<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" At 74 years young, legendary chef Jacques P\u00E9pin is still going strong. Since starting his career at the age of 12, he has authored more than a dozen cookbooks and hosted award-winning PBS shows \u2014 and this year, P\u00E9pin became a prime-time TV star, appearing on the hit ABC comedy Ugly Betty. Success and stardom aside, at heart P\u00E9pin is a thoughtful cook who lives a rich, full life surrounded by friends, his wife, Gloria, and their dog, Paco. DELISH: Describe your style in three words. Jacques P\u00E9pin: Fresh, uncomplicated, and tasty. DELISH: What&amp;#039;s your favorite room? JP: The kitchen. Certainly, it is the room I feel the most comfortable in and the room I spend the most time. DELISH: What&amp;#039;s the one kitchen tool you couldn&amp;#039;t live without? JP: My hands. In the kitchen this is what I crush with, I push. Certainly I need a knife, I need a bowl, I need a pot, and a stove. DELISH: What is an ideal day at home? JP: I&amp;#039;d get up at the crack of 11 a.m. and go walk on the beach with my dog. I have a poodle, but he doesn&amp;#039;t look like a poodle \u2014 he looks more like a wild dog, and he&amp;#039;s great. Then maybe I would go mushrooming in the woods and come back and have lunch, and then I look at the Atlantic Ocean for a while. And then I&amp;#039;d have a friend coming in the afternoon, and we play a game of boules; in French it is called p\u00E9tanque. It&amp;#039;s like bocce. We do that; we drink wine. Then after that, we&amp;#039;d drink more wine. We start eating one thing or another. Either we cook together and eat or go out for dinner. That&amp;#039;s a pretty good day. DELISH: When you just want to make something simple, quick, and delicious, what do you prepare? JP: That would entirely depend on what&amp;#039;s available at the market. Yesterday, I had a friend bring me some porgy. He catches them but doesn&amp;#039;t want to eat them. So I filleted them, and I made a sauce with zucchini from the garden, tomato from the garden, onion from the garden, and some olive oil and a bit of garlic, salt and pepper, and herbs. That was good. We also love soup. I feel that you can do a soup in 10 minutes. I&amp;#039;ll grab whatever \u2014 a handful of salad and a zucchini and an onion \u2014 and I grate on a box grater so by the time the water boils, it&amp;#039;s ready. Then I drop in the vegetables and boil for one minute, add some oatmeal and a dash of butter and Parmesan cheese on top. DELISH: If you had an unlimited amount of money to spend on one kitchen item, what would it be? JP: A good pot, a good knife, and certainly a good source of heat. If your knife isn&amp;#039;t sharp, it isn&amp;#039;t going to work out well. With a pot, I use a lot of thick, heavy aluminum or one that is lined with stainless steel. DELISH: Who are your favorite people to host at home? JP: I never get as much pleasure from hosting anyone than I do with my mother, who is still alive. But definitely if I could have my brother and my father back to have dinner with me, I would certainly have some great chicken, which my father loved. Certainly some sweetbreads and some p\u00E2t\u00E9. A gratin of potato and a salad, cheese, and an apple tart. DELISH: What are some of your most memorable moments at the table? JP: When I have all my friends and family. We drink wine and have a great time. That is what is important first. The food is always good, but if you don&amp;#039;t have the right people around you, the food doesn&amp;#039;t digest well. Find out more about the secret lives of chefs. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/restaurants/a923/celeb-chef-jacques-pepin/?src=shelter_footer>