The Roux Brothers on Patisserie: Pastries and Desserts from 3 Star Master Chefs

As far as the recipes are concerned, it's a great book. Beware though if you are a beginner baker a lot of the recipes are very very tricky. But they are possible with time and practice. Beware also that this book isn't like the original English version in that it doesn't have gram and ml measures but cup and spoon measures. To me that isn't good enough, pastry is a very precise science and the cup and spoon measures are not precise enough, not for what is mostly French patisserie. If I had known I would not have purchases the book (I only bought it as I leant my old English one to a friend - never lend books, you will rarely get them back!!). For this book, if you want to buy and cook with it, buy the English version and invest in scales and proper volume measures.

Three decades ago, the Roux Brothers re-invented French cuisine by inventing nouvelle cuisine and writing a cookbook by the same name. With this book, they have focused their talent to the pastry kitchen. One the whole, if you sort of know your way around the home pastry kitchen, this book is a decent (but not great) resource for professional patisserie recipes adapted for the home kitchen. It is not for beginners.In spite of all the French heritage, the Roux brothers exercise their craft in England, and are thoroughly British in attitude and taste, for better or worse. True to this tradition, virtually every dessert in this book has either fresh fruit or marzipan (there is even a Christmas pudding; there are 5 fruit souffles, but not a chocolate one); if you are looking for a standard, heavy, fattening French pastry or dessert that does not have fresh fruit, you probably will not find it here. In that sense, this pastry book is quite deficient, as there are whole classes of pastry and desserts that the home pastry chef should be able to do, but are absent from this book.The concept of a pastry book to train the home cook into an amateur pastry chef is very appealing; this is the stated intention of the authors. No book I have ever come across does this adequately. Sad to say, this book is no exception. The patisserie here is more or less professional, meaning that most of the dishes are multiple component assembly jobs; it assumes you already have the components available and ready for use. The coordination of making the basic components with the main dish assembly is never addressed. There is a surprising amount of inattention to the recipes by the authors: flour amounts are in cups and not weight, the use of confectioner's sugar makes the dessert gritty (you should use superfine sugar), potato starch in the sponge biscuit, a creme mousseline that uses pure butter rather than whipped cream (yuck), and the use of instant vanilla pudding and lack of gelatin in creme chiboust.Unfortunately, the recipe instructions lack the necessary detail for the home cook. Without professional instruction, it is unlikely that the average home cook will be able to successfully execute the recipes, even in the basics chapter. For example, the suggestion to place water directly to the oven floor when baking bread will either cause a kitchen fire or damage the oven. The authors never address what to do with leftover cake trimmings, frostings, etc; several recipes advise you to throw away leftover meringue (a professional pastry chef should know better; just pipe out and bake little cookies or vacherins). Some of the recipes require you to slice genoise rounds into paper thin layers (1/4 inch), but the book never tells you how. The seasonality of fresh fruits is also never addressed (good quality fresh fruits means that many of the desserts can only be made during certain times of the year, plus the quality of fruit in England is inferior to the ones in California, as England is at the same latitude with Canada, not exactly famous for high quality summer berries or stone fruit; if the authors lived in California, I think the fruit treatment would be vastly different).On the good side, other than the croquembouche or Pithivier, the recipes do not have fancy, elegant, professional decorating components. The emphasis is on preparing the pastry itself, making it a good learning tool for the home amateur pastry chef who does not need to learn sophisticated decorating techniques. The recipes also have essential constituents: prep and cooking times, and necessary equipment and tools.The chapter on sugar work (poured, spun, rock, blown, and pulled) is rarely found, even in professional pastry books. They are quite instructive, but flawed: no safety information (hot, molten sugar at 300 degrees is the most dangerous thing in the kitchen, even more dangerous than deep fry grease, because the sugar sticks to your skin, whereas oil tends to drip off or can be shaken off), glucose (which cannot be found in stores, but you may substitute light corn syrup), and the call for beet sugar or cane sugar cubes (wrong on both counts: always use granulated cane sugar for worked sugar and sculpture).It has chapters on doughs, bread, meringue and sponge cake bases, sauces and creams, tarts, cold dishes, hot dishes, sherbet, savory hors d'oeuvres, petits fours, picnic cakes, worked sugar, and a brief chapter on culinary sculpture (dry choux, marzipan, royal icing, pastillage, nougatine, chocolate curls, ice bowl).

Great cookbook for exploring croissants, tarts and other lovely recipes. Was recommended to me by an English friend/chef who labeled this his baking bible ;)

I used to own this book and lost it in a huge move from another country. I searched Amazon and found it with relative ease and now have it back in my collection. These two brothers have a wealth of knowledge and talent behind them and I am so grateful I can continue to enjoy their recipes.If you love French food and want to learn more about such simple ways to produce fine food, this is the book for you. It is a hitch hikers guide to food heaven believe me. Their other books are just as remarkable.The ordering and delivery process was as usual excellent. Thanks team!

Awesome

If you are serious about your cooking and want to make scrumptious croissants really good bread and Cherry Clafudis then this is the companion for you. It is very carefully written and extremely accurate.

Old school, excellent pastry and baking basics, from simple to advanced. In these pages I have learned to make puff pastry, and what pate sablee was. The lemon tart is a family staple. I have worked my way from the front to the back of Patisserie, skipping only the fetish section on making figurines out of sugar. It should be a staple in any cook's book collection.

Very good

I love baking and challenging myself and this book is like having the roux brothers right by your side taking you through each process. This is one of the best patissier books I ever purchased 7 such a joy to work through.

This is a replacement copy for one i loaned and never got back. It's the most fabulous book for techniques, a little skill and time produces photo worthy results that have an authentic French look and taste. The bread rolls are foolproof. Also the price i paid was so reasonable for a classic that's out of print.

I was looking for a skills book for patisserie and baking - this one is brief but easy to understand for a beginnner and explains things far better than the usual recipe books. Although the format is a little dated , the classical recipes are perfect for building a repotoire of basic skills .

Amazing book by two pastry masters,ideal for any chef regardless of experience n great reference book. Detailed instructions and photographs to demonstrate how to make different PASTRIES n BREADS. Fantastic Value and book was in amazing condition.👍👍😊

this is a wonderfull book I am doing a city and guild patisserie course and this is the bible of patisserie wonderfull recipes and good illastration,Its not just for the profesionals anyone who is interested in baking and pastry work its a must for your book shelf but dont leave it on the shelf use it the step by step instruction are excellent