Cheers To 2023: How Chef Jacques Pépin And His Family Help Others, Spark Joy

Iconic Chef Jacques Pépin deftly stirs multiple pots aplenty. His life-story is legendary and his stellar decades-long career as a worldwide culinary instructor at cooking schools, on television shows and now through YouTube and Facebook, as well as via his more than 30 cookbooks, astounds. What is not so broadly known: The Jacques Pépin Foundation, which helps transform lives. The foundation is the brainchild of his son-in-law, Rollie Wesen, a chef and professor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, and his daughter, Claudine Pépin. Several years ago, Jacques Pépin expressed a desire to share his expertise even further, teaching “people who have been disenfranchised by life,” he told me in a Forbes interview last month. “Not really young kids, but people in their 30s, 40s or 50s, who have served time in jail, or who are homeless, or former drug addicts, who then have a hard time being employed. I know that I can take someone into the kitchen and teach them the basic skills in order to eventually get a job in a kitchen and life skills to earn their way up the ladder. A way to relaunch their lives and feel pride in their accomplishments. It’s very rewarding. For them and me.” Following through on Jacques Pépin’s lightbulb moment, Wesen and Claudine Pépin have set up a beacon that shines an affirmative life-changing path. The dynamic couple talked with me about the foundation, their family life, the joy of travel and more. Their interview follows, below.

Laura Manske: Explain how the foundation makes a positive difference.

Claudine Pépin: It has been gratifying to be able to do something that is important to my father — bringing education and marketable skills to people so that when they leave a six-week program they can get an entry-level job in a kitchen. It means a lot. We support community kitchens nationwide, primarily for people who have barriers to employment. We work with existing community kitchens that know their communities well. Our foundation asks what kind of support [they] need. For example, early on one of the community kitchens said that the barrier to having their students come to class was that most of them were homeless and couldn’t figure out how to wash and keep their uniforms clean, which is a necessity to have a clean uniform. What that community kitchen wanted was a commercial washing machine and dryer. So Rollie quickly got on the phone with Maytag and, because my father’s name is strong, Maytag was more than happy to provide [the equipment]. Rollie [helped a community kitchen] in Boston, for instance, by being able to offer expensive, high-grade chocolate to the classes. That kitchen has a fantastic bakery now. It is thrilling and rewarding. My husband has really taken charge; 85 percent of the credit goes to him. There’s a beautiful human element that we are able to touch so many individual kitchens and lives in ways that are meaningful to them.

Rollie Wesen: We’ve identified a network of approximately 150 organizations across the country within this sector. Overall the actual number is [likely] twice that many. We have a map on our foundation’s website that lists the organizations that we have supported, with which we’ve had direct contact, such as providing a grant or giving cookbooks. We’re always trying to figure out what more we can do to help. We’re just in the third year of our granting program in 2022. By the end of this year, we will have offered a million dollars in pass-through grants to organizations. It’s amazing for the people who come through these programs. All credit to our community kitchen partners, more than us, because they are the ones who are creating an environment where people can learn and develop their skills that give them opportunities for employment and to stay in the work force, as well as a sense of purpose. It helps [individuals] to feed their families better and more economically, too. We think of it as a win-win-win. All of the organizations we support report an employment rate above 90 percent for the people who go through the program.

Manske: How had the COVID-pandemic shutdown affected the foundation?

Wesen: It was a crisis for many individuals and families, and also for many organizations. Non-profits suffered. It was painful for us, because the majority of our funding pre-pandemic was gained by [in-person] events. From March 2020 until recently, I planned and then had to cancel eight separate fund-raising events. That was serious for us. We had to pivot, by which we inaugurated a membership drive for the foundation. It has turned out to be important, because people felt isolated during the pandemic and needed a sense of belonging. In addition, we wanted to give back and one of the things we gave back are recipe video shorts. Claudine had a great initiative on this. She reached out to Jacques when the shutdown started, suggesting: ‘Oh! You’re probably going to be stuck at home for the next couple of months, why don’t you shoot a few videos?’

Pépin: I told my father that people are stuck at home and [may not know] what to eat or cook. Many people are suffering economically as well. I asked him whether he could do videos — a few minutes tops — that I can put up on Facebook. The first one was about making vinaigrette in a jar: So simple, you can keep it in your refrigerator and use it for roasted vegetables, salads and more. [Viewers have since posted thousands of appreciative comments, such as] ‘Thank you so much, you have kept me going. I have learned so much from you.’ We were able to [also] use [those free videos] for the foundation. On its website, many videos are free. I think it is key to continue to offer free content. Plus, we have a video recipe book that was developed during the pandemic. We were nominated for a Webby Award. That was exciting.

Wesen: The spin that came after Jacques began to shoot his videos during the pandemic is that we realized our celebrity chef friends were also shooting videos. In an effort to figure out how to generate revenue for the foundation, we reached out to some of them to ask whether they would make a video in their home kitchen in support of our foundation, which we would then turn into a video recipe book. Everybody said yes, such as José Andrés, Andrew Zimmern, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller and Rachael Ray. The video recipe book [featuring 200 video recipes] is a carrot for becoming a member of the foundation. There is a relatively low barrier to entry membership, just $40 per year, which gives members access to these video recipes that are simultaneously printable, as well as a video of each chef who created them, doing the work. [Plus] our video recipe book includes some former students of the [community kitchen] programs. It’s great to see them in the video recipe book and that their video is near Thomas Keller’s. That is indicative of how Jacques thinks about cooking, because it is democratizing. If you learn to cook, put on that uniform and go to work everyday, then you are treated exactly the same whether you’re a celebrity chef or a line cook, because that’s just what we do.

Manske: In what other avenues has the foundation assisted individual community kitchen students?

Wesen: Jacques very sadly lost his wife, Gloria, in 2020 during the pandemic; not from COVID. [They had been married for 54 years.] When she passed away, we started a Gloria Pépin scholarship in her name. We’re proud of that as well. We’ve had two recipients so far. It is no-strings-attached grant money given to a representative student from a community kitchen partner. Every community kitchen that has been given a grant from us has been offered an opportunity to promote one of their students or alumni as a potential grant recipient. Each year we’ve received 20 to 25 applicants. And we’re able to give a special female graduate the opportunity to get a hand up in life with extra cash.

Manske: For the foundation in 2023, what are you two eager to make happen? And what inspires personal joy for both of you in your family life?

Pépin: Growing the foundation. We have our big fund-raising event on April 13, 2023, in New York. Seeing everyone in-person again — because that is part of the beauty of such an event. It will bring together chefs and supporters who love the foundation. We will hang out and have fun. Personally, we also look forward to travel, definitely. We have a deep, wonderful and long-standing working relationship with Oceania Cruises, for which my father is executive culinary director. We have two voyages set in 2023. Next summer, Rollie and I [will embark] in Istanbul for a cruise. Then, I will do another with my father in October, which will include France. I look forward to being with him in France. [His birth country.] That is what he wants, so that is what we are going to do! In addition, Rollie and I will enjoy watching Shorey, our daughter, thrive, flourish, and discover herself. She is in her first year at Boston University. That is most gratifying. And, once or twice a year, I like when I can beat my dad at [the French game of] pétanque, which he plays avidly and regularly with a league team in his Madison, Connecticut town. It is a comforting community of players – 40 or 50 friends – who get together almost every weekend all summer long to play and drink wine and eat good food and look out for one another. For the longest time, I have been appreciative that he has built such a warm and stable community there. He and the team also [compete] in an annual tournament in Amelia Island, Florida [the largest pétanque championship in the Americas].

Wesen: Claudine and I are grateful to be able to participate in the foundation’s spring fund-raiser. It softens all the hard work of the rest of the year, to be able to relax with people you know well and savor each other’s company. All kinds of chefs will attend the event, adding color, personality and energy. The tickets will probably go on sale for the general public in early February. Personally, Claudine is being modest, Laura. Claudine didn’t mention to you that she is the godmother of Sirena, one of Oceania’s ships, which she christened. We love to travel and, in particular, cruise. We are incredibly grateful for our relationship with Oceania — invited to sail once or twice a year. Usually when we’re aboard, Claudine and I will lead a demonstration, a cooking class, a book signing and other talks with guests. At every port, we get off the ship and head straight to the local marketplace to discover interesting foods. There are many countries that are our favorites: Spain, especially Barcelona, and Italy, especially Rome. Happily, I would return to them again and again, spending a few weeks, a few months, if ever possible. We fantasize about extending trips in France with all that the country has to offer.

Manske: Is there a destination at the top of your wish list that you haven’t been to?

Pépin: Japan!

Wesen: I am excited to someday taste food in Japan. That has been on our minds for quite a while. I love traveling so much that I want to go back to every place that I’ve been. And I want to go everywhere that I haven’t been. So my quest never gets any shorter!

This interview was edited for clarity and length.