Charlie Trotter's Desserts (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Michelle Gayer (Author), Paul Elledge (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"I have always considered desserts to be of equal importance to the savory food," Charlie Trotter writes in the opening pages of his lavish Charlie Trotter's Desserts. "My approach to desserts celebrates a fruit-driven style, where flash and visual pyrotechniques [sic] are shunned in favor of celebrating the glorious flavors of a perfectly ripe piece of fruit at the height of its season." The illustrations for this book (which won the James Beard award for Best Food Photography) don't quite square up with that statement. It's hard to imagine more pyrotechnics and more visual flash. It's also a little hard to imagine how many hands went into the creation of any single dish. These are not simple desserts for the everyday cook. Rather, this is a catalog of the kinds of desserts that can be created when fabulous food products and fantastic culinary talents all converge at a single kitchen. It's a coffee-table document of possibility.

Two Watermelon Soups with Frozen Yogurt Soufflé and Chocolate Seeds is certainly a "doable" recipe for the home cook, and the assembly makes no big demands. The real trick with this dessert, as with most of the desserts in this book, is finding the "perfectly ripe piece of fruit at the height of its season." If you are a cook with access to such fruit, have at it. If your grocery store or supermarket buys the usual picked green fruit found in the commercial fruit pipeline, then take a copy of this book to your produce manager and complain loudly.

Charlie Trotter's Desserts is divided into Soups and Sorbets, Citrus Fruits, Berries, Tropical Fruits, Tree Fruits, Vegetables and Grains, Custards, Nuts, Spices, Chocolate, and Chateau d'Yquem. Combinations are stunning. Surprises are endless. You'll discover such delights as Meyer Lemon Pudding Cakes with Persimmon and Tarragon Anglaise, Pineapple Tarte Tatin with Ginger-Hokkaido Squash Ice Cream, Rosewater Crème Caramel with Primrose Sauce and Black Pepper Tuiles, and Macadamia Nut Chocolate Cakes with Coconut Emulsion and Sugarcane Ice Cream. After living with this book you'll never look at a dessert menu in quite the same way. --Schuyler Ingle

From Booklist

Of all Trotter's books, this newest volume in the series produced out of Charlie Trotter's Chicago restaurant is the most attractive and accessible to the home cook. Despite the celebrated chef's continuing call for items such as satsuma oranges and Meyer lemons, unavailable to all but the most determined shopper, plenty of these recipes make smashing ends to meals. Whole-wheat carrot cake can stand on its own without the lovely but nonessential additions of black walnut praline and carrot sorbet. Blackstrap molasses, seldom seen outside health food stores, figures in several of Trotter's desserts, notably as a flavoring in an idiosyncratic pecan pie with a novel curry crust. Cooks burdened with excess primrose petals can toss them into sauce for rosewater creme caramel topped with black pepper cookies. Trotter's reinterpretation of German chocolate cake produces multiple layers formed into upright triangular slices that challenge any pastry chef's skills. Mark Knoblauch

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089815815X
• ISBN-13: 978-0898158151
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #727,064 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Charlie Trotter Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fabulously inspiring recipes; not-so-great editing., May 13, 1999

By A Customer

This is a fantastically beautiful book that dismays me. I appreciate the suggested substitutions- when they're provided, but I don't understand the lack of sources. I don't understand why "caramelize" and "filo" make the glossary but "feuille de brick crepe" doesn't. Is that the wafer you find on Italian nougat? I guess so, but I have no idea where to get it.

I also don't understand the "basic recipe" selection process. I kind of think that sweet pie dough is more basic than honey-chickpea ice cream. Call me crazy. This section needs an overhaul.

For somebody as admirably obsessed with perfection as Charlie Trotter seems to be, the proofing errors and dumb editing decisions littering this book make me think that the authors just don't care as much about empowering me to stretch my limits and learn as they do about providing a showcase for themselves and selling books. If not, then what's the explanation? I just wish I could spend my energy exploring the recipes instead of having to painstakingly look for sources for ingredients. I know that sources change. How about posting them on the web site?

Sigh. Buy it anyway.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't try this at home..., March 14, 2001

By	R. J. (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

Have you ever traveled cross-country to Chicago just to dine at Charlie Trotter's? I have, and it was one of the best meals of my life. This book and the others in the series are great at giving you a feel of what the real thing is like. The pictures are outstanding and the combinations just wow you. But if you think for a moment that any cookbook would allow you to duplicate what Charlie does, you are mistaken. Some cookbooks are for those who want to follow a recipe and duplicate it. This is not one of those. This is for people who want to understand the Chef's unique cuisine and appreciate it for the art that it is.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charlie Trotter's Desserts, November 26, 1999

By	jack fisher (San Diego, California) - See all my reviews

This is a great book to draw inspiration from , but the recipes are not always accurate. I have enjoyed the book for over a year. The pictures alone are worth the price. The book may be better suited for those who are professionals and not the home cook.