Customer Reviews

The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th Edition

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am very impressed with this book and highly recommend it. The recipes are varied, from basic cookies to quick breads to impressive plated desserts. It is not for someone who wants to spend no more than 15 minutes, mix a few ingredients and get a dozen cookies (although some recipes are very quick and easy) , but it is perfect for me, an adventurous home baker who frequently needs to double or quadruple batches to obtain the quantities I need. Most recipes yield at least double the quantities of standard cookbooks, but there are frequently instructions on making smaller quantities or using alternate pan sizes. Do-ahead instructions are common, which is also a big plus to me.

There are several things explained, such as air-spraying chocolate, that I may never do, but was very interested in reading how they are done. Less "professional"options are often included, such as sifting cocoa rather than the air-spraying.

All in all, this is my new favorite cookbook, both for actual baking and for curling up and reading. It has given me lots of inspiration and I can hardly wait to get cooking!

Chef Bo Friberg really out did himself with this latest edition, I highly recommend it. This new book is the updated version of a one-stop shop approach to baking and pastry. As a non-professional "home" cook, I really appreciate his step by step instruction. He caters to more than just professionals in his writing style and instructional approach. I found that with each recipe there was useful discussion, history and composition, and a good outline on how to begin each culinary project. It is VERY well written and fun to read, and loaded with good hints on baking in general not just specific to pastries. I have not yet found a recipe that I am disappointed with. The photographs are great and inspire me to recreate some pretty terrific and beautiful culinary feats. Of all the cookbooks I own this is by far the most tastefully and artistically done--and my new favorite!

I'm very impressed so far with this book. The author knows his stuff, relays the information in an interesting and informative manner, along with making some difficult recipes easy to understand. If you're serious about baking, this is a steal. You'll learn hundreds of facts about flour, baking, preparation along with a ton of cool recipes. They range from easy to bake up, to needing a lot of prep beforehand.

The book uses grams instead of cups/teaspoons, so you'll need to buy a scale as well if you're planning on diving fully into this great work of art.

This is one of those books that every baking enthusiast should have in their collection. It contains just about every basic recipe you can think of, so you will find yourself referring to it again and again.

It is also wholly designed for professionals, which is great for the serious home baker like me who hates being condescended to by reliance on volume measurements and sloppy imprecise instructions. If you are interested in not only getting the job done, but getting it done RIGHT, you will not be disappointed here.

My only caveat is that the recipes in this book tend to be scaled for professional use, which means the quantities are often excessive. According to the book, you can scale the recipes by as much as 1/4, but I have had unfortunate results with several of the recipes, which I highly suspect happened as a result of scaling down. The bottom line is unless you're prepared to make LARGE quantities, some of the recipes in this book may be impractical or even impossible.

The quality of the recipes is also not outstanding, although it is very good overall. There are a few gems in this book, such as the triple indulgence chocolate cookies and the challah, but generally the recipes are utilitarian; don't expect anything inspired or spectacular along the lines of a Pierre Herme creation.

This is cookbook has my highest recommendation. The author has garnered a legendary reputation as an educator to newbie pastry chefs, and this book is a distillation of his knowledge and skills. Even the dedicated home pastry chef can benefit, but with a few caveats as noted.
Each recipe in this book is equivalent to those mini-demos I got in cooking school. You have a copy of the recipe in front of you, and the chef executes the recipe step by step and explains what he is doing and why, each and every step along the way. This book has hundreds of such recipes, many of them are sine qua non. Especially: your employer has asked you to make something that you have never even heard of before, much less seen or tasted. If you can find that recipe herein, your chance of success the first time through is very high: the chef will gently lead you through the recipe.
The chapter on mise-en-place and sauces are quite useful (ditto for the appendices: ingredients, tools). Here, in one book, is collected all of those annoying little bits and pieces that you are always looking for but can never find, no matter how many books you rifle through.
A rare gem: on page 701, the chef tells the truth. Those impressive, architectural desserts that you will see in food magazines and cookbooks are for the camera only. They are not practical, inasmuch as they will not survive a trip by a waiter from the kitchen to the dining room. Even if it does survive the trip, it will probably cause some sort of dry-cleaning bill to the hapless customer. I personally know of some fellow cooking school students who tried to base their careers on such architectural monstrosities.

Scandinavian Accent
The author was trained in Scandinavia. As such, the selection of recipes is heavily tilted toward typical Scandinavian recipes. This is good, in that you will find many sort of wonderful B&P goods that you probably have never heard of before. There many sort of recipes you might expect to find, but are absent. The choice of recipes has some peculiarities:
x in the brownie recipe, the chef insists that raisins are a good addition
x there is only one red velvet cake recipe, and it is the oddball one that has beets (no, that is not a typographical error)
x the recipe for genoise has cornstarch
x strawberry shortcake biscuit has orange peel and poppy seed
x there are 4 recipes for pound cake, but only one is the traditional one.
x the author beats a dead horse with no less than 8 cheesecake recipes
x relatively speaking, there is a dearth of chocolate recipes

Good Format
The beginning of each recipe has a list of all recipes and the page number. The color plates are concentrated on the recipes from the plated desserts chapter, where a picture really does help.

Odd Things
*The yields from recipe to recipe are all fairly uniform, e.g. 2 cakes. The author says it is quite easy to simply multiply up or down; curiously, a few recipes have a small batch version of the recipe. ¡§All purpose¡¨ flour does not make an appearance; instead, all recipes use bread and cake flour in various combinations. Of course, this is the correct solution to AP flours that vary in protein % from brand to brand and in different parts of the country.
*The recipe titles are usually, but not always, English translations. So, if you are looking for a recipe by a French name, you may not find it, e.g. genoise is titled ¡§sponge cake¡¨, and the word genoise does not appear anywhere in the book.
*Note carefully that there is no info about basics and techniques. If you need to know how to whip egg whites, fold batter, knead bread, or different methods of cooling and un-molding cakes, you will not find it here. A list in each recipe of the type of pan or tin used would be helpful. A wonderful substitute for mascarpone cheese (3 parts cream cheese to 1 part sour cream) is buried in the sauce section where you will never find it. The reference on page 856 (it says p. 921) should read ¡§p. 927¡¨.
*During a few recipes, the author describes that various items are conveniently frozen, so they will always be on hand and also for emergencies. A prep list of these things for a restaurant or hotel kitchen would be helpful.
*There is a mini encyclopedia (one for ingredients, one for equipment) occupying 125 pages of small, dense type. As such, it is one of the more useful of its type. One detects a few vagaries here and there. The only shortcoming is that one wishes for a slightly more detailed and practical explanation of the difference between semi-sweet, bittersweet, and ¡§sweet dark¡¨ chocolate (ditto for evaporated vs. condensed milk). The listings for commercial mixer are specifically for ¡§Hobart¡¨; there are other brands, and the information is not really exact from brand to brand.

Home Pastry Chef
This book can be used the dedicated home cook, but with a few caveats. Many chapters you should stay away from, but some of them you can make use of, such as: yeast breads, cookies, pies, quick breads, custards should certainly be in the domain of the talented, home pastry chef. Note also that you will need a battery of standard professional tools and such, and there is no list in the book of these ¡§essentials¡¨.

As a novice, home baker - I got this book in the hopes to become much more proficient in baking and pastry making. I love to cook and am an experienced cook, but baking confounded me, probably because I didn't have the attention span to follow a recipe exactly...which, I have learned the hard way is REALLY important when baking. I read the other reviews and though that this would be a good book to start with - but I have mixed feelings about it. Here is why:

1. First, it is a huge book and really goes into how baking works, what works, what doesn't work, and the proper way to do each task. That was awesome - a little more information than I needed, but awesome nontheless. It really is meant to be a text for a professional culinary student, and it is not light reading. However, be prepared for the recipes to go more in-depth than your average home baker is expecting.

2. Most of the recipes rely on you having done your "mise en place" or in English, proper set up. While this is a good habit to be in, so that you have everything ready and at hand, many of the recipes require you to prepare several other recipes first, before you get to what you are wanting to make. (I know - it is not out of the norm) The issue is, that those recipes may be on the other end of the book from the one you are making, so it definately requires more consideration, especially to prep time, than just making the one recipe. It works off the expectation, that like a professional kitchen, certain items like pastry cream will be made and waiting for you to work on the recipe currently in front of you.

3. You can feed an army on the volumes of these recipes. Seriously. Now, if you are someone who does a lot of bake sales, makes stuff for your kid's classes, or you entertain like a governor, then you are set. Granted, you need to have the equipment to handle making these items. On a lot of them, a serious trip to a restaurant supply store is in order. Sure, you can try and do the math to cut down the size, but as someone who is already an iffy baker, it lends itself to making more mistakes and I have heard that halving or doubling a recipe is not that easy, as it can change the way the ingredients interact and can mess up your results. That said, if I need to do a bake sale, I am pretty much set.

So, overall - it is probably a GREAT book for culinary students or professional bakers, but may not transition well into the home cooking environment.

If you're looking for clarity and completeness, you've found your book. I've always felt that a "professional" approach can only help to raise our standards even if we don't make a living in the kitchen. Friberg delivers. The book is very well written, the recipes and technique advice well organized and conceived.

Despite the title, most of the 650 recipes Friberg uses to illustrate his technique sections are of household, rather than industrial, proportions. You dog lovers will appreciate the "Special Reward Dog Biscuit" recipe with which Friberg begins the book as a tribute to his Akitas, who will not touch the store bought variety. Friberg's recipe for Sachertorte, among dozens of other delectables, has long resided in my culinary kennel. You'll find all the basics, of course, but if you want to go further, you won't need another book.

Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

What a great book! I am a pastry chef and I use this book daily! I have found so many great ideas and learned so much from this book. Even for beginning bakers this book is easy to understand. I have used about 15 recipes from this book and I have about every other recipe marked to use one day.
If you are looking for a book for making some serious dessert then this is a great book. I highly recomend it! It also has information on most of the desserts which I really like. It has where they come from, tips to help you with the dessert, and tells you about each ingrediant that you use and how it works.

This is an excellent reference book for me being a home cook who is serious about baking and pastry making. There are a lot of tips and 'bakers secrets' which I find useful when making large quantities of products. Methods are explained in detail and easy to understand with diagrams. Would like to see more photos and each photo with a page no. refering to the recipe. This is more a text book and not simply a recipe book. It would not be suitable for someone who is not interested in the 'technical' aspects of cooking.

This book is the end all of pastry work and baking for almost any project a person wishes to edure. The book has been written in layman's terms so you can start at the very most simple level on a very difficult dish and accomplish it the first time you make it. I have never seen any culinary book put the instructions together with such precision for both the advanced and beginner alike.