- There is nothing better than bread, cheese, and a glass of wine.

Goat cheese toast.

We can cut your cheese with dental floss, which makes it very easy, like this.

Little piece of baguette, a piece of cheese on top of it.

You mold it on top of it.

A little bit of herbes de Provence.

Garlic, that we can halve with a vegetable peeler in long flake, like this.

A little bit of olive oil on top.

And this is it.

In the oven for a few minute.

Broiling this make it even delicious.

A fun hors d'oeuvre for everyone to enjoy.

I'm Jack Pepin, and this is "Fast Food My Way.

Happy cooking.

When I go to the market, I look what's around to see what is fresh, to look for the best.

And it's really at the market that I decide on my menu.

(peeler scrapes) Well, when it's the fall like this, I love to do those soup.

And today on my menu, I'm going to have a butternut squash velvet, followed by a filet of sole with a mushroom sauce, very classic.

Then the peas and mushroom and endive melange for the vegetable.

And, finally, pear in coffee.

I do pear in coffee as my aunt used to do when she had leftover coffee.

So waste not, want not.

You see, when you use those here, I have to peel it like two or three times to get to really the red.

Otherwise, it's pretty, you know, if you peel it only once, you have that kind of greenish look.

So you take as much as you can to get to that bright color.

You can also buy those this way.

They're raw, uncut, which makes your life easier.

So maybe I'll use some of this (knife chops) and some of that.

In fact, you can see that those (bag crinkles) pre-done one happen to be with a riper squares than this one here.

In fact, a brighter color.

So I'll use this.

I need about a pound, a good pound of butternut squash, pound, pound and 1/4, about.

And in this, I'm going to start with leek and onion in there.

A little bit of olive oil.

(oil glugs) And, (lid clangs) soup, (pot clangs) I could eat soup every day.

I mean, soup, for me, is part of almost every night cooking.

In fact, I used to have a restaurant in New York.

(knife chops) It was called La Potagerie.

It was a soup place on Fifth Avenue between 45 and 46 Street.

All we did was soup.

That was back, of course, in the '70s or something.

It was very successful (knife chops) and a good business.

So, onion.

I'm going to have some leek here.

I split the leek in half.

You know, you split it this way, going down on each side.

And then you run it under the faucet to really remove the sand.

(knife chops) There is nothing which replace leek in a soup.

And, here, I need about two cup, (knife chops) two, 2 1/2 cup of leek.

() The whole leek.

If you have a little more or a little less, it's not the end of the world.

Okay, here it is.

You want to sweat.

What we say sweat, that is to soften a little bit the vegetable, to start with.

In that case, (pot clangs) the onion and the leek.

And after that, we add the rest of the vegetable.

(knife chops) I love butternut squash.

In fact, I brought the grain in France to my brother, put in his garden.

No one had ever seen it.

So he was very proud to show that to all of his neighbors, you know?

And maybe one of the best way is just to split it in half the long way, to take the seed out of it, to score it.

Put a little bit of honey on top, and some cracked paper, salt.

And you put it into the oven like this for 30, 40 minutes, and it's really good.

Just plain, done this way.

Okay, so I'm using those as well.

(bag crinkles) And you can do that only with chicken stock, or you can put chicken stock and water.

In that case, here, I'm going to put some water.

You can do it only with water if you want it to be totally vegetarian, but (pot scraping) chicken stock and water.

(cups clinking) And always clean after myself.

I'm a well-trained cook.

(pan scraping) Okay.

(lid clangs) Bring that to a boil.

And 15, 20 minute at the most, it's going to be cooked.

We can see this is nice and soft now.

(spoon clinks) Basically, I brought it to a boil, lower the heat, cover it, and about 20 minutes or so.

So you can put it in a food processor.

You can put it through a food mill, too.

But you can also emulsify it in this.

You can also, of course, have it unemulsified.

I mean, if you want this to be very chunky.

(blender whirs) Seems to be a bit thick to me, so I'm going to add a little bit of a chateau faucet here.

(water splashes) I will use water a lot, as much as stock.

(blender whirs) Now, this is the type of soup that you could do ahead, like this, and actually freeze at that level, you know?

It's be fairly fine.

You don't put anything else in it.

I would want to taste it.

(utensils clink) See my seasoning.

(spoon clinks) (slurps) Needs salt.

This is what Julia would have said, it needs salt.

And I'm going to put a little bit of cream in it.

You can finish it with a bit of olive oil.

You can finish it with butter.

You can finish it with a bit of cream.

For like six people here, I would say about 1/3 of a cup or so of cream.

(whisk whirs) And it is beautifully velvety and creamy.

So that's it.

But, as I said, the best would be to do that at the last moment, you know, when you're ready to serve.

Certainly a beautiful golden color.

And like this.

A big portion.

Maybe as a garnish, we could put a bit of, you know, a bit of pistachio here.

I could break this.

(masher clangs) Put it on top.

And maybe a sprig of chervil.

I love chervil, and I have a lot in my garden.

It's cold enough in Connecticut.

It had a very distinct licorice taste.

So here it is.

Maybe a bit more of those.

This is a butternut squash velvet.

(soothing jazz music) And then, I think we're going to go on to our next dish.

And I have two dish I wanna do here, a filet of sole with a mushroom sauce, and a pea, mushroom, and endive melange.

And I'm going to start with the vegetables.

So I have two Belgian endive here.

(utensils clink) What the Belgian call chicon, (knife chops) what we call endive.

(knife chops) Cut them the long way, this way.

(knife chops) I mean, we used to poach them, (knife chops) do them in different way.

Now I tend to saute them in a skillet, just like this.

So I'll start with this.

(pan sizzles) It's sizzling, and they tend to caramelize.

You know, when I cook this here, I'm doing a mixture with mushroom and peas, so I'm just going to put salt and pepper in it.

But if I were to do that by itself, what I do often, I will tend to put a dash of sugar along with the salt, you know, just to caramelize it in the bottom.

So my mushroom.

Mushroom, you can wash, but if you wash them, do it only when you're ready to use them.

So it's not a question of not washing mushroom, it's a question of washing them at the right moment, which is just before you are using them.

(knife chops) If you do it before, (knife chops) you have a film (knife chops) forming on top.

Then it discolored, usually.

And the peas, those are (knife chops) frozen baby peas, you know?

And what is called sometime tender peas or baby peas.

And, frankly, this, when they pick up those peas, they go with a machine, they pick up the peas.

The peas is open full of the pod, and the large peas in the pod goes to the bottom of the pan.

(pan scrapes) And the the one which are high in sugar, the tiny pea in the same pod, float to the top.

They separate them.

That's how they have those, which are usually quite good, tender and sweet.

(pan sizzles and scrapes) This will render a little bit of liquid, and I will put that before I put the peas.

And, in the meantime, let's start on the fish.

I have a filet of sole here.

And whether you're on the East or West Coast or, too, you will have different name for different type of sole.

You know, the grey sole in New York, lemon sole.

We have fluke, and then we have the Dover sole.

Here, often, you have the petrale sole.

But, basically, in the middle of that, if I run my finger on that whole filet here, there is a tiny line of bone.

So I cut in between to remove that tiny line of bone here.

And in our case here, we're going to do a paupiette.

And the paupiette is rolling this into something like that.

So when you roll it, this is the inside of the sole, the part which touched the bone.

This is the outside, just under the skin.

That part will tend to shrivel.

So that's how you roll it, with that part rolled there.

And the thicker part first, and the thin part at the end, meaning that when it cooked, it would tighten.

If you roll it the other way, you know, this way, for example, then it will tend to open as it cooked.

So it's important to roll it the right way.

So here we are, we have our paupiette.

So it's two paupiette per person.

It will take a bit longer to do that if you were to do your sole flat, because, of course, this is a bunch, a thicker piece of flesh, in a sense, to turn, you know?

Okay, so two of those per person is plenty with our sauce.

(pan scrapes) You see here, the moisture.

It's all wet.

The moisture is out.

(knife chops) Okay.

(knife chops) And I want finely chopped shallot here.

(knife chops) About 1/3 of a pound, (laughs) 1/3 of a cup.

(knife chops) All right.

(lid clangs) (pan scrapes) I think this is hot.

I need about a cup of wine here.

(pan sizzles) It is hot.

Okay.

(pan scrapes) About a cup of wine is 1/3 of a bottle.

I should taste it, too.

You never know.

Maybe somebody did something to my wine.

So to be sure... Good.

My shallots in there.

And now the mushroom.

(lid clangs) This, I'll move here.

(lid clangs) The mushroom can be diced or slice, you know?

But the mixture of shallot, (knife chops) shallot and mushroom is really classic, you know, to cook fish.

(knife chops) I think that Julia told me, Julia Child, that the first dish that she remember in France was a filet of sole Normande, you know, which is very similar to this, actually, (knife chops) except that it's finished with butter, with cream, rather than (knife chops) finishing with butter.

But here we are.

Put that in there.

I have to have scallion as well.

Here is my sole.

I'm going to embed it right into the mushroom.

Wanna put salt on top of it.

Pepper, freshly ground pepper here.

Okay, and scallion.

I think this is ready for the peas.

(pan sizzles) Better put it.

(pan sizzles) And lower it.

(lid clangs) (pan scrapes and sizzles) It's really caramelizing underneath.

(pan scrapes) (lid clinks) When it's lightly burned, you call it caramelized, you know?

So there is a great deal of euphemism here.

So we are going to put shallots, I mean, the scallion in there (knife chops) as well, (knife chops) in my sole.

There is.

And those sole will cook, covered, hmm, about five, six minute or so, (lid clangs) you know?

Okay.

Now, let's check this.

Those peas actually cooked in one or two minutes.

(spoon clinks) That's a nice melange.

Let me taste it.

Hmm, dash of salt, still, dash of pepper.

Oh, maybe a dash of olive oil.

(spoon clinks) Never bad.

I'll bring it back to a boil.

(pan scrapes) Yeah, it's about fine.

(pan scrapes) (spoon clinks) This is the type of dish you can do at the last moment.

Even if you wanted to do that a little bit ahead, I would tell you saute your endive and the mushroom, and wait basically until the people sit down to put the peas in it.

Otherwise, if you do that ahead, of course, your peas are going to discolor in like five, 10 minutes.

We can see that this is boiling and steaming at the same time, you know, but they are staying in the shape that I put them in.

(lid clangs) So I can lower that heat, and it will probably take, ahh, maybe two, two, three minute.

See, the sole are just about right now through, even slightly under, but I want to have them slightly under because they're going to stay in there a little while.

So let's get the sauce out of it.

I mean, the juice.

The best way is really to take your lid (liquid splashes) and hold the filet of sole with the lid to have it, until it drain out.

That's it.

And then you can keep it warm in there.

And then reduce, bring it to a boil.

I have about, about 2/3 maybe, maybe 2/3 of a cup of liquid in there.

And I want it to go down to about 1/2 a cup, 1/3 of a cup.

Here we are now.

I think it's fine.

I'm gonna put (spoon clangs) the butter in there.

And I said this is the whipped butter.

(spoon clangs) Put about, (spoon clangs) about the value of 1/2 a cup, which would be, it would be probably, in regular butter, about, (spoon clinks) hmm, I don't know, 1/3 of a stick or something like this.

So I emulsify it (whisk clinking) in there.

(whisk clinking) And you can see that I can really bring it to a boil.

It will be nice and very creamy.

(spoon clangs) See, I just wanted to show you, it come to a boil.

Now it going to rise like milk, you know, when it boil, but it doesn't break down like a regular butter would.

So that's it.

I can serve the peas.

Maybe my.

(pot clangs) In there.

Nice, fancy bowl here.

(spatula clinks) (pan clanks) And the filet of sole.

At home, I would have that platter in the oven so that it keep warm, (lid clanks) of course.

Now, here, you can arrange your filet of sole this way.

(spoon clinks) I have eight, so I have to put another one in the middle here.

(spoon clinks) Okay.

A fair amount of garnish.

You know, I have a fair amount of mushroom here.

(spoon clinks) Have a little bit of liquid left in the bottom.

I don't wanna dilute the sauce too much, so I'll leave it there.

And (spoon clinks) looks good.

(spoon clinks) And I can put my sauce on top.

(spoon clinks) You could also thicken the sauce a little bit, if you want.

So I have enough of the sauce to serve a little bit separate.

(pan clangs) And maybe, maybe a little bit of chive on top, too.

(utensils clink) (knife chops) I think cut in large piece of chive like this.

A bit different.

And here it is, the filet of sole with mushroom sauce.

(soothing jazz music) Peas, mushroom, and endive vegetable next to it.

(shoes padding) I still remember, my aunt, when I was a kid, making pear in coffee to use leftover coffee, you know?

It's a good way of using leftover coffee.

And I have about a cup and 1/2 of coffee there also.

(pan sizzles) Whoop, it's hot.

And I put them to poach the pear in it.

I have cut some pear here, which are hollowed inside.

You can use any type of pear that you want.

Those happen to be the small one you can buy.

I like the Bosc.

You know, those small Bosc pear.

The pear has to cook until they are tender.

Okay, so here we have coffee.

I have some brown sugar in it, and a little bit of vanilla.

And that's it.

Now it's going to a strong boil.

What you wanna do, (lid clangs) cover it.

You wanna reduce your heat so that it just boil gently, and wait until it's tender.

We can see that now my knife goes through very easily, so it's cooked.

So I can remove the pear.

(spoon clinks) They've now taken a brownish, nice brownish color.

(spoon clinks) Okay.

(spoon clinks) And then I want now to put it back on high heat to reduce that by about 1/2.

And you can stop the heat.

I want to thicken it a little bit with a tiny bit of arrowroot here.

And it's thickened on contact, you know?

Just to get it slightly oily, (spoon clinks) syrupy.

And I'm gonna put a little bit of Madeira in it, a couple of tablespoon.

(spoon clinks) And that's it.

We just have to let it cool off.

I could pour this in there or put my pear back in the, (bowl clinks) you know, in the syrup like this.

(spoon clinks) And then put them to cool.

If I am in a hurry, I put them in ice so they'll cool in like 10 minutes or so, so I can serve them.

The pear are about cool now.

You can see the syrup is much thicker, and all this, so it's time to serve them.

They don't have to be ice cold.

I think what we'll put underneath is a little piece of brioche.

We can buy that, too.

Brioche is always great with anything.

(knife scrapes) I will put a piece of brioche (knife scrapes) in the bottom of my glass here so I can stand the pear on top of it.

Very simple type of dessert, you know, but very often, (utensils clang) quick dessert is usually what I do the most at home.

So a little pear like this.

(spoon clinks) And, of course, a lot of that dark mahogany syrup, you know, flavored (spoon clinks) with the Madeira.

(spoon clinks) Okay, here we are.

Maybe a couple of slice almond on top of it.

Give it a bit of texture and color.

We can even put a bit of chocolate.

You know, chocolate and coffee goes well together.

I mean, you can use your vegetable peeler.

Put a little bit of a dark chocolate on top.

Always help.

And this is it, you know, our pear in coffee.

We can enjoy it with a little bit of Madeira, a bit of port wine.

Any of those wines will be good with it.

(wine splashes) That's what I'm going to do.

And, remember, for the food to taste good, it has to be prepared with love.

Happy cooking.