- Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

- In French, a bon vivant is a person with the taste for the good life.

- It's the same in English, Papa.

- That's true.

- So what kind of meal would you make for your bon vivant friends?

- I'd start with tomato, basil and cheese souffle baked right in the tomato shells.

A tender veal shank (speaks French) is like a colorful French osso buco.

It's perfect with a pilaf of Arborio rice and pecans.

- And warm bread pudding souffle with a chocolate bourbon sauce to end as elegantly as we began.

So what do I have to do to qualify as a bon vivant?

- Don't worry, Claudine, you're already at the top of the list.

- Join us for a taste of the good life, next on "Jacques Pepin's Kitchen: - Encore with Claudine."

Today, the Bon Vivant Feast.

And we're going to start with dessert.

- That's a good way to start.

- The dessert Claudine is doing here, we are making a bread pudding.

We have a couple of ounces of bread here and of course you use leftover bread for that.

We're going to soak that with milk.

And I need half a cup of milk for this right there.

And you want them soaked for a little while until they're really soft, because that's going to be the base of the souffle.

However, here, I'm going to put one cup of milk in this one to do a chocolate sauce with it.

So here we are, one cup of milk, which again, has to come to a boil, too.

Here we are.

Good, so you have all your bread in there.

- Yep.

- Good.

And you can brush it with that a little bit, let it soak.

- I like using my hands.

It's more fun.

- Ecco, okay, you're gonna take a.

- It absorbs it right up.

- Well, so, but you really want it soft.

So you know, we're going to leave that for a minute here and into this, actually we could put it now, I have some, you know what those are?

- Golden raisins.

- Golden raisins, you know, you can have any type of raisin.

You could have diced apricot, and a little bit of maple syrup.

- [Claudine] Ah.

- [Jacques] In there, you know, all of that is gonna soak into a mushy stuff and we'll put the eggs in it after.

- [Claudine] Hmm.

- [Jacques] Okay.

Now let's see.

While this is cooking here, I wanna bring that to a boil.

And we are going to put a little bit of sugar in there.

And this is a little bit of cornstarch.

- Ah.

- I don't have much of it.

And that we want to add that to our milk.

And when you use a corn starch or a potato starch or any of this, you want to dilute it first with a cold liquid.

What happen if you don't dilute it, Claudine?

- Gets dumplings?

- You get the lump, yes, all over the place.

So you want it to dilute it this way.

When it's diluted, you can add it directly to the hot liquid and it will thicken on contact.

As it touch it, it thickens.

- Oh.

So you are practically ready.

You know this is close to coming to a boil, so, ready?

- [Claudine] Ready.

- [Jacques] I put it in there directly and up it thicken.

That's it.

Has sugar, and now all I want to do into this is to add my chocolate, it's boiling now.

- You don't have too much or anything, hunh.

- No, that's it.

And you can stir this.

The chocolate is going to melt.

- [Claudine] Ah.

- [Jacques] It's right into this, you see?

- Oh, so you take it off the heat right away.

- Well it's going to melt in there, yeah, this is a bittersweet chocolate.

And bittersweet chocolate, it's not an unsweetened chocolate.

It's got sugar in it, but usually done with high quality chocolate and pretty bitter, so.

- Looks like the best cocoa I've ever seen.

- You stir it, kitten, and then we cool it off on the ice.

Well, that should be fine.

- Okay, so I cool it off in the ice.

- Yeah, just put it in the ice and let it cool off.

- [Claudine] And leave it there?

- Yes.

And during that time we are going to continue with this.

- Okay, do you want me to get the ramekins?

- How is your hand, nice and clean?

- Yeah.

- Can you mush that up a little bit?

- Oh.

- Okay.

And we're going to beat two egg white, so the two egg yolk, I'm going to give it to you.

You don't have to mush them up with your hand, but this, I want to absorb all of that liquid.

Okay, here we are.

And the second egg yolk, you want to be sure that you remove all of the white here, you know?

- [Claudine] Oof.

- [Jacques] There we are.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- And I'm going to beat that.

During that time, why don't you bring, in the back there is a little souffle mold.

- Okay.

- I want you to butter them, so give me that on this side.

- All right, I'm gonna wash my hands first.

- Okay.

- And then I'll be right back and I'll bring the souffle molds.

- And dry them out.

And you want to use that piece of paper if you want, to butter your souffle mold.

They're right here.

This Claudine is going to do.

- Oh, I was gonna get 'em.

- So you can use this.

- Can I get the, oh, okay.

- You know, a little bit of that to butter it and after, in each of them, I want you to put one tablespoon of jam and you can use any jam you want here.

Raspberry, strawberry, whatever you have left over.

During that time, I'll beat the egg white by hand.

They're gonna go very fast.

(utensil clanking) You finished?

- No, are you finished?

- Okay, my egg white is finished, yes.

You wanna see my egg white where they hold that peak like this.

You see I put some in the egg white.

- Oh.

- In that mixture.

Break it like this.

And we'll add the rest of the egg white in there and at that point I could use a rubber spatula, you know, to finish.

See, my two egg white will give me like two cup of beaten egg white if you do them about properly, you know.

- Just the jam in the bottom, right?

- Go ahead.

- Okay.

- I'm ready for you.

Here we are.

Incorporate my egg white in that mixture.

That's it?

- That's it, that's what you said.

- You see that?

So we put our mixture right in there.

In there.

In there.

- What about the chocolate?

- That's about it.

The chocolate is the chocolate sauce, to serve with it.

- Oh, I thought it was gonna go in the souffle.

- No, no, no, you have raspberry.

Okay.

And now in your chocolate sauce, you can put that in the oven now.

- Okay.

- Okay.

And while it's cooking, it's gonna take about 20 minutes.

The chocolate is practically cold.

You can put a little bit of bourbon in there, yeah, just for flavor, if you don't want to put in, it's fine, too.

Okay?

- Okay.

- And during that time, let's do-- - Let's go make some veal.

- Let's do the veal.

- Love veal.

- So we have the veal here and I'm going to bone out that piece of veal.

I know you know what those are here.

- Osso buco.

- Those are the osso buco, actually the shank of the animal is cut right across with a saw, and you have the piece of meat there, so.

Osso buco is really one of the best Italian specialty.

And this is cut the other way.

I have two shank here, you see?

This one is the fore and this one is the back, you know, the hind quarter?

- Oh, okay.

- There is a second bone here, the front leg.

Okay, now the back one is better.

You see, look at the amount of meat here.

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- You know, you get more meat on the side, you know.

- Oh, okay.

- So all we want to do, and you can keep the bone here, I tell you, because the bone will give you the great stock.

- Mm.

- Here you just follow the bone on this side, on this side.

It's very easy to do, actually, this.

Pull on this side for me.

That's it, okay.

Here we are.

And that bone does a great stock.

And I have about enough here.

You see, the inside of this is not really fat.

That white skin is like gelatin, you know?

- Oh, so we-- - And this is very moist and all that.

So we cut it, we try to separate basically where the muscle goes into long strip like this.

- Okay.

- You know, to follow the type of shape that it has up here, there, you can put that on this.

- Okay.

- Another piece here.

You see those?

I'm sure you add that.

That's your grandmother.

- Yes.

So for four people, we have about two and a quarter pound of meat.

- That's great.

- Here, which is what we have here.

So that's another way of doing your shank.

What I have actually is that it has been browning right here.

And I need to brown it for about 20 minutes.

And this has been browning for, yeah, about that amount of time, you see, it's beautifully brown.

And at that point, what I have also is shallot here, the whole shallot and carrot.

And that has been boiling, two cup of water, for about eight minute and that's what I want.

We're going to use that liquid for that.

So give me a plate for that, kitten.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

- To remove, oh, we have one here, sorry.

- Oh, good.

- Okay, here we are.

We have some onion there.

Now look, I wanna show you the crystallization in the bottom of the pan here.

You see the crystallized jus, I have thick heavy pan here.

- That's why I wouldn't-- - And the juice are crystallized, yeah.

- I wouldn't use a no-stick pan for that, right?

- No, you don't want to use a no-stick pan.

It's a good point because no-stick pan, nothing will stick.

Those crystallization stick to the meat and it doesn't stick actually to the pot.

Okay, now, you have the Provence in there, you wanna do that?

- I'll do the Provence.

- You wanna put some garlic?

All right.

- Okay.

- Let you put the garlic.

I put a little more of this.

- What do you want me to do to the garlic first?

Can I just leave it whole?

- You could lift it, you could crush it a little bit and leave it just crushed because basically it's a stew, which is going to cook a long time, here we are.

And you can leave it like this, it's fine.

We're gonna put a little bit of flour, like the value of one tablespoon of flour.

- Is that singing?

- Singing?

Yes, absolutely.

You are learning good.

- I'm trying.

- Make that in there, I want you to stir this with this.

And usually you want to use a wood one, flat like this, and stir that in.

- Very good.

- Yep, let me check now.

- I'm gonna hold this while I stir.

And that's exactly, is very good.

You don't have to remove the bottom, just mix your flour.

So it's basically no fat, you know, in this, as you can see.

- Well the meat was very lean.

- Right.

So we need that liquid for that, and some white wine, so let me put the white wine.

- Okay.

- In there.

(pot hisses ferociously) - At least two tablespoon, right?

- Mm, yeah.

- Okay.

- What we are here makes it good.

And I'm gonna give you that liquid too, because this is cooked enough.

- So you're gonna gimme just the liquid or all?

- Yeah, the liquid of.

See, I don't want to cook those onion and shallots in it now because they'll be way overcooked.

So I keep them to put them in the stew at the end, you know.

So this come back to a boil and we can put the meat back into it.

You wanna put salt and pepper in it?

Cover it, and that has to cook for about an hour and a half.

And during that time we are going to do our rice with it, okay?

Rice goes well with it.

- Yeah, rice goes good with everything.

- Yes.

- Or everything goes well with rice, I don't really know.

- Okay, you cover it.

You put salt in it, right?

- And pepper.

- Okay, put that on very low.

And now you wanna put a little bit of oil in this.

- Okay.

- I have some onion for you.

- Onion?

- Yes.

I have.

- Get rid of that.

- Pecan?

- Mm-hmm?

- A little bit of herbs de Provence.

- And the Provence.

- I'm the comedy here.

(Claudine laughs) You stir it and then you add your rice.

- I'll get-- - You see that type of rice here?

You know, it's a round rice.

- Arborio.

- Arborio type, but this one is from California.

- Oh.

- And it's very nice.

- You didn't give me a spoon.

- Okay, here, put that in there.

You can stir it with this and I'll give you the liquid goes with it, we have chicken stock there.

- Oh.

- You wanna bring that to a boil, cover it and cook it about 15 minute, 15, 18 minute, you know?

And while it's cooking, what we want to do, that stew, I started here, it's gonna take a while.

So I have one here, which has been cooking for an hour and a half.

And here I'll show it to you.

See how tender it is?

- Mm, that does remind me of mommy's house.

- So let's put those vegetables that I had, they're here.

- They're there.

- Kitten, and you can put peas-- - Peas, already, just in here like this?

- Snap peas.

Yes, everything in there.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- And all of those vegetables in there, that give us a beautiful colorful stew there, as you can see.

- That is so beautiful.

- And this now has to cook.

Remember those vegetables are cooked so it doesn't take that long.

- Oh, okay.

- This going to to cook for about five minute now.

Let me check those now, whoop.

You see the vegetable?

- [Claudine] Ooh.

It's food.

- That just sounded beautiful.

So we're gonna serve it.

- Okay, I'm gonna get you a platter.

- Yeah, I have a rice which is ready here.

- Here's a big spoon, this is gonna be easier.

- The rice here.

You wanna serve the rice first?

You see, you just (speaks French) the rice, you know, just put it like that.

You could put it around the veal, but frankly, I think it's a bit better-- - On its own?

- It's separate like this.

Yes, otherwise it's soak too much of the juice, you know.

- Oh, okay.

- Okay.

- All right.

- Hang on the top, you can move it out of the way.

This here.

- Move it.

And here is my stew right there.

You know, you may want to pour that directly into this.

Here I can do that.

- Here, we can do it together.

- Thank you.

Yes.

Okay.

Look how beautiful the stew here, Claudine.

- I'm helping.

That is wonderful.

- This is a real feast, you know.

Arrange it a little bit this way, too.

Couple of carrot on top.

Doesn't need anything else.

It's absolutely beautiful.

- Needs me to eat it.

- So here is our veal shank (speaks French) with the Arborio rice.

(fanfare resonates) Well, I can smell the souffle.

I think they are ready now, so I'm going to go get them.

- Okay.

- If you wanna get a bowl to put that-- - And a couple of plates.

- Yes, to put the sauce.

Here they are.

You see those are not true real souffle.

They're a kind of pudding souffle, you know, so they can be served like this and they don't blow up probably as much as a souffle.

Here is your chocolate sauce here.

I can have it like this.

I can actually pour some chocolate sauce directly on the plate here.

- [Claudine] Mm.

- I'm going to put-- - [Claudine] Just chocolate.

- In the middle, yeah.

(Claudine chuckles) - And let's put one this way here, put another one, you see, you would want to, this is a bit hot, huh?

- Here, you want some tongs?

- No, my, my, the tong is a good idea, too.

- They're right there.

- Okay, you could put one souffle like this with the sauce next to it and you could also, whoop, take this one, for example, and get it out, you know, unmold the whole thing.

- Ooh, I forgot there was jam on the bottom.

- Yeah, there is a jam in the bottom, remember, Claudine, right there that we put on top.

So that may be a little easier to eat.

So that's one way of serving this one.

- Here's another way.

- Or this one, chocolate sauce.

You could even make a little hole in there and pour some chocolate sauce.

And this is our bread pudding souffle with chocolate bourbon sauce.

And our first course is going to be a tomato, basil and cheese souffle.

See what you wanna do, take large tomato like this, take that out, empty the whole thing.

You know what, I'm doing it here, it's done already.

And all of that stuff, the top, this, you put in there, which is what I have for four tomato.

And then you put those shell into the oven.

You give me a another tray again.

And this has been cooked about 10 minutes so they are partially cooked and we are ready to do our souffle in there.

- [Claudine] Cool.

- What I wanna do, however, is with this, is to do the roux.

So what I have, and you have to do the egg white.

- I'll do the egg white.

- So I am putting the flour in there.

- I'm trying to do 'em faster than you did 'em 'cause I've got electricity behind me.

(beaters clattering) - Okay.

I put the flour in there.

Take this.

And that has to come to a boil.

Okay, look at that.

It's thickening, it's ready now.

- I think mine is, too.

- Yours is ready.

Go slowly, now, if it's finished.

I'm putting my egg yolk in there, okay, my cheese.

- [Claudine] Yep.

- Swiss cheese, basil, have the whole basil, here we are.

And then the egg.

You don't want to leave your egg white without beating into it, they get grainy, so put that here.

You have to go very fast at that one.

You see I take a percentage of it, hold your bowl, and stir it.

- I can't even tell you how good this smells.

- Okay, here we are.

And now we can do the rest with a spatula.

Take this.

- Okay.

- Okay, it works for me here.

Oh, now, now it's fine, you know.

- I'm helping.

- Good, thank you.

And now we fold it in there.

Get ready with the Parmesan cheese.

- Okay.

To fill that up, I put salt and pepper in my mixture, see our beautiful souffle mixture here.

You could do a souffle in a souffle mold here, or you can actually do it in those tomato shells, you know.

Which I'm going to fill up, ooh, as much as I can here.

- [Claudine] Mm, wow.

- Here we are in there.

- [Claudine] It's dinner time.

- Put a bit more here, here, here.

Okay, your cheese on top.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- Just go ahead.

- Okay.

- Now it has to go in the oven.

Okay.

375 degree for about 20 minutes.

Okay, the souffle are ready now.

And the souffle don't wait for you, you have to wait for the souffle.

Did you open the wine, kitten?

- I opened the wine.

We're all set.

- Okay.

Here, look at the souffle.

- Wow, that's a lot of souffle in one menu.

- A lot of souffle in one menu.

I mean, this is the whole tomato.

- [Claudine] Ah, wow.

- Those are stuffed with the souffle inside.

- Oh, that smells so good.

- Ought to be real good.

And the second souffle, of course, you have in front of your nose.

And this is actually more of a pudding than a souffle.

And this one shrank a little bit as it cooled, so you can really remove it.

And you should have it lukewarm like this.

- [Claudine] And it's gonna be wonderful.

- [Jacques] Yes.

And with that, we have that wonderful veal shank (speaks French).

You know what that is?

- (speaks French) is springtime.

- Spring like in France with the Arborio rice.

And finally.

And finally, we have some great wine.

- [Jacques] Okay.

- And I have a Chardonnay that's from Chile and it's gonna be really wonderful.

It's a very spicy tropical Chardonnay.

- With the souffle?

- With the souffle.

- [Jacques] Right.

- What are you gonna have?

- Well, I am going to have both, (Claudine chuckles) but with my veal, I want a Grand Reserve Merlot here, which I think is going to be absolutely wonderful with it, so.

- Well, Papa, thank you so much for helping me create this beautiful two-souffle bon vivant dinner.

You are a true bon vivant, and I hope someday I will be, too.

- You will, I'll drink to that.

(glasses chime) - That sounds good.

- Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.

(light jazzy music)