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Summary: Is this the best baking book I've ever seen? Oh yes, it is!
Review: I returned to the States from my first trip to Paris in June, after only having been there a week. Definitely not long enough to try all of the delicious looking pastries in every boulangerie ou patisserie. I am still truly homesick for Paris--but this book is wonderful and full of delicious recipes. I can't wait to try almost everything in this book, the nice thing is that it shows pictures of every recipe, so there's no suprises as to what it should look like. I also suggest Paris Bistro by the same author.
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Summary: Recipes are not precise!
Review: I've tried 3 recipes out of this book and none turned out well. The book is nice to read and has outstanding pictures, but it's a lousy cookbook. Maybe the author neglected to test the recipes in a home setting?
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Summary: OUTSTANDING!
Review: I've tried numerous receipes from this book, and with very few exceptions, they turned out just great. I've also visited the bakeries in Paris and tried the products and mine taste just as good, if not better.
Rating: 
Summary: Do the recipes work?
Review: Photography is gorgeous, however, do the recipes work? I've tried the "Bouchons" (chocolate corks), a simple recipe: they were worse than mediocre and looked nothing like the photo (I am an experienced baker, BTW). At least they were edible. Which recipes have the other reviewers tried and had succes with? I would like to try more of the other recipes, however, do not want to waste my time...it is interesting that several reviewers admit to having not even tried the recipes and one reviewer pans three of them!
Rating: 
Summary: Charming Book
Review: Since my last trip to Paris, I've been desperately searching for a great book on french patisseries. I remember looking through the windows of Fauchons and wondering if I could create some of these beautiful and tasty confections at home. This book offers some of those guarded recipes and I'll definately try them. My greatest search has been for the mouthwatering french macaroons in all the different flavors of raspberry, chocolate, coffee and a number of different ones that I had tried there. And also some of the unique and architecturally designed pastries that not only look good but tastes soooo delicious. We just don't have those patisserie's here. The sad story is that I found only one recipe for macaroons and it was the plain almond ones, there were no recipes provided by the variety I saw in the book. This book offers plenty of pictures, but not the recipes for some of them. I was very disappointed. I was also hoping for more pictures and recipes of the desserts I saw at Fauchons. But all in all it's a nice book and it does have some good recipes.
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Summary: The Quintessential Parisian Experience!
Review: The order of the book flawlessly executes the author's approach: reveal Parisian culture through its bakeries and pastries. The establishments featured in the book are adroitly described, allowing the reader to appreciate their institutional status as well as the cultural significance of their recipes. I have thoroughly enjoyed preparing several of the recipes. Many of the recipes are more appropriate for those with a skilled touch; those with little experience in the French kitchen might better relegate this book to the coffee table, where many a guest of mine has relished in its exquisite photography and warm prose.
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Summary: Fabulous!
Review: This beautiful book transports the reader from the home kitchen to a Paris bakery. It's a treat to look at and the recipes, while they may be intimidating to those just starting to bake, are well worth the time and effort.
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Summary: Bring home a taste of Paris to your own kitchen...
Review: This book is delectable! It's a fragrant stroll through some of the most venerable and famous Patisserie of Paris. Dannenberg has managed to obtain more than 70 recipes from the famous bakers themselves and presents them in a format well-suited for the average American cook.The book contains over 150 wonderful photographs guaranteed to make one drool, and which bring back memories of Paris of the past, as well as visions of the Paris of today. She breaks the recipes into four sections: "L'Ancienne Tradition", "Les Specialistes", "Les Grands Classiques", and "Les Jeunes Artisans Extraordinaires." In each section she highlights several patissiers or boulangers, and the recipes which make them unique. The only problem I had with this book is it made me want to run out and buy the ingredients I needed to make some of these delectables. From Pate aux Trois Viandes en Croute, to Mousee au Caramel at aux Poires, it's just too hard to resist! Whether you're a fan of traditional or nouveau French pastry, this book will satisfy your cravings for the taste of Paris we all long for.
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Summary: oooohh, just what i expected and more!
Review: This is a great book and absolutely mouth-watering! It presents pictures of several Parisian boulangeries and patisseries with quite a number of recipes for each one. And the recipes do seem do-able and many are original. There are great-looking recipes for fruit cake, chocolate (almond) macaroons, and croissants soaked in syrup and baked with almond cream. The pictures show the quaint side of Paris bakeries, too. I only wish it were more up-to-date, since it was published in 1994. Definitely buy it if you're looking for a great guide to Parisian sweets!
Rating:
Summary: Charming Book
Review: This is another of my rewiews which is a little premature at the present time because although I have had this beautiful book for quite a while, I have not yet made any of the recipes in it. As someone who did not, until recently, aspire to baking any pastries, pies or cakes, whatsoever, who has, neverthless, changed her mind in that she has decided that she wants to learn to bake just a few , I have an opinion about the possible suggestions of some of the other reviewers as to this book's requiring a degree of skill on the part of the cook, in baking. I really have no experience in baking, although some, of course, in cooking not-very- difficult, meals. However, what I did not expect of this author is some attention to what you need, as to the basic equipment that should get you started with what you want to start with (along with other books I have, ranging from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham to The Cordon Bleu Complete Cooking Techniques, both available at this site and worth it as well) and clearly presented enough recipes, from the ingredients to the actual making of the things you want to make for me to decide to give it a go. There are two things I'd like to start with, which are not necessarily logical pastries for someone like me, with no baking experience, to begin with, but which I feel I can manage with her help. I know, I know, I should at least wait until this summer and try Marion Cunningham's deep dish apple pie (with a slice of cheddar cheese on top). However, I can't, so MY first order of business is going to be Linda Dannenberg's Croissants (yes 'plain' because I am going to stuff them with my kind of cooked filling-and no it isn't melted cheese). Despite the fact that Au Bon Pain, here in Westchester, makes delicious plain croissants, I have vowed make them myself, Linda Dannenberg's way, with my preferred stuffing. I would like to say that it is, in part, this author's presentation, as well as the other cookbooks I just referred to , that helped me to decide to try this at this point, regardless of what any naysayers might have suggested. That said, it may not be always that easy for everone interested in some of these recipes to buy all of the ingredients required where they usually shop for food. I was not able to find the cake flour she says one needs for croissants, in two local supermarkets, but this author gives, in the back of the book, a list of companies with their addresses, from which certain items can be ordered, and I was able to order it from a manufacturer in this country (who is apparently well known and does sell some more, perhaps more commonly used, kinds of flour in my local supermarkets, and I have it here. So if you think there are recipes you are interested in in this book that might call for ingredients that may not be so easy for you to obtain where you live, you should be aware that her book does provide help (and of course there's the internet). Also, although this book is full of wonderful photographs of delicious looking pastries I may try someday, it is also true that in the interest of keeping fit, including not becoming overweight at all (which I feel would be a horrible choice for me to make), I have concluded that there is only so much of the kind of food in this book that I can allow myself in a given period of time, which means that I am only going to mention one more pastry (-of which there is a truly scrumptious looking full page color photograph, for one to try to approximate as best one can). It is called Tarte au Pommes Rissolés, and is made with sautéed apples, a cream filling, and puff pastry (While it will not displace the deep dish apple pie I expect to bake later this year, it looks so appetizing that I don't see how I can NOT try to bake it soon, even if the result will be, without doubt, anything but expert. I have perused this book for some time and on that basis, as well os the above, I very much recommend it. However, as beautiful as it is for a cookbook, I really don't think it belongs on anyone's coffee table (and I may not be the only person who is just not the type to put a cookbook, or indeed any large book, on a coffee table). This book is worth it AS THE COOKBOOK THAT IT IS and belongs in the kitchen!! I am very glad that I found it at this website and have it.
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