(Zie over het culinaire werk van Pepin hier onder Technieken » Techniek / Methode.)
Pepin heeft gewerkt in klassieke tenten zoals in de keuken van het Plaza Athénée hotel in Parijs (erg mooi hotel en niet voor niets van de Dorchester groep), en in restaurant Le Pavillon in New York.
Mooi verhaal uit Wiki over zijn tijd in Le Pavillon.
In his autobiography [The Apprentice] Jacques Pépin describes how he was first employed at Le Pavilion after emigrating to the US in 1959. He found that Franey and the rest of the staff were underpaid and treated poorly by Soulé, who insisted that he was barely making ends meet, even though he would offer complimentary meals and wine to a large number of celebrity guests. When Pépin and others organized a protest, he found himself physically threatened by organized-crime goons. However, there was soon an exodus of the staff (Franey and Pépin moved to Howard Johnson's) and the restaurant never recovered. Soulé's other faux pas was allowing paparazzi to disturb the Kennedy family (who were regular customers) and their staffers during John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign: when the Kennedy team, which was dining at the restaurant, asked the paparazzi to leave, Soulé insisted that only he had the right, as owner, to determine who entered and left the restaurant, and stated that, even before the election, "the Kennedys already think they are running the country." (Pépin was offered the job of White House chef after the election, but declined.)
Rest nog te melden dat Pepin ook is chef geweest bij drie Franse presidenten.