Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

If you watch PBS television cooking shows, you’ve probably seen this man:

02— My name is Jacques Pepin.

Seventy-five year old Jacques Pepin is a classically trained French chef, author, and PBS cooking show host. Long before he started cooking with meat from domesticated livestock, natural, additive free wild game comprised the animal protein in his dishes.

08— We follow the season, and the season in the fall in France we have the rabbit and the pheasant and the stuff. You go to market and see the game hanging.

Jacques Pepin has a new series on PBS called Essential Pepin, with a companion book that includes a 3 hour DVD featuring various food preparation techniques; it was going to include how to dress a rabbit after harvest.

12—But the skinning of the rabbit, they have removed it already so you’re not going to see it. And I knew it. They got berserk when they saw it. They said, ‘Oh my God!’ Well, it’s good to get closer to Mother Nature and to realize where your food comes from.

It may seem gruesome, but the alternative, says Chef Pepin, is what we have: nearly two generations of people who only recognize food if it’s in neatly cut pieces and wrapped in plastic.

02—I mean, this is pretty scary when you think of it.

The Hunt Texas e-newsletter provides information on hunting and preparing wild game. Sign up for it on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.