Jacques Pépin's Net Worth In 2024 and How He Made It—From PBS to Painting and Beyond
Jacques Pépin
Jacques Pépin's net worth in 2024 comes from his nonstop working—and his adaptability.
Pépin's zest for everything from eggs to education set him on a course of lifelong learning, which enabled him to pivot numerous times during his career—most famously after his near-deadly car accident in 1974—and to always land on his feet.
"I've done 30 books, and I've run a restaurant," Pépin told Harvard Business Review in May 2023. "I've consulted for restaurants. For 10 years I wrote for the New York Times. I've done I don't know how many television shows. But if I did only TV for 365 days of the year, I would be out of my mind. If I had to write for the Times every week, I would be crazy. The beauty of what I do is that it’s all about food, but it's all different."
These days, Pépin, who's made a mint from everything from culinary arts to writing and painting, finds richness in simplicity.
Speaking with NPR, Pépin says he still loves cooking today, but that his methods have changed with time.
"You know, your metabolism changes, certainly at my age," he said. "When you're a young chef you tend to add to the plate. To add more garnish. Add this, that. As you get older you have that type of process where you kind of eliminate more and get closer to maybe something more essential."
Find out Jacques Pépin's net worth in 2024 and how he made it.
Related: Jacques Pépin's Secrets for Soft Scrambled Eggs
How did Jacques Pépin become famous?
Jacques Pépin was born in Bourg-en-Bresse, France, in 1935. When most kids are still mastering tying their shoes, he was already cooking: His parents opened their own restaurant, Le Pélican, which Pépin said helped him develop his lifelong love of food and culinary arts.
"I was seven years old and already in the kitchen with my mother. She was a cook at the little family restaurant, and my father was a cabinetmaker by trade," Pépin told Harvard Business Review. "My goal was to be one or the other. But I loved the kitchen. When I finished primary school, at age 13, I went into an apprenticeship."
The apprenticeship was at Le Grand H?tel de l'Europe. Three years later, Pépin began studying under Lucien Diat at the Plaza Athénée in Paris.
Pépin served in the military from 1956 to 1958, during which he served as the personal chef to several heads of state in France, including none other than World War II hero and future French president Charles de Gaulle.
In 1959, Pépin moved to New York City, where he worked at French restaurant Le Pavillon. Not long after his arrival, Pépin met Julia Child, who would become a lifelong friend and frequent professional partner for Pépin.
Though he was very successful in New York, Pépin didn't plan on staying in America for very long.
"When I left for the United States in September of 1959, it was my intention to only stay a few years, study the language and then return to France," he told The French Life. "I came here on a student boat and during the trip, I asked a professor from New York State about the best school. He recommended Columbia, which I’d never heard of. I arrived in New York on the 12th and by the end of the month, I was enrolled in Columbia’s English for Foreign Students program. I continued studying, eventually getting my B.A. and then an M.A. in 1972."
Pépin's culinary skills made him famous throughout the country, with then-president John F. Kennedy inviting him to be his personal chef at the White House in 1961. Pépin turned him down, opting instead to work with Pierre Franey for hotelier Howard Johnson, developing food lines for Johnson's eponymous restaurants.
Pépin worked for Howard Johnson's for 10 years. During that time, he published his first cookbook with Helen McCully, The Other Half of the Egg: Or, 180 Ways to Use Up Extra Yolks or Whites.
In 1970, Pépin launched his own restaurant, soup and lunch eatery La Potagerie. During this time, he began appearing in TV segments regularly.
Near his upstate New York home in 1974, Pépin was in a near-fatal car accident that left him with two broken arms, a broken back and several other fractures, per The Connecticut Post. He was hospitalized for months and after he was released his career path moved in a different direction.
"That event acted as a catalyst to push me towards something different," he later told the Columbia Journal of American Studies. "This was a time when cooking schools were opening up right and left. I was then writing for House Beautiful and finishing my degree at Columbia University. I started doing some cooking demonstrations and moving into the directions that are my present occupations: teaching cooking, writing books, doing consulting work, television."
Pépin began writing more cookbooks, teaching more courses and, in 1982, starred in his very first TV show, Every Day Cooking. The same year, he was named a dean of the French Culinary Institute in New York City (now called the International Culinary Center).
His TV career continued through the late 1980s and 1990s, with shows including Today's Gourmet and Child-collaborations Cooking In Concert and Jacques and Julia Cooking at Home, the latter of which earned both stars a Daytime Emmy.
Pépin, to date, has authored more than 30 cookbooks and starred in more than a dozen cooking shows—and he has no plans on slowing down.
"We are lucky in the food world. You are born and, maybe a few hours later, you’re fed," he previously told Culinate. "Even if I eat well, five or six hours later, I’m ready to eat again. And I’m ready to cook."
Related: Chef Jacques Pépin Shares Favorite Recipes and Why He Loves Chicken
What is Jacques Pépin's net worth in 2024?
Jacques Pépin's net worth in 2024 is estimated at a cool $20 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
How many Michelin stars does Jacques Pépin have?
That's a trick question: Restaurants get Michelin stars, not chefs. As such, Pépin doesn't have any Michelin stars, but it doesn't mean he isn't magical and wondrous in the kitchen—and Pépin, bless him, pretty much couldn't care less about Michelin stars anyway.
"Many people in my family have never been [to] a three-star restaurant in France," Pépin said in a conversation at the 92nd St. Y in November 2015. He added a hilarious anecdote about going to restaurants where chefs were acclaimed and knew all types of facts about food and eating a "lousy meal."
"And then you go to the grandmother at the end of the street ... who has no idea what she's doing in that context, but she knows exactly what she's doing. The type of cuisine she does may not even [be] written down or verbalized from mother to daughter, but you may have the greatest meal of your life."
Related: Jacques Pépin Reveals How to Make French Toast with Melted Ice Cream
How rich is Jacques Pépin?
With an estimated net worth of $20 million, Pépin is rich enough to afford a good amount of chickens, eggs and art.
Related: Jacques Pépin's Chicken and Rice with Cumin and Cilantro
Where does Jacques Pépin currently live?
Pépin lives in Madison, Connecticut. According to The New York Times, his property—a former brick factory—boasts two kitchens (one for filming and one for private use, as requested by his late wife Gloria) and a garden where he grows his own herbs and vegetables.
When deciding where to live after residing in New York City for years, Pépin wrote in his memoir The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, "Gloria and I took a road map of the Northeast and drew a line north and south of New York City. The allure of a milder climate made us decide to limit our search to coastal areas."
They settled on four acres in Madison, partly because the couple had friends in the area, Pépin told NewEngland.com. He likes the area for its beaches and trails (the latter of which he likes to explore with his dog, Gaston) and for the fresh seafood the coastal town offers.
Related: Julia Child Quotes
Does Jacques Pépin own a restaurant?
Pépin owned a specialty soup and lunch counter shop called La Potagerie on 5th Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets in New York City. He opened the shop in 1970 and prepared 150 gallons of soup daily, The Middletown Press reported.
The eatery closed in 1975, but lives on in infamy: Pépin and La Potagerie actually partly inspired the fan-favorite "Soup Nazi" episode of Seinfeld.
Related: Who Was Julia Child's Husband?
Does Jacques Pépin have a bad arm?
Pépin injured both of his arms in his 1974 car accident, but his left arm was injured so severely that doctors initially wanted to amputate it. The Washington Post reported that since the accident, Pépin's left arm is several inches shorter than his right.
"I wasn't supposed to live," Pépin said. "I wasn't supposed to walk. But here I am."
Does Jacques Pépin sell his paintings?
Pépin is a visual artist in addition to being a master in the kitchen. He has original art for sale through his website, and it's pricey (but beautiful): Paintings start at $8,000, but you can nab select prints from $195.
In May 2023, Pépin told the Harvard Business Review that he thinks he sells more paintings than cookbooks.
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