In this frank and witty memoir, world-renowned chef Jacques Pepin tells how he rose from a frightened thirteen year old apprentice in an Old World kitchen to an Emmy Award winning TV superstar who continues to teach millions of Americans how to cook. We see young Jacques struggling to earn respect while working his way up the kitchen ladder: cooking for Jean Paul Sartre in a Paris brasserie, fending off the advances of Jean Genet, and clowning as he cooks for Eisenhower and Nehru while employed as Charles de Gaulle's personal chef. At twenty three he takes off for America, where he immediately makes friends with a small group of as yet unknown food lovers, including James Beard, Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, and many others. After a near fatal car accident, Pepin reinvents himself once again and in the process plays a pivotal role in redefining American food. It is the story of a boy's coming of age. But beyond that, it is the story of America's culinary awakening and the transformation of food from a mere afterthought to a cultural touchstone and a national preoccupation.