Rating: 
Summary: Best Baking Book !
Review: This book is a comprehensive baking resource, with fabulous recipes to boot! I have made 5 recipes so far (in two weeks!) And four were great, one was good. The Guava cheesecake was ethereal, the foodstuff of angels! When you read the creative combinations in the recipes, it really makes you want to get in the kitchen. The tables are an invaluable resource. Buy this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Restaurant cooking
Review: This book is not filled with the "homey desserts" the book jacket promises. The recipes should be called "Cooking with your liquor cabinet" since the majority of them need Kahlua, wine, sweet liquor, rum, etc. These recipes show her restaurant background and are probably great at a 5-star restaurant but not what I want or need to prepare at home. The technique section of this has many errors. She says "Coconut fat is one of the only non-animal sources of saturated fat and cholesterol..", but actually cholesterol is only found in animal products. She recommends against using superfine or baker's sugar when creaming, but "Cook's Illustrated" found no differences when tested. The best recipe in the book is a chocolate cake, and she got that recipe from her Mom! Reading through these recipes I did not find one that I had the ingredients for, or that I was inspired enough to get the ingredients to make it!
Rating:
Summary: Must Have!!!
Review: This book, is well written and thoroughly researched. The author has taken the time to aquaint us with the ingredients and equipment that every baker uses. Regan Daley streses the importance of knowing our ingredients and the purpose that they serve in our recipes. Just following a recipe really is not enough! I believe that anyone that bakes should become familiar with this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book, Bad Book
Review: This fascinating volume is actually 2 distinct books in one, so I will deal with the 2 halves separately. The first part is yet another cooking encyclopedia, and the second is a conventional collection of very good recipes. The author states correctly that there is no real source for all of the information used in baking, even if you have professional training. So, the first part of this book is a comprehensive reference work, which is both good and bad. Tools and techniques occupy almost 90 pages, and ingredients take an amazing 300 pages. On the good side, it is very complete. Some sections are ones where the author has extensive personal experience, and are exemplary, such as the ones on garnishing and fresh fruits. It also has many useful tables. On the down side, the author seems to be cribbing from standard encyclopedias and manufacturers' literature for much of this section; this is true of perhaps as much as half of this section. Plus, I have doubts about whether the author tested ALL of the combinations listed in the "Ingredient Substitution Chart" or "Flavour Pairing Chart". I also have minor quibbles with some of the information, viz: nutmeg and mace are different, but as a practical matter they are interchangeable (in fact, nutmeg is listed as a substitute for mace, but it also works the other way around); a whole Madagascar vanilla bean is worth more than 2 teaspoons-the correct amount is closer to 2 tablespoons. There is also at least one editing error: page 445 states "see page xx". The 300 page recipe section, however, more than makes up for deficiencies in the reference section. It contains 150 recipes, of which there are very few "throw away" recipes that you will never use. Too many cookbooks have recipes that are either rehashes from other cookbooks (in which case you can actually trace the evolution of a recipe from one cookbook to another), or weird and outlandish variations of recipes that are not worth doing or simply do not work. In this case, it is a collection of both standard recipes and the author's own creations. The emphasis here is on flavor and not elegant or architectural presentations. For example, sauces and garnishes often have the same flavor as the cake or torte rather than a contrasting one; the result is flavor that is often better than the fancy desserts and sweets served at the best restaurants. The author has genuinely rethought the whole subject of baking, ingredients, and taste, and created a collection of recipes that are better than standard baking recipes. They range from traditional ones such as strawberry shortcake and macaroons, to the exotic, such as "Valrhona Molten Chocolate Cakes" and "Lychee and Coconut Milk Sorbet". The most useful chapter is the last one, "Garnishes, Sauces, and Basic Recipes"; it contains useful, all-purpose recipes. In fact, it should be the first chapter in the recipe part of the book, as many recipes elsewhere in the book depend on the ones in this last chapter. In summary, the reference section is a mixed lot, but the recipes are of the highest caliber. It is not a book for beginners, but both home cooks and professionals will find it useful.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book, Bad Book
Review: This fascinating volume is actually 2 distinct books in one, so I will deal with the 2 halves separately. The first part is yet another cooking encyclopedia, and the second is a conventional collection of very good recipes. The author states correctly that there is no real source for all of the information used in baking, even if you have professional training. So, the first part of this book is a comprehensive reference work, which is both good and bad. Tools and techniques occupy almost 90 pages, and ingredients take an amazing 300 pages. On the good side, it is very complete. Some sections are ones where the author has extensive personal experience, and are exemplary, such as the ones on garnishing and fresh fruits. It also has many useful tables. On the down side, the author seems to be cribbing from standard encyclopedias and manufacturers' literature for much of this section; this is true of perhaps as much as half of this section. Plus, I have doubts about whether the author tested ALL of the combinations listed in the "Ingredient Substitution Chart" or "Flavour Pairing Chart". I also have minor quibbles with some of the information, viz: nutmeg and mace are different, but as a practical matter they are interchangeable (in fact, nutmeg is listed as a substitute for mace, but it also works the other way around); a whole Madagascar vanilla bean is worth more than 2 teaspoons-the correct amount is closer to 2 tablespoons. There is also at least one editing error: page 445 states "see page xx". The 300 page recipe section, however, more than makes up for deficiencies in the reference section. It contains 150 recipes, of which there are very few "throw away" recipes that you will never use. Too many cookbooks have recipes that are either rehashes from other cookbooks (in which case you can actually trace the evolution of a recipe from one cookbook to another), or weird and outlandish variations of recipes that are not worth doing or simply do not work. In this case, it is a collection of both standard recipes and the author's own creations. The emphasis here is on flavor and not elegant or architectural presentations. For example, sauces and garnishes often have the same flavor as the cake or torte rather than a contrasting one; the result is flavor that is often better than the fancy desserts and sweets served at the best restaurants. The author has genuinely rethought the whole subject of baking, ingredients, and taste, and created a collection of recipes that are better than standard baking recipes. They range from traditional ones such as strawberry shortcake and macaroons, to the exotic, such as "Valrhona Molten Chocolate Cakes" and "Lychee and Coconut Milk Sorbet". The most useful chapter is the last one, "Garnishes, Sauces, and Basic Recipes"; it contains useful, all-purpose recipes. In fact, it should be the first chapter in the recipe part of the book, as many recipes elsewhere in the book depend on the ones in this last chapter. In summary, the reference section is a mixed lot, but the recipes are of the highest caliber. It is not a book for beginners, but both home cooks and professionals will find it useful.
Rating:
Summary: Great reference, but frustrating to bake from
Review: This is a cookbook that you sit down to read, not one you pick up to cook from. The first half of it is full of detailed descriptions and explanations of ingredients, tools, and baking lingo--all of it very well written and informative. This makes a great reference for any baking project and encourages experimentation. Two of the best features of the book are found in this section: the Ingredient Substitution Chart and Flavour Pairing Chart. If the book ended there, it would surely get 5 stars from me. But this is a cookbook, and so the second half contains the recipes, and these are a collective doozy. Even the simplest recipes are written with at least one diatribe per paragraph. It often takes half a page to convey a simple instruction such as "sift the dry ingredients together." As a result, baking from the book is frustrating. I found myself having to turn the pages of a recipe back and forth countless times to get through all the excess language and still remember what ingredient goes in next. That being said, most of the recipes do turn out great desserts (the All-in-the-Pan Chewy Chocolate Cake is a favorite in my house), you just have to get through the recipe itself.
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