Ode to Jacques Pepin

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Publishers Simon and Schuster contacted Superchefblog to let us know that a poem about Jacques Pepin had been published in The Best American Poetry 2005, edited this year by Paul Muldoon. This year's edition received praise from America's Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky. The poem is called "To Jacques Pepin," by Shanna Compton and was first published in Gastronomica last December, and Superchefblog has obtained permission from Simon and Schuster to republish the poem here: To Jacques Pepin Touch me with your impaccably clean hands. Go ahead: Say beutter, instead of butter. I can take it. I love your rhapsodies of oil. You are hypnotic as you pat a chicken's rump with your right hand, swirl your ruby glass in the left. For a Frenchman, you are remarkably open to wines vinted by Californians. Don't misunderstand. I never intended any innuendo, but I dream of being food in your kitchen. Every night I become a perfect tomato, a parcel of pastry, crimped and tender. Give me away in a frock of parchment paper. Fold me in. Slick me with a little clarified gold. No innuendo?..... Blog reactions: ShannaCompton.com del.icio.us / sautewednesday Previous articles: Today's Kitchen Cookbook Profile: Sara Moulton for White House Chef Vote for White House Woman Chef Julia Child: The Queen is Dead Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, television, Poetry --> back to superchefblog