Jacques Pepin: Fast Food My Way

I swear I could smell the onions and garlic sautéing in the pan during Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way, a double-disc set adapted from the PBS series of the same name that is all about quick and simple cuisine. Divided into eight individual lessons, the program teaches viewers how to create eight different scrumptious menus—featuring 30 dishes total—all in record time. “Lesson 1,” for instance, includes a 30-minute cassoulet (a French bean dish which resembles a gumbo concoction), a colorful zucchini and tomato salad, festive-looking smoked salmon timbales, and a yummy orange and cream cheese dessert, while in “Lesson 5” Pepin whips up an egg and tomato gratin, using hard-boiled eggs (believe it or not, Pepin says he sometimes judges a restaurant by their hard-boiled eggs). Unfortunately, there are no onscreen recipes, and no list of ingredients found in or on the box (recipes for a few of the dishes can be obtained from the KQED website, but you'll only find a smidge and a pinch out of the many dishes selected for this four-hour program). Still, watching this grand chef whip up elegant fast food his way is exciting, and it's perfect for people with a FedEx-lifestyle. Recommended. Aud: P. (N. Plympton)