Modern French Pastry: Innovative Techniques, Tools and Design Kindle Edition

The media could not be loaded.  Okay, I logged on to buy this book for a friend and saw some of the reviews and felt compelled to write my own.I bought this book because I'm a pretty good cook, I do it for a living, and I wanted to get some knowledge on the dessert side. I uploaded pics of a couple things I made from the book. I've never made Macaron before but I made these Strawberry Balsamic Mint Macs by following the simple directions in this book. Then I made the next cake with chocolate mousse, chocolate almond cake, brandied cherries, streusel and a tasty mirror glaze, which is all the rage in dessert world (IG search it), I didn't have any chocolate molds for the pictured super cool gold orb decor from the book so I just made my own decor by chocolate coating some of the streusel to make my "stepping stones" on my Martian Landscape. Notice the sparkle in the "rock" from luster dust, thats the minerals and why everyone wants to go to Mars.I digress. I felt like this book was really well written with good with directions in plain language for both kitchen pros and ambitious amateurs. I saw one review about plastic wrap tricks, it worked for me but I use a plastic wrap that says "food service film" because I'm a pro... anyway everything I've made out of this book has worked well for me and I'll say that everyone who's tried what I've made has been very pleased. Like I said the whole reason I was back here was to buy the book for a friend because I thought it was so good.

I am giving this book four stars because the first recipe I made from it had a few issues. It takes a coconut meringue as internal layers of the cake, but when you make the meringue there are no instructions on how or when to add the coconut and powdered sugar mixture. I am a reasonably experienced baker and figured it out (hopefully I did it right), but it was disappointing to see they never caught the problem upon editing the book. When you are making such elaborate desserts, any detail can make it or break it. Also, it is clear that their gelatin topping took some food coloring to make it beautifully bright red, and that was not included in the the recipe. I haven't baked another recipe from it, but will update my review once I do so. Overall the book is pretty amazing and there are lots of thing I want to make. But for complex recipes that stretch the limits of the home baker's skills, you need absolute precision in recipe writing.

I'm a pretty advanced home baker, but I've now tried three recipes from this book and none were really that tasty. Technically, they worked out fine, but the flavors were just kind of odd and just weren't things that you wanted to keep eating. For the many, MANY hours of work & expensive specialized materials/ ingredients that most of these recipes require, you don't end up with that great of an end product. Just doesn't seem worth it. That being said, it's pretty well written & but you may have to do some extra work to figure out exactly how to execute the techniques. It is a nice book for a coffee table as it's fun to look through, just somewhat questionable recipes.

I was excited to try the cover recipe. The components were all easy to make, but I really question some of the recommended techniques. I’m certainly no expert compared to the author, but I found it puzzling that she suggested that making pastry cream in the microwave is easier than on the stove (it’s not, and you have less control) and that she said to weigh down the tart with flour wrapped in plastic wrap, guaranteeing it won’t melt (it did - and I still can’t believe I did this against my better judgement). She also doesn’t provide any info about storage or serving. Parts of the cover recipe are frozen components, but not all, so if I assemble the tart the day before I have to guess whether the intention is to serve it frozen or let it come to room temp, and then what happens to the frozen parts? I have no idea as I’m writing this review while my second try at pastry dough is chilling.

This is the cookbook I've been waiting for! Aimed at the passionate amateur, readers wanting to perfectly recreate the recipes with all their components will need a very well equipped kitchen(scale, stand mixer, food processor, candy thermometer, etc) as well as a good number of pricey silicone molds. That being said, this book is gorgeous and incredibly inspiring. The "parlor tricks"(insider tips, such as using your microwave for pastry cream and chocolate tempering) alone make the book worth buying. The aesthetic is french rigor combined with a colorful, playful Portland hipster sensibility, and it totally works.

I have no dislikes about this product for I bought it to use for ideas and effects to elevate my skills and menu.

Got it for our Daughter , who is into baking . She loves the recipes and book has instructions which are easy to follow

Love this book. It is super informational and takes you step by step.It provides walk throughs for the recipes and sometimes includes photos of certain steps so that you can visualize what needs to be done. Some flavor choices are questionable, but you can make any substitutions..

I was scared to buy at first, because it was just one picture of cover and I didn’t know what cons of recipes will be there, but when I got it and started to look, I love it. It’s realy nice and modern cakes and every step is written down . So I am really happy it will be good gift for my fiancé who is pastry chef to get new ideas :)

Starts off good, then carries on with recipes for a simple home entertaining. Not what I expected from a professional book.

This book is lovely and full of good recipes. I bought it for my pastry chef partner and he loves it. Photography is brilliant, would definitely recommend as it gives the difficultly of each recipes too.

Lovely book, has. A lot of detail and recipes are good. Visual are also good

Enjoyed the content, and it is useful for ideas for culinary school.