The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef
‘The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef’ is a reference book – an advanced pastry textbook – and as such is a very handy book to have in your kitchen. It provides a wealth of quality information and a wide range of basic techniques with very practical applications, especially for a beginner without formal training in culinary arts. I have bought this book as a gift for friends who are just starting to cook.
It is a mini-encyclopedia of pastry, covering a wide array of topics: decorated cakes, frozen and plated desserts, weight and measurement conversions, how to temper chocolate, trace drawings for decorations, step-by-step tutorials, even contract templates and wedding cake techniques. And that is only scratching the surface.
The recipes all work, but they are not to my personal taste, as they are a bit old-fashioned. Quite often I will refer to this book as a reference, as a starting point, and I will adapt the recipe for my own use.
Every cook should have a book like this on their shelf, as it is very useful – I could go back to it a hundred times and always find something new, as it covers such a wide range of material. While it is not particularly inspirational, it has lots of value, especially to newer cooks, and as such is recommendable.