The Flavor Bible
April 25, 2009‘How do you know what goes with what?’ Lucille had asked me several times over the Christmas break
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged apple, cinnamon, Flavor Bible, foie gras | Leave a commentEvery cook owes a huge debt of gratitude to those dedicated foodies who have meticulously documented their work with food, giving us the benefit of their mistakes, successes, experiments and flashes of genius.
Contemporary Wedding Cakes
April 2, 2009Looking at ‘Contemporary Wedding Cakes’ makes me realize how much wedding cake design has changed in the last two decades. This book was very useful when I started (it was the first book about wedding cakes that I bought), but … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged Wedding Cake | Leave a commentLarousse Pratique: The Practical A-Z Cookbook
March 23, 2009This is a smaller version of ‘Larousse Gastronomique’, which I have recommended elsewhere. This version is a modern approach to the same information, with many photographs and more recipes than its parent book. It is very handy, with listings alphabetically … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cookbook, larousse, recipes | Leave a commentA Step-By-step Guide to Cake Decorating for Australia
March 22, 2009This book could be subtitled ‘Cake Decoration 101′, as it takes a very straightforward approach to teaching the basics of cake decorating. As such, it seems fairly well laid out, with precise instructions and detailed illustrations, covering all the fundamentals … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cookbook, recipes, sugar, Wedding Cake | Leave a commentMadhur Jaffrey’s Quick and Easy Indian Cooking
March 15, 2009I really enjoy Indian food, but this book has never really tickled my fancy. It has quite a few recipes, 70 of which can be made in half an hour or less; but I prefer a cookbook by ‘Women’s Weekly’ … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cookbook, indian, recipes | Leave a commentNew Techniques in Cake Decorating
March 13, 2009This book comes to us from a long time ago, in the world of cake designing – 1984. ‘New Techniques in Cake Decorating’ is written in a very formal fashion – detailed, organized, with the author painfully removing herself from … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged Wedding Cake | Leave a commentThe Book of Chocolate
March 12, 2009The Book of Chocolate is bursting with information about chocolate. I received it as a Christmas present, and it has turned out to be an excellent conversation piece, filled with interesting tidbits and detailed history. It goes into good analysis … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged chocolate | Leave a commentFrench pastry: Tradition and evolution
March 5, 2009‘French pastry: Tradition and Evolution’ is the first professional book I ever bought, on the advice of my mentor and instructor, Chef George Wagner. Bellouet was a teacher at the Lenotre Ecole, one of the top pastry schools in the … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cake, cookbook, french pastry, lemon, lenotre, recipes | Leave a commentSprouts The Miracle Food: The Complete Guide to Sprouting
March 4, 2009Exactly what it says it is – a complete guide to sprouting, jam-packed with lots of information and new ideas. Steve ‘Sproutman’ Meyerowitz is a bit wacky but very interesting, a zealous advocate of raw food who claims he was … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged raw food, sprouts, Vegetarian | Leave a commentMarzipan: Figures, Gateaux, Decorations
March 4, 2009‘Use Results of this Book to Enliven Your Shop Windows and Increase Your Sales’ ends the preface to this very dated book, printed in English, French and German. There is still lots of valuable information in this, a gift from … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cake decoration, marzipan, recipes | Leave a comment