It is well known that the French are obsessed with the dilution of their culture in their own country, even though the cultural influence of their great nation seems to be diminishing in the larger world as well. Two examples that stick out where I live are the dominance of French cuisine, once considered the best in the world. endCozy French bistros are no longer a staple in every American city.
We also see the decline of the French car, although it gets little attention. Traces of the invention of Nicolas-Joseph CugnotIn 1769 he launched the world’s first self-propelled vehicle, a steam-powered tricycle made like a wagon, from the commune of Boyd-Vacon in northeastern France.
while I’m still dominant in home market, French cars, if loyal, have few, if any, favors in the United States. It hasn’t been sold here since the early 1990s, despite playing a key role in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and his Stellantis, the name given to French automaker PSA. merger last year.
To explore these two cultural upheavals, I recently went with a friend in Madison, Connecticut, to visit and ruminate on one of America’s most famous French expats, Jacques Pépin. I left. Arriving in the New World more than 60 years ago, his 86-year-old Mr. Pépin is a chef, cookbook author, television personality, painter, philanthropist And most recently, a social media star. Once a serial owner of French cars, he seemed very well suited to answer the following question. Are these once internationally known products of French culture, food and automobiles, ushering in a renaissance in the 21st century?
Our transportation to Connecticut was a 1965 Peugeot 404, a model Mr. Pippin once owned and fondly remembered. It was purchased new by a Canadian diplomat inside and for unknown reasons sat in a barn in Medicine Hat, Alberta for over 50 years. Fully road-legal, with less than 25,000 miles on the kilometer odometer, he has the charm of a French car with creamy-smooth mechanics, seats as comfortable as a sofa and legendary Gallic ride quality. makes it stand out. , even on the roughest roads.
Our visit begins with a tour of Mr. Pepin’s house and annexe. 4 acres of woodedNestled between the church and the synagogue, the grounds feature two impressive fully equipped kitchens with neatly arranged utensils and saucepans. The two studios will help Pépin extend his brand indefinitely into the future. One for the kitchen used for filming series and videos, the other for painting his media work in oils, acrylics and mixed adorning the coveted hand-painted embellishments featured in his books. It’s from menu.
Depart the 404 for lunch and arrive in nearby Branford. Le Petit Cafe, French Bistro. Chef Roy Yip is from Hong Kong and was a former student of Mr. Pepang. French Culinary Institute In New York, we welcome our mentors to our special party on this weekday afternoon. 25 years ago Helped broker the purchase of a 50-seat cafe. On a plate of amuse bouche and moaning loaves of fresh bread and butter — “If you have special bread, special butter, there should be bread and butter. We are close to the sensitive topic of
Although he currently drives a much-used Lexus SUV, Pépin’s French car credentials are clearly in place. Memories of automobiles abound in the story of his early life in France, where his family was heavily involved in the restaurant business.The influential ones were manufactured from 1934 to his 1957 influence A sedan with power, Citroen Traction is all about his Avant. Having developed a revolutionary car with front-wheel drive and unit his body structure, the company founder Andre his Citroen went bankrupt and the tire manufacturer Michelin.
The mention of the car brings to mind one day during World War II the family left Lyon in their uncle’s Traction Avant and stayed for a while on the farm. “My father is no longer in the resistance,” he says. “I still remember that car from my childhood, especially the smell. That’s why I always loved Citroen.”
His parents then owned Panhard. This is a peculiar machine from a small but respected French manufacturer, then 1965 Citroena decade before the quirky Citroën itself was swallowed up by Peugeot and, as critics claimed, homogenized.
Like many Frenchmen and millions of other Frenchmen after World War II, Mr. Pépin said Citroën’s post-war small cars, De Chevauxhe says, was the first car his mother owned.
“70 miles to a gallon, or whatever,” he says. “It didn’t go very fast, but we loved it.”
Mr. Pépin’s aversion to excess — even in his early detours to rich, labor-intensive food, like when he cooked at Le Pavillon in New York City, once the pinnacle of American haute cuisine. regardless of — not just the simple dishes that made him a champ, but also much of the car choices he made on his first trip to the highways of America. In his memoirs, for example, one of his friends in the East End of Long Island, New York, his Times Food, his writer Craig, on his way to visit his Claiborne, Long his Island, his Expressway. Bumped Volkswagen mentions his Beetle. Peugeot 404 showed up on Howard’s test commute to Johnson’s kitchen at Lego’s Park in Queens, where he worked for ten years.
A Renault 5 (an economy subcompact known in the US as LeCar) then joined Mr. Pepin’s family as his wife Gloria’s daily driver.
He’s also a staunch supporter of perhaps France’s biggest car icon, the Citroën DS, which President Charles de Gaulle drove during the 12 right-wing terrorist attempts. assassinate him In 1962, he fired 140 bullets into his car as it left central Paris for Orly Airport. A salvo blew out the rear of his DS 19, his window and all his tires, but thanks to his unique hydro his pneumatics his suspension made his goal driver a tireless car and its I was able to drive my crew safely.
“It saved his life,” Mr. Pépin marvels. “It’s a great car.”
Pépin was de Gaulle’s personal chef in the 1950s, but he says he didn’t know much about it. “Kitchen cooks were never interviewed for magazines or radio, and television was almost non-existent,” he says. “If someone would come into the kitchen, it was to complain that something was wrong. The cook was really at the bottom of the social ladder.”
Pépin believes the situation changed with the advent of nouvelle cuisine in the early 1960s.But not before he turned down an invitation to cook at the Kennedy White House. Rene Verdon I sent Mr. Pepin a picture of him with President John F. Kennedy.
“Suddenly we were geniuses,” he says with a laugh.
Befriending a roster of American Foodie Hall of Famers, including Mr. Claiborne, Mr. Pierre Franny and Julia Child, Mr. Pepin eventually became a star without the White House Association. A Ford station wagon trying to avoid deer on a back road in upstate New York.
“I would probably be dead,” Pépin believes, had he not driven such a big car. He eventually suffered a broken back, 12 fractures in his back, and a severed sciatic nerve, which he says still leaves him with a “limping leg.” His injury forced him to close his Manhattan soup restaurant, La Potagerie, which served him 150 gallons of soup a day and rotated 102 seats every 18 minutes. I was.
While Chef Yip sets the table for a simple but delicious salad niçoise, followed by an elaborate apple tart, Pépin grapples with the problem of France’s declining influence in the culinary and automotive worlds. turn your attention. He, to my surprise, enthusiastically agreed and the ship sailed.
“Indeed, when I came to America, French or ‘continental’ food was often misspelled on French menus and what was supposed to be a great restaurant,” he says. However, the continued wave of immigration and jet travel opening up all corners of the world has led to the loss of French cuisine’s “leading status”.
“People still love French food just like they love other foods,” he said, adding, “Americans have matured and learned about a wider variety of options.”
A self-described optimist, Pépin hastened to add that he doesn’t see this as a bad thing. He vividly remembers how culinary America was when he arrived, drawn to his jazz enthusiasm in his youth. At first, he was surprised by the idea of a supermarket.
“But when I came in, there were no leeks, no shallots, no other herbs, just one salad green that was an iceberg,” he says. , cheese. Completely different world.”
In fact, Pepin, whose wife was Puerto Rican and Cuban, no longer considers himself a “French chef.” His 30-plus cookbooks “include a recipe for black bean soup topped with sliced bananas and cilantro,” he says. He also has a Southern fried chicken recipe. “So, in a way, I consider myself a classic American chef,” he says. “Things change.”
During a leisurely afternoon with Mr. Pepin, it becomes clear that he has regrets, although the changing world doesn’t upset him too much. His greatest is the loss of his loved one. His father died young in his 1965, and his final grief over the loss of his wife Gloria to cancer in December 2020 weighs heavily.
“The hardest part is not having dinner together at night, and that bottle of wine. He goes quiet for a while.
The chef notes what he sees as deplorable trends in summarizing his thoughts on cooking and cars. It is the loss of diversity caused by corporate motives.
“There are more foods in supermarkets today than ever before,” says Pepin. “But at the same time, it’s becoming more standardized. I shop where normal people shop and try to get the best price. I go to the supermarket and find chicken backs and necks.” I can’t do that anymore.”
The same applies to the auto industry, he says. In the automotive industry, tighter regulation, risk-taking reluctance, and increased use of a small number of multinational suppliers are making cars more similar across brands than ever before. increase.
“The special features that made French cars different are no longer there, even in France,” he says. “They all follow the same aesthetic. Neither French food nor French cars have the same cachet as before.”
Mr. Pepin remains philosophical. He laments the loss of his distinctive French car, but it’s clear he hasn’t lost his sleep over it. French food as well.
As long as “people get together” and cook good ingredients, “eating together is probably the meaning of civilization,” he hopes.