Pastry: Savory and Sweet [Hardcover]

Michel Roux (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 12, 2009

Michel Roux (London, UK) is one of today's most celebrated chefs. His Waterside Inn in Bray, England, has held three Michelin stars for an astonishing 23 years, and he has won many honors and awards. Roux has appeared in two television series and written several successful books, including Eggs (978-0-471-76913-2) and Sauces (978-0-8478-1970-6).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From master chef Michel Roux, a full-color cookbook that demystifies the art of pastry making.

For many home cooks, pastry can be intimidating. Now, in his new cookbook, Michelin three-star chef Michel Roux shows how easy it is to prepare professional-caliber pastry at home. Covering ten popular types of dough, including short crust, brioche, puff, choux, croissant, and filo, Roux provides step-by-step techniques and kitchen tips that ensure perfect results, all illustrated with stunning color photographs. He also presents a range of classic and contemporary recipes for finished pastry dishes–100 in all–such as Quiche Lorraine, Classic Pizza, Fillet of Beef in a Brioche Crust, Apple Tart, and Pecan Pie. For home cooks everywhere who want to explore the art of pastry making, Pastry is the place to start.

Exclusive Recipe Excerpts from Pastry

Chocolate and Raspberry Tart

Rhubarb Tartlets with Orange

Pâte Sucrée [PDF]

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470421347
• ISBN-13: 978-0470421345
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Pastry

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars QUALITY WORTHY OF A MASTER, May 5, 2009

By 

C. Terzis "cterzis" (Nicosia Cyprus) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pastry: Savory and Sweet (Hardcover)

Yet another excellent book by the never aging master. PASTRY is all one would expect from a pastry chef of Michel Roux's calibre. High quality paper and photos, excellent recipes, imaginative combinations, modern decorations and clear instructions.
There are photos of all basic procedures and of most of the products.
The European edition that I have has Metric measurements and the American edition has both volume (cups and spoons) and Metric.

The book is divided by sections according to the pastry used in each preparation. It starts with a 'pastry techniques' section and the chapters are:
Shortcrust pastries
Enriched sweet pastries (pate sucree, pate sablee)
Puff pastry
Raised pie pastry
Brioche dough
Croissant dough
Choux pastry
Pizza dough
Filo pastry
Every chapter starts with the method of preparing the starring pastry and goes on with the assembled products.
I have to note here that rarely can one find in books instructions(especially with photos) on how to make filo by hand.

The shortcrust/flan pastry section starts with savory products before moving on to sweet preparations. The selection of recipes is delectable and my personal favorites are: Asparagus and red pepper flan, semi confit cherry tomato tart, croustade of seasonal vegetables, lightly curried seafood flan and the cherry clafoutis. In this section you get also filled pastries like cornish pastries and beef and cheese empanadas.

The enriched sweet pastries chapter has an excellent recipe for sablee pastry and biscuits with a buttery, melt in the mouth quality.In this section is Mr Roux's Lemon tart (baked), that has been my favourite ever since I first made and tasted it as a student in Pastry school in the early nineties. Also present is the famous Chocolate and Raspberry tart, a heavenly combination that has to be tasted to be believed. The Cheesecake and the Sables with blueberry mousse also stand out.

The Puff pastry section like the Shortcrust one has many savory recipes from which I single out the Herbed monkfish in puff crust, rhe Sole and wild mushroom bouches, Chicken pies and the Beef and ale pies. From the sweet ones I like the classics, Pithiviers and tart Tatin.

I have no favorite recipes from the raised pie section.I like them all! All preparations are meals unto themselves, keep for long periods if refrigerated and take kindly to transportation, so they are ideal for picnics. Forget Spam and corned beef for a while and try making your own Pork pies and Chicken with chicken liver pate.

The Brioche section includes plain and filled brioche dough with both savory and sweet preparations. I like the fillet of beef in a pastry crust, the Brioches polonaises and the Baba au Rhum.

Michel Roux's croissant recipe is very delicate so when preparing it make sure that your room temperature and your workbench are cool. The preparations are the classics so try your hand at your own homemade pain au chocolat and danish pastries.

The Choux pastry chapter has a variety of classic and modern products. I like the roasted peaches on choux crowns and the mushroom filled gougeres.

The pizza section has some classics including pizza margherita and Calzone. This is not really the definitive book on pizzas but the selection is good.

Finally, the filo section includes the refreshing Filo croustades with figs, almonds and fromage blanc, apple strudel, baklava and the vegetable and goat cheese flan.

The final chapter has the basics like syrups and custards.

Michel Roux's book lives up to its title and the fame of its author. It is better than Catherine Atkinson's book with the same title and Eric Kaizer's book on tarts that deals more or less with the same subject.
And at this low price this hardcover book is a bargain.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive pastry book with great organization, March 13, 2009

By 

Michael Friedberg (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pastry: Savory and Sweet (Hardcover)

This is a really wonderful book. Michel Roux is a legend, of course, and in this book he is so generous with his knowledge of pastry. I love the organization. he shows you in step-by-step photos how to make just about every pastry imaginable, from tart dough and pie dough (a few different kinds of each, to croissant dough, brioche dough, pizza dough and puff pastry (I personally would rather buy this...takes too long to make). Then after showing you the technique for a specific dough type, you get recipe after recipe of delicious looking dishes, sweet and savory alike. And the photography is plentiful and gorgeous. If there isn't a picture of every recipe, then just about. I can't wait to start cooking from this book.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Seems like the perfect book at first sight but..., August 30, 2009

By 

Jackie (Bethesda, MD, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pastry: Savory and Sweet (Hardcover)

When I first got this book I was in love, the recipes I tried were amazing, the illustrations mouth-watering, the step-by-step instructions almost fool-proof! And for the most part I still agree with what the other commentators wrote but unfortunately over time I found some mistakes here and there, some smaller, some larger, that disappoint me. How does the weight for the "pate sablee" add up to 650 gr? I mixed it, weighed it and it weighed 580 gr, which is in perfect accordance to the total weight of all the ingredients when you add them up on paper. The biggest disappointment is the orange cheesecake that looked so incredibly enticing in the photo and is, according to M. Roux, the best cheesecake he'd ever tasted: the amounts given for the filling don't add up - I ended up with so much filling that I could actually fill two molds. Moreover, the juice of four oranges equals a whole cup of juice, which is far too much for a cheesecake, and in the end the product tasted plain awful.
That said, most other recipes I tried have been delicious, the strawberry tart, apple tart, puff pastry, choux pastry. I would still highly recommend it to anyone as it's a wonderful book to learn from but unfortunately, it's not the flawless book that Michel Roux claims it is...