Customer Reviews

The New International Confectioner: Confectionery, Cakes, Pastries, Desserts, and Ices, Savouries

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I purchased this book after my apprenticeship at the Century Plaza Hotel and pastry training under Ernst Mueller Pastry Chef in 1976. I had to go to the distributors home and picked up Pelliprat's Modern French Culinary Art, International Seafood, Buffets and Receptions, all by Virtue and CO, London, England. There are anecdotes and ideas that are handed down from generations of culinary experience contained in this and the other books. The international recipes, culinary and pastry styles bridge not only the generations but nations as well. Culinary Art and Pastry Art has enjoyed free ranging shared experiences in the classical traditions. One can order a Napoleon pastry in Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, Vienna, Paris or Berlin and rightly expect to enjoy the same treat. Aside from that foundation there is a variety and uniqueness that each nation possesses in its culinary expressions that the books I have mentioned only peruse the surface of that extraordinary treasure chest.

Even with the Master Chef's programs in the US, Europe and Asia the average culinary repertoire does not even come close to encompassing the richness of all our culinary hidden treasures. These books provide a resource, an incomparable resource for the beginning chef to build upon a wide base of knowledge that used to be passed down orally in close knit kitchen brigades of yesteryear.

I have had the great good fortune to have learned in the old ways, the old traditions where you opened up your tool chest for the Chef as you made your application for a job as they asked you a few questions such as how do you make a reduction for Hollandaise Sauce and how many turns for puff pastry. The New International Confectioner bridges so many culinary worlds and experiences that it is a joy just to review let alone use as a a book of reference and a tool for recipe collection.