Jacques Pépin and Jean-Claude Szurdak met in 1956 in the kitchen of Paris’s Hôtel Matignon and remained close friends and culinary collaborators until Szurdak’s death in 2025. Their careers diverged, but cooking, teaching and a shared sense of humor kept them connected for nearly seven decades.
How Jacques Pépin and Jean-Claude Szurdak met
In 1956, Pépin was working as a chef at Hôtel Matignon in Paris and had asked for more help in the kitchen. Szurdak arrived as the new colleague. Food & Wine reports that Pépin was 21 and Szurdak 20. Pépin later recalled his first impression of the lanky newcomer: “The gawky kid who slunk into the kitchen looked more like a recently drafted poet, and a starving one at that.” (Food & Wine)
The meeting became the start of a friendship grounded in shared work. Pépin moved to the United States in 1959. After completing French military service in Algeria, Szurdak followed him to New York. They shared a home and restaurant work before their professional lives began to take different shapes.
Why their friendship lasted
They kept cooking together, traveling, visiting and skiing. Food & Wine recounts an Aspen cook-off in which Szurdak beat Pépin, a sign of the ease and good-natured competition in their relationship. Pépin described their bond in terms that reached beyond food: “Before we were married, before children, before accidents, before everything, we were already together, cooking in the same way,” he said. “We are forged from the same material.” (Food & Wine)
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The length of their friendship is usually expressed as a rounded span, not an exact count. Food & Wine calls it nearly 70 years; Boston University’s memorial describes more than 70 years of kinship. Their 1956 meeting and Szurdak’s death in February 2025 make “nearly seven decades” a careful description.
Two culinary careers, and decades of teaching together
Pépin’s work in media and education
Pépin went on to build a public career spanning teaching, writing, television and consulting. His memoir, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, includes his recollection of meeting Szurdak, according to Food & Wine. (Food & Wine)
Szurdak’s work in catering and pastry
Szurdak and his wife, Geneviève, ran a catering business, and he also opened pastry shops. Boston University describes him as a classically trained chef who completed six years of apprenticeship in France and became an accomplished pastry chef. (Boston University)
Their Boston University collaboration
For more than 30 years, the pair taught and co-hosted Boston University Programs in Food & Wine events. One collaboration, “Remembrance of Things Past,” recreated menus from Pépin’s family culinary history. Their public work together carried the same partnership into a teaching setting: two chefs sharing knowledge and the pleasure of cooking with others. (Boston University)
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Szurdak’s death and the friendship’s legacy
Boston University reports that Szurdak died on February 2, 2025, at age 87. The university’s Food & Wine Programs said, “Jean-Claude’s warmth and talent will be deeply missed.” (Boston University)
Their story is more than a long friendship between two accomplished chefs. It began with an extra pair of hands in a Paris kitchen, endured as each built a different career, and continued through shared teaching and events. Pépin’s phrase, “forged from the same material,” captures the closeness they carried from their first years working side by side.
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