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57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spectacular!, February 25, 2005
This review is from: The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef (Hardcover)
I'm going to start with one little criticism, and I only do it because I love this book: If you live in a small town like I do, many of the ingreedients in this book will be nigh-impossible to find. Things like goat's milk cheese or some specific varieties of fruits or seeds or specific types of chocolates simply aren't available where I live. So, if you're also from a small town that lacks specialty shops or whose stores lack variety, prepare to do a lot of inventive substitution.
That being said, the book provides crystal-clear, step-by-step directions that lead you to create some of the most beautiful, delicious desserts you can imagine. Plus, it doesn't skimp on the science either, and for people like me who like to know the "why" as well as the "how", you'll appreciate that.
The book is shockingly specific. First of all, all measurments are given in weight, which is much more accurate. Someone here once said that volume measurments exist to keep us stupid and professional bakers in business, and they're absolutely right. So invest in a good scale. Plus, the book gives great information about compensating for altitude, which is a huge deal where I live (nothing's ever easy in Wyoming). The written directions make even the most difficult procedure simple to follow along, and where things get even a little hazy, the author includes diagrams and photographs.
Every recipe in this book is a perfect illustration of the fine balance between art and science that fine cooking really is. Not for those without the attention span to spend an hour or two in the kitchen, but if you have a passion for pastries you cannot do without this book.
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65 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful reference...Unsatisfactory recipes, January 15, 2006
This review is from: The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef (Hardcover)
I recently took a pastry class at a local college and this was the textbook we used. Be aware that this book is enormous, over 800 pages in fact, so it is no surprise that there is a wide range of topics discussed. The author tackles topics like how to work with sugar (from caramel to sugar art), chocolate techniques (tempering, working with modeling chocolate, chocolate as decoration, etc.), using other mediums like marzipan and pastillage, and also includes recipes ranging from plated desserts, modernist desserts, individual pastries to full blown wedding cakes. I couldn't possibly go into detail about everything covered in this book, or you would be up all night reading this review. That being said, here is where this book excels:
1)It is an excellent resource for professional bakers (and very avid home bakers) to expand their skills in advanced pastry techniques.
2)There are numerous templates throughout the book for the reader to use, eliminating the need to have to freehand their own designs. This is especially helpful for the reader who lacks those artistic skills.
3)Many of the topics covered are those that are usually limited to professional pastry kitchens and are very infrequently found in other pastry books. This book is a one-stop resource for many of the advanced techniques.
4)There are many helpful hints and historical references scattered throughout the book that prove to be very useful and welcome.
Now for the negatives:
1)This is not a book for the beginner (or maybe even intermediate) baker. This book is written with the idea in mind that the reader already has general baking knowledge (and in some cases, knowledge of more advanced techniques). Without that general knowledge, many of these techniques would be very difficult to understand and perform.
2)We made several dozen recipes in our pastry class, and I have to say that only one or two were worth repeating. The end result for most, though beautiful, were lacking in taste. There may be some factors contributed to that, like the quality of the ingredients for example or the fact that we were students and could have made a mistake here or there. But even taking that into consideration, most of the recipes are dismal failures in my opinion. I have several other baking references in my possession that I would go to before this one to find trusted and delicious recipes (i.e./Baking Illustrated, The Cake Bible etc). Frankly, I expect nothing short of culinary perfection from such an esteemed author like Bo Friberg.
To conclude, I can whole-heartedly recommend this book for someone who is in need of a comprehensive and detailed reference about advanced pastry techniques. To date, I have not seen anything as all-encompassing as this work. But do approach the recipes with caution. After several less than satisfactory results, I do not recommend making any leaps of faith with Bo's recipes.
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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
When Regular Just Isn't Enough, July 18, 2005
This review is from: The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef (Hardcover)
When regukar just isn't enough, you can haul down this huge ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL from your pastry bookshelf. After the hundreds of pages of Bo Friberg's regular PROFESSIONAL PASTRY CHEF, who would have thought there was anything more to say? But yet this book is just about the equivalent in poundage. Suffice it to say that most of the pastries in this book weigh less than the book itself. Maybe one or two of the wedding cakes Friberg describes will weight more.
If you want to know how to make a macaroon, French toast, or even salty pretzels, you can look them up in the first book. Plus, you can learn how to make them professionally, including tips they don't bother teaching the ordinary home cook. And also how to make in bulk and still maintain quality control. How often do you have to multiply everything in your head, from flour to salt, while trying to cook for a party, and still you know that it won't come out right because of the increased volume of the pastry? It happened to me just last Sunday, and all because I wasn't using either of Friberg's books.
This book goes into great detail into what Friberg calls "Modernist" desserts. It's a comical name for any student of Modernism, but you know what he means. Those fancy desserts with little poles of pastry ringing together an odd batch of components, and trying to make the dessert higher than it is wide. Remember the old days of the 1950s, when they showed French chefs in the movies or on TV shows, they were always trying to impress with Baked Alaska? Here there are some recipes that put that to shame.
Warning, it's a heavy book, and don't try to balance this up against a mixing bowl or your eggs could go skeetering right along the linoleum as happened to me three weeks ago.
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