La Patisserie de Pierre Hermé (English and French Edition) Review

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La Patisserie de Pierre Hermé (English and French Edition) ReviewThe good: If you want to make cakes just like they have at Dalloyau and Fauchon, buy this book. Divided into: fruit cakes, chocolate cakes, tarts, and petit fours. It tells you EVERYTHING there is to know. The pictures are stunningly beautiful, more so than ANY dessert book I have ever gotten, and I have about 12 or so. The desserts are very original - Pierre uses stuff like saffron and violet, and rose, and all sorts of flowers in his mousses for example. Cool combinations: Chocolate mousse/lemon cream chocolate cakes, genoise/raspberry/orange mousse cakes for example. I am not kidding: if you have this book you will know every single decorating technique, every single way of putting together stuff just as they do in the french bakeries. It lists just about every kind of mousse, every cake you could want, which ways to decorate them, and most importantly how to put it together. This is my favorite dessert book.
The bad: You have to know what you are doing already. The explanations are sparse. For instance, the explanations for pastry cream goes like (this is not real but an example) boil milk + vanilla. Add in whisked yolks/cornstarch. Put back on stove at 120C for a few minutes. Cool to 140 F, then put in butter. So the explanations are very sparse. All recipes are made for 2-4 cakes so you have to scale down. Everything is metric, everything is by weights (so you have to know 1 yolk = 20 g, 1 white = 30 g for instance). Gelatin is used in sheets in the book, so don't forget to put in about 1 T water for every 1/2 t of powder you use (if you're american and use gelatin powder) It helps to have "desserts by pierre herme" by Pierre and Dorie greenspan to "convert" back and forth units, since some cakes are in both books. Sometimes you may want to substitute: ie regular genoise for Pierre's genoise, regular puff pastry for Pierre's inverted puff pastry. In these cases it helps to know what you are doing first.
Overall: The best book period, in my opinion. Definitely worth the extra cost - it is worth 3 regular books. You have to know what you are doing first though, not for beginners. Other recommended books in the same French cake style: "desserts by pierre herme" by Herme and greenspan, and "art of the cake" by bugat and somebody else I forget. Both are great books (and a lot easier), though not as great as this one.La Patisserie de Pierre Hermé (English and French Edition) Overview

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Encyclopedia of Classic French Pastries: History and Legends of the Great Pastries of France/Easy-To-Follow Recipes for Home Cooks Review

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Encyclopedia of Classic French Pastries: History and Legends of the Great Pastries of France/Easy-To-Follow Recipes for Home Cooks ReviewThis book has the best receipe for madelines anywhere. I love the histories about the pastries, just a little info that adds a touch of panache to a home baked goody.Encyclopedia of Classic French Pastries: History and Legends of the Great Pastries of France/Easy-To-Follow Recipes for Home Cooks Overview

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Confessions of a French Baker: Breadmaking Secrets, Tips, and Recipes Review

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Confessions of a French Baker: Breadmaking Secrets, Tips, and Recipes ReviewI was apprehensive from the moment I saw this book. The author and the book description make it as if whoever goes into the Auzet bakery can come out with all sorts of secrets for breadmaking. Anyone who knows French bakers and patissiers, knows that they very rarely if ever give away their secrets, especially not to tourists that come for a visit! And true to my apprehensions I was dissappointed when I received this book. All the recipes,and they are not many, are with the straight method, ie using yeast not a sourdough or ferment, and they take from start to finish approximately two hours! Well this is just not enough time to develop the proper flavour of bread! I am a professional baker/patissier and these recipes are the ones I first learned in baking school. Mix the dough, let it double, shape it , proof it and bake it. Nice looking bland bread. Either Mr Auzet took the author for a ride or the author is taking us! There is no way to produce great tasting artisan bread using these methods. Now if you want to get this book here's a tip from me: Mix the dough as per the recipe but put only 1/2 to 2/3 the amount of yeast given, then put it in a shallow plastic container cover it with its cover and place it in the refrigerator overnight. This will give the yeast time to develop the flavour of the dough. In the morning take the dough out of the container and continue with the rest of the recipe method.Confessions of a French Baker: Breadmaking Secrets, Tips, and Recipes Overview

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The Art of the Cake: Modern French Baking and Decorating Review

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The Art of the Cake: Modern French Baking and Decorating ReviewPlease note carefully the sub-title of this book: Modern French Baking and Decorating. French cakes have little in common with American ones. Like its predecessors on pastry and cookies, this baking book on cakes is about the types that you will find in classic, pastry shops in France, and not their American cousins. It is also aimed at the serious amateur pastry chef, not the casual home baker. If you are looking for a book to tell you how to make and decorate a chocolate birthday cake for your children, this is not the book for you.
French cakes are both simple and very complicated; they are also amazing and can be heavenly like nothing else in patisserie that comes in a bewildering array of choices. Simply, a French cake is a cake base cut into layers flavored with syrup, sometimes with a flavoring agent between the layers, a filling and frosting of buttercream (but can also be flavored whipped cream, meringue, etc.), plus many decorative touches. The cake bases used are few in number and not that difficult to make. With simple variations in flavoring and decorations, the cake becomes totally different in taste and appearance. So, once you learn how to make one type of cake, you also know how to make at least a dozen other, totally different cakes. This book is a more or less complete guide for making most of the important, popular varieties of French cakes. I should also note that many of these cakes are ones that Americans will actively dislike. For example, succès brushed with flavored syrup is a French favorite, but is also a sugary, chewy, soggy thing that the average American will probably spit out with the first bite.
The organization is logical and also rather sophisticated. Each chapter starts out with a thorough description of a basic technique, and all the recipes in that chapter are based on that technique. For most recipes, you will also need procedures and recipes in other parts of the book, but the author always gives the page number to go to. The chapters are also arranged from easy ones to the more sophisticated ones; it assumes that you will proceed through the book sequentially, and not skip around. The chapters are: Simple Cakes, Round Sponge Cake Gateaux, Round Nut Meringue Gateaux, Meringues, Rectangular Gateaux, Bavarians (also Charlottes and Mousse Cakes), Logs and Leaves, Filling and Frostings, Finishing Touches, Basic Preparations, and a hundred or so pages of reference information. This is definitely not your mother's cake book (unless she grew up in France).
Sadly, making and decorating French cakes is difficult to do properly, and requires patience and practice. It will probably take you several tries to become successful at any one recipe. The techniques described in this book are very similar to professional ones, and, rightly speaking, are the only way you will have a chance. They have done a good job of describing these professional practices and explaining to the amateur chef how to do them. If you pay attention to what the author says and practice, you will succeed. I do have a few quibbles here and there (potato starch did not seem to improve the pound cake recipes; a flat icing spatula will not lay down an even layer of buttercream inside a cake ring; I find American cake circles to be perfectly acceptable, but have never used or seen a French one), but the information is reliable and of the highest caliber.The Art of the Cake: Modern French Baking and Decorating Overview

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Piece de Resistance: A Novel Review

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Piece de Resistance: A Novel ReviewI have been aching to read Sandra Byrd's "Piece de Resistance". This wonderful novel picks up where "Bon Apetit" left off. Lexi has returned to Seattle from her bakery training in Paris to run the latest Delacroix Bakery. She is running into some challenges and is unsure if she can do it. She hopes that her interpretation of events and her study of Philippians is leading her in the right direction. She is also at a crossroads in her love life. Will she choose Dan, the Seattle lawyer, who makes her heart skip a beat when he enters a room? Or Philippe, the exotic Frenchman with the beautiful little Celine, who has captured Lexi's heart?
Byrd's writing sparkles like the Bijoux Bakery. I was riveted from cover to cover. The suspense builds as the story progresses, drawing the reader into a deep investment into Lexi's personal and professional choices. You'll believe that these characters live right next door to you.Piece de Resistance: A Novel Overview

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The Vegan Boulangerie: The best of traditional French baking . . . egg and dairy-free Review

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The Vegan Boulangerie: The best of traditional French baking . . . egg and dairy-free ReviewIf you like French baking, you'll love it.
If you can't eat milk or butter, eggs or other animal products, because you have an allergy or you're a vegan/vegetarian, you'll love it.
If both (my case), YOU'LL LOVE THIS BOOK!
Too often "baking without milk or eggs" means just that: without. Sure there's plenty of great vegan cookbooks out there, but when it comes to cakes and biscuits they all tend to be low-fat, low-sugar...low-fun.
Now The Vegan Boulangerie does have loads of healthy recipes, especially in the bread section (the carrot or pepper breads are just amazing). A lot of the savoury pastries use seasonal vegetables or nuts.
But if you really want to surprise those that are used to seeing you snack on dry biscuits and raw fruit bars, try the cakes and other sweet things here. There's a good reason why a lot of people consider French food to be the best in the world, with deliciously decadent names like quiche lorraine, profiterolles, croissants and éclairs! This book does a good job re-creating all the famous dishes as well as the less-known -but just as mouth-watering- kouign amann from Britanny or the palmier French kids grab after school. In fact forget about vegan: there aren't a lot of books dedicated to French baking, so even for non-vegans this book is a great chance to discover some of France's best-known recipes.
A lot of the recipes are based on a few basic doughs: you can make (or buy) your puff pastry and then go on to make croissants, pain au chocolat, paté en croute and more. On a personal note, I've tried a lot of egg-free methods for choux pastry, but none has ever come close to the one given here. It uses potatoes (!) and a slow baking process, and the resulting puffs are simply wonderful, so kudos to the authors :)
There's not an awful lot of pictures, and they're in black and white, but the introduction to each section gives a quick description of some of the recipes. And it's probably the most just pick a recipe whose name inspires you (though you may have a hard time saying flammenkuche or bugne de Lyon!) and surprise everyone!
Recipes are grouped in 6 sections: bread; biscuits; basic doughs/pastry that are used for more complex recipes; after-school snacks; savoury recipes; and desserts. The steps are numbered and quite clear, and quantities are in both metric and imperial. The authors are French and very clearly know what they're writing about.
To anyone looking for a typically French alternative to the standard "egg-free/dairy-free baking" fare: bon appétit with this book!The Vegan Boulangerie: The best of traditional French baking . . . egg and dairy-free Overview

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The Complete Keller: The French Laundry Cookbook & Bouchon Review

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The Complete Keller: The French Laundry Cookbook & Bouchon ReviewThat is probably the best way to describe these cookbooks. They are a beautiful, sumptious feast for the eye and palate. The techniques that are taught are so valuable you will find yourself using them when not using either of these cookbooks. The pages are beautiful and glossy.The recipes, are beautifully laid out step by step. There has been criticism that Keller's cookbooks are almost too nice to use. I beg to differ. As with everything Thomas Keller does, these too are first class.The Complete Keller: The French Laundry Cookbook & Bouchon Overview

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The Fearless Baker: Scrumptious Cakes, Pies, Cobblers, Cookies, and Quick Breads that You Can Make to Impress Your Friends and Yourself Review

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The Fearless Baker: Scrumptious Cakes, Pies, Cobblers, Cookies, and Quick Breads that You Can Make to Impress Your Friends and Yourself ReviewI got an electronic version of the book, so the final version might be somewhat different.
I am not a baker. I cannot prepare desserts unless I follow instructions; so the cookbook needs to be very specific for my desserts to turn out.
The author dedicates some pages to the type of equipment that we should have. I wish that they had included photographs, as I had a hard time finding some of the equipment.
The book is divided into several chapters that cover: cookies, bars and bites, cakes, pies and tarts, fruit, No oven required, Best Dessert Sauces and Breakfast. It also has chapters on Sources, Metric Equivalents and Acknowledgments (people who helped with recipes and tasted them).
The first recipe that I baked was Blondies. They turned out great. The flavor was great and they were easy to prepare. The second recipe that I tried was the Cardamon Shortbread. It kind of flop on me because my mixture was not like "wet sand". I tried it again and had much better success with it. Both of them tasted good but I would have liked to see the final product to compare with what I baked.
This book is for the person who has a clue on baking. The lack of pictures makes it very hard for people like me that do not bake.The Fearless Baker: Scrumptious Cakes, Pies, Cobblers, Cookies, and Quick Breads that You Can Make to Impress Your Friends and Yourself Overview

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The Balthazar Cookbook Review

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The Balthazar Cookbook ReviewThis is a book of recipes adapted from recipes prepared at the lower Manhattan brasserie Balthazar. The most important element in determining whether you wish to buy this book is whether or not you really want another book of French brasserie recipes specifically as they are prepared at this restaurant. I give it only four stars to serve as a warning to think before you click on the order button.
These recipes are very good, divided into the chapters:
Appetizers, soups, and breakfast: 18 such as Salade Nicoise, Gravlax, steak tartare, onion soup gratinee
Fish and Shellfish: 23 such as Bouillabaisse, Sole en Papillote, Grilled swordfish, Koulibiac
Chicken and Game: 10 such as Coq au Vin, Duck a l'Orange, Cassoulet, rabbit Moutarde
Meat: 15 such as Steak Frites, steak au poivre, Pork Milanese, Glazed pork belly, Choucroute Garnie
Vegetables and Sides: 20 such as French Fries, Potato Gratin, Potato gnocchi, spaetzle, onion rings
Desserts: 9 such as Crème Brulee, Profiteroles, French Apple Tart, Pavlova, Lemon Mille-Feuille
You get the picture. If you have any three French cookbooks chosen at random, you will probably have recipes for over half of these dishes already. I am really surprised there is no recipe for an omlet.
Good reasons for buying this book are:
- Resource for an entertaining menu based on a French brasserie theme.
- Source of several very good general entertaining recipes, especially dishes like Pot au Feu, Choucroute Garnie, and Bouillabaisse which may have three or four different types of protein. This is very well suited to groups with varied tastes.
- Source for some brasserie recipes which one may not find in French cookbooks, such as the Italian and German influenced dishes of gnocchi, spaetzle, and choucroute garnie.
On the plus side, this is a very attractively prepared book and the recipes are adapted to being prepared at home. I wish, in fact, that the authors would have been truer to their restaurant methods. I have always believed that one of the many things a home cook can learn from restaurant practice is how to be economical with ingredients. In some preparations involving mushrooms, they say to discard the stems. I will bet good money that in the restaurant they put the stems into their vegetable stock pot.
There are several editorial gafes I have come to expect in Clarkson Potter books. This book introduces some new ones. First, the titles of the recipes begin the book all in French (with no English translation) and somewhere in the middle of fish and shellfish, they switch to English (with no French translation). From that point on, they switch back an forth between English and French almost randomly. Second, after carefully laying out pages so that everything relevant to a recipe is on two facing pages, they leave sidebars for one dish to slip over onto the next pair of pages. Third, the forward by Robert Hughes repeats material in Keith McNally's introduction. I guess he thought nobody reads Forewords. Fourth, the Foreward says most restaurants avoid swordfish, yet there on page 74 is a recipe for grilled swordfish. Sacre Bleu!
These are all minor gaffs, and I give Hughes special credit for the overall quality of his essay. It is clearly superior to similar material in a recent gloss on the life of his Manhatten restaurants by Daniel Boulud. This brings an interesting contrast to Balthazar's food to what you will find in Café Boulud, especially since the joint chefs at Balthazar cite Boulud as their mentor. While both are firmly based in French cuisine, they are clearly based on two different styles of French cooking. Brasserie cooking was designed to be a type of fast, inexpensive food while Boulud's haute cuisine is meant for serious sit down sessions of marathon eating and drinking. The result is that to my taste, having all the time in the world to cook, I find Boulud's dishes much more inviting from their descriptions on the printed page than do Balthazar's brasserie fare. But that's me.
The photography is comptetant with the usual fuzziness in the closeups and the usual absence of captions. Sigh. The overall design of the book is very clever and bright, easy to read, and, I suppose, based on the look of the Balthazar menu.
Overall, it is very well done and a worthy purchase. Just be careful to evaluate how you expect it will complement your needs and your cookbook collection.The Balthazar Cookbook Overview

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Laduree: The Savory Recipes Review

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Laduree: The Savory Recipes ReviewStunning book with delicious recipes. Made some for Christmas and everyone enjoyed them tremendously. Plus, they were easy to prepare.
I only wish I could afford the Laduree book for sweets. Why the heck is it so expensive??Laduree: The Savory Recipes Overview

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I Love Macarons Review

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I Love Macarons ReviewOverall, I really like the look of this book and purchased six of them, one for myself and five others for friends. But, for a book that is dedicated solely to the creation of the macaron, the French Meringue recipe will not yield successful macarons. After many many batches attempting to recreate the results shown in the book, I finally went in search of help on the internet and discovered this site: [...].
Helen Dujardin is 100% french, and in my opinion the US-based macaron guru. With her assistance, I have been able to correct the French Meringue recipe in I Love Macarons. There is a great deal of essential information missing from the book. For example, the amount of egg white needed is 90 gr, definitely DO NOT use three large eggs as even medium eggs will yield more white than needed. And, the eggs must first be aged. To age them, they need to be out of their shells, separated from the yolks and left to stand uncovered for a couple of days at room temperature in the coolest part of your kitchen. (To understand this process better and learn a work around, read Helen DuJardin's article Demystifying Macarons found on the internet.) Using non-aged eggs will cause the pied or foot of your macarons to spread. The pied should not extend beyond the shell.
Secondly, the information in the book on confectioner's sugar is confusing. For instance, the book says not to use confectioner's sugar containing cornstarch (cornstarch-free sugar is not available in the US as far as I can tell). However, the product sample pictured in the book, by Woodstock Farms, actually does contain cornstarch. I tried making my own cornstarch-free confectioner's sugar by whirling it around in my food processor until it was a fine dust, but this yielded very unsatisfactory results in the form of dull, cracked macarons with no pied. What I learned from Helen DuJardin, is that it is okay to use confectioner's sugar with cornstarch, but stay away from the discount brands as they may contain more cornstarch than sugar. The recipe in the book calls for 1 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar and that should be increased to approximately 1 3/4 cup or 200 gr.
The amount of granulated sugar called for in the book is 5 tablespoons, however, I followed Helen DuJardin's recipe and used 2 tablespoons, and this is where the superfine sugar I made in my food processor came in handy and I used this rather than granulated sugar in my meringue.
The recipe in the book calls for 2/3 cup ground almond flour, way less than what is actually required. Use a full, firmly-packed cup or 110 gr. I purchased a five-pound bag on the internet from Honeyville but after reading Helen DuJardin's article, I will use fresh blanched almonds in the future as the pre-ground almond flour tends to be dry and will not yield optimal results. Blanched (without the dark skin) almonds will give you a macaron without the little specks, but either with or without skin will work.
From the standpoint of technique, and in addition to an accurate receipe, making macarons is all about the technique. Unfortunatley, I also found some problems with the techniques as described in the book. For example, the meringue should be whipped (on medium-high speed) just to the point where it will not slide out of the mixer bowl, reaching a medium stiff texture, or it will be too dry. The book says to beat on high until the meringue is stiff, firm and glossy, which may take it too far.
The macaronage technique (blending the meringue with the almonds and sugar) in the book is guaranteed to overwork your batter. What I found most helpful is Helen DuJardin's instruction that the whole process should take no more than 50 strokes. Too many strokes equals overworked batter and will give you thin batter that will not hold up once piped onto the cookie sheet. And, as an amateur patissier, it is important to note that while you do not want to overwork your batter, you do not have to worry about deflating the meringue as with other recipes.
As far as using two baking sheets is concerned, I found that when using a good quality baking sheet, lined with a Silpat or parchment paper,(a good recipe and proper technique), it is not necessary to use double baking pans and this actually kept my macarons from completely cooking on the bottoms, making them sticky and difficult to remove. As for cooking time, I think you will need to work with that a bit on your individual ovens. 280 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 - 18 minutes is what Helen Dujardin recommends.
I also had a problem with the butter cream making technique. When making the sugar syrup component, four minutes in the microwave is far too much time and cooking times can vary from one microwave to another. This is something better accomplished with a thermometer and getting the sugar to a temperature of approximately 235 to 240 degrees Fahrenheit.
In defense of Hisako Ogita, the author of I Love Macarons, I suspect that someone somewhere in the book publishing process tampered with her recipes, or perhaps they were corrupted in translation. She looks as if she genuinely does love macarons and is obviously getting successful results. In all my research, I did discover that professional patissiers prefer the Italian Meringue recipe over the French for consistent results (perhaps that is what Hisako used). I haven't gotten that far in I Love Macarons as of yet. The Italian recipe does require a little more technique expertise, but I think mastering the French one will prepare me for that eventuality.
Good Luck!I Love Macarons Overview

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French Professional Pastry Series : Decorations, Borders and Letters, Marzipan, Modern Desserts Review

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French Professional Pastry Series : Decorations, Borders and Letters, Marzipan, Modern Desserts ReviewThis is the fourth book in a series of four and it is a competent companion to the other three books.
It deals mainly with the decoration of finished desserts, lettering and writing with a variety of ingredients (chocolate, fondant etc), marzipan decorations, edible color painting, decoration and exhibition pieces and finished desserts among others.
As it is part of a series you need to get the recipes for the preparations and bases from the other books, especially the first two (bases and fillings). The second part of the book deals with modern desserts (tortes, gateaux) that one can find in patisseries around France. If you live in Europe you might find some of the dessert decorations somewhat dated, as this book has quite a few years on its back. If you live in the USA though, the desserts and decorations here are rarely if ever seen in american bakeries.
The last part of the book deals with exhbition pieces and alone is worth the price of the book. Excellent craftmanship and endless inspiration for the pastry chef.
The book has gloss pages, it is full of colored photographs, depicting both the procedures and the finished products and it has Metric weights as should be expected from a professional book.
The price has decreased recently so it is a great buy for the professional.French Professional Pastry Series : Decorations, Borders and Letters, Marzipan, Modern Desserts Overview

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Paris Sweets: Great Desserts From the City's Best Pastry Shops Review

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Paris Sweets: Great Desserts From the City's Best Pastry Shops ReviewContemplating recipes in this new book from Dorie Greenspan, subtitled `Great Desserts from the City's Best Pastry Shops' is much like shopping for antiques in that furniture whose style and construction have survived either decades or centuries of wear and changes in taste is almost invariably of a higher quality than last month's great new thing. You don't even have the disadvantage of having to pay a premium price, as Ms. Greenspan's book list price is lower than many books containing mostly new recipes original with the author and her support team.
Ms. Greenspan is not only reporting recipes from what she believes are the greatest patisseries in Paris, she is telling us from which shops these recipes come, and where these shops are located. Happily, some of these shops even have satellites in New York City. Yum.
All of these recipes are classics. The Madeleine cookie is so important and so well known that Ms. Greenspan gives us three recipes from three different shops. Apparently, there are so many different recipes for Madeleines, she could have assembled a book from them alone.
Cookies are the subject of the first chapter. Following chapters cover cakes, tarts, `pastries and small treats', and `grand gateaux'. The `pastries and small treats' chapter includes such standards as Crème Brulee, Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Bread Pudding, Ali-Babas (similar to baba au rhum), Tiger Tea Cakes, Soft Apple Cakes, Whipped Cream-Filled Meringues, Coffee Eclairs, Strawberry and Orange Flower Water Marshmallows, and Hot Chocolate. The `grand gateaux' chapter includes pastries such as Bacchus (raisin filled cake plus ganache and glaze), Opera Cake, Chocolate-Thyme Cake, Chocolate Temptation (ooh la la dessert), Blanc-manger (a very, very old French version of panna cotta), King's Cake (traditional after Christmas), Mille-Feuille (Napoleon), and Gate Saint-Honore. Decedent doesn't even begin to these homages to butter, cream, sugar, and eggs.
The final chapter of `Base Recipes' contains just a few important pantry staples. Even though they look very familiar and are probably in the repertoire of every experienced pastry chef, they deserve a look, as they may be a bit different than what you are used to. The recipe for pate sucree, for example, includes almonds and vanilla, things which are not commonly in American sweet tart dough recipes.
The recipes in this book are the main attraction, but they are not the only charm. There are lots of headnotes, asides, and sidebars on the recipes, the shops and their bakers who contributed the recipes, and the French take on classic ingredients such as butter, salt, vanilla, water, and eggs. A take on fleur de sel worth repeating is Dori's comparing it to extra virgin olive oil, the most desirable first yield from the olive oil harvest. The stories on the shops make me wish I was more in tune with French pastry when I was in Paris many, many years ago. Even the addresses of shops on streets such as the Boulevard Haussman and the place de la Madeleine bring back fond memories of time spent in Paris.
The final charm offered by the book is the collection of watercolors done by Florine Asch which decorate the text, the end pages, and the cover.
I am not at all surprised that the description of the recipes is quite clear and should be not at all difficult for an American amateur baker. Although all European professional bakers measure everything strictly by metric weight, the author has converted everything to the teaspoons and cups and English weight units. Many recipes make sensible use of a food processor for mixing dough. In spite of this all, do not be surprised that many recipes are two or more pages long. The result is more than worth the effort. Each recipe concludes with a supremely considerate note on how to best keep each result and for how long. Each recipe also includes a paragraph labelled `An American in Paris' on variations and options for serving.
Ms. Greenspan's credentials for writing this book are impeccible. This is her eighth book on pastry. Her previous books have included collaborations with Pierre Herme, Daniel Boulud, and the great Julia Child. It is quite appropriate that the book was suggested by the author of `The Paris Cookbook', Ms. Patricia Wells. Much credit to Ms. Wells for instigating this very happy result.
Highly recommended for both recipes and warm evocation of a sweet aspect of Paris.Paris Sweets: Great Desserts From the City's Best Pastry Shops Overview

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New Orleans Cuisine: Fourteen Signature Dishes and Their Histories Review

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New Orleans Cuisine: Fourteen Signature Dishes and Their Histories ReviewThis is one of those academic books but I liked it for a number of reasons. First, reading it reminded me of a story told by a friend in a nearby northern gulf coast Creole city that preceded New Orleans by a few years. She and her husband whose offices were downtown in the heart of the city, liked to take breakfast at a historic hotel, a fixture of the cities traditions. A famous New York journalist was in town covering an event had been seated at an adjacent table for several days and they noticed his annoyance when the waitress would serve him a dish of grits each day with his order. On the third morning he was a bit crankier than usual and when she set down the dish of grits he exclaimed not to kindly why did she keep bringing him grits when he tells her not to! The waitress calmly finished pouring fresh coffee and setting out fresh rolls before replying, "Honey, it's just a law, you don't have to eat them, but I'm going to serve them because that's how we do it here".
All in all, without total immersion, the "Big Easy" will always remain undefined to the casual visitor. "New Orleans Cuisine," on the other hand, can provide entertaining and significant clues for those who would like to gain insights to the evolution of its food culture and how that fits into the "big gestalt."New Orleans Cuisine: Fourteen Signature Dishes and Their Histories Overview

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Bread of Three Rivers Review

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Bread of Three Rivers ReviewI loved this book! It is a wonderful read, the language always fresh, and the author's insights wise, sometime sad, but always big hearted. I learned a lot about modern-day France, but also salt, yeast, water, wheat -- and how the whole world is kneaded into something as simple as a good loaf of bread.Bread of Three Rivers Overview

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Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris Review

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Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris ReviewThis guide is just perfect for a foodie. Clotilde not only provides suggestions for all types of restaurants, she goes even further to give information on every food-related aspect of a vacation in Paris. With this book we will now be able to shop the best farmers' markets we otherwise might have missed. We're looking forward to experiencing the different neighborhood streets and markets, each with their distinct characteristics. We also now know the very best bakeries and shops for chocolate, pastries, candy, ice cream, spices, cheese, specialty food items, cured meats, prepared foods, fish, gourmet products, tea, coffee, wine, books, cookware, tableware, and even food shows. There are also great tips on French phrases and customs that will allow us to enjoy our trip to the fullest. This is the only guide of its kind.
Although comprehensive, I only wish there was more. However, that would probably just require additional and lesser suggestions. If we asked a friend for recommendations, this is just the guide we would want. Unlike most guides, there is not a long list of lackluster destinations taking up space with descriptions of why they are not recommended. Only recommended spots are listed, which is all we really need and allows the book to be a good size and easily referenced.
Clotilde boils down the city to its essence, providing only the best information in a well-organized format. The book is a good size to carry around. There is also more content on Clotilde's blog. We can't wait to put all of this information to good use in a few months when we're in Paris!Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris Overview

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Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) Review

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Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) Review(Originally posted on my blog, That Artsy Reader Girl. I received an eARC from the publisher in exchange for this review.)
The idea of this memoir is pretty adorable. I love Paris, I love New York, and I love desserts! I envy that Amy Thomas got to fly off to live in Paris for two years, doing advertising for Louis Vuitton and sampling all the amazing pastries and breads, not to mention the culture itself. The pages of this book are crammed full of bakeries and other foodish places in both Paris and New York. She makes a lot of recommendations for those who plan to travel to either location. Many times I felt like I was reading a menu with really detailed, yummy dessert descriptions. Do not read this on an empty stomach, or if you're on a diet. The author even had me craving desserts I'm allergic to!
She also talks a lot about the history of various bakeries and dessert creations. Like the original chocolate chip cookie was a mistake. Someone accidentally dropped a chocolate bar in their cookie dough, and decided to go with the flow. A star was born. There's lots of cool tidbits of information that I enjoyed reading about. I learned quite a bit.
Of course, she adds in personal stories from her past, as well as her time in Paris. My favorite one is when her parents fly to Paris to visit her. She describes all the touristy stuff there is to do, and she made me want to visit even more. She takes them to this one tearoom called Angelina's, that sells the best hot chocolate in the world. She compares it to melted truffles. YUM. Coco Chanel used to have her 5:00 tea there everyday, and Audrey Hepburn popped in frequently. I looked this place up online, and it is GORGEOUS (and majorly expensive). I need to go!
There were a few things that caused me to drop my rating of this book. I loved the idea, but the execution could have been stronger. I don't speak or read French, and there is a TON of French in this book with no translations! She has a conversation with a woman who runs a bakery, and it was entirely in French. I could kind of make out what the general idea of the conversation was, but I had no idea what they were saying. She also used a lot of French phrases in the middle of her English sentences. It took away from my enjoyment, because I kept getting frustrated that I was missing something important. I just wish a parenthetical translation were there, or a footnote. Something. The author also writes really long, flowery sentences (sometimes the size of a lengthy paragraph) that are extremely wordy lists of stuff. She does this a lot (sometimes 2-3 times per page), and it gets kind of tiring.
Finally, she's a complainer. She complains a lot about being single, and how all of her friends are pairing off. She complains about Paris, her job, her lack of friends, how her jeans are tighter than they used to be (which they should be with everything she eats! Haha), her lack of French skills, and how she misses New York. But then she goes back to visit NYC, and mopes and complains about how it's not upscale enough for her anymore. And THEN she goes back to Paris and complains that she misses New York. I understand that it's hard uprooting your life and moving to a foreign city. And I can totally understand why she felt like this. But filling her memoir with complaints didn't make much sense to me. She spent a lot of the book sporting the "the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality, and I got tired of it. She was giddy about food. Food solved all of her problems. I wish she'd expressed more of her happiness in other areas of life.
Overall, this was a moderately enjoyable read. The author has a few coming of age moments, and you can tell she learned a lot about herself during her time abroad. I appreciated her human side, but wished for a little more depth. She either talked at great length about food or her hardships. I enjoyed reading about the food, but I got sick of it towards the latter part of the book (it started to feel about as exciting as a cookbook without the recipes). Maybe Paris, My Sweet should be read in small doses, along with another book. I might have appreciated it more that way. If you love New York and Paris, this book will take you there. And if you love torturing your dieting self with amazing sounding pastries, this is the book for you! At least reading about calories doesn't plaster them to your hips, right? I've created a Dessert Bucket List now, thanks to Amy Thomas. :)Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) Overview

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Pastry Paris: In Paris, Everything Looks Like Dessert Review

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Pastry Paris: In Paris, Everything Looks Like Dessert ReviewExpert graphic designer Susan Hockbaum juxtaposes Paris' most luscious treasures, often in onsite settings, in a whimsical way that reflects their design, colors, ingenuity.
Visual wit abounds. Look for sublime repetition of forms in Paris' monuments and Paris' pastries - perfect for the armchair traveler.
The one drawback - it will make you drool and run out of the house searching for something delectable and impossibly Frenchie.
You have been warned.
Enjoy!Pastry Paris: In Paris, Everything Looks Like Dessert Overview

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Boulangerie: A Pocket Guide to Paris's Famous Bakeries Review

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Boulangerie: A Pocket Guide to Paris's Famous Bakeries ReviewThis book is a jewel. It made our first Paris trip that much more special by introducing us to some exceptionally fine bakeries. This pocket-sized book not only gives you a listing of the fine Boulangeries (organized by arrondisements, includes the address & phone number, closest metro or bus stop, when they are open, and what's special about each) but tells you where to go (nearby picnic spots) and eat the bread and goodies that you buy at these Boulangeries -- this is what truly made the book special. We tried "Robineau" in the 7th and "Gerard Beufort" in the 5th as listed in this book and we were not disappointed. Both had wonderful baked goods, the former within a short walk to the Champ de Mars and Eiffel, and the latter, a 3-minute walk away from Arenes de Lutece, the ancient Roman amphitheater which is a perfect picnic spot. You could use this book to plan your breakfasts and picnic lunches as a nice balance to the Bistro-dining in Paris.Boulangerie: A Pocket Guide to Paris's Famous Bakeries Overview

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Paris Pastry Guide Review

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Paris Pastry Guide ReviewFor those traveling to Paris, this is an invaluable guide. When I was in Paris a Parisian friend of mine made it a point to take me to Salon Angelique on Rue Rivoli for their pastries. Worth the trip.Paris Pastry Guide OverviewDiscover over 300 of the best pastry, chocolate, candy and hot chocolate shops in Paris, with reviews and photos by pastry chef and author David Lebovitz. Each shop includes the full address, closest metro station, phone, opening hours, website link, online map location link, and a review with photos. The guide includes an index of shops by location and category, as well as a glossary of common French food and baking terms.

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