Customer Reviews

Professional Baking, Trade, 3rd Edition

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Very good book, very comprehensive. Just be warned that everything is done by weights and the recipies make really big batches for the standard home cook. You'll probably need to scale them down.

The second edition is much better. I bought this (3rd) edition for my culinary school baking class while everyone else was still using the 2nd edition. (My class started in October 2000 just as the 3rd edition was being released. I wanted to be on the cutting edge when compared to my fellow students so I bought the then-new book; everyone else had the 2nd editon.)

None of my recipes turned out compared to those using the same recipe in the second edition. Upon closer examination, we found discrepancies in quantities in nearly every recipe over the second edition. For example, many recipes had differing weight values for metric versus imperial measurments. Unfortunately, this wasn't consistant in that metric was "always" higher than imperial. Sometimes the metric measurement was higher (off), and sometimes it was less (still off). Sometimes one tablespoon equalled 28 grams (it should be 15 grams [rounded]) other times 1 ounce equalled 15 grams (it should be 28 grams).

Buy the used 2nd edition to get a quality book. It's acurate, even if there are fewer photos and recipes.

Note: I have many Wayne Gisslen books and I think very highly of him as a culinarian. I think his other books equal five stars. He is a quality author and we're lucky to have him author so many high-value culinarian books. The problem with this particular book is the editing. This had to have been edited by a rookie editor. There is simply no other excuse for such a highly regarded author to publish a book with so many errors sliding by to publication.

Before I read this book, I though I knew a little about baking. Now I know I that I knew very little about baking. To me, flour was just flour. Now I know which type of flour is best for which recipe. There is so much information packed into this book, it's a wonder that it doesn't burst.

I'm a culinary student and found this book to be pretty well-written. This was the assigned book for my culinary baking and advanced baking classes. It showed me how to make all kinds of pastries, breads, muffins, scones, etc. I also used the following books which helped me prepare for the type of questions encountered on my baking exams:
Study Guide for Baking: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations by Melissa Heilman
Study Guide for Advanced Baking: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations by Melissa Heilman
These study guides helped me get very good grades on my baking exams in culinary schools. I give these 3 books excellent ratings.

I bought this book to help me with my catering business. I usually do not bake fancy cakes, but want to learn. Some things in this book were not explained that well but still a very good book. The Study Guide for Baking: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations (ISBN 0974328707) was a better guide for me. It really gets down to the basics and explains everything in plain language. I also decided to purchase The Study Guide for Advance Baking (ISBN 0974328715).

No professional bakery should be without this comprehensive text. Especially valuable for small retail bakeries.

Few small bakeries will be using more than half of the 700 recipes in this book, but I doubt there are many successful bakers who can continue if they don't at least consult this book when developing new products for their customers.

Wayne Gisslen is one of those few experts than can explain his or her specialty in public and in print.

Whether you want to find good commercial recipes or merely want to understand the fundamentals of good baking, you will find the text to make you a better baker. Home bakers be forewarned, though, scaling of recipes requires care and experimentation before one merely uses simply conversions as the taste changes dramatically when different quantities are used.

Home bakers can benefit from this book, but only if they use wisdom in scaling down.

I cannot say if this particular B&P book is really any better or worse than any number of other similar texts. It is the textbook from cooking school a few years ago. Even today despite the number of baking and pastry books I have since bought, this one is still the one I use most often, and the first place I go to when I need a correct, authoritative B&P recipe. Even most of my home baking comes from this book.

The chapters are well chosen. Each one covers one subject, and I have yet to come across a category of B&P that is not covered by this book; it even includes confectionery and sugar work. The TOC also lists all of the recipes in the book in chronological order, making it easy to find a specific recipe. It also has nice explanations of the basic types bread and cake procedures; the recipes, for the steps, then refer you to the appropriate type of dough or batter method. It has also has charts on baking failures and likely causes, which I have used more than once or twice. The one odd thing I noticed is that the yields are kind of low for professional recipes, like a couple of loaves of bread or a couple of cakes; good for culinary students learning in a kitchen or even at home. There are large quantity recipes, but they are hidden in the back where you are likely not to notice.

Also note what it does not have. It does not have really basic culinary info like how to operate in a professional kitchen or how to tell when bread dough is properly kneaded or how to fold batter. It is a list of proper make-up procedures and recipes only.

This cookbook is a 'must have' for anyone who works in a professional pastry kitchen. Period.

I love this book. I wish it would've been the Baking and Pastry text at my culinary school. It has so many good recipes and method descriptions. I also like the presentation section which pulls everything together for the professional pastry cook/chef.

Chef Gisslen shows you concise and usable methods for preparing every type of pastry found in the modern kitchen. Full of reference material and photographs, this book guides you to better baking. His recipes are consistently successful and easily scaled to large or small service.