Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry [Hardcover]

Nick Malgieri (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1989

Successful pastries combine textures and tastes. Here the author teaches the how and why of every basic technique in pastry-making. 150 photos.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Malgieri is not only a talented pastry chef but also a born teacher: he has put together a pastry handbook that cooks will come to rely on, with its painstaking attention to detail, intelligent discussions of ingredients and techniques, and clearly written instructions. His array of desserts ranges from simple to elaborate and includes both the repertoire of French classics and brand-new creations. More comprehensive than Jean-Yves Duperret's La Nouvelle Patisserie ( LJ 11/15/88) and less intimidating than professional pastry handbooks, this is highly recommended.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 338 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co (September 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0025792512
• ISBN-13: 978-0025792517
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,247,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

NICK MALGIERI, former Executive Pastry Chef at Windows on the World and 1996 inductee into Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America, is currently director of the baking program at the Institute of Culinary Education. The author of nine other cookbooks, including the James Beard winner How to Bake and the IACP/Julia Child Cookbook award-winner Chocolate, Nick's recipes have been published widely, including in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, Food & Wine, Gourmet, and Bon Appetit. He is a contributing editor of Dessert Professional and writes a monthly column for Tribune Media Services. Nick has appeared on national morning shows and local television throughout the United States, as well Food Network and Martha Stewart. Visit him online at www.nickmalgieri.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended Text for Both Tarts and Tortes, July 3, 2004

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry: Create Fantastic Desserts by Mastering the Basic Techniques (Paperback)

Nick Malgieri is one of the two or three most commonly referenced baking writers in modern American books on pastry (what the French call patisserie, as opposed to bread baking or boulangerie). The others by my informal survey are probably Maida Heatter and Flo Braker, with Lindsey Shere a close third or fourth. Before reading this book, `Perfect Pastry', I was at a loss to see the basis for his influence. His more recent book `How to Bake' is a great book of recipes for cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, bread, pizzas, muffins, and the like, and I use it as my `go to first' book when I want to try something new, and I have never been disappointed by the recipes I found therein. But the book is nothing but recipes. There are none of the whys and wherefores I always rate so highly in books such as the outstanding `The Secrets of Baking' by Sherry Yard. In `Perfect Pastry', I have found much which justifies the high regard in which Nick Malgieri is held by his colleagues.

Before I can intelligently rank this book, it is important to spell out where it fits into the world of books on patisserie. There are at least two different scales along which a pastry book may fall. The extremes of the first scale range from `strictly recipes', which you will find in books by Gale Gand and David Lebowitz to very high in teaching and explanation content as in this book and Sherry Yard's `The Secrets of Baking'.
The second scale ranges from highly specific content such as `cookies', `cakes', `pies', `fruit desserts', `chocolate', or even `cupcakes' to very general books. `Perfect Pastry' is intermediate between the general and the specific, as it covers pies, tarts, cake sponges, cake decorating, and cake filling, but it does not cover much about cookies.

Malgieri's concentration on pastry, cake sponges, and cake icings and fillings in this volume is a very, very good thing, as he covers this subject and allied matters such as ingredients to a depth I simply have not seen elsewhere. This book comes in a very close second to Sherry Yard's book as my favorite source of instruction on pastry. Yard's book may win by a nose because it is more fun to read and some explanations have a greater depth than you will find in `Perfect Pastry'. On the other hand, Malgieri's book covers a somewhat broader scope. His discussion of ingredients such as fruits and nuts alone is worth the price of admission. The third excellent pastry book I have recently reviewed is Flo Braker's `The Simple Art of Perfect Baking', which shares many of the excellent qualities found in `Perfect Pastry' with which it shares the distinction of being recently reissued with new editions. Malgieri, Braker, and Yard all approach pastry with some variation on the `master recipe' approach.

It is instructive to see how each of them teaches genoise. Malgieri takes the most general approach when he classifies genoise as one of the several different kinds of sponges that may be built into cakes. Braker separates cakes into butter and sponge cakes. Yard presents genoise as one of her basic master recipes, as a model for the general technique of foaming. No three recipes are the same. Malgieri's plain genoise is the simplest and least rich, with no butter, but slightly more sugar than Braker. Yard provides an option to use from two to eight ounces of butter. All use cake flour. Both Yard and Malgieri give weights for all major solid ingredients in English units. Braker gives weights for the same ingredients in metric units. My opinion on this is that if you are just starting out to weigh baking ingredients, go metric. It is much easier to scale recipes up or down using metric measurements. In their descriptions of the basic genoise method, all three are slightly different, but Braker and Malgieri's methods are more similar to one another than they are to Yard's description, although I am certain that all three methods will produce superior results. Braker's method is the wordiest, covering details on how to sift dry ingredients and crack open eggs. She is also the most helpful in giving you notes to be well prepared to execute the procedure in an effective manner. Malgieri's description covers baking in both round layer pans and in sheet pans, very important for genoise, as one of it's principle uses is in rolled desserts such as jelly rolls and Yule logs. Malgieri gives the most precise instructions on how to detect if the baking is done for both round and sheet pans.

Sherry Yard gives only four (4) applications, with some variations, of genoise rounds or sheets. Braker and Malgieri both give about 23 different variations. There is a fair amount of overlap, as both cover the usual chocolate and fruit applications, but there are also differences. If your heart is set on making a Yule Log, then you will need Malgieri's book. The organization of the recipes is somewhat different. Braker has all 23 together in a single chapter, while Malgieri's appear to be intermixed with other types of sponge cakes.

If you want an excellent book for learning a lot of different pastry techniques at a very reasonable price, get `Perfect Pastry' by Nick Malgieri in paperback. If you want a lot of well-esplained recipes for many of the same pastries, get Flo Braker's book. If you want a really good read about understanding pastry making, plus excellent recipes, get Sherry Yard's book. If you are a compulsive baking book collector, please get all three.

It is evident that of the three authors, Malgieri is the professional teacher. His book is the best text for baking techniques, Braker gives the best standalone recipes, and Yard is the deepest and most fun to read.

`Perfect Pastry' is highly recommended.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I use this book frequently!, June 7, 2000

By 

David Wihowski (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry: Create Fantastic Desserts by Mastering the Basic Techniques (Paperback)

When I get ready to bake something, I generally consult this book first. It is organized well and provides all the basic techniques (as well as some advanced ones), that I need for probably 75 percent of the baking projects I do. Even if I don't use Nick's recipes I use the techniques that are in the book. The techniques are explained well, with good pictures to support the text (or vice versa). I also can make my own creations built on the building blocks in this book. I even take the ideas, recipes, or flavor combinations from other sources and modify them so they use Nick's techniques or proportions or components.

98 percent of everything I've tried from this book has worked and tasted good (usually very good or excellent). This is a cookbook classic.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A summary of the basic techniques for foolproof pastry, November 27, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry (Hardcover)

Perfect Pastry by Nick Malgieri works becuase you feel like you are looking over his shoulder. Nick's books give you the basics of "why" and "how": How to make perfect whipped cream, chocolate, pie fillings and cakes. "Why" the techniques work so that you may apply them to all of your baking for the the rest of your life.
An essential work for those who are serious about baking.