Creams, Confections, and Finished Desserts

Rating:
Summary: This series leaves very little to guesswork. Not for novices
Review: An excellent and complete manual for French pastry. These classic techniques are taught to every French pastry apprentice. They are all basic instuctions but very detailed and can be built on very easily. Only caveat: the ingredients used are French and/or European and American equivalents aren't suggested. Only the language has been translated-but not the culture!

Rating:
Summary: No regret
Review: I have purchaced this book just because i like french pastries and like to try myself to make those wonderful pastries that we see in the vitrine. And i did not regret that.Now I am going to purchace the full series.After reading ,this book I can now prepare brioche,eclair,petit pain,cream cormet.Buy them I promise you will not regret at all.All my friend do not believe that i cook them myself.

Rating:
Summary: A complete howto on french pastry methodology
Review: This book stands out from most of my other cookbooks because it does not only focus on what to put into the things it describes, but how to do it, and what not to do. The latter is, for some reason, quite hard to find.

Don't expect a book for keeping on the table in the living room because of its pretty pictures, like the latest trend in cookbooks seems to mandate. This book is directed towards people who need to do something in the kitchen, and tries to tell them how in a relatively simple way.

A very nice book, although it is directed towards learning in a professional environment. You will also need volume 1 to get the full benefit of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Professional French Pastry volume 2
Review: When it comes to professional caliber instructions and instructions for baking and pastry, this book is clearly top of the heap. It may be a little expensive, but it is easily the equivalent of at least a dozen other books on pastry with glossy, fancy photos and a big, famous name on the cover. If you are a professional who plans to advance your career, this book is a must have. Please note that this is volume 2 of the series; you are expected to go through the volumes in order, so this book assumes that you have already gone through and mastered volume 1.

This book has a lot to offer the professional. Note that the emphasis on this volume is production. It goes beyond the basics of volume 1 (sanitation, making batters, proper baking techniques, etc.), while fancy, sophisticated decorations are reserved for volumes 3 and 4. The mini lessons in this volume are more or less equivalent to the instructions I got at culinary school. The great value here is that there are many more subjects in this book than in any cooking school class. If there is something you wish to do but never did at school, the recipes in this book will give you enough detail to do it successfully the first time through.

Even for the home cook, there is much here of great value. Like cooking school, the lessons in this book are designed for cooks who may or may not have previous experience. If you are going to try something from this book, you must follow all the instructions to the letter, gather the necessary tools and ingredients, have patience, and expect to fail once or twice before you get the hang of it. Also, pay careful attention to the difficulty ratings to the recipes; the instructions make everything look easy, but this is misleading. If all you get out of this book is the proper method to make pastry cream and creme anglaise, a couple of candies, a decorated cake or two, a couple of tarts, and brioche, then this book is very worthwhile.

There are a few cautions, however. I found some format problems: pictures mis-labeled, the butter cream section is messed up, etc. The original copyright date is 1985, and first published in English in 2000; this means that the patisserie here is probably 3 decades old, and much of it very out of fashion. Also, note the title is "Professional French Pastry", and bears little relation to pastry as it is commonly served here in the US. It's primary value is that of a training manual, and not a guide to current, trendy pastry trends or tricks.

It has chapters on: basic creams, 2 chapters on secondary creams, confectionery, and finished pastries (pate a choux, cakes, tarts, puff pastry, and brioche presentation). The last section on finished pastries is by definition advanced, and occupies the second half of the book.