The Apprentice

Jacques Pepin's charmed cooking life, in written form, poorly edited. As in, typos sprinkled throughout the pages. My inner editor wouldn't let that go. Besides that, a sweet story of his upbringing in the kitchen, from apprenticing out at age 13, through many French kitchens, Parisian kitchens, and escaping to the US for some adventure and finding culinary freedom. His protests about his friend Craig's gayness seemed a bit over the top-- why even mention it? Why create that distance for himself?

Test kitchens at Howard Johnsons, reading Julia Child's manuscript, the car accident that kept him from the kitchen and forced him into private instruction, KQED launching him on his TV career... quick mouthful to digest and move on from.