>> AMY TRAVERSO: That's beautiful.

>> NARRATOR: Coming up on Weekends with Yankee, >> So we put one tablespoon of wine.

>> TRAVERSO: (laughs) >> NARRATOR: Amy visits with legendary chef Jacques Pepin at his home in Connecticut.

>> A couple of oyster, a couple of clam for you.

>> NARRATOR: And cooks up a couple of his favorite New England fusion dishes.

>> TRAVERSO: That is delicious.

>> Happy cooking.

>> TRAVERSO: Thank you so much.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Then Richard gets a firsthand look at custom Ducati motorcycles, made in New England and shipped to some of Hollywood's biggest stars.

>> Making motorcycles is not only creating something that one can use to go from A to B, but for me it's also an outlet for my creative vision.

>> NARRATOR: And finally, we continue traveling north to Rangeley, a jewel of an area tucked away in the mountains of western Maine.

>> It's the type of place where once you've been here, you'll want to return, and that's evidenced by the folks who stay with us over and over throughout the year.

>> NARRATOR: So come along with us for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before, a true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee magazine.

Join explorer and adventurer Richard Wiese, and Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso, for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region.

It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.

Weekends with Yankee.

>> Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ >> Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts.

The first public park in America, the first fried clams, the first university in America.

The first basketball game.

What's first for you?

♪ ♪ (birds chirping) >> Series funding provided by the Vermont Country Store, the purveyors of the practical and hard to find since 1946.

>> The Barn Yard, builders of timber-frame barns and garages.

>> And by American Cruise Lines, exploring the historic shores of New England.

♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: This is such a beautiful property.

>> I did a lot of work myself.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.

>> I was very ambitious.

>> NARRATOR: Jacques Pepin.

This beloved chef, author, and artist has been at the forefront of the American culinary scene since emigrating from France over 50 years ago.

>> Raining.

>> TRAVERSO: Is it raining a little bit?

>> It's good for mushrooms.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.

>> NARRATOR: Amy was lucky enough to spend a day with him at his Connecticut home.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, look at this.

>> NARRATOR: First foraging around his property.

>> TRAVERSO: That's poisonous.

Mmm, that is delicious.

>> NARRATOR: Then cooking a couple of French classics with a New England twist.

>> My name is "Hak-wes Pepino."

No, it goes from Jacques Pépin to "Hak-wes Pepino" here.

We're in Connecticut, here, at my house.

You can recognize my Yankee drawl, I'm sure.

>> TRAVERSO: I'm afraid to step anywhere, because they're... >> Yeah.

>> TRAVERSO: They're easy to miss.

>> Yeah, you don't see them.

The black chanterelle.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, my gosh, there they are.

>> I pick them up this way.

In French is called trompette de la mort.

Horn of death.

>> TRAVERSO: Horn of death.

But they're not poisonous?

>> Oh, no, no, no.

>> TRAVERSO: What's that?

>> Those are lactarius.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh.

>> So this I don't eat.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

♪ ♪ Now, that is a gnarly looking guy there.

>> This is part of the Boletus family.

It's what they call tube, tube mushroom.

It's like a sponge.

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

>> This is called the old man of the wood.

>> TRAVERSO: It looks... that makes sense.

>> The stem is really tough.

>> TRAVERSO: That's beautiful.

♪ ♪ Oh, wow!

>> That's a Boletus.

I'm sure by the color that it is a bitter Boletus.

Yes.

It's not poisonous at all, but you taste it a little bit.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> It's not poisonous, don't worry.

You'll see... spit it out.

Do you see how bitter it is?

>> TRAVERSO: Mmm, yeah.

>> Extremely bitter.

>> TRAVERSO: Ooh.

>> That's why the animals don't attack it.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

(laughs) If I start to hallucinate, I know who to blame.

(laughs) >> You know, after 70-more years of cooking professionally, I still love to cook, because I'm kind of a glutton.

I like to eat.

Look at those... this is a regular, beautiful chanterelle.

>> TRAVERSO: Beautiful.

>> See that?

On the internet that costs $48 a pound.

See, this is a gilled mushroom.

>> TRAVERSO: Beautiful.

>> It's got gills underneath.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow, that is a beautiful mushroom.

And can't get it fresher than here.

♪ ♪ >> I love Connecticut.

I love the weather here.

I like being able to go rummaging in the wood.

So I have a good garden.

It's a good life.

>> TRAVERSO: So is it boules or pétanque?

>> Both, it's called boules de pétanque.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah, I grew up with bocce.

>> Yeah, that's better.

(Traverso laughs) All right, so here we put our foot in there.

>> TRAVERSO: Our foot in there, okay.

>> And you have to throw that between ten and 20 meter.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> Let's see.

This would be about fine.

♪ ♪ Okay, that's pretty good.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, I'm playing with a master.

I'm just going to... >> You're not supposed to... stay right there.

All right.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> Too long, too long.

>> TRAVERSO: Too long!

Okay.

Nope.

>> Too short.

>> TRAVERSO: Ah!

>> Wow!

All right.

>> TRAVERSO: I think I'll stop while I'm ahead.

>> You did good too.

>> TRAVERSO: Are you ready to do some cooking?

>> Great.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> NARRATOR: On the menu today are mussels two ways.

First a mussels gratinées, broiled with breadcrumbs, hazelnuts, and garlic butter.

And second, a mussel soup that Jacques calls Billi Bi.

Then it's Jacques's New England clam chowder with oysters, clams, and corn.

>> So, we put one tablespoon of wine.

(Traverso laughing) >> All you want to do here is to open them.

The very classic recipe, in France... (voiceover): You give a lot of yourself when you cook.

You cannot cook indifferently.

You have to give some of yourself.

So there is a great amount of love in what you do.

It is just plain giving pleasure to people.

So people are happy to see you.

It's a nice way of spending your life.

>> TRAVERSO: So now you have Maine mussels and a French technique.

>> Yeah, I guess so.

>> TRAVERSO: And I'm thinking this is sort of a New England fusion dish a little bit.

(blender whirring) >> Love fresh breadcrumbs.

I don't think you've ever seen mussel as beautiful as this.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, those are huge!

>> The juice, we're doing a soup.

So here we have the juice of the mussel, white wine, and about half a cup of cream.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> Okay, you want to taste this?

>> TRAVERSO: Yes, thank you.

>> Now, I don't know whether it may need a bit of salt or... >> TRAVERSO: Mmm, mmm, it's perfect.

>> Maybe a bit of Tabasco.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.

>> Now, that's going to go into the oven, you know, so.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> You'll be doing this.

We're doing a persillade.

In French the mixture of parsley, which is persil.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

And garlic, which is ail, is persillade.

(blender whirring) Miracle machine, no?

(Traverso laughing) You know?

>> TRAVERSO: I just have to say, I just have this moment, I can't believe I'm cooking with Jacques Pépin.

This is a real highlight of my cooking career.

>> I can't believe I'm cooking with Amy Traverso.

(Traverso laughs) ♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: How did you go from cooking in the top kitchens in Paris and cooking for Charles de Gaulle and a bunch of French dignitaries, to working at Howard Johnson's?

How did you choose that?

>> In the spring of 1960 I was offered a job for Kennedy at the White House.

And... and I was offered a job at Howard Johnson.

I went to Howard Johnson.

(voiceover): I decided to go to Howard Johnson because I really had no inkling of the potential for publicity at the White House.

Howard Johnson's, on the other hand, I would learn about American eating habit, I would learn about mass production, I would learn about chemistry of food.

I would learn about many, many things that I had no, no idea of.

>> TRAVERSO: That's beautiful.

Good.

>> Okay.

Soup here.

All right.

>> TRAVERSO: Mmm.

The hot sauce made a nice little... beautiful.

Like an oyster?

♪ ♪ >> To you.

>> TRAVERSO: That is delicious.

>> Happy cooking.

>> TRAVERSO: Thank you so much.

So, Howard Johnson was famous for its clam chowder.

Did you develop that recipe?

>> No, we didn't really develop the recipe.

It was there when we came.

But it was quite different.

They used margarine to do the, the roux; we used butter.

They had dehydrated onion, fresh onion.

No, we changed a great deal of things to make it differently, Pierre Franey and I.

So this is the base, okay?

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> So here is fresh corn, and here I have oyster, and here I have clam.

I'll put a little bit of the chanterelle that you picked before.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> That should be beautiful in there, right?

>> TRAVERSO: Beautiful, look at that.

Look at the colors.

>> I will have a couple of oyster, a couple of clam for you.

Look at that.

>> TRAVERSO: That's beautiful.

>> Yeah, this is not exactly Howard Johnson.

This is a more modern way.

>> TRAVERSO: Mmm.

It's sweet and salty and creamy.

And I love the, the earthy notes of the mushrooms.

>> Good.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

>> NARRATOR: The highlight of Amy's visit was seeing Jacques's collection of culinary scrapbooks, in which he has recorded all the important meals of his life for the past 50 years.

They now span 12 volumes and are hand-illustrated by Jacques himself.

>> See, this one is empty, so why don't we write the menu we're going to have tonight?

"Pour Amy, le moules gratinées, Billi Bi, clam, oyster, corn... >> TRAVERSO: Corn and mushroom.

>> Corn and wild mushroom chowder, okay.

(voiceover): I've cooked for many, many people, but, I mean, the greatest pleasure is really to cook for your, your friend, dear friend or your family or your lover or your wife or your mother or your kid.

And so the guests sign here, and we write the menu on the other side.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, that's so beautiful.

>> Cooking is... yes, cooking is cooking, and it's great, you do it with love.

But the sharing of food, after it, is very important.

I will sign it.

I have a chicken, >> TRAVERSO: Beautiful.

>> I will use the chicken.

>> "To Amy, happy memories."

>> TRAVERSO: This is amazing.

I will fill this with happy memories.

>> Okay.

>> TRAVERSO: Thank you.

>> So thank you, thank you for coming.

>> TRAVERSO: All right, I'm going to have a little more chowder.

>> Yeah, me too.

>> NARRATOR: Located in the heart of the region, Harrisville is one of New England's most tranquil and picturesque villages, with historic buildings, scenic lakes, and the award-winning Harrisville General Store.

♪ ♪ (engine revs) It's also home to motorcycle designer Walt Siegl, an Austrian native who makes high-end Ducati motorcycles, the kind that famous actors-- who we can't name-- special-order from Hollywood.

Working out of one of the town's iconic mill buildings, Siegl has built one of the top custom motorcycle shops in the country.

>> WIESE: So, the Walt Siegl story starts in Austria.

Do you remember your first motorcycle?

>> I was exposed to motorcycles all my life, through my grandfathers and my father, they all had bikes.

So bikes were just part of me growing up.

♪ ♪ >> All right.

>> So as you can see here, Richard, this is an extremely nice cut.

It needs fairly little cleanup job.

It's ready to be bent and shaped and then bolted onto the bike.

♪ ♪ The secret to the success of my company is that we allow each client a big word in how the motorcycles are built.

All the ergonomics, the style, the geometries are usually geared towards how the client is using their bike.

So it's one of the big secrets.

This is one of our four models.

It's based on the Ducati engine.

We give each client the possibility to pick expansion components.

Pick brake components, wheels, color, and to a certain extent, even finishes on the bodywork.

In this case for example, this is an aluminum tank.

The client really wanted to show the aluminum feature through his graphics.

The bodywork is Kevlar and carbon fiber.

Although it's part of an overall series motorcycle, each bike still looks significantly different from, from each other.

♪ ♪ This is our latest model, which is a true superbike.

It's significantly lighter than any stock motorcycle.

Therefore the bike also handles much easier.

So it is a high-tech marvel.

Motorcycle design and motorcycle technology has made leaps and bounds over the last 15 to 20 years by using high-tech mechanical programs, using the latest computer programs for traction control.

A.B.S., clutch and shifting, so on and so forth.

>> WIESE: This one is still being born.

>> So this one is just about finished.

It still looks disassembled.

But it only takes very little to actually complete this bike.

>> WIESE: I mean, I'm just looking at the forks on this.

It, it looks so much different.

>> Yeah.

It's extraordinarily expensive.

It's a $15,000 set of forks.

But this is the absolute best that we can offer to a client that goes on a racetrack with.

>> WIESE: What is this going to cost finished?

>> In this case it's going to be $84,000.

♪ ♪ >> WIESE: So when did Walt Siegl decide that he could become a world-class motorcycle designer?

>> It just so happened I've worked on, on motorcycles all my life... as a hobby, then as a racer.

I raced for many years, so I had no choice but to work on my own bikes.

Just through racing bikes, building my own components, I was able to come up with some answers that people that don't race bikes don't have that opportunity.

Plus, I'm a trained technician and know everything about how to run a lathe, a mill, and actually build components.

Making motorcycles, for me, is not only creating something that one can use to go to... from A to B, or to go to the racetrack, but for me it's also an outlet for my creative visions of what a mechanical component should look like.

>> WIESE: So what stage is this one in?

>> So the next step would be... in order to, to put the fairing on, I would need to put the fairing stay on.

So why don't we just do that, and I'll show you how this part looks.

>> WIESE: Yeah, absolutely.

>> And we'll go from there.

>> WIESE: Yeah.

You know, looking at your bikes, they're beautiful.

I know that they run well, but they're physically beautiful bikes.

Where did you get your art sensibilities?

>> Um, I guess having an artist as a grandfather, for example.

Um... And I always wanted to, somehow, do something with art.

I went to art school in Austria.

♪ ♪ >> WIESE: This is a very quaint, lovely town.

You walk in here, it's pretty.

>> Yeah.

>> WIESE: How does that lend itself to the business you're in?

>> Well, it just adds romance to what I'm doing here.

It's an old mill complex that was restored, painstakingly, over the years.

The environment that the mill complex is in is romantic.

It's beautiful.

It's got lots of historic structures.

It just really helps to somehow connect the craft that goes into building these machines to the environment that they come out of.

♪ ♪ Motorcycles bring you away from your daily responsibilities.

They demand focus in order to be safe and also to have fun.

So you can really leave all your peripheral world behind you and just be with yourself.

That is... that's what I truly love about riding bikes.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Next, we move north to the Rangeley Lakes region of Maine.

Located just 20 miles from the Canadian border, it's a four-season paradise that generation after generation of visitors come back to again and again, year after year.

>> It speaks to me.

It's a wonderful place to be.

You're able to lose yourself a little bit.

The ability to not be connected.

You know, we spend all our time trying to be connected and how healthy that is.

The disconnect is equally as important.

So, you know, people come here today for lots of reasons.

The sounds, being on the water, listening to the water, listening to everything happen around you.

It affects you, it affects you.

Makes you feel differently.

>> For people who have never been to Rangeley, I would just say that you have to come here to experience it for yourself.

It's the type of place where once you've been here, you'll want to return.

And that's evidenced by the folks who stay with us over and over throughout the year or on a regular basis.

We're removed from everything.

We're in our own little world here, and we have this tremendous sense of community where, you know, you can still walk down the street and see people who you know, and stop to chat.

And despite being in such a removed location, there's a surprising amount that this little community has to offer.

>> Rangeley has a palette of color like I've never seen anywhere.

I've lived in Hawaii, I've lived in many places.

I've traveled the world extensively.

But the colors that happen here are always changing, and the light is just so pure and crisp.

So I spend a great deal of time, especially in the morning and in the afternoon, trying to capture that light.

If I see a color, I'm not going to water it down.

I'm going to use it as bright and bold as I can, I just, I have an affinity for that.

And so I use it pretty brightly and boldly.

But it's local area pictures, mostly of the lakes and mountains.

That's where my heart is.

♪ ♪ >> One of the things that makes Rangeley a unique area is the significant amount of conservation land here.

When you wind through the Rangeley Lakes National Scenic Byway, you're actually passing through over 60,000 acres of land that will be conserved.

So that's never going to be built upon or developed in any way.

So even when I was younger, I was raised maybe an hour south of here, everybody wanted to go to Rangeley and get away.

And so I, I always knew it as a place where people were outside all of the time.

Hunting and fishing is what my family does.

And so that's really, like, what we would do.

>> Fly-fishing is a culture in and of itself.

It fits in nicely up here, because when Rangeley was being settled, largely the methods were fly-fishing.

The culture has a lot to do with how it's done, what the tackle is, where it came from, when it came from.

You know... And all around us, I mean, just down the street was Herb Welch.

Across the lake was Carrie Stevens.

You know, these are really important people in the sport, and they're embedded in Rangeley.

There's no separation possible.

You can't come to Rangeley and not quickly learn their names.

So if you want to access those waters, those hallowed waters of history, chances are they're fly-fishing only.

♪ ♪ >> So aside from outdoor activities in Rangeley, we have a variety of shops and eateries right here in our downtown.

We have some galleries, and then we do also have Rangeley Friends of the Arts, which is our local theater.

We also have the Outdoor Heritage Museum in Oquossoc, which gives a great overview of Rangeley's history of hunting, fishing, logging, and what originally brought people here by railroad.

Then we have the Maine Forestry Museum.

Part of what drew me to Rangeley beyond the Rangeley Inn was that it's such a great area for hiking.

>> Hiking in Rangeley is unique because a lot of times you'll go out and you're the only person on the trail.

It's amazing.

You could be the only person for 600 or 700 acres, easily.

It's very freeing, and peaceful and wonderful.

You can almost feel it, you know?

It's like, I love it here.

It's like there's things to do all the time, whether you're hunting or fishing or skiing or biking.

And everybody feels like, the people that live here and visit here a lot, you feel part of it instantly, you really do.

♪ ♪ >> So one of the benefits of the mountain being open again is that it extends our winter season.

So instead of just having folks coming for snowmobiling in the months of January and February, we see skiers coming much earlier and staying much later.

And that's because the mountain has the ability to make snow and work on its trails and keep those open all throughout the winter season.

>> Well, you know, you have growth, and then you have all these other things that happen as well.

And I think Rangeley, initially, was shocked, like, oh my goodness, we need to have all these other components now that we have these things growing.

But I think they're acclimating and embracing it.

And I think the growth is just really wonderful.

People are really excited with new home ownership and new businesses establishing.

So I would say that's the change I've seen over time.

Everything else kind of stays the same, same buildings.

I'm back in the same building that used to be a pharmacy when I was a kid.

(chuckles) ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: For exclusive video, recipes, travel ideas, tips from the editors, and access to the Weekends With Yankee digital magazine, go to weekendswithyankee.com and follow us on social media, @yankeemagazine.

Yankee magazine, the inspiration for the television series, provides recipes, feature articles, and the best of New England from the people who know it best.

Six issues for $10.

Call 1-800-221-8154. Credit cards accepted.

>> Major funding provided by... ♪ ♪ >> Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts.

The first public park in America, the first fried clams, the first university in America, the first basketball game.

What's first for you?

(birds chirping) ♪ ♪ >> Series funding provided by the Vermont Country Store, the purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find since 1946.

>> The Barn Yard, builders of timber-frame barns and garages.

>> And by American Cruise Lines, exploring the historic shores of New England.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪