Mme. Diat: The Why

When I was in 7th grade, I took my first job at the rectory adjacent to my school. My duties were simple, I was kitchen staff. I was meant to answer the phones and the door, take messages, serve and clean up dinner, and assist in cooking. It was during these seven years as staff at the St. Leonard rectory that I developed my passion for cuisine.

I remember working with Louise, a fiery Italian woman from the south side of Chicago, who would tell me, "a pinch of onion and a pinch of garlic. You can't go wrong with a pinch of onion and a pinch of garlic." Sitting in that kitchen with the warmth from two ovens and a stove filling the room, listening to her describe how to make the perfect soup stock or how to create her family marinara you would picture a child sitting at the feet of their grandparent. To be honest, that's how it felt. Louise taught me that cooking was more than just a cup of water combined with a pinch of salt. There was a heart and soul to each dish that you gave to the people sharing in it. She took me in as a daughter and passed onto me family recipes brought with her mother from Italy.

There comes a moment when the student must become the teacher. When I left the warm hearth of that rectory kitchen, I knew that for me, it was time.

When my best friend who, as undomesticated as she is tries- with all of her heart, presented me with a brand new cookbook and a plan, all I could do was smile. Normally, my best friend is contented with pretzels and applesauce for dinner. So when she proposed that we cook our way through Jacques Pépin's favorite recipes, I knew that there was no way I could say no. When the two of us get together, it is always an adventure and I knew that this trek into squab, tripe, clam chowder, and the delicious desert section would be no different.

Harriet Van Horne wrote, "Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all." Over 10 years ago, my passion for cooking was bore out of a friendship that I will not soon forget. Today, I know that another friendship will create some dishes that will soon not be forgotten.

Mme. Pépin: The Why

Why would the most undomestic of my parent's three children want to face the challenge of cooking through "Chez Jacques", Jacques Pépin's 100 favorite recipes? This is the person whose friends run in fear if she ever mentions that she made a pesto, the person whose kitchen has one piece of counter space, the person who is still scared of her gas oven after living in that small kitchened apartment for over a year now.

The why is that my God-mother is about to die. I only knew her well enough to know how amazing she is for a short time. One of her passions in life is cooking, and on one of my visits to Pittsburg, TX (yes, such a place exists) she insisted on showing me how to make Gratin Dauphinois from Jacques Pépin's "Chez Jacques". A month or so later she sent that cookbook to me with the inscription:

"To live outside oneself – to make others happy is a great joy – try it with cooking. Love Beck"

Now, as we count down the days until her departure from this earth, I've decided to do something with that cookbook, that inscription. I wrote to her a promise, that I'd cook through "Chez Jacques". Is it going to be painful, quite possibly. Expensive, most definitely. Scary, yes.

Thankfully, one of my best friends has decided to join me for this culinary adventure. Together we're going where few 20-somethings who aren't already chefs have gone before. Into a world where people eat things like sweet breads (and no I'm not talking about the rolls, look it up).

My mother was pleased when she heard my quest, she also thumbed through the book and veto-ed a few things: fois-gras, tripe, and headcheese. My boyfriend offered up "You're not a bad cook, it just takes you 3x as long to complete a recipe". Armed with my friend, some less than adequate cooking utensils and Jacques' thoughts and recipes I set out.