Make Cabbage Like Jacques Pépin To Win Over All The Veggie Haters

Even in his 10th decade of life, French culinary maestro Jacques Pépin is still knocking 'em dead with inspired, craveably delicious recipes utilizing classical cooking techniques. The Jacques Pépin Foundation, dedicated in Pépin's name to promoting the teaching and love of cooking, recently posted an Instagram throwback clip of Chef Pépin turning ordinary cabbage into a dish so succulent-looking that we were drooling on the other side of our screens. Even if you aren't a great lover of cabbage, Pépin's inspired, deft treatment might just convert you. It reminds us to no small extent of Yamitsuki, the way that Japanese chefs upgrade cabbage, with its attention to texture and flavor.

Pépin makes a sweet and sour braised cabbage by cooking Savoy cabbage — he says that red cabbage is equally delish — in a pan with sautéed bacon, onion, and garlic with a braise of vinegar and water. Brown sugar puts the "sweet" in "sweet and sour," and some red pepper flake gives it a mild kick. In addition to being hypnotized by Pépin's incredible knife skills and the casual way that he prepares a perfect dish with no urgency whatsoever, we can only imagine the play of the chewy bacon with the tender cabbage, and the way that the simple-but-effective sauce must coat every bite. We know the best place to store cabbage long-term, but, when you follow Pépin's tips for making cabbage magical, we can't imagine that the veg will last very long in your fridge!

Bacon, despite being a crowdpleaser — "Avec bacon? Mais oui!!" one Francophone comment on the Foundation's Instagram post read, needing no translation — is not strictly necessary for this dish. If you have some diced ham that you can render a bit, that would work as well, or even some nice sausage. There's a difference between bacon and pancetta, but either would do the trick. Not the hugest fan of vinegar, but still craving the mouth-pucking pop that puts the sourness in the pan? Try some juiced citrus. The sweet component is also flexible. Instead of brown sugar, we could see a sensible sub of honey or maple syrup. Feel free to play with the spice level, too, increasing or decreasing the red pepper flakes or even kicking things up with a splash of your favorite hot sauce.

Pépin's philosophy towards food is akin to art: You take your raw materials and make something spectacular. "When I cook in the kitchen, there is a certain freedom of being a professional chef," he told Artful Living. "You taste, you adjust; you taste, you adjust. And then the food kind of takes ahold of you." Letting yourself be inspired by the spirit of a recipe, more than just the exacting instructions, is a very "Pépin" way to do things, and we think he'd appreciate you working with the contents of your pantry to riff on this cabbage and keep things yummy.