yelling all over the place. 00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:12.306 This is not conducive to good work, certainly. 00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:16.478 There's a great deal of love, a great deal of yourself that you put in that food, 00:25:16.478 --> 00:25:20.739 and the yelling at other people, the lack of respect, 00:25:20.739 --> 00:25:25.032 those things are not conducive, in my opinion, to learning well 00:25:25.032 --> 00:25:27.418 and teaching people how to cook. 00:25:27.418 --> 00:25:31.248 At a certain age, when I was 12-13, the best way of learning 00:25:31.248 --> 00:25:34.859 was probably through that kind of osmotic way: 00:25:34.859 --> 00:25:37.619 you look, you repeat, you look, you repeat, and so forth. 00:25:37.619 --> 00:25:39.418 We passed that level now. 00:25:39.418 --> 00:25:42.998 Chefs come from cooking schools, 00:25:42.998 --> 00:25:46.220 they come out from college when they are older, 00:25:46.220 --> 00:25:48.841 they want to know how to do it, they want us to explain, 00:25:48.841 --> 00:25:51.989 so it's a different way of teaching than what we're used to; 00:25:51.989 --> 00:25:55.229 and people are much more in a hurry than how we were too; 00:25:55.229 --> 00:25:58.412 we had at least three other apprenticeship without paid or anything, 00:25:58.412 --> 00:26:01.779 so, you know, there are six apprentices in front of you -- 00:26:02.979 --> 00:26:04.577 so, this is much better now. 00:26:04.577 --> 00:26:08.379 A much greater respect for the chef, for what we do for our tradition, 00:26:08.379 --> 00:26:10.509 and this is why, I mean, we're here today -- 00:26:10.509 --> 00:26:11.979 - Yes? - (Claudine) Wrap it up. 00:26:11.979 --> 00:26:15.548 (Jacques) Wrap it up. Yes, ma'm, okay. But I still see one minute -- 00:26:15.548 --> 00:26:17.320 (Claudine) Trust me. 00:26:17.320 --> 00:26:21.431 (Jacques) I don't know whether that's the right answer to your question, 00:26:21.431 --> 00:26:24.110 or whether I was not specific enough but -- 00:26:25.520 --> 00:26:27.669 (René) Can you just say in a yes or no? 00:26:27.669 --> 00:26:30.158 (Laughter) 00:26:30.158 --> 00:26:33.779 (Claudine) You'll be the first one to ever get that answer, if it's possible. 00:26:33.779 --> 00:26:36.757 - (René) If you look back when you were 30 - (Jacques) Right -- 00:26:36.757 --> 00:26:39.938 (René) and you look at kitchens and chefs and cooking now, 00:26:39.938 --> 00:26:41.790 do you believe that is better now? 00:26:41.790 --> 00:26:44.130 (Jacques) Oh yes, absolutely, no question at all. 00:26:44.130 --> 00:26:46.889 - (René) Thank you so much! - (Jacques) No question at all! 00:26:46.889 --> 00:26:48.612 (Applause) 00:26:53.429 --> 00:26:56.591 (Claudine) Thank you, of course, to the MAD team for working there, 00:26:56.591 --> 00:27:00.710 took us off to the extend that I find extraordinary 00:27:00.710 --> 00:27:02.568 and rather inspiring so, 00:27:02.568 --> 00:27:05.378 I hope that everyone feels really good about the work here, 00:27:05.378 --> 00:27:09.748 but, of course, thanks to all of you for caring so much about what we do 00:27:09.748 --> 00:27:12.768 and about what you do and bringing it to the next level. 00:27:12.768 --> 00:27:15.349 We hope you have a wonderful, wonderful couple of days. 00:27:15.349 --> 00:27:16.829 - Thank you! - (Jacques) We are! 00:27:16.829 --> 00:27:18.469 And drink a lot of wine! Thank you! 00:27:18.649 --> 00:27:21.419 (Applause and cheering) 00:27:24.459 --> 00:27:26.025 My daughter, Claudine! 00:27:42.808 --> 00:27:45.421 - (Jacques) Jose is not here? - (René) He's here -- 00:27:47.510 --> 00:27:51.138 (Jacques) Okay. Everything I know, I learned from him, you know. 00:27:51.138 --> 00:27:53.378 (Laughter) 00:28:01.696 --> 00:28:08.756 English subtitles by Jenny Lam-Chowdhury