Jacques Pépin

Today's Gourmet, filmed at KQED in San Francisco, from 1991 Jacques Pépin had cooked for Charles de Gaulle and written La Technique, still used as a textbook for the fundamentals of French cooking, before he became a familiar face on public television. For this list, his hands are the reason to watch: he bones, chops and shapes with real economy, and he narrates each movement plainly enough to copy. Almost any episode makes a good short lesson in knife skills and kitchen efficiency, and the Jacques Pépin Foundation streams full episodes of the series, courtesy of KQED.