With recipes of glamorous by-gone desserts, and packed with history and anecdotes of famous classic restaurants and the people who frequented them, Lost Desserts features delicious and sometimes exotic favorites from the new world and the old. Conjuring up the heyday of Hollywood are such American classics as the Brown Derby’s Orange Chiffon Cake, Trader Vic’s Flaming Tahitian Ice Cream, and Chasen’s Banana Shortcake with Banana Sauce, while the old-world elegance of Paris and London is evoked with delightful concoctions like Escoffier’s Mont Blanc and Lady Jekyll’s Orange Jelly with Compote. The seventy recipes included here, adapted for the home cook and updated for the modern palate to taste as good as they look and are remembered, are organized by type of dessert, which run the gamut from Bavarians, Cremes, Charlottes, Mousses, Puddings, Fools, Jellies, to Frozen Desserts, and Souffles, Crepes, and Custards, as well as, of course, Cakes and Pies, Tarts, and Tortes. A lavish volume, Lost Desserts is illustrated with thirty stunning still lifes of visually spectacular confections, capturing the flavor and essence of the dessert cart era.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Gail Monaghan is a food writer and editor. She teaches cooking classes and is the author of Perfect Picnics for All Seasons. Eric Boman is a still life photographer for such magazines as Vogue and World of Interiors. His recent books include Blahnik by Boman and Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Foreword by George Lang On one of my birthdays, after an all-night party, my wife Jennifer arranged eighty birthday cakes, each made by another pastry chef around the world. Sometime around midnight I had a strange encounter with an elderly gentleman, who was looking at me with his mesmerizing eyes, surprised that I had sampled bites of at least three dozen of the birthday cakes. Fortunately, I remembered Mark Twain's line and told him, "The secret is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside."
What this mysterious person did not know was that during the past couple of decades, I had become a dessert addict, tasting and, mostly, enjoying their flavors.
What we need today is a book that gives precise and stylish instructions for making sweets our ancestors made and enjoyed. I am happy to say that Gail Monaghan's volume, Lost Desserts, is a brilliant collection. She brings to us practical and contemporary versions of great sweets of yesterday made with today's ingredients and techniques.
Reading her book reminded me that I learned quite a bit about this sweet subject in Hungary, the country of my birth, where some of the experts claim that the Aztecs shamelessly stole the secret of making chocolate from a Budapest housewife. Even though Hungarian housewives and pastry chefs make memorable desserts, I have a bit of a problem with this Danubian statement.
A few weeks ago, five friends of ours from the world of restaurants were enjoying our coffee when one of the guests asked us to mention desserts that are truly close to us. I have to admit that dessert names were thrown around without rules to follow, but I recall a few of the names that each of us declared during this session. Here is a list: Charlotte Russe, Chocolate Angel Torte, Dobos Torte, Escoffier's Peach Melba, and Schrafft's Coffee Milkshake.
The most engaging power of an author or a cook is to make new things familiar and--surprise--familiar things new. When James Beard was asked, "What is the best part of a dessert?" he said, "It is the anticipation." You might start anticipating by reading this great book of Gail Monaghan's recipes.....
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
HAPPY ENDINGS!!!!,
By SWEET TOOTH (NYC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lost Desserts: Delicious Indulgences of the Past Recipes from Legendary and Famous Chefs (Hardcover)
My copy of "Lost Desserts" arrived in the mail the other day like an early visit from Santa. What a beautiful concoction! The photos and design are sumptuous, the writing evocative as well as informative, and the recipes spot on. I have begun to impress my friends not only with "fruits" of my labors but with a perfect accompanying story as well.This book is the "must have" gift not only for those who likes to bake, but for all of us that find desserts the most important part of the meal.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
MOST BEAUTIFUL & BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR,
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This review is from: Lost Desserts: Delicious Indulgences of the Past Recipes from Legendary and Famous Chefs (Hardcover)
"Lost Desserts" is the most beautiful and the best cookbook of the year--------and as a cookbookaholic I might add that it is one of the best of all time. Ms. Monaghan not only has a deep knowledge of the history of cuisine but she writes beautifully about each recipe, which adds enormously to the delight of the book, and makes it deeply personal. The recipes are all the kinds of desserts I--and my family & friends-----want to eat: yummy delicious ones that are also beautiful, but not contrived (they look like desserts served at home should look------not tacky restaurant chef fantasies.) And that great rarity: the recipes work perfectly! Have already done the Fane, souffle Rothschild, Carmelized Rice Pudding and Sticky Toffee Pudding------all came out so perfectly they are now part of my cooking repertoire. And my friends loved them too! My holiday list is now done: everyone gets this great book, which is a treasure (can't wait to try the cover recipe, in Spring.) Oh-------the photographs are the most beautiful ever found in a cookbook, absolute perfection.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
pleasure read!,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Lost Desserts: Delicious Indulgences of the Past Recipes from Legendary and Famous Chefs (Hardcover)
Very pretty book with historical information, more of a cocktail table book than daily guide/reference. Great ideal and presented well.
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