Professional Cooking Review

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(More customer reviews)I first learned of Professional Cooking when a friend borrowed the second edition from a friend who's a chef. As soon as I saw it, I had to have it.Any serious cook - amateur or pro - should enjoy this tome. It does what most cookbooks written for the home never get around to: it explains the 'whys' behind the 'how-tos.' Why use egg yolks in sauces and dressings? Why do sugar and onions both (separately) caramelize? Why is baking soda a terrible thing to do to an innocent vegetable?The recipes in this book (designed as exercises for cooking students) are for 15-30 portions. Most, however, can be scaled down to family size. Anyway, each is designed to teach a point or technique, and is great reading even if you never actually make it.This book is easy to follow. Gisslen doesn't get wrapped up in jargon - no small feat in a book written for professionals. If you love to cook, buy it.Benjamin F. Harvill

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Completely redesigned, updated and richly illustrated revision of the classic instructional guide to professional cooking. Includes step-by-step detail,250 colour photos with thorough coverage of products. One of the most popular and endorsed guides.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Patisserie, Second Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the book that i used when i was at college in my home city in england.Patisserie is a professional book for students, Bakers,Chefs,Confectioners and Teachers.Patisserie is a craft/trade (some say it's an art) so housewives may find it a little confusing,for example, Bread making is a technology and carn't be learnt from a book. If you have a basic understanding in Fermented goods,pastry,confectionary hot and cold sweets and cake decorating then you will love this book. The book covers everything i needed to complete my studies of Bakery,cake decorating and patisserie and i still use it in my work.Hanneman himself was a lecturer in charge of the bakery school at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology as well as head of food at lancaster and Morecambe college and also a former chief examiner for the 711-01 pastry cooks and patissiers exam.

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Advanced Bread and Pastry Review

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(More customer reviews)This is without doubt the largest, most informative, most inclusive bread and pastry book in existence. Just imagine the 'Professional French pastry series' and the 'Special and decorative breads series' in one huge tome.The book does not have 880 pages as stated in the description, but 1043 including the indexes.
Mr Suas has created a comprehensive, easy to follow textbook for advanced baking and pastry. The book uses the French tradition in baking/pastry apprenticeship and includes both American and French products. Mind that this is not a coffee table book but a student's guide to advanced baking/pastry. So the author approaches the reader as a teacher would approach the student. There are explanations for every single detail and at the end of each chapter there are questions. A word of caution; this is a book strictly for professionals. One cannot just open it and start measuring cups and spoons to make a cake. Anyone lesser than an apprentice will probably get lost in the plethora of information. So if you are not a professional or a very knowlegable amateur, don't blow your money.
The book starts with a history of bread and pastry making and is divided into three main sections: Bread, Vienoisserie and Pastry. Each section is then subdivided into many others. The chapters are:
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
a) History
b) Food safety
PART 2: BREAD
a) Baking process and dough mixing
b) Fermentation
c) Advanced flour technology and dough conditioners
d) Alternative baking processes
e) Bread formulas
PART 3: VIENNOISERIE
PART 4: PASTRY
a) Cookies
b) Quick breads
c) Pastry dough
d) Pies and tarts
e) Cake mixing and baking
f) Syrups,creams,custards,egg foams,icings
g) Mousses
h) Classic and modern cake assembly
i) Petit-fours and confections
j) Frozen desserts
k) Plated desserts
l) Advanced decoration
m) Chocolate
There are photos throughout, including procedures and most of the products, the paper is glossy, and there are tables with information interspersed between the text. All formulas are given in Metric, Baker's percentage, US decimal, and Lbs and Oz. Also there are instructions to sites in the internet where one can expand on what is in the book and get additional information. These are throughout the book and in all the sections.
In the bread section, all the different breadmaking procedures are discussed, including the straight dough method, retarded dough method and sourdough method. This is the only book I know that in some products uses two different sourdoughs to produce a bread. Another innovation is the inclusion of a whole program for breadmaking on a professional scale, with days and times for each procedure spanning several days. There is also an extensive discussion on par-baked goods which are being favored lately by many bakers.
Bread products include: Baguettes, ciabatta, San Francisco sourbread, challah, rye breads, naan, tortilla, pita, pan de los muertos and many other European and American breads.
The Viennoiserie section is one of the most comprehensive and inclusive and can be only compared to the ones in the 'Traditional and decorative breads'. All the known products are here, including croissants, danish, kugelhopf, brioche, panettone. Different methods are given for the production of the same product eg retarded croissant, sourdough croissant etc.
The pastry section is larger than the bread one by 200 pages. The theory is divided between the chapters, as each family of products has its own technology and science, besides the basic science that goes for all pastry.
There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of products in this section. Most of the classics are here, as well as modern pastries. Too many to mention.
On the downside. Some recipes (not many) use shortening, a blasphemy against both health and taste. I also noticed a few typographical errors in some of the recipes and the temperatures, eg 375F is given as 96C in one recipe, while it should be 196C.
These faults though, are a drop in an ocean of excellence.
To conclude, at this low price this book is a give away. Just think that for the same money you can only get one tome of the 'French pastry series' with 200 pages and here you get more than a thousand pages.
Top quality, top price, the best money can buy.


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Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach is a comprehensive guide to bread, viennoiserie, and pastry that is designed for students, professionals, and enthusiasts. Balancing a respect for tradition with modern approaches to method and technique, Advanced Bread and Pastry unites appealing presentation and indispensable instruction. It is written to help today?s baker respond to the recent evolution of ingredients, products, and presentation. The recipes (called formulas) are based on a variety of classica methods and processes. With this strong foundation of knowledge, a baker or pastry chef can develop further skills, experiment with new ideas, and understand any formula.

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How to Open a Financially Successful Bakery : With a Companion CD-ROM Review

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(More customer reviews)"How to Create a Financially Successful Bakery" bakery by Sharon L. Fuller and Douglas R. Brown is an excellent choice for anyone thinking about opening up their very own bakery. It presents a number of things to consider. From weighing the pros and cons of different bakery locations to selecting a menu and from possibly serving meals, coffee, and ice cream to deciding to buy or lease baking equipment, the authors of this book gave me a plenty to think about before I dive into the food industry. It is a great basic resource for anyone looking to own their own food industry business.
In addition to bringing up several points to consider, the authors also direct readers to a number of helpful resources and they guide readers to seek out individualized information from local sources, such as the local health department, fire department, and more.
I found the chapters on hiring the staff and getting set up with suppliers to be the most helpful. Sometimes when you are new to an industry it can be hard to know where to start. Thanks to "How to Create a Financially Successful Bakery" I now know what needs to get done.
The accompanying CD-ROM is also a great resource. On it are a number of sample business plans and related Microsoft Word documents that anyone can alter and use for their own start up business.
While the book does offer great insight into the industry, it is by no means an in-depth, step-by-step guide to owning your own bakery.


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The small bakeries that are popping up every where in this country can be started with a low investment compared to other food business, and can be highly profitable! This is the A-to-Z guide to making it in your own small bakery! Learn the expert tips, tricks, and a vast gold mine of crucial how-to information you just can't find anywhere else. This is a perfect book for entrepreneurs, schools, colleges and technical training centers. This detailed text contains all the information you will ever need to needed to start, operate, and manage a highly profitable bakery. While providing detailed instruction and examples, the author leads you through finding a location that will bring success, learn how to draw up a winning business plan (The Companion CD-ROM has the actual business plan you can use in MS Word TM), how to buy and sell a bakery, basic cost control systems, profitable product planning, sample floor plans & diagrams, successful kitchen management, equipment layout and planning, food safety & HACCP, successful food & beverage management, legal concerns, sales and marketing techniques, pricing formulas, learn how to set up computer systems to save time and money, learn how to hire & keep a qualified professional staff, brand new IRS tip reporting requirements, managing and training employees, generate high profile public relations and publicity, learn low cost internal marketing ideas, low and no cost ways to satisfy customers and build sales, learn how to keep bringing customers back, accounting & bookkeeping procedures, auditing, successful budgeting and profit planning development, as well as thousands of great tips and useful guidelines. Never before has so much practical information about the bakery business been offered in one book. This is an ideal guide new for comers to the business as well as experienced operators. In addition to basic operational practices this book will demonstrate show how to: increase impulse sales and improve presentation, utilize merchandising fixtures and techniques, cross merchandising, point of purchase materials, how to develop a product sampling program.

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The Dessert Architect Review

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(More customer reviews)The Dessert ArchitectA Pastry Bible
Chef Robert Wemischner's new book is geared to the serious pastry-chef wannabe.
By Tim Fischer | Thursday, 11 February 2010 | 15:00

If you've ever thought about becoming a pastry chef or want to know how a restaurant dessert makes its way from an idea to the kitchen to the plate and ultimately to your table, Robert Wemischner's, "The Dessert Architect" would be a wonderful addition to your library. Wemischner has taught baking and pastry at the Los Angeles Trade Technical College for 18 years. He has written four culinary books, was a pioneer in the gourmet-to-go trend and is a regular contributor to Food Arts and Pastry Art and Design magazines.
Written for pastry students but accessible to anyone interested in learning the essentials, "The Dessert Architect" (available at [...]) is an informed look at what it takes to work in the business today. Featured throughout the six chapters are sidebars from several professional pastry chefs like Gale Gand, Claudia Fleming and Pichet Ong, writing about personal experiences in their own kitchens, offering inspiration and helping to expand this clearly written book into a satisfying baking tool.
Wemischner begins with a chapter on the four cornerstones of pastry: flavor, texture, temperature, and contrast. He uses charts to categorize each, demonstrating, for example, ingredients that are dominant flavors (chocolate, hazelnut), sour (lemon, cranberry), and pungent (ginger, cardamom). As a result, readers are better equipped to understand how the layering of these elements can make a dessert complex. The chapter's final recipe, "A Couple of Doughnuts," incorporates all four cornerstones: caramel coated poached white peaches with white doughnut peach and violet mousse, and a highly recommended buttermilk spiced doughnut precariously perched on top. I have never made doughnuts before so I was eager to try this part of the recipe. With a beautiful assortment of spices including mace, nutmeg and cinnamon, and straightforward instructions that were easy to follow, I could not have been happier with the final results. Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with a gallon of spiced frying oil.
Other chapters focus on ingredients and equipment, creating a dessert menu, beverage pairings, and particularly interesting, plating. Wemischner establishes guidelines on how much sauce to use (too little can be just as bad as too much) and illustrates basic shapes for cakes and ice creams. The tip that I found most useful for home bakers is to draw your design before you put the dessert on the plate.
The book's more than 50 meticulously detailed recipes (you'll need your kitchen scale -- ingredients are measured by weight) are accompanied by full-color photographs by Elon Schoenholz. Recipes, designed for restaurants, are comprised of several components. For instance, the Chocolate Melting Moments Torte Flavored with Assam Tea includes the chocolate tea torte, malted milk chocolate ice cream, a tea-infused plating sauce and an Isomalt (a sugar substitute) and tea garnish. As a home baker, I find it extremely helpful that alongside each recipe is a list of equipment needed and the order in which to make each component. After finishing a recipe, Wemischner challenges his students to think of ways to create that same dessert using the recipe only as a guideline and incorporating alternate flavors or different techniques.
The appendix is filled with information on ingredients, specialty produce, equipment, a concise glossary, and website addresses for spots like the Culinary Institute of America, the French Culinary Institute, even King Arthur Flour, that offer educational opportunities for students.
After finishing Wemischner's book, readers will have a much clearer understanding of what it takes to be a part of a pastry kitchen. But what I enjoyed most about "The Dessert Architect" is Wemischner's commitment to his students: He never lets them stray too far from the fundamentals, and always encourages them to push harder.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Fischer managed The Cook's Library in Los Angeles, named one of the "Top 10 Cookbook Stores in the World" by Saveur. He also has been a judge for the IACP Cookbook Awards for four years.



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A complete guide to building versatile and creative desserts, The Dessert Architect offers valuable insight into developing a well-balanced dessert menu and modern plating techniques while featuring 50 detailed multicomponent recipes that can be mixed and matched for endless combinations.This landmark work offers suggestions for pairing beverages with desserts, sources for ingredients, and an overview of essential tools and equipment. Its wealth of recipes is thoughtfully organized by main ingredient for easy retrieval. Full-color photographs of each completed dessert?along with step-by-step process shots?serve as a visual reference for the major techniques used in the recipes.The Dessert Architect is an invaluable resource for professional pastry programs and a source of inspiration for chefs worldwide.

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The Pastry Chef's Companion: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for the Baking and Pastry Professional Review

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(More customer reviews)I am in the hotel industry and don't know how I survived all these years without this book! It assists me when I talk to customers so that I can easily explain items and show pictures to them. The only problem is that I need to get another copy so that I have one at home and one in the office. I think that anyone who likes to bake or is a "foodie" needs to BUY THE BOOK!The Pastry Chef's Companion: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for the Baking and Pastry Professional

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With more than 4,800 terms and definitions from around the world plus ten appendices filled with helpful resources, The Pastry Chef's Companion combines the best features of a dictionary and an encyclopedia. In addition to the current terminology of every component of pastry, baking, and confectionary arts, this book provides important information about the origin and historical background of many of the terms. Moreover, it offers coverage of flavor trends, industry practices, key success factors, a resources list, illustrations, and phonetic pronunciations.

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