Jacques Pepin is a chef for everyone. He creates the best dishes with just a few good ingredients.
He cooks the way you should.
His knowledge you can't find anywhere else.

A world famous chef and classically trained/educated. Winner of numerous James Beard awards.
What impressed me about this DVD was his simple and elegant approach to culinary arts that can be applied to everyday cooks.
His accent (French) is somewhat difficult to understand sometimes, but the video does an awesome job of clarifying the process of a recipe.

This dvd set is a must have accompaniment to his book, Essential Pepin, which distills all his recipes into one HUGE book. Jacques explains everything so well, and he is so comfortable and adept in the kitchen, that one can't help but pick up some valuable tips. Frankly, I think that he should be given the title as a national treasure in both France and the USA. I've always wished that Jacques was my next door neighbor, so that I could sample his cooking. This video set highlights a great variety of recipes, which are divided into categories such as meat, fish, egg dishes, desserts, etc. I find that the programs go by far too quickly on TV, so it is a wonderful luxury to be able to review his procedures and advice, as often as I wish. The recipe selection is wonderful, easy to learn, follow, and to recreate. The DVD's are extremely well made and expertly presented. Jacques technique is masterful. He does so many things at the highest skill level. His knife skills are tremendous. If one wants to get better at cooking, one has to watch someone much better to learn how to do things properly. Jacques Pepin is probably in the top five of the best chefs of all time. These DVDs are money well spent, and I have greatly enjoyed them. I highly recommend these DVDs, and his book. This is Essential Pepin.

I have most of Jacques Pepin's cookbooks and dvd's and this is far and away my favorite so far. The cookbook itself has an amazing variety of recipes and a good percentage are demonstrated on the DVD. One of the things that I really like about the new DVD is that there's a really good mix of recipes - some very easy and some more challenging in terms of techniques and ingredients. Whatever he's making though, Jacques takes the time to explain everything in a very straightforward and easy to understand manner without any pretension. You really get the feeling that the recipes are something that you can recreate at home successfully and all the ones that I've tried so far have been delicious. I even boned a whole chicken, stuffed and roasted it after watching the dvd - something that would be hard to do just reading a recipe in a book but not that intimidating after watching the step by step demonstration. Highly recommend the video and the cookbook to anyone who likes to cook.

Wonderful DVD that is lots of fun to watch again and again. Chef Pepin continues his charming presentations by either cooking for the viewers himself, or having occasional guests join him as he prepares and explains lots of delightful things in the "home kitchen" looking studio where the DVD was recorded.

The menu structure of the DVD also lets you go directly to the dish you want to watch chef Pepin make, organized by ingredients and title.

I love learning so much about various ingredients and dishes from chef Pepin's DVD, and swapping the various techniques I learn around with different foods and creations. Can't wait to buy some more of the chef's many DVDs and books.