Dessert FourPlay: Sweet Quartets from a Four-Star Pastry Chef (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Roy Finamore (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The first time I tasted Johnny’s creations, the profusion of delicious flavors in familiar and unfamiliar forms was like nothing I'd ever experienced in a dessert course. In this long-awaited book, Johnny shares the thinking, the cutting-edge techniques, and the flexible recipes that make his approach to the end of the meal so fresh and engaging.”
—Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking

“Dessert FourPlay is as exciting as it is appealing, instructive, and generous. Each dessert is a tour de force of imagination and I’m crazy about the section called Building Blocks, which has dozens of simple recipes for ice cream, cookies, cakes, and sauces to mix-and-match.”
—Dorie Greenspan, author of Baking from My Home to Yours

“Johnny Iuzzini is one of the most talented pastry chefs in America. He is experimental and creative, but his originality and wit are carefully balanced by his classic pastry training. Johnny’s first book, Dessert FourPlay, will be a great inspiration for anyone who has a love of sweets.”
—Daniel Boulud, chef/restaurateur

“From the first day I met him, I knew that Johnny would make a significant contribution to the pastry world. In Dessert FourPlay, you can sample some of his four-star desserts and feel like a rockstar while making them. Johnny's playfulness and desire to push limits in the kitchen are an inspiration to anyone who loves to create.”
—François Payard, chef/owner of Payard Pâtisserie & Bistro and author of Chocolate Epiphany

“Johnny Iuzzini is a serious sugar freak and his enthusiasm comes through on every page. Here’s a guy who can whip up any classic dessert and also show you a cutting-edge technique for making flourless doughnuts. Johnny has always stayed ahead of the curve, and this book proves it.”
—Wylie Dufresne, chef/owner of WD-50

“Y'all, every recipe in this book is deliciously decadent. I just love a man who knows his way around some chocolate!”
—Paula Deen, Food Network host and bestselling cookbook author

“Johnny’s desserts are a mix of tradition, science, humor, and art that are beautifully balanced in his quartets. Be prepared for your senses to explode; expect nothing less.”
—Jean Georges Vongerichten, chef/restaurateur

“Dessert FourPlay is a blockbuster cookbook bursting with mouthwatering recipes, innovative ideas, and breathtaking photos. Many recipes have ‘Make it Simpler’ suggestions that enable the home cook to prepare four-star desserts like a pro. A stunning edition.”
—Carole Walter, author of Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More

“With this impressive collection of seasonal recipes, Johnny Iuzzini reveals his versatility not only with classic techniques, but also with contemporary ideas. He is truly among the country's premier pastry chefs.”
—Eric Ripert, chef/co-owner of Le Bernardin

Product Description

Consider the strawberry: its familiar flavor and texture; its fresh, sweet smell. Now imagine the same fruit distilled and carbonated for a refreshing soda, slow-roasted for a reinvented strawberry shortcake, made into a creamy strawberry ice cream and a chewy strawberry leather, and combined with coconut cream and crisp chocolate pastry. Alone, each dessert is a taste of paradise, but together this “fourplay,” or tasting, created by Johnny Iuzzini, superstar pastry chef of the celebrated four-star restaurant Jean Georges in New York, is a sophisticated explosion of a familiar flavor that begins with the taste of strawberry rich on your tongue and ends with an effervescent tingle in your nose.

Far from the conventional slice of cake at the end of a meal, Johnny’s seasonal creations—four mini desserts in a quartet of complementary flavors and textures—are a culinary adventure. In Dessert FourPlay, he shares his secrets and inspirations, delivering standout recipes for incredible desserts that can be served alone or combined into his signature fourplay groupings, creating the perfect sweet finale for any meal.

With the home cook in mind, Johnny offers tips on simplifying professional recipes and provides basic recipes for transcendent cakes, cookies, tuiles, ice creams, sorbets, granités, and more. These building blocks can be used to create magnificent multifaceted desserts, or they can be perfect desserts by themselves. Some recipes have surprising versatility: the shiny smooth chocolate glaze Johnny uses to ice cakes doubles as the ultimate hot fudge sauce; a lemony madeleine batter becomes a layer in a cake.

Iuzzini pairs cool with hot, crispy with creamy, sweet with spicy, and the expected—chocolate, strawberries, and cinnamon—with the unexpected—chiles, beets, and chocolatey puffs. The result: desserts that refresh, inspire, and satisfy beyond expectations. Dessert FourPlay invigorates all the senses and inspires home cooks to create innovative desserts of their own.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307351378
• ISBN-13: 978-0307351371
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,804 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun, January 6, 2009

By	Robert S. Mayer - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a great read with some very compelling ideas and wonderful suggestions. I have made three of the deserts so far and they were all successful. Note I did not say yummy some of the stuff in this book is about experience of flavor over tradition concepts of flavor. Expect new ideas that take some time to adjust to. If you enjoy experimentation and finding new ways to make old desserts this is a great book. Also if you want to start with molecular gastronomy this may be the least intimidating book to test the waters with. Overall this is a pure adventure if taste and texture with a lot of whimsy.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For home bakers who loves pushing the envelope, February 8, 2009

By	Cookbook Gal "Cookbook Gal" - See all my reviews

I am an experienced home baker who loves pushing the envelope and trying out new, complicated recipes. In my opinion, that is the type of baker who will enjoy this book the most.

I've made a couple things out of the book, and I've had no problem with the directions. While the recipes often call for ingredients that may not be available in smaller markets, those ingredients, with few exceptions, are not "weird." By that I mean that the overwhelming majority of Iuzzini's recipes do not fall into the realm of molecular gastronomy, thereby requiring foaming dispensers and other chemical agents. A small number of them do, but most do not, which is something that I appreciate because I'm cooking for a small family, and not a restaurant. One of the problems I've had with a few other "chef" books is that you really need to invest a tidy sum of money in chemical agents to make full use of the recipes in those books, and professional pastry books produce HUGE quantities of desserts, requiring you to do a lot of math to scale things down. Iuzzini's book does not suffer from either of those problems.

Each major dessert is comprised of 4 mini dessert portions - you can either make one of them, or using the book as a guide, prepare all 4. The instructions are very clear and include both metric and standard US measurements, although he highly recommends that you invest in a scale. The author gives oven temperatures for both a standard oven and a convection oven. When he calls for chocolate, he notes his preference in detail, for example, he doesn't just say 40% cacao, he will say "preferably Valrhona Jivara 40% cacao." There are some recipes that fall into the realm of "molecular gastronomy," but those are only a small percentage of the book. When you do need some exotic ingredient, Iuzzini gives you the mail order sources for them. He also provides building block recipes (for example, regular and chocolate brioche) to use in his recipes, or you can use them in other desserts, if you choose. When he can, he offers suggestions in the "Make it Simple" sidebars that enable a home cook to simplify the recipe.

The layout and quality of the book are great. Glossy pages, photos for every finished dessert, easy-to-read layout, and a font that won't give you eyestrain. The book is divided by seasons and chocolate, so the main chapters are Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring,and Chocolate, with the Building Blocks chapter at the end.

If you are not an adventurous baker, then recipes like Corn Panna Cotta and Beet Parfait may turn you off, but remember that each one of those recipes is designed to be ONE component in a four part dessert. If you don't care for that, you can always make something like the Malted-Chocolate Rice Pudding, or the Chocolate Filled Passion Souffle Tarts (really good), or Cream Cheese Ice Cream.

This is a book that can take your baking and food presentation to a new level. I really enjoyed it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sexy and Inspiring, May 1, 2009

By	K. Minga - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The title of my review really says it all. Iuzzini showcases his awesome skill in this book, and the excellent photography backs it up. I just wish he had found a different way to make the chocolate spaetzle, because honestly, it looks like fat, black crispy chow mein noodles, and I think that visual should be enough for you.

He has tons of exceptional ideas, and executes them with the skill of a true master. Everything looks and sounds delicious, and each recipe is unique. I only wish I had thought of them myself!

It should be noted, however, that the recipes in this book are not for someone who is looking to cook for the first time. Some of the techniques are advanced, use ingredients that you certainly aren't going to find in your local grocery store, and several recipes have multiple parts gone over elsewhere in the book. Luckily for the layman, he offers several simple replacements for a good number of ingredients in several of the recipes.

If none of that phases you, then get this book. You will not regret it.