Brett Martin in GQ:

And there was no easy definition for what Pépin had become for me. He was not my father, certainly, nor a friend, nor even a mentor. “Role models” were for college essays, not grown men. Any of those relationships would have been recognizable, with its own protocol for behavior and for expressing gratitude. But Pépin and I had met only glancingly, at a moment that had obviously meant vastly more to me than it had to him, itself something hard to admit. I had learned, over time, that I was not alone. Many other men had had similar experiences—even equally surreal ones. Not enough of them had ever said thanks.