Review
Bergin's dessert creations have helped make Spago the best dessert restaurant in the world: her secrets, revealed here for the first time, involve a basic repertoire of cakes and pastries which serve as the foundations for a number of innovative creations. No color photos and the dishes require a love of cooking and preparation; but the end results will please any seeking something different. -- Midwest Book Review
From the Inside Flap
s fabulous desserts have helped make Spago, winner of the 1994 James Beard Award for the best restaurant of the year, a landmark the world over. Now, in these pages, Bergin tells us her secrets. First, start with basic recipes: Chocolate Chiffon Cake, Buttermilk Cake, Cheesecake, Brioche, Shortcakes, Puff Pastry, and Pie Dough. Then, as Bergin shows us, you can vary these basics to produce such wonders as Austrian Chocolate Cake, Lemon Buttermilk Cake, White Chocolate Rum Raisin Cheesecake, Apricot Rolls, Peach and Berry Cobbler, Apple Pear Tarte Tatin, Fresh Cherry Lattice Tart, and many, many more.<br><br>The unique ability of Mary Bergin and Judy Gethers, Wolfgang Puck's longtime collaborator, to break down even the most complex recipes into simple basics makes this book perfect not only for seasoned bakers, but also for enterprising novices. To aid beginners, the authors include an extensive glossary of ingredients, equipment, and techniques, as well as numerous practical illustrations that
About the Author
Since 1987, Mary Bergin has been head pastry chef at Spago, where her duties have included designing desserts for the late Irving "Swifty" Lazar's annual Oscar-night parties. In 1992, she moved to Las Vegas to open the new Spago restaurant there. She has appeared several times on ABC's Home Show and has contributed to various cookbooks, including Wolfgang Puck's Adventures in the Kitchen. Her recipes and desserts have been featured in Bon Appetit, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times, and on ABC's Good Morning America. She encourages her two children, Jackie and Anthony, to play an active role in tasting and experimenting in the kitchen.
Judy Gethers grew up in and around restaurants. Her family has owned Rather's, a landmark restaurant in New York City, since 1905. Her first cookbook was The World Famous Ratner's Meatless Cookbook. Since then, she has written The Fabulous Gourmet Food Processor Cookbook, Italian Country Cooking, and The Sandwich Book. Gethers cofounded Ma Cuisine, a cooking school associated with Ma Maison restaurant, and worked with Mark Peel, chef and owner of Campanile Restaurant, on his latest cookbook. She collaborated with Wolfgang Puck on his most recent cookbook, Adventures in the Kitchen, and is now working with him on a new book.
