1 post tagged “cookbooks”
I've listed some of my favorite books in the Books section (duh) of this blog but unfortunately, some of the very best ones aren't visible because they only give you Amazon as a resource. So, I'm going to tell you about a few of my other personal favorites which I have found to be inspirational.
First of all, I have to admit that generally I don't buy cookbooks for the recipes. I buy them for the photographs, the histories that are sometimes included, presentation ideas, flavor combinations, etc. I can go to a bookstore and leave with 5 or 6 cookbooks and spend several days in bed reading through them like novels. I will spend time reading a cookbook before I will spend time reading an actual novel. And then, they go up on a shelf and I may not open them again for years. But I KNOW what is in them and when I need something, I remember exactly where to look. At some point, I will refer to every book that I have.
Mastering the Art of French Pastry was published in 1984 and I think is still one of the best books on French Pastry ever written. If you can find it, BUY IT. This book started me thinking like a pastry chef even though I was just a little baker wannabe who had a recipe for EVERYTHING. It made me realize that this could become this, which could then become that, and go between these and HEY-a really cool dessert!
I purchased Das Ist Zucker after taking a beginning sugar course from Ewald Notter at his school which was then located in Gaithersburg, Maryland (I think it's in Florida now). After the class, the book makes sense although I will NEVER even come close to creating some of the amazing pieces he demonstrates. (I make GREAT spheres and EXCELLENT seaweed) It has helpful beginning advice but it's still better to have actually had hands on experience before attempting sugar work. And of course, the right equipment, which is quite substantial and costly which is why very few people ever become masters of this incredible art form. There's just so much STUFF you have to have. Another helpful purchase was his 2 part Basic Sugar Decoration and Advanced Sugar Decoration videos (or now probably DVD's) done through the Culinary Institute of America. The videos are shot in the exact sequence as the courses so, if you've been through the course, it's like going all over again.
Au Coeur Des Saveurs is just an amazing book. It's huge and expensive and a must have for any serious pastry chef's library. It's in French and English which is extremely helpful and the desserts are magnificent.
los postres de el bulli is another one of those expensive "must have" books for the serious pastry chef. Albert Adria is a mad scientist and most of us will never make ANYTHING from this book other that maybe an espuma but that's a good reason to invest in an Issi whipper, right?
Faszination in Marzipan is another REALLY old book by Georg Maushagen who, quite coincidentally, just created the monumentally monstrous wedding cake for Ivana Trump and her boy-toy (OK, OK, don't be a Bitter Betty!) at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. With the able assistance of my good friend and Master Pastry Chef Rudi Weider of the San Diego Marriott Marina. Oh the stories I got to hear. You guys didn't hear NUTHIN! But I digress. I took a sugar class from Georg, like, 13 years ago. We actually held the class in the kitchen I was renting at the time. Of course, I never used anything that I learned and had to pay the big bucks to relearn it all from Ewald Notter 10 years later. Georg is like a rock star in Germany. Of course, here, he was just the guy who made Ivana's cake. No big whup. Did you SEE the thing? It was 9 freaking feet tall! Anyway, he's also a great marzipan guy. Hence, the book above. You were probably wondering.
Romantic Wedding Cakes by Kerry Vincent is great. It's beautiful and has unique and fabulous designs and techniques up the yin-yang. Of course, you need every crimper, cutter, shaper, patterned rolling pin and lace press in the known universe to create even one of her extravaganzas but you can tone it down and still have a very cool cake. Kerry is, as all Food Network Challenge addicts know, the evil judge who rarely has much positive to say about anything but, honestly, I'm a little suspicious of this role. Is she a plant? A sort of devil's advocate to create drama? Is she REALLY that mean? I don't know. Stay tuned for her next (OMG-did she REALLY just say that?) remark.
And then, there are the best cookbooks of all. The ones that are never published but the recipes you use day after day, year after year. Collected from friends, relatives, magazines, the Internet. The ones everybody always asks you for and you say, oh I just mix a little of this and that and, you know, I don't actually use a recipe. Because.....IT'S TAKEN ME 25 YEARS TO PERFECT IT AND YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO REPRODUCE IT AND YOU'LL BE CALLING AND TELLING ME I GAVE YOU THE WRONG RECIPE.....etc. etc. etc. Like the crusty, old pages below.
