Best of Gaston Lenotre's Desserts: Glorious Desserts of France's Finest Pastry Maker [Paperback]

Gaston Lenotre (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Inc; First Edition edition (December 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812024508
• ISBN-13: 978-0812024500
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Track this book down if you love baking!, January 7, 2003

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of Gaston Lenotre's Desserts: Glorious Desserts of France's Finest Pastry Maker (Paperback)

Gaston Lenotre has compiled a mouth-watering book of French pastries that an intermediate or ambitious beginning cook should have no trouble using. The color photographs are gorgeous, although dated in appearance, and the recipes are well-written and easy to follow.

The book is laid out as though assuming the reader has no knowledge of pastry baking. The book begins with a compilation of terms and techniques, and procedes to a section of "basic" recipes such as Chantilly Cream, Butter Cream, Dessert Syrup, and Almond Paste. And then the fun begins: brioche, croissants, and pithiviers, working up to Mirabelle Plum Tart, Chocolate-Vanilla Charlotte, soufflees, and Autumn Meringue Cake. The cool-down phase is candy: truffles, chocolate thistles, and carmelized hazelnuts. The Strawberry Cake, deceptively simple in name, is outstanding with its genoise base, buttercream and fresh berry filling, and marzipan top. The Upside Down Orange Cake and the chocolate mousse filled and pleated chocolate ribbon topped Autumn Meringue Cake are also show stoppers. For each recipe, Lenotre supplies preparation time (valid only if you are already familiar with the techniques), baking time, and cookware/utensil needs.

The biggest drawback to this cookbook is the constant referral to basic recipes, demanding frequent page flipping as you prepare a pastry. For example, the Strawberry Cake requires one recipe of buttercream filling, one recipe of dessert syrup, one recipe of genoise, one recipe of almond paste in addition to the more specific needs. Of course, the advantage of such shortened ingredient lists is the mistaken belief that the preparation might be simpler than it is.

For anyone interested in the art of pastry making, this is a wonderful book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an excellent book of sophisticated French desserts, September 1, 2006

By 

Darkeyes (US) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Best of Gaston Lenotre's Desserts: Glorious Desserts of France's Finest Pastry Maker (Paperback)

I own Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg, compare to that book this book is so tiny. However, this book has many recipes that the professional pastry chef contained, mostly with colored pictures. The recipes are easy to follow compare to PPC and with pictured instructions. I agree with the other reviewer who said that pictures a bit dated, but it understandable since this book was published in the late 70s early 80s. PPC and many other books that I tried had often referred to the recipes from other pages, therefore seeing the same method in this book didn't bother me much.

Overall this book carries more bangs than many other larger books in its class. I say buy this book over monster size PPC if you are an at home or professional baker and need to learn the classic French desserts.