was created just for PÉPIN FROM ART OF THE CHICKEN PUBLISHED BY HARVEST BOOKS (2022)

Surrounded by gleaming pots and pans and dozens of spoons and spatulas, the French-born chef tells us he’s busier than ever. At 87, he’s become a social media sensation thanks to his breezy cooking tutorials filmed inside his delightfully lived-in kitchen. With his casual plaid shirts and easy manner, he prepares whatever he’s in the mood for, signing off with his trademark “Happy cooking.” No surprise that his 1.6 million Facebook followers are obsessed. “The idea was my daughter, Claudine’s,” Pépin explains. “We use a fixed camera and a handheld phone over my shoulder. Usually we film 10 in a day, and it varies based on what I have left in the refrigerator or pantry.” Even more impressive, all the videos are improvised. But what his newfound devotees might not know is that Pépin doesn’t just love cooking; he also loves painting. For decades, he’s been working diligently in his studio, capturing landscapes, florals, even vegetables. He got the bug in the 1960s as a student at Columbia University and has been creating art ever since.

“When I cook in the kitchen, there is a certain freedom of being a professional chef,” he extols. “You taste, you adjust; you taste, you adjust. And then the food kind of takes ahold of you. Similarly, when I start a painting, very often I don’t really know where I’m going. Then at some point, the painting takes ahold of me. And I react to it, without even trying to validate what I’m doing.”

The subject matter he’s painted the most might come as a surprise: chickens. His latest book, Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef’s Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird, is filled with dozens of his poultry portraits, each with its own personality. “I come from a place in France where we are known for our very special Bresse chickens,” Pépin says. “With their red comb, blue feet and white plumage, they’ve always been a part of my life.”

Astonishingly, this is his 31st book — and perhaps his most personal. A visual and culinary treat, it is filled with stories of omelets and roasted birds. But you won’t find formal recipes here. Instead, Pépin explains how to cook in a narrative style, as if we were sitting right in his kitchen. Along the way, he folds in stories about his life and adventures in the culinary world.

And what a life it’s been. Born in 1935 in Bourg-enBresse, France, he left home at 13 to become a chef. After rigorous stints in kitchens near Lyon then Paris, he spent time in the French military, where he cooked for President Charles de Gaulle. But after he came to America in 1959 and started working at New York City’s Le Pavillon, he turned down the chance to cook at the White House for President John F. Kennedy. Instead, he pivoted and went to work for Howard Johnson’s, where he perfected the art of making chicken pot pies for the masses. “The years I spent at Howard Johnson’s changed my life as a cook,” Pépin writes in Art of the Chicken. “Learning about production, the chemistry of food, marketing and recipe writing all made me grow and helped me develop skills outside of cooking.”