Book Review: The Pastry Chef’s Apprentice

Initial Thoughts:

• Photos:  Great photos including step-by-step shots to help you through the recipe making sure you know what the pastry should look like throughout the process
• Recipes:  Some of the recipes seem a little complicated for the home cook containing ingredients that might not be easily accessible.
• Would I recommend this book?  Yes.  Anyone interested in pastries would surely learn a lot from The Pastry Chef's Apprentice.

In this new book The Pastry Chef’s Apprentice will teach the secrets to making perfect, delicious pastry at home - with 17 expert chefs at your side.  I like the size and feel of the book.  It has a soft cover which I think is easier to use and flip through in the kitchen.  The book is written in the way that you would learn pastry skills in culinary school.  Mitch Stamm simplifies a culinary school's core pastry curriculum and teaches the reader just how quickly you can go from sifting and stirring to spectacular.

The masters featured in The Pastry Chef’s Apprentice teach classic pastry skills, such as caramel, pate a choux, tart crusts, and more.  

Featured chefs include:

— Laurent Branlard, USA: restaurateur and Executive Pastry Chef at the Swan and Dolphin Resorts at Disney World

— Frederic Deshayes, France: Chief Pastry & Bakery Instructor at At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy

— Thaddeus Dubois, USA: former White House Executive Pastry Chef and Culinary Mentor

— Robert Ellinger, UK/USA: owner of Baked to Perfection, founder of the Guild of Baking and Pastry Arts, and international pastry competition judge

— Lauren V. Haas, USA: Assistant Pastry Chef at Albert Uster Imports and Instructor at Johnson & Wales University

— Thomas Haas, Germany/USA

— En-Ming Hsu, USA: Chef Instructor at the French Pastry School in Chicago

— William Leaman, USA: World Champion Baker and Owner of Bakery Nouveau in Seattle

— Iginio Massari, Italy: Author, Restaurateur, and Founder of the Academy of Italian Master Pastry Chefs

— Kanjiro Mochizuki, Japan: Executive Pastry Chef at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo

— Ewald Notter, Switzerland/USA: Founder and Director of Education of Notter School of Pastry Arts

— Kim Park, South Korea: owner of the Green House Bakery and captain of South Korea’s national pastry team

— Jordi Puigvert, Spain: founder of Sweet‘n Go, consultant, and professor at the School of the Hotel de Girona in Spain

— Anil Rohira, India/Switzerland: Corporate Pastry Chef for Felchlin Switzerland and coach and judge for national and international competitions

— Sébastien Rouxel, France/USA: Executive Pastry Chef for the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group

— Kirsten Tibballs, Australia: Founder of Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School in Melbourne

— Franz Ziegler, Switzerland: Author and Consultant