7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
For Professionals Only, December 20, 2004
This review is from: Pastries: Dine with Europe's Master Chefs (Eurodelices) (Hardcover)
The Eurodelices series, judging from this volume, is by professionals, for professionals. If you are the average home cook, the only possible use for this book I can think of is under a table leg to level out the dining room table. If you are a rookie pastry chef working the dessert station of a restaurant or caterer, then this book is for you. Almost all of the recipes can be prepared and presented as is in a high-level pastry shop or upscale restaurant dessert cart. For the most part, the presentations are traditional, but there is a fair amount of neo-classical treatments as well. The food styling is often more instructive than the recipes, and illustrates the importance of the correct plate, even if you must have it custom made by a ceramic factory for that dessert.
Each 2-page spread is devoted to one recipe. It has a large picture of the finished pastry (very commendable), ingredients, and a chatty mini-essay about that pastry or the chef. The bottom of each left-hand page in small type has the chef's name. Please note that the recipe instructions are virtually non-existent: they are the sort of brief, terse directions an executive pastry chef would give to an experienced prep cook or sous chef.
The most exciting feature of this book is that all of the recipes are from European master pastry chefs who are the sort of people you would travel to Europe for just for the opportunity for a brief (unpaid) internship. This book is a rare opportunity to learn from the unchallenged masters of patisserie. There are number of very clever decorating tricks guaranteed to make even the most jaded patron exclaim: "how did they do that?" These are pastries that would be a stunning addition to any pastry case or restaurant dessert cart. Some recipes are for entire cakes, others are for individual dessert portions.
Many recipes reflect the European fondness for marzipan (which I personally do not care for and try to avoid if at all possible). The recipes are rated for difficulty, but I find that even the easy ones are not that simple to do (this complaint applies to the chapter on basics as well). There are a few odd things: the picture for Brittle Sponge Ring seems to be using roasted almonds and not brittle; the Sachertorte presentation; a fig newton recipe (for pears and not figs) that seems to have way too much spice, etc. The recipes also lack yield information; this is not a problem when you make one cake, but others yield multiple servings of cookies and the like, and the only way to tell how many pieces you will get is by doing the recipe. Keep in mind that this is European patisserie / konditerei, and some ingredients reflect this: candied strawberry and angelica, creme fraiche, gelatin sheets, and the "whipping cream" in the text is called manufacturing cream on this side of the Atlantic (although you could probably get away with heavy cream). It uses the term "sponge cake" to describe meringue discs. Many of the hints and suggestions are rather elliptical. Most of the decorating and finishing touches require professional level skill. The food styling in the pictures is usually not explained. The mini pictures at the bottom of the page sometimes do not match the instructions. The pan size and sometimes baking times are not specified. The recipes are assembly jobs and assume the availability of a complete professional array of pre-made components (creams, sponges, biscuit, etc.). The recipes only give the English translation for the names, which makes it difficult to cross reference the recipes against another cookbook that uses the names in the original European language. It is often difficult to tell what type of chocolate is called for; sometimes couveture is obviously implied, but is not called for as such. There are a number of fascinating biscuit, sponges, and creams that are easily adaptable to your own creations.
The organization of this book is virtually non-existent, as is the table of contents. There is no listing of either the recipes or chefs in the table of contents or chapter headings. The book is organized alphabetically by the chef's last name: Adolf Anderson , Franz Augustin, Eric Baumann, Maurice and Jean-Jacques Bernachon, Christian Cottard, Lucas Devriese, Philippe Guignard, Pierre Herme, Helmut Lengauer, Michael Nadell, Christian Hihoul, Flavio Perbellini, Bernard Proot and Gunther Van Essche, Francisco Torreblanca, and Basic Recipes. Each chef gets about 10 recipes, and the basics section has 30 or so recipes. There is a brief bio on each chef.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
