Letter from the Executive Director

Thankfully, this past year felt more normal and predictable than the pandemic-soaked years prior. In 2023, we felt like we were back to doing the work we want and intend to do, as opposed to pivoting to the rapidly shifting environment. We were able to breathe, think, plan, and imagine.

To that end, many of our accomplishments in 2023 were in line with our standard annual goals, but with improved processes and outcomes. Perhaps more importantly, in 2023, the JPF hit an inflection point. In addition to our public-facing accomplishments, it was a year of introspection that re-buttressed our foundation's mission and goals. We advanced organizational systems as we have grown from a small family-run non-profit into an established influencing agency in the world of culinary education. We added staff members to support our communications and social media outreach. Our board met to discuss a strategic plan that will guide our work for decades to come. We collaborated with organizations including Oceania Cruises, the James Beard Foundation, and the Julia Child Foundation, who recognize that supporting the JPF is critical to ensuring that Jacques's work and his legacy is never forgotten. With that support, we renewed our commitment to preserving, protecting, and ensuring the legacy of Jacques Pépin.

As we look to the future, we believe that our mission to improve lives through culinary education will become ever more important. Not only will the food service industry continue to need qualified and capable workers, justifying our grant programs for workforce development, but the public at large will need tools and platforms to learn how to cook. Food literacy is dramatically waning. Young people are not learning to cook in school, nor at home.

This poses a big question that needs answering: decades from now, where will people get their knowledge about cooking? With his enormous and unmatched library of cooking content, we are certain that Jacques's life's work in culinary education is a critical part of the answer. Cookbooks remain a bright light of strength for the publishing industry, and Jacques is working on his next book, but instructional cooking television is in decline. Cooking influencers on platforms such as Tik-Tok are on the rise, but it remains to be seen if lasting and true cooking techniques and the attainment of kitchen knowledge can be learned from watching Tik-Tok.

Rest assured; we are working on a solution. With your support, and the immense generosity of the Rachel Ray Foundation, we are currently building a Community Kitchen-focused website that provides video and foundational instruction aimed at the student clients of our Community Kitchen partners. We believe this tool could act as a template for broad and deep culinary instruction, serving a range of populations with a depth of instruction.

To support this initiative, our granting program, our sustained growth and influence, and the protection of Jacques's assets and legacy, in 2024 we are launching a bold new campaign that will give us the capacity and financial security to pursue our goals, while celebrating Jacques's contributions to the culinary world.

Details of our “90 for 90 Celebration” — 90 Dinners nationwide for Jacques's 90 years, culminating with his 90th birthday in December of 2025 will be coming soon. In keeping with Jacques's deep egalitarian ethos, everyone will be invited to participate!

We are grateful for your support in 2023. It was a year of reflection, growth, and planning. We celebrated at our 6th Anniversary at our Gala in April, highlighting the exceptional work of our partner, EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant with EDWINS Executive Director and Founder Brandon Chrostowski as our keynote speaker. We are proud of the continuing success of all our programs including: the JPF's Principal Grants Program for community-based culinary training programs nationwide, our new Partnership Circle Grant offering $50,000 over two years, awarded in 2023 to New England Center for Arts and Technology (NECAT), to develop a new baking and pastry program; our work producing videos of Jacques's “Cooking at Home” series, now approaching 400 in number; our self-paced, online video cooking course from Rouxbe that is teaching participants how to cook like Jacques from the comfort of their own home kitchen and last but not least, the JPF Membership and its associated Video Recipe Book, Cook with Jacques Pépin & Friends, now with more than 250 recipe videos, giving every single JPF Member the chance to expand their own culinary techniques while supporting the culinary education of so many others.

In 2024, we will continue to provide grants and curricular materials. We will continue to protect and extend Jacques' incredible legacy as a chef, educator, and mentor. We will continue to give back to you through social media and our website videos of recipes and techniques. We will launch a campaign that celebrates Jacques and advances our mission nationwide and enlists more culinary professionals to carry this important and essential torch, spreading the word and helping to expand opportunities for culinary education and training to all.

We are grateful to have you with us as part of the Jacques Pépin Foundation family.

Very Best Regards,

Rollie Wesen, Executive Director

2023 Annual Report Featured Partner

Kitchen of Purpose

In 2014, Kitchen of Purpose in Arlington, VA (formerly La Cocina VA) began teaching culinary skills to the Washington DC immigrant community, addressing barriers that many new arrivals face — including unemployment, language, and food insecurity. In the summer of 2020, Kitchen of Purpose opened the Zero Barriers Training and Entrepreneurship Center that houses their job training programs, a small business incubator, a shared kitchen, and a café where clients and developing entrepreneurs display their culinary achievements and locals can enjoy good food for a good cause.

Kitchen of Purpose offers the only bilingual culinary job training program in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. This program gives participants the necessary tools and resources to overcome poverty and create a better, healthier future for individuals, their families, and future generations using the power of food.

Program participants receive a culinary arts certificate through the Workforce Development program at Northern VA Community College and food safety certification. Students are placed with employer partners that offer family-sustaining wages, benefits, and career pathways. Once they finish the program, students have access to an Alumni Network to build and maintain connections within the industry and receive supportive services for two years post-program completion.

As a child living in El Salvador, Gerber Martinez loved watching his mom cook. As an adult in the U.S., his dream was to run a Salvadoran bakery. In 2022, he took a first step towards making that dream a reality by completing the bilingual Culinary Training Program at Kitchen of Purpose in Arlington, VA (a repeat recipient of the JPF's Principal Grants Program).

Today, Gerber works at a top seafood restaurant and is saving up for his bakery business. He enrolled in the Kitchen of Purpose's Small Business Incubator program and is working on his business plan. Gerber is excited to create a better future for his family and turn his lifelong love of food and cooking into a small but mighty business.

The JPF is proud to partner with Kitchen of Purpose.

Gloria Pépin Memorial Grant

Melissa (Missy) Terrell, an alumna of the Community Kitchen Pittsburgh, was the recipient of the 2023 Gloria Pépin Memorial Grant, an annual $5,000 award to an outstanding female graduate of a JPF-funded organization.

Here's what members of the Community Kitchen Pittsburgh had to say about Missy in the application:

“While at Community Kitchen Pittsburgh, Melissa was a natural leader. Her thirst for knowledge and opportunity was contagious among her classmates. After graduation, Melissa secured employment as a C-suite chef for the administrators at Pittsburgh Public Schools and recently has been promoted to oversee safety and sanitation training at all the district's schools.” — Samantha Swartz, Community Kitchen Pittsburgh Operations Director

Melissa had a successful career as a social worker when she was told her 6-year-old son had autism and would face significant challenges with communication and learning. Due to her son's needs, Melissa was unable to continue working, but while at home, she used food as a catalyst to teach her son to speak, read, and do basic math calculations. From this culinary work, Tug Butter LLC, her apple butter and pound cake business was born.

In Missy's own words:

“To receive this award is a tremendous honor and privilege, for myself and my children. Embodying the spirit of culinary excellence is allowing me to leave my mark in a place where other women and moms can see that there is a place for us. When I started Tug Butter I had no idea that simple family recipes would teach my autistic son to read, write, and do basic math.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this award and the opportunity to recognize and acknowledge the many gifts to be found in autism. It is my hope to continue to learn and grow and have the opportunity to reach back and teach those that were in the same position as myself.”

The Foundation applauds Missy Terrell for her personal growth and congratulates the Community Kitchen Pittsburgh for their fantastic work supporting individuals like Missy.