- Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

- You know, I wanted the house to be beautiful for the graduation, and usually that time of the year lilacs are great.

The Forsythia.

- Oh yeah.

- The lilies in the pond, the forget-me-not.

- Wow.

- But it's been raining and raining.

Everything is down.

So we have to plant stuff.

- Well, look, I'll help you plant whatever you want, but what are we eating?

- Well, first, we'll have delicate Home Smoked Trout with a creamy Egg and Pepper Salad, just right for our late spring afternoon.

- [Claudine] And I've always loved the Chicken Galantine, a boneless chicken stuffed with that wonderful filling of pork, black mushrooms, pistachios, and armagnac.

- [Jacques] A succulent baked ham, with a tangy apricot mustard glaze, and a deep sweet-savory peach sauce which is an impressive entree for a party, and a perfect match of a simple side dish of buttered Swiss chard.

- [Claudine] And for the cheese course, creamy fresh herb Fromage Blanc, served with roasted garlic and garnished with a beautiful trompe l'oeil coral branch.

- [Jacques] Chocolate Cloud Cake is a spectacular layered confection, all served with a bitter-sweet chocolate glaze.

- [Claudine] And Cherry Raspberry Pillow is the summa cum laude of summer fruit desserts.

Well, this is gonna be quite a spread.

- Quite a spread.

I just hope that it doesn't rain on our parade.

Please join us for a special one hour commencement extravaganza.

- Next, on Jacques Pepin's Graduation Celebration.

- Well, you know, summer, I love to do big parties outside.

- Uh-huh.

Big parties.

- And that's what we're going to do today.

- And big buffets?

- Buffets, graduation buffet.

Summer, with friends coming, drinking, eating good food.

Let me start showing you how to do a galantine.

The galantine is when you do a force-meat, like a pate.

We bone this out, you're going to have the skin.

We put everything in the skin in a tube like, and we poach it.

That's called a galantine.

- Oh, okay.

- Here we go, starting taking the skin out of the back.

Well, first, no, I'm going to take out the, you know the little- - The wishbone?

- [Jacques] Wishbone here.

Yeah, give me a small knife.

And then, grabbing my finger outside, my thumb in the back of it to get the wishbone.

All of the bones are going to be used for a stock, you know?

Then here, we're starting cutting.

See, what I want to have is the skin here.

I need the skin to be used as a wrapper, you know, in some place it's not attached.

In some place it's attached more, so you pull out the skin and the membrane in between, just with the point of a knife, you cut.

So you don't really cut in the skin itself or in the meat.

You just cut around and then pull to see whether it comes out.

As you can see here, it's attached.

So again, I pull it out.

You try, of course, not to make a hole in it, but, I mean, you do.

(Claudine chuckles) You do the best you can.

In here I go on the other side.

So far so good.

- So far, so good.

- Okay, so again, I put it back on the back and again, continue there.

See the point of the knife?

- [Claudine] Mm.

- Now this is a really cold chicken.

(Claudine laughs) Now, you see I have this.

- Pajamas.

- Yeah.

And we'll go back to this.

Okay, for the time being, why don't you give me a little bowl to put that in.

- Okay.

- Okay, yeah.

Leave that here.

And then we'll bone out the rest of the chicken.

Like we do, usually you see you cut the oyster, break it open, cut through the sinew, pull out oyster on the other side.

Break it open.

Again- - Pull.

- Pull out.

This here, there is not much meat around this here.

Maybe a little bit.

Remember also that, as I say, we have to do a nice brown stock.

- Oh, okay.

- Which I have already done anyway.

But then you do that with your bone and all that, so you don't have to worry too much.

So all of those pieces of bone are used for the stock.

And what we want to do there, because this is like a pate mixture.

Some of the meat is cut into pieces and some of the meat is ground.

All of the nice meat, like beautiful breasts like this, this beautiful breast, then you don't ground it, you carry it into pieces.

All the meat from the leg, which is more sinewy and so forth- - Then that's what you're gonna grind?

- Then that's what you grind, yeah, of course.

So here, here the breast.

The other breast.

You know, just pull it out.

And basically that's my carcass, you know?

- But that's what you're gonna basically- - That's for the stock.

- Use for the stock.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- The stock theoretically goes in there, you know?

- Mm-hmm.

- And then we'll have to bone this out.

This is the thigh.

I'm trying to remove maybe a little bit of those sinew here.

Yeah, so this, now the other leg.

You know what you could do?

- [Claudine] What could I do?

- [Jacques] Well, take a little knife and try to pull out those sinew.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- [Jacques] Now you see those sinew there like this?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- [Jacques] Put that out of the way, I'll have more bone.

Use your towel.

You hold it like this, otherwise it'll slide off, and then you scrape it out.

You see?

- Okay.

- And that goes into the stock.

Now, the nice piece of the meat like this, I'm going to cut it into nice dice like this, about one inch.

And that goes on the pate.

Now notice what I have here.

I have the same thing.

I have dice of pork, the lean part of the pork, I took a little piece of pork shoulder and the leanest part of it, I cut it into little dice.

And the other part, we ground it like this.

Now you can buy ground pork directly, you know?

- Yeah.

- If you want to.

Now, look, this is fine.

Now let me put that in the food processor.

I only have a little bit.

So you wanna process this, pulse in and out, pulse in and out, just to chop it nicely without being too puree, you know?

So I have the chicken pieces and the pork pieces.

I have the ground pork, two pounds of pork all together.

Four chicken livers.

- Is that enough?

- You want to do a little more for that, Claudine.

Okay.

- How's that?

- That's good.

- Okay.

- We have all of our things there.

You know, pate are done particularly with game, you know?

Pate of pheasant, pate of woodcock, and with venison and so forth.

This is really classic in any of the restaurants, in France certainly during the hunting season.

It's a big thing.

Okay, we wanna do the spice.

And we're gonna do that in the small- - In the mini chop.

- Mini chop here.

This is black pepper, as you can see, right?

- Mm-hm.

- Black pepper corn.

Thyme.

- Thyme.

Cloves, - [Jacques] Cloves.

That's allspice.

This is a bit of nutmeg.

You can grate it.

A dash of cayenne.

- Mm-hmm.

- And juniper berry.

So, I need two tablespoons of salt in there.

The pepper is going to come from here, but I will add maybe a little more.

- Yeah, - Pepper, I think.

Good.

And you wanna process this.

- Okay.

- And I'm putting, again, a little pinch, dash here of sel rose, that is a pink salt, which is sodium nitrite, which will make a beautiful pink in the pate.

If you don't want it, it's fine, but it gives you that beautiful color that you have in ham or hot dog or pastrami or corn beef and so forth.

- Ready to go?

- Yep.

(processor whirs) Okay.

Now I have pistachio nuts.

(processor whirs) Shallots.

- I think that's good.

- Let's see?

It's beautiful, Claudine.

- That's it.

- It smells good?

- Mm.

It smells really good.

The cloves really.

- Yeah.

- And the cloves and the juniper.

- So you can buy- - Do I just dump this in?

- Pate spice, you can buy, but it's much better to do it yourself.

Yeah.

Yes, go ahead.

So there I have like a tablespoon of starch over there.

Cornstarch, put it in there.

- Okay, - For the pate, it's really an assemblage, you know?

You have to assemble.

- This just goes in?

- Yep, yep.

And I want to put about half a cup of white wine in there.

A dry white wine.

- Let me go find one.

(knife thudding) All righty.

Half a cup?

- Yeah, about, yes.

It's not crucial.

It's not like pastry.

And here I have what we call ceps in France, which in Italian that's what's called porcini.

Now there is different types of those mushrooms of the Boletus family.

This is a good one.

This is one which has been dried and then it has been reconstituted in water.

I don't have the water, because- - I was gonna say- - We put the water in the stock here.

- Oh, okay.

- So you wanna mix it.

And you want to give me that piece of- - Cheesecloth.

- Cheesecloth to arrange my galantine on top.

And this, frankly, on a pate, is always better if you cure it, that is you let it marinate in your refrigerator for a day or two, three days, even, sometimes we do that with sausage, you know?

- This?

This mixture or the whole?

- Yes, yes yes.

- No, no, the whole thing together, when it's finished.

- Oh, okay.

- But that mixture, if you don't want to mix it at that point.

We have a big galantine here, as I say, for like 15 people.

Very often, if you're not too sure of yourself there, what you can do, you take a tablespoon of that, a little skillet, and you saute it like a piece of hamburger on each side so that you can taste your seasoning.

So whenever you're ready, you can give it to me.

- Okay?

You ready?

- That's it, Claudine.

Right about in the middle.

Alright.

This.

Maybe a little more here.

And I think you're going to have a little bit left maybe.

- Well, that's fine.

You know what?

- Somehow we have lots- - I have no problem with that.

Give me this.

- But this is great to do a stuffing, anyways.

So we put it back here, you know, I mean, coarsely, trying to go, it may not cover it entirely.

It doesn't really matter.

You know what you can also do, see, I have some missing here, but it's okay.

What you can also do, that we do, is to put the skin into a pate mold, those long pate molds, and put the skin inside and stuff it too.

So it's probably even easier than that.

So we put it.

And that.

Okay, now we're going to attach this.

And basically you do that like a roast.

And this is twine, kitchen twine, and not the very thin one, I like it, and it has to be cotton.

You come underneath to attach it at the end here.

Leave a piece hanging there.

And now you use, you know, the double each?

- Mm-hmm.

- Which is this, which is just a loop like this.

You see this, and then you grab that loop and nicely slide it underneath and then ease it into it.

You know, you ease it into it, you wanna pull on it.

Okay?

Again.

This is good for the Christmas package.

(Claudine laughs) If it's a bit too small, you don't have enough, you can put, well, first I should have cut my piece of cheesecloth a bit bigger than that.

You know?

- [Claudine] There we go.

- [Jacques] And go around a few times.

- Oh, that's how you finish it?

- No, you go on the other side.

You continue on this and you tighten it around it, you know, in the bottom, just like you did on top.

- [Claudine] Oh.

- Two.

Let it go again.

And then where I started, remember?

- [Claudine] Oh, and you left that, that's why you left that little extra piece.

- [Jacques] Yep.

We tighten it here.

- That is cool.

- And now we have our big galantine, which we put in that fish poacher here.

You know?

- [Claudine] It's a fish poacher?

- Well, yeah, we call it a fish poacher, but I mean, you know, you can poach artichokes.

And this is the brown stock done with the bone.

Half of that, it's pretty strong.

And the rest we put water.

Some more water.

Give me a piece of white wine there.

- Okay.

- You want just to cover it like this.

That's it.

- Is that enough?

- And remember that the stock itself, at the end, the stock, we're going to reduce it until it's really gelatinous, two stranded, very fine, to do a kind of aspic to serve with it.

The reduction of that, reduce all of that to about two cups.

- Wow.

- But you bring that to, you don't even bring it to a boil, about 170, 180 degrees temperature at which you cook, and you poach it gently for like an hour and a half in there.

Then you let it cool off in the water.

And that's what I have here.

Okay, well leave me the spot in the middle.

- [Claudine] All righty.

- And now it's hard, of course.

Okay, you know what, give me some paper towel, because we're going to have a lot of juice around here.

And... Okay.

Ah, I'm happy when it comes out good, because, you know, there is always a bit of a suspense when you do that.

(Claudine laughs) And what, can you get me the, I have the, the aspic.

- Oh yes.

- In the refrigerator.

- Hang on.

- So let's see what it looks like.

Oh, it's pretty good.

Let's see the center of it.

That's nice.

You know, the center of it.

I have the- - The aspic is cold.

- I have the pistachio, you know, the little piece of chicken too.

The piece at the end, you know, is always for the cook.

Do you want to taste it, Tetine?

- Can it be for the sous chef too?

- Mm, the marinade is good.

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

- [Claudine] All right.

I'm gonna get you a nice dish.

- So what we have there, we have a lot of space.

So, give me me that aspic.

See, the aspic cooled off in the plate and it's holding now.

- Mm-hmm.

- And what I want to do out of it is just cut it into, in slices like this.

That's a meat aspic, you know, - Jello.

- Jello, that's it.

- Meat jello.

- But you didn't add anything into this?

You didn't add gelatin or anything?

- No, because we reduced the stock so much.

- So that it's totally naturally occurring?

- So it's just the bone, yeah?

- Okay.

- Okay.

Yeah.

That's it.

So that, of course, you will have to keep that in your refrigerator until the last moment when you serve it.

You know, you want to serve it fast outside or that if you serve it outside, you may not serve the aspic, because in full summer- - [Claudine] It's gonna melt pretty fast.

- So let me, shall we put that piece in it?

- Yeah, let's put like a big piece and then- - Yeah, it's a bit big.

No?

- Well you can use this piece if you want or- - I like to use the end of it.

- Yeah.

It just looks more proper.

- [Jacques] Yeah.

This.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Jacques] This.

This.

Oh, here is a nice one with a lot of pistachio.

Maybe three pieces, and then we keep garnishing it.

This is chervil.

- I like chervil.

- I love chervil too.

- Here.

- You wanna cut it.

This way there.

- And then just- - And we put it here.

- Oh, okay.

- This with cornichon, must have, the cornichon that your mother makes, this is a great dish.

- Absolutely.

- This is our Galantine of Chicken with natural aspic.

Okay, let's go wash our hands and I'm gonna show you how to make the Fromage Blanc.

- Oh.

- The white cheese that your grandfather used to make.

That was his specialty at home, you know?

That's why we named Jean-Victor after him.

This is going to be the same recipe, whether you want serve it with sugar, raspberry and all that, which is very good, or whether you do it with herbs as we do.

- Yeah.

- Now, I have a thing of- - Cream cheese.

- Cream cheese here.

Why don't you put a piece in there.

I find out that those ricers work very well with that.

About a third of it.

Yeah.

All right, another piece.

- [Claudine] This is a ricer?

- [Jacques] Yeah, they call that a ricer.

You know, you go in there.

- But that's what you make mashed potatoes out of, like really good mashed potatoes.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

That's it.

Okay.

And then the... - More?

- Yeah, yeah.

We put one stick of that.

- Okay.

- [Jacques] So you have to put this in there.

Okay, and then we cut that cheese.

- It goes through?

- Yeah, because it's a bit grainy, you know?

Well, let me put this first.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- [Jacques] It goes good.

Okay.

- Okay.

- Now in this we put a lot of cracked pepper, salt.

I'm gonna put herbs.

So, I'll take a little bit of chervil, a little bit of tarragon this time.

- How about chives?

Yes?

- Well, if you want.

They are fine.

Maybe a little bit of thyme.

That should be... - Anything else?

- Maybe a little bit of parsley.

Now, again, not only that you can do it ahead, you have to do it ahead with the type of thing, the galantine wrapped uncut, you can keep it a week in your refrigerator.

Now, your Fromage Blanc here, also you should do it at least the day before.

- Oh, really, that long?

- Yeah.

But it could cure for a couple of days.

Claudine, it's a little bit like a Boursin, you know, one of those cheeses that you buy and which is very expensive.

You know, you buy a small one and you will pay a small fortune.

Okay, here, garlic, just a point of garlic, You know, you're gonna make that with the whisk.

- Okay.

- Here.

- This.

- And this.

Okay.

My garlic.

Go ahead.

- That's what happens when I mix things with a whisk.

- Here.

- And I don't understand how to have that not happen.

- Well, it's not hard, you have to get it off there.

Okay, and now we are (Claudine laughs) putting some cheese in it, some whipped cream in it.

- Oh, okay, here.

- And it's semi-whipped, you know, like this.

Whoop.

Did I get you?

No?

- [Claudine] It's okay if you did.

I don't think so.

- [Jacques] You know, we like to treat our guests the right way.

First we have to taste it here.

- Well, tasting is always exceptionally important.

So you taste and tell me all about it.

- Mm.

So it reminds you- - Mm!

- Of when you are small.

- That's wonderful.

- How bad can it be, you know?

- [Claudine] I know, right?

I mean, if you think of the ingredients.

- But remember that if you were doing exactly the same thing and instead of herbs you would put about two tablespoons of sugar, you know, an amount of sugar, two tablespoons of sugar with it, and then you serve it, with the raspberry usually, to do Couer a la Creme, sometimes it's molded in the shape of a heart, you know?

And another thing too is that we're going to do a sauce with it with more cream and sour cream, so.

- [Claudine] All right.

But, papa, when we have Fromage Blanc, it's just- - [Jacques] Oh, the Fromage Blanc in Lyon, yes.

It's just the fresh cheese from the day that they do.

- [Claudine] Right.

- [Jacques] And so you season it, they bring you garlic and herbs at the table, - [Claudine] Right, or you choose to make it sweet with- - Right.

- Lots of sugar and stuff.

- [Jacques] Okay.

- So what are you gonna do with that?

- See, this, we'll hang it here.

I have a thing like that.

- Okay.

- We can hang it so that a little bit of the hay, you know, or the whey, I'm sorry.

- The whey.

- Yes.

And on that you will leave it overnight in your refrigerator.

(gentle upbeat piano music) So the sauce here, we are doing sour cream.

Basically, in France, we're doing the sauce with creme fraiche, and the creme fraiche that you buy in the market is a bit different than the sour cream.

And to imitate the creme fraiche, or do something similar to that, what we do here is to take a bit of sour cream and a bit of heavy cream.

- I know this, heavy cream.

- [Jacques] Yeah.

Just work together.

- [Claudine] This is low cal.

- This is low cal.

- Totally low cal.

- Everything that we do is fat free.

(Claudine laughs) Right?

- Yep.

The fat's free, we don't charge for it.

- We don't charge for it, so it's fat free.

Okay.

Here is my creme fraiche, you know, it's a bit thick even.

Put a dash of water in there.

Okay.

We serve with a lot of different type of things.

First, you want to give me that here.

Often we do it with fennel, like this.

And this is just off a fennel, which has been sliced very, very thin, and add a bit of lemon juice on top.

All right.

So here is, we don't wanna spread it, maybe up to the edge there, because we wanna put the cheese in the middle, right?

- Okay.

- Put that here.

- Now you have one that you already did that's been, it's what, wheyed out?

I don't know.

- Yes, which has been wheyed out.

- So you want me to get it?

- Yeah.

And this is going to actually liquefy, in a little ways, get a bit thinner, with the juice of the, then we leave it like this.

Okay, let's see here what we have.

This is- - Wheyed out cheese.

- Yeah.

Pull out the thing.

And as you can see, I don't have that much whey in there.

Maybe two, three tablespoons.

- Yeah.

- A couple.

I think I'll cut it, - I think, yeah.

- Otherwise, you know, when I was an apprentice, we didn't throw out the cheesecloth.

- Oh, did you wash it and use it again?

- Yeah, you wash it, you clean it up and you use it again.

- Years and years.

(laughs) - For years and years.

Yeah.

All right.

- Okay.

- Now- - Now.

- Oh, here, you want to help me?

That's great.

Grab it on the side here and we are going to turn it gently up like this, you know, and if you mess up a little bit, just press it back with this, you know, it doesn't matter.

So here is our cheese.

Now another thing that we do with it is the garlic.

- Garlic.

- You know, those are heads of garlic.

You cut the top head of the garlic and you boil it for a little while to soften it.

And then you cook it in a skillet, you know, flat side down like this, to caramelize the top.

You see out of that, you pick up one clove of garlic.

Anyway.

Maybe you leave that in there.

That looks good.

I mean, think of it.

- That's kind of nice.

- Yeah.

Okay, we put that in there.

Okay, you have a little bit of dill here or the mixture.

So let's put it here like this now.

What do you think?

And then I want to show you another thing, which you don't have to do, make it a bit fancier, which we do at home because we eat the Fromage Blanc like that very often with spring onion.

So we do a thing there, which makes it very fancy or very fanciful.

You take the scallion like this, you cut it a different heights, and you split that open, you know, the tip of this.

And I want to imitate a flower here.

And of course what we do, that, you put that in ice cold water and in ice cold water it eventually curls up, you know, at the ends.

- Oh, that's like in a lot of Asian restaurants.

You use that to spread the Peking duck sauce.

- Ah, that's it, yes.

- Yeah.

- You remember that?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

So then we want to do, because that we eat directly with the Fromage Blanc.

It's very good.

- Mm-hmm.

- So you wanna do some little flowers, you know, because carrot goes well with it.

- Okay, now- - Little flowers of carrot.

- The scallions I could do, the flowers I'm not sure about.

- See, yeah, you see, it's not complicated.

You go at the end and you cut one petal, two petals, that's three petals there.

And you try to break it at the end.

You see?

- [Claudine] Do it again.

- [Jacques] Do it again, okay.

So there you establish a platform.

See, it's all flat.

- Okay.

- [Jacques] So you follow the same thing.

You start another petal, another one.

When the carrot gets thicker you do four petals.

- [Claudine] Oh, that's cool.

- So here is what we can do, if you want to, to make that hold, you know, you can take a- - Oh, a toothpick.

This I can do - A toothpick like this that you put in there, you know, to hold it.

- [Claudine] Oh, that's really cool.

- Maybe a bigger one here.

And then people can use the tooth pick to go, you know, eat, and the scallion too.

- Mm.

- Isn't that nice?

- I like that.

- Okay.

We have a whole bunch of it.

We have one over there, you wanna bring it.

But you want, and then we did- - You've been very busy.

- Like a butternut, a butternut squash, or any type of squash, this is not a butternut squash, and you use that as a vase.

You just cut the top, and your grandfather would be really proud of that.

So this is our Fromage Blanc Jean-Victor with roasted garlic and coral tree.

- Well, I think it's letting up a bit.

- Yeah.

- Do you think so?

We don't need that anymore.

- I think so.

- About time.

(Claudine laughs) - Well, speaking of time, which we have allotted in the garden, how do you decide what to plant every year?

- Well, you plant what you like to eat.

That's about totally it amounts to, you know, if you like to eat it, if you need it in your cooking, you plant it.

But usually you plant all the herbs, salad type of thing you like to eat.

- [Claudine] That makes sense.

- I have cilantro here.

I have flat and curly parsley.

I have basil.

All of that doesn't come back.

- It doesn't?

- You have to plant it every year.

And of course on the edge here, I always plant the cucumber for your mother to do her cornichon, you know, that hang over the walls, so it's easy to pick up.

- Oh yeah, definitely.

- Yep.

And this is wild thyme growing between the stone here next to the garden.

The garden looks quite bad now.

We have had so much rain.

But within a week of sun and the whole thing will come back.

- Well, papa, some people start with seeds and some people start with little plants.

- Yeah.

- Which do you like?

- Well, both.

I use both.

I put the seeds in the garden, and then I go to the nursery to buy little plants, to get a bit ahead, yes.

- Oh, okay.

- One of the basics of cooking, if I can go in the garden, get a handful of herbs, put it in the soup, in the salad, in an omelet, I mean that makes it, you know?

- Oh, definitely.

- You know, when your mother was fishing, and she used to do a lot of trout fishing with Jean-Claude, you know, in the Catskills, when we had the house in Hunter, - Mm-hmm.

- Then she would, I would do, one of her favorite meals would be the fresh smoked trout with scrambled eggs, you know, from the farm.

That was really good.

So those are fairly large trouts.

As you see, they're in a brine.

- Oh, okay.

- And you see, now they are stiff.

- Yeah.

- They've been about two and a half hours in the brine.

This is what you call a brine to saturation.

You see, that's a fresh egg, you put it on top.

The way it comes to the surface indicates the specific gravity of the water.

This is a brine to saturation.

By this, I mean, I just put more salt in it, and you see that salt here?

- Yeah.

- It will not melt.

It won't melt because we have two cups of salt.

We use kosher type salt here for four cups of water.

And it come to the point of specific gravity where the salt won't melt anymore.

So we have a brine to saturation.

So we rinse this out, clean water, and you can dry it out, Claudine.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- And you smoke it.

I have four or five different ways of smoking.

But one of the best ways is to use those tiny smokers there.

This is sawdust.

Of course you don't use any type of sawdust.

You know, don't use sawdust from like pressure treated wood, which is done with arsenic.

Usually, you know, older cherries or hickory or this is what?

- Oak.

- It's oak, you know.

And we put some on top here.

This, I just put that on, so it's already, I would put that on top of it.

This one here.

- Okay.

- The other one there.

And now that it's smoke, you want to reduce the heat to very low.

- [Claudine] Let me get this out of the way.

- Put this on, put a weight on top.

So it stays like this, and you cook and smoke, this is a hot smoke, you cook and smoke for about, I would say 12, 15 minutes, for a trout that size.

(upbeat piano music) I have some of course that are done here.

So they were on this side of course, because you can see the mark, you know?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- And you'll see, I'll let you do one after, you'll start here.

Grab the end of it here, the skin at the belly and just lift it up.

- [Claudine] Oh.

- You see, it will go.

Now we are gonna break the head because we don't need the head.

You go on the other side, and it's smoked.

This is very, very moist.

But now here is the way with, okay, do you see the bar of the center here?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- I run my knife here till the bone and I push it out of the bone, of the central bone.

You see that?

- [Claudine] Perfect.

- [Jacques] It's really moist.

And all of the tiny bones, you feel the bones here?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- [Jacques] If I cut it out, when they cut the bone out, that cuts those bones, and you have to peel them out.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

- [Jacques] Here I pull them out.

You do the same thing with herring.

Now, I pull those here and usually most of it comes out.

You see the rib cage here?

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] Well, I still feel it there.

Okay, I have a couple there I have to remove, but it's quite easily removable.

Okay.

I have four there.

Now, I lift that up, and, you know, this will come out with all the bones, you know?

- [Claudine] Mm.

- See, with all the bones, not only the bones here, but the bones on the side here, which are hard to see, but you can feel it.

Okay.

So, we want to arrange that on the tray.

And then if you give me the tray, I arrange them, and you try boning out the other one.

- Okay.

- A platter, rather.

- Here is a platter.

- We want to, you know, arrange our filets this way.

- [Claudine] Not only do I have to bone out the filet, I have to make it stand up, (laughs) when I'm finished?

- [Jacques] Yes.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- [Jacques] Look at that.

- [Claudine] Mm.

It's so moist.

- We will arrange it, and we're gonna do a salad, you know, so we put that, we'll arrange the salad in the center of it.

One trout like that, I tell you, will serve six, eight people.

- [Claudine] Oh yeah, yeah.

No, it's very rich.

- You wanna try yours there?

- Mm-hmm.

- So I'll move on this side so I can help you.

- Okay.

- Remember, you can break the head and the tail because we are not using it, so it doesn't matter.

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- Beautiful.

- [Claudine] Okay, there we go.

- [Jacques] You know, you have that fatty black flesh here that you can also remove if you want.

This is basically the fat under the skin, which rubs out, but that's, some people like that the best.

Yep, you just pull it out.

Great.

Wow.

That's it.

The tail will come out easier.

All right.

Now hold it from the end when you do that, you can go from the tail also.

But there, that's good.

Don't let it tear the fish.

Great.

You know those two trouts here, I would serve 10, 12 people.

Good.

Now, we do a salad here.

- Okay.

- Okay.

It's a salad with fresh horseradish.

That should go well with it, right?

- Whew!

- Isn't that strong?

It's strong, yeah?

Oh boy.

(Claudine laughs) Makes you cry, eh?

One time I did it on top of the food processor, you know, with the machine grating it.

- Mm-hmm.

- I cried so much, you know.

Okay, we put a little bit of cream, four five tablespoons.

That's our dressing here.

And you're gonna mix that a little bit.

I put salt in it, you know, I have a bit of pepper, and I'm going to give you some vinegar, and you're going to see the cream thicken.

Put the vinegar in it.

- [Claudine] It's not gonna curdle?

Doesn't it- - No, no, it it makes it thicken.

It's a kind of curdling, you see?

So you can give me a little bit of pepper over there.

Pepper, black pepper.

Okay.

Don't stir it more because I don't want it to be too hard.

Now we cut that into, see, that cut it like a- - Yeah.

- It's great to cut them.

And then I have red pepper and cilantro salad.

The stem and even the root.

Even the root of the cilantro.

Of course if you don't like cilantro, then- - That's a bit of a problem.

- Put parsley or chives or whatever.

Okay.

You're gonna mix that up.

- Okay.

- Let's- - Oh, I'm sorry.

- I'm gonna put this, yeah, see that goes around.

Put more- - In the middle?

- Yeah.

That's it.

I have something to lean the fish against.

Put maybe a bit more of that fish here.

There.

So here we are.

- There's some bone, but.

- Put those on the plate, those are extra ones.

- Okay.

- We have a bit of the cilantro like that on top, this now.

And of course we do that with little croutons there.

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay, Tetine.

This.

Okay.

And this is our smoked trout with egg and pepper salad.

- Dough.

What are we gonna make?

- Dough for a change, yeah?

- Yes.

- Look at that.

This is a big one.

You see how thin that is?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- [Jacques] Like 16th of an inch or whatever, really thin.

- [Claudine] What kind of dough?

- That's a puff pastry, you know?

We're going to do puff pastry.

So I'm going to do like a big pillow.

So I roll that on top.

Do you want to give me that- - Sure.

- Thing there.

And I'm gonna put that here.

We doing a pillow, like a big chausson, you know, or turnover?

- Oh.

- We're gonna put the fruit here and fold that back above.

Okay, so I put water here so that it sticks.

and I have some jam there.

- Jam?

- Yes, this is raspberry, or cherry.

- Cherry.

- Yeah, cherry jam.

And I love to do that with cherry and- - Raspberries.

- And raspberry.

I put a bit of cornstarch in it.

And mix the cornstarch now.

- All that?

- Yes, because other pies, you know, very often you cook your fruit with the starch so it doesn't stick all over the place.

- Okay.

- Yeah, and then just put my, the raspberry on top.

Yeah.

Oh, it's good, it's a great summer fresh, and because you can have different types of fruit, berries and all that.

I have some plum in there.

I have cherry.

So, we bring it back and bond it.

- Oh, and you wet it so that they stick together?

- So they stick together.

You wanna press that here there.

You want to press this a little bit so that it's about equal size all over.

So we want to do an egg wash on the outside.

And this, I'll dip that in there too.

Press that.

Usually you wanna press it this way, but I don't have the space, so, it doesn't really matter.

Seal the side, you know?

Okay, that's plenty, Claudine.

We put a bit of crystallized sugar on top of it here.

And that's going to go into the oven.

You know, this is cooked on a non-stick, one of those non-stick types of- - Oh, those Sil Pad things?

- Sil Pad thing.

And this is really good.

Nothing sticks to it.

- I'm putting this into the oven?

- Yep.

- All right.

- About 400 degrees.

I have one here which I have cooked.

And it should be nice and brown underneath.

- You could also put some butter on top of the- - We are supposed to put a little bit of butter on the fruit, but we wanted to do a low calorie dish.

- Okay.

(laughs) - So we forgot the butter.

So this is our Raspberry Pillow with cherry and plum inside.

Now this is a braised ham.

And what you do, you take a regular, fully-cooked ham.

You buy a fully-cooked ham at the market.

- [Claudine] Oh, at the supermarket, just to- - Yeah.

- Okay.

- But then it does improve greatly when you recook it.

So what I did here, I put that ham in a big pot.

- Mm-hmm.

- And covered it with cold water.

Bring it to about 180 degrees.

You don't want to go above 180 degree, otherwise it cracks.

And I cook it two hours at that temperature.

Let it cool overnight in the water.

So it's cold now.

I am trimming it, all that thick skin outside, you know, which is kind of smoked, whatever.

- [Claudine] Can you use that for something?

- [Jacques] You could cook beans or whatever in there.

Give it to the dog.

- Okay.

- Okay, you can put that here.

All right.

And this, we're going to do a glaze with that.

- Okay.

- So I have peach or apricot here.

Peach.

This is allspice.

A bit of balsamic vinegar.

And some- - And then mustard.

- Mustard.

- Ground mustard.

- Maybe.

That should be plenty.

- Okay.

- I mean, there is hundreds of glazes that you can do.

And you can use, actually the, you know, the juice and the glaze coming out of it to, I want to have fun, you know?

(Claudine laughs) You want to do it too?

- You know what, maybe we'll make some holes in it so that it will kind of sink in a little bit?

- To score it, yes.

This is what I was supposed to do, right?

I forget it, so.

- No wait, here.

- But, no, you, if you do that, you have to do it with a knife flat.

Let me show you.

You just let it run on top.

- [Claudine] Oh.

- You know?

And you go, there is basically no fat left, as you see.

But then that kind of opened a little bit as it cooks and give a bit of a crisscrossing shape that will run- - That'll be nice.

- On the side.

- You don't put anything else in the pan, just except- - No, you could put a little bit of water.

But it's fine.

- But, I mean, nothing else?

- It's fine, no.

And that's going to go into the oven.

- Whoa.

- Is that heavy?

You want me to open the door for you?

- No.

- No?

Okay.

So what I have here, I have peach.

And I have sauteed the peach here with butter.

And when they start browning a little bit, I put sugar on top.

Now, on top of the browned peach and sugar, I am putting dry peach.

And to give me a little bit of sweet and sour taste, a little bit of vinegar, apple cider vinegar, you know?

And what I have here is a demi-glace.

The demi-glace, as you know, is a reduced brown stock.

- Yes.

- You know?

So I finish this with this.

And here I will have enough of my sauce for my ham, you know?

Bring it to a boil.

That's basically it.

And then I put basil in it.

Peach, basil goes well together.

So I have a ham, which has been braising.

You see how beautiful it is.

- That's perfect.

- And even with the juice, which kind of caramelized.

This burned a little bit, more than it should burn normally.

But, I forgot it, so it burned a little bit.

Otherwise, often I put a bit of water in there and melt it and some thick, some of that stuff, to put into my sauce.

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay?

And then, here.

See, there is a lot of the juice and that's good here.

This one is liquid.

We can also put a little bit of this around, you know?

Just for the color of the demi-glace.

Okay.

Now, this I want to serve.

You can put that around with a larger platter, but for a large party it's probably better to keep it on the outside there with it.

Always make an incision here.

So when I start cutting into the ham, you know, that protects my hand, you know?

Whoop.

See that?

- [Claudine] Oh wow.

Very nice.

- Yes.

Two.

Or is that three?

What do you think?

- Three.

- These are small slices at the beginning.

- Yes.

(chuckles) - Okay.

Three slices like this.

I'm gonna put this here.

You want to bring me that, there, and my garnish of peach.

- Mm.

- Here.

You know?

That's why I call it Ham Georgia, you know, with the peaches, in the style.

- That looks beautiful.

And with that, you know what?

We have some Swiss chard.

- Yes.

- Just very simple, sauteed, butter.

- Yes, they are poached.

First you blanch them, you know, you wanna blanch them a little bit, so they are soft.

And just saute them with salt, pepper, a little bit of butter.

- Wow.

- I love Swiss chard.

This is Ham Georgia with peach garnish and red Swiss chard.

You know, for a buffet, I don't think you can do a buffet without a nice chocolate dessert in addition.

- I'm gonna agree with you on that one.

- So I'm finishing that one.

What are you doing, you're folding the napkins?

- I'm folding napkins so that they make a beautiful little pocket so you can just put the silverware in there and it's easier for the guests to just grab.

- Yes.

- And also this way, if you hide your silverware, you don't have to have matching silverware.

You can use all different kinds.

- Well, I'm putting some powdered sugar here.

Make a little lattice design, you know?

- What's inside the cake?

- Oh, inside the cake is a chocolate roulade.

- Ooh.

- And then it's a kind of a cookie dough.

You know, a cookie dough, a chocolate cookie dough.

I mean, it's a complicated cake.

I mean complicated, but really delicious.

That's how you do it, right?

- Just really simple.

- Yeah, it's a very simple, I like it when it's very, very straightforward, simple.

- I know.

- I don't like people making a bird out of my napkins.

- No origami napkins?

- And twisting it all over the place, you know?

Torturing my napkin.

Well, I tell you, you did a great job today.

- Thank you.

- And we're practically ready to enjoy the reward of our hard work.

(glasses clink) - This is part of the reward.

- Thank you for helping me.

And this is a beautiful rose, right?

- Yeah, it is.

It's Cotes du Rhone.

It's really, really pretty.

I pulled up one of your favorite champagnes.

- That, yeah, that- - Yeah.

I know you love that one.

- Very yeasty.

I love it.

I like that Tavel, you know, because it's so dry.

People think rose are sweet, but this is- - No, no, no.

It's bone- - Very, very dry.

- Bone dry, flinty.

It's gonna go really well with just about every dish.

- What do you have there?

- And then we have a Malbec.

- [Jacques] Oh, a Malbec.

- Yes.

- Oh that's interesting.

From where?

- It's from Mendoza.

It's an Argentinian Malbec.

It's really, really deep.

You know, Malbec, they used to use only to help color wines.

- Yeah, or to put it in one of the Bordeaux brands, yeah.

- Yeah, just very much a blending grape.

But that's 100% Malbec.

It stains your teeth.

- Well- - You know, Papa, this is gonna be a really beautiful party.

Thank you for letting me help you.

And I'm really glad we get to do this together.

- Let's do it again.

(Claudine laughs) - That's great.

We have another bottle, another magnum- - Happy graduation.

- Thank you very much.

- Of Moet & Chandon, and I'm going to saber it, in the style of Napoleon.

(saber clinks) Wait a minute.

(guests chuckle) Maybe this side.

(saber clinks) (gentle nostalgic music) Take two.

(guests laugh) Claude?

(guests chattering) Oh, this is not paper.

- [Claudine] No no, I don't know how to do that.

- It's closed.

Okay.

So, one more time.

(gentle nostalgic music) The magnum of- - Moet & Chandon.

- Moet & Chandon (saber clinks) (guests cheer) - Alright, well- - Next, next.

- Bring out some glasses.

- [Jacques] I left home to begin my formal apprenticeship when I was 13.

I did not want to go to school.

I wanted to cook.

(guests chattering) - [Guest] If we drop it, will we get an olive tree?

- [Guest] Claudine, do you want me to hold your glass while you do that?

- That would be wonderful.

Thank you.

- So this is for the graduate, for your first Christmas tree.

You hang that in the tree.

- Thank you very much.

- Oh, that's fun.

(guests chattering) - Okay, we are ready.

Lyle, this is a big celebration.

Look at that!

- Must be your graduation.

- This is a cruise, remember?

- Don't kill the graduate.

Congratulations.

- Oh my gosh.

- Bye.

- Bon voyage!

- [Jacques] After I moved to New York, I managed to get into Columbia University where I studied for many years and eventually got a Masters Degree in Literature.

I love to read and I care deeply about education.

- [Guest] Look at this!

It's unbelievable.

- Amazing.

Dear friends, I'm so glad we're inside now, because, you know, the weather in Connecticut is iffy.

I'm delighted that you could be with us tonight.

First, I want to thank Claudine for helping me cook.

And of course, Lyle.

with graduating from my alma mater.

(glass chimes) Here here!

But anyway, if you have enough wine, we can withstand any type of weather, eh?

(guests chuckle) (gentle nostalgic music) Come in, we're ready.

Come and get it.

We'll start with the freshly smoked trout.

- [Guest] I don't want to- - Wow, look at that.

Look who has come in first!

- I am sure my reputation is first to eat.

- True to your reputation.

- First in the chow line.

- [Jacques] We smoked that yesterday.

(guests chattering) - [Jacques] When I was in the army in the mid-fifties, I was cooking for the President of France.

We needed a pastry chef and they sent Claude.

- So hurry up for God's sake, I mean, Claude, look at the, what is he doing?

I mean.

(guests chatter) - He's doing a perfect job.

Look at how sloppy you are.

I have to clean your plate.

- [Jacques] We always tease one another.

He's my oldest friend.

- I'm supposed to help.

- [Claude] See, he's very sloppy.

(guests chatter) - [Jacques] And this is the fresh cheese with garlic.

(guests chattering) (gentle nostalgic music) - [Jacques] Gloria and I made sure that Claudine could speak two languages, and now she speaks three.

- Jacques, thank you so much for making this dinner for me.

- [Jacques] Doesn't that feel great to be liberated, to be graduated?

- Yes.

- We have the same alma mater.

- Yes, we do.

- To Columbia University.

- To Columbia.

(guest chattering) - [Jacques] And while I have always cooked, I also love to teach, now at the French Culinary Institute in New York City and at Boston University.

(guests chattering) If you keep learning about new things, life is always an adventure.

- Okay, well dessert's ready.

We've got some beautiful, beautiful desserts.

We have a beautiful Chocolate Cloud Cake.

And what else do we have?

- Well, we have that- - I only know that one.

- Raspberry and Cherry Pillow with a puff pastry, crystallizing, that's absolutely beautiful.

And it's so nice to have you here, under the rain, drinking wine.

- But we're under the tent.

- We delighted to be here.

And Lyle, again, congratulations.

- Congratulations.

And happy cooking.

- And happy cooking.

- [Guests] Happy cooking!

(gentle nostalgic music)