The Making of a Pastry Chef: Recipes and Inspiration from America's Best Pastry Chefs

by Andrew MacLauchlan

"A first of its kind! In The Making of a Pastry Chef, Andrew MacLauchlan has gathered the hearts, minds, and souls of some of our greatest talents. It is easy to get caught up in the chapters of this inspiring collection of recipes and stories. This is required reading for anyone fascinated by food-and especially the sweet kind!"-Dan Budd, The Culinary Institute of America

"Being a pastry chef is so much more than baking a successful batch of chocolate chip cookies! In The Making of a Pastry Chef, you will find some of this field's top dessert makers talking shop with a colleague in a way that is frank and compelling."-Nancy Silverton, Campanile and La Brea Bakery

"This book reads like a who's who in the pastry world and contains a vast amount of information. Andrew's writing is as good as his pastry and his pastry is as good as it gets."-Michael Schneider, Chocolatier Magazine

Genres: Food, Cookbooks, Nonfiction

338 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 1999

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazon review

Adequate

This book proves that just because you're a good pastry chef, doesn't mean you should write about pastry chefs! The writing is so boring that it reads like a term paper written by someone who couldn't care less. The information on the history of pastry is at times inaccurate (which wouldn't be such a big deal but they should have fact checkers, right?) and even a photo at the beginning of the book was mislabeled, in a way that showed the person thought no one would be able to tell. Other captions should have been left out such as "Pineapple" underneath a photograph of a pineapple.

On the other hand, I always love to hear what chefs have to say, and this is no exception. It's filled with recipes, there is a useful table of interesting flavor combinations and lots of good statements from pastry chefs, though much of it is the average deal - about how important the quality of your ingredients are and whether to make a tower of food or to keep presentation simple - so, while I personally enjoy this kind of thing, I recommend it with reservations. = 6/10

jumpy1

[Glen U · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have any inclination to become a pastry chef, this book is a must read. It has amazing recipes, the history of pastry and baking, the means of becoming a pastry chef, the experiences you will be having as a pastry chef, even the reasons that pastry and desserts are desirable. An all inclusive book that will teach, entertain, motivate, guide and inspire the would be pastry chef. In fact if you are interested in food at all, and who isn't, this is an enjoyable read.

[Abbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah! Love this! It not only takes the reader through century-old food origins but also provides ancient-to-modern recipes. In addition, it supplants advice and personal stories from top pastry chefs such as Nancy Silverton, Gale Gand, Francois Payard, and Jacques Torres--I love it.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read if you are thinking of getting in a professional kitchen.

[Mel D]

giving me ideas ...