The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef

Desserts are at once the ultimate indulgence of the fine diner and the ultimate test of a pastry chef s culinary skill. An elegant dessert not only provides perfect closure to a memorable meal, but also showcases a chef s unique powers of preparation, execution, and presentation. Culinary students and serious home bakers alike require an authoritative guide to the increasingly sophisticated pastries that are served in the world s best restaurants. The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef offers nearly 650 such recipes, revealing new and favorite techniques to today s generation of pastry professionals. A companion to Master Chef Bo Friberg s classic The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, this comprehensive collection is ideal for second year courses in baking programs at culinary schools, as well as for accomplished chefs in personal or professional kitchens who want to keep abreast of contemporary trends. Chef Bo begins with elegant decorated cakes, describing the myriad complications and variations, then moves on to creating individual pastries and plated, frozen, and low calorie desserts. He presents a special chapter on wedding cakes, which includes valuable information on the corollary business aspects, such as calculating size and determining cost. Other chapters address the rich world of charlottes, custards, Bavarian creams, mousses, soufflés, modernist desserts, and holiday favorites. Most importantly, in this advanced volume, Chef Bo offers clear, concise instructions, reinforced with line drawings and step by step photographs, of advanced decorating techniques, sugarwork, and chocolate artistry, as well as marzipan figures. Recipes include: Opera Cake Petite Chocolate and Brandied Cherry Pastries Milk Chocolate Marquise with Finger Banana Center and Red Currant Sauce Cinnamon Semifreddo Venizio with Coffee Bean Crisps Date Stuffed Saffron Poached Pears with Chardonnay Wine Sauce ... and many more. A special chapter on holiday desserts contains a host of traditional recipes, including Santa s Gingerbread Chalet, Swedish Spice Bread (Vörtbröt), and Chestnut Rum Torte. Illustrated step by step instructions demystify even the most complex techniques and preparations, ensuring the recipes remain eminently accessible throughout. With over 100 vivid color photographs that bring the delicacies remarkably to life, The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef provides expert instruction on the latest and greatest desserts for the serious baker.