Desserts [Lay Flat] [Hardcover]

Michel Roux (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 25, 2011

A comprehensive and gorgeous desserts cookbook from acclaimed chef Michel Roux

In Desserts, the author of the widely acclaimed cookbooks Eggs and Pastry returns with an exhaustive collection of sweet delights, from simple mousses and biscuits to advanced petit fours and homemade chocolates. Three-star Michelin chef Michel Roux is one of the world's most respected chefs and in Desserts he focuses his ability and flare on everyone's favorite course.

The book includes classic dessert recipes as well as modern reinterpretations, all with clear and easy-to-follow instructions. For more complicated techniques, helpful step-by-step photos ensure that even inexperienced home cooks and bakers achieve delicious results.

• Author Michel Roux has won countless culinary honors and is the author of the cookbooks Eggs, Pastry, and Sauces
• The book is packed with 150 gorgeous full-color photographs

For anyone who wants to bake desserts as good as those that come out of professional kitchens, Desserts offers sweet inspiration.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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Sample Recipes

Fall Fruit Crumble (Click for recipe)

Chilled Limoncello Parfait with Raspberries (Click for recipe)

Chocolate and Almond Rochers (Click for recipe)

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About the Author

Michel Roux is one of the most highly acclaimed chefs in the world, who has held three Michelin stars at The Waterside Inn near Windsor in England for an astonishing 21 years. Michel holds countless other culinary honors, including the Meilleur Ouvier de France en Patisserie in 1976, the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1990, an Honorary Doctorate in Culinary Arts from Johnson & Wales University in 2002, and the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur in 2004. He is also the food and wine consultant for Celebrity Cruises.Michel has appeared in two television series and written several successful cookbooks, including Sauces, which won the Glenfiddich Visual Award.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (October 25, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9781118079256
• ISBN-13: 978-1118079256
• ASIN: 1118079256
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #384,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but ultimately inaccessible March 12, 2012

By Brian Connors VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Before reading any of this book I decided to flip to the front to make sure I wasn't missing anything important. In small print on the masthead page, it said that times and temperatures were for fan-assisted ovens. Now, I can understand suggesting buying restaurant-style equipment like a chinois sieve, but who's going to shell out for a convection oven just to be able to do restaurant-style desserts?

Michel Roux is a long-standing and well-respected chef and cookbook writer; that's unquestionable. (In fact, one of the first cookbooks I ever bought for myself was one of his, with his brother.) For all that, I feel like I should be expecting a more accessible book; there's only so far a home chef can go to duplicate the restaurant kitchen, and it feels like Roux isn't quite meeting his readers at that halfway point. The recipes are certainly interesting, ranging widely from poached pears to Génoise cake (curiously anglicized as "Genoese") to kataifi to brownies (the cover shot), so you'll certainly find many exciting ideas for your dinner parties. And there are a few recipes that serve as models for others, and include extra photography. The food photography is as nice as you'd expect from a British-produced cookbook, although the Bodoni-style text font it's printed in is quite strange and a little jarring. Also, something that really jumped out at me -- Roux is a fan of stevia, not only in its artificial sweetener form, but as an herb in its own right. If nothing else, you have to give him points for creativity.

But this is one of those cookbooks where it's not at all clear who the audience is. He uses odd ingredients -- liquid glucose? Don't you have to go to a brew shop for that or something?... He seems to use only commercial kitchens for recipe testing, if the odd statement on the masthead is any indication. A lot of these recipes simply shouldn't be attempted by a beginner for those reasons; you'd have to be a reasonably good cook to be sure you know your way around them. Overall, the book reminds me of Charlie Trotter's cooking show -- great for food porn, but any chef that assumes you have duck fat/liquid glucose lying around or readily available doesn't get out of the restaurant nearly enough.

(And yes, there's a significant binding issue with this press run, but if you're reading this a year or three from when I wrote this, it probably won't be an issue in later printings.) Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing June 15, 2012

By T. Dunlap VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I was very excited about this cookbook as I was led to believe it was designed to be used in a regular kitchen and with the boasting of step-by-step photos, appeared to be instructive and informative. That excitement ended a few days after receiving "desserts". The binding broke both in the front of the book and I hadn't even used it yet, but only glanced at it. Then I started reading and found that one really needs to pay attention to size and types of ingredients. For example: Medium eggs are used throughout the cookbook, but you will only find that information in the beginning.

Many of the ingredients are difficult to impossible to find in our area, forcing me to purchase online or through mail-order. If you follow the instructions and use a "good-quality chocolate" and not the brand specified, you may or may not end up with a exceptional tasting dessert. So far my results doing this have been less than impressive.

I did find the crepe recipe to be excellent and there are useful and delicious recipes that can be made without having to purchase hard-to-find ingredients, but over-all, I'm not feeling the love for this cookbook.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but Fresh Concepts for the Professional Pastry Chef March 15, 2012

By Brenda Frank VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

WARNING, READ BEFORE USING BOOK: (See customer photo). The page preceding the table of contents contains the usual publication information, printed on a photograph for maximum illegibility: copyright, dates, ISBN, etc. At the top of this page under the heading "notes" are 6 paragraphs. The fifth paragraph reads: "Timings are for fan-assisted [convection] ovens. If using a conventional oven, increase the temperature by 30°F. (15°C.). IN OTHER WORDS, IF YOU DON'T HAVE A CONVENTION OVEN, RAISE ALL BAKING TEMPERATURES BY 30°F.

Michel Roux is, without question, one of the world's best, most accomplished, pastry chefs. He presents "Desserts" as a "fresh look" at the subject with "updated great classics and mouthwatering contemporary recipes, inspired by his travels and designed to suit today's fresher, lighter palate." This is an accurate description of the contents, which span the gamut of desserts (fruit, cremes, souffles, puddings, crepes, ice creams, meringues, pastries, cakes, and chocolates). The recipes have numerous beautiful photographs, including photos illustrating techniques. I have not yet tried the recipes but look forward to doing so. Many look perfect for Spring. Note that in 1997 Roux published another cookbook of the same name, Desserts.

I do think that Amazon's description of this book is inaccurate. It states: "For more complicated techniques, helpful step-by-step photos ensure that even inexperienced home cooks and bakers achieve delicious results." Although a few techniques are illustrated, this cookbook is, by no means, suitable for home cooks and certainly not inexperienced cooks. Michel Roux is no Julia Child....

The recipes assume familiarity with professional techniques. Although volume measurements are given, e.g., cups and tablespoons, metric weights are included and produce far more accurate results. The use of "a scant cup" implies, to me, that Roux never intended the chef/cook to measure rather than weigh ingredients.

Further, recipes use professional ingredients, such as leaf gelatin, seldom used by the home baker, and Roux does not provide suppliers or sources. Note: the Internet is a good resource for buying these uncommon ingredients. A few ingredients, such as clotted cream, probably require substitution by even the professional chef, but the recipes provide no suggestions or advice. As for candied mimosa balls used to decorate the mini croquembouche, I could find only 1 source on the Internet. They are made in Toulouse, France, and sell for $11.00 a quarter ounce!

Big technical problems: the binding and printing. A quality cookbook should not fall apart after a few uses. The publisher has a serious problem with the binding. Also, text should not be written on photos as on page 163. It is illegible.

Overall, if one has the skills and experience to deal with Roux's recipes, I do think that this book presents a delicious array of desserts to please most palates. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Written for the professional or very experienced home cook November 6, 2012

By Anonymous VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I feel like this book has gotten somewhat of a bad rap from people who had are unfamiliar with the style of book that Michel Roux normally produces. Any of his books are definitely written with the budding professional in mind or at the very least someone with a strong familiarity with professional cooking techniques, terminology and equipment. Adjustments can easily be made for those who do not have a convection oven -- what the text refers to as fan-assisted -- which is something most professionals would know. The recipes are all very well written with thorough explanations of each step for some of the more advanced techniques. Photographs throughout the book are beautiful and are often very effectively used to demonstrate a technique or give a visual example of consistencies or textures of products. Yes, as many others have pointed out, the binding is terrible and hopefully the publisher has corrected this (mine came broken before I had even opened the book).

If you are a beginning professional in the baking industry or are a very advanced home cook/baker looking to expand their technique with classic techniques and variations on classic recipes this is a great book for you. If you are a home baker that is more interested in making cake pops and following Martha Stewart, this book is definitely not for you.

A side note for those complaining about the 'fan-assisted' ovens, claiming such equipment is for restaurants only and all of that . . . convection ovens are readily available on the market and can be found anyplace from your specialty appliance store to Home Depot and Lowe's.... Convection just means there are fans to help circulate the air so your product bakes more evenly; if you don't have a convection oven you can still bake any of the recipes in this book, just be aware that you will have to increase the temperature by 25 to 50 degrees depending on your oven. Read more ›