Patisserie: A Masterclass in Classic and Contemporary Patisserie Hardcover – May 22, 2014

Absolutely wonderful. It is now 2022 and this cookbook is in keeping with all that you need to know to achieve beautiful, high-end, delicious, desserts. Yes, you must buy the tools you will need and that is as it should be for this level of high end desserts. The cook book is brilliantly meticulous in organization, comprehensive directions regarding recipes and tips. The images are of the highest quality your eyes can partake of in a cookbook. The images are a valuable aid in achieving excellence with each dessert. So glad I am the owner of this high end, exquisite cookbook. Happy New Year!

A bit about me: I have loved French cooking since seeing my first episode of Julia Child in the 60's. I did little with baking though, but the British Bake off woke me up and I began to explore the world of patissirie. To anyone who wants to fully grasp the beautiful complexity of this art form, yet be left with a feeling of "I could do this!" get this book. Written in excellent prose by masters of the craft and filled with photos so gorgeous you may lick the pages, it's a great tome. Fundamentals of equipment and ingredients are present, followed by well organized categories of the facets of patissirie. This book is a genuine page turner, yet is about food! Heading for the kitchen now or I would write more, ......

Perfect book

Well written and illustrated book with an excellent collection of recipes. I am glad to have it as a reference.

First off let me just say that this book is gorgeous! I own dozens of cookbooks and baking books but not one of them can rival this one. The photography is amazing - for those who like photos in their cookbooks (and who doesn't?), this book is a must. I honestly cannot get enough of flipping through it and just enjoying the photographs of all the delectable creations.The pastries presented are truly breathtaking. William Curley is clearly a master of his craft and we are fortunate that he decided to share his knowledge with us in this tome. In my opinion, this is a fantastic book for the price (as compared to, for example Stephane Glacier's "Tarts, Gouters, Entremets" or Pierre Herme's "ph10" each of which cost well over three times the price of this book). If you want to get a taste for the kinds of recipes this book offers check out Youtube for the author's presentation of a Strawberry and Pistachio Breton Tart. These are truly innovative, creative patisserie pieces, some of them are just plain showstoppers. And the wonderful thing is that the author breaks down each creation in discreet and digestible chunks even though at first glance they seem to be completely out of reach for a home baker. The first part of the book includes basic recipes for sponges, meringues, creams, sauces, etc. after which follow recipes broken down into Pastries and Leavened Specialties, Petits Gateaux, Entremets (my favorite), Macarons, Verrines, Baked Cakes, and Petits Fours.Most recipes have multiple photos showing individual steps and the recipe includes numbers that allow for cross-referencing each step to the photos. The ingredients and cross-references to basic recipes are very clearly set out and each recipe lists specialized equipments/forms needed. Most recipes have a little blurb about the history of the recipe or some other interesting information. The instructions and photos for chocolate decorations are incredibly detailed - almost as good as watching a video. Though this book is clearly not for the novice baker, the presentation allows anyone who can follow instructions and is willing to spend the time (and invest in some specialized equipment and forms) to recreate the fantastic creations in the book.NOW FOR THE BAD PART and the only reason I give this book less than five stars. There are errors in the recipes. In some recipes specific steps are left out (e.g. in the cannele recipe, there are no instructions for what to do with the hot milk mixture - it is never referenced again after it is taken off the stove). The conversions from grams to cups/spoons are wrong all over the place (60 grams of cocoa powder is not 4 tbsp, it's more like 1/2 cup). Because professional pastry chefs use weights I would err on the side of using the weight measurements and ignore the cups/spoons but even the weight measurements are wrong in some places. For example, in the genoise recipe, the amount of dry ingredients called for is double what is typical for the amount of eggs specified (300g flour, 300g sugar and 125g butter for 6 eggs). I cross referenced at least 5 other baking books I own as well as the internet and it seems clear that for this amount of eggs you should use about half the other ingredients specified. I ran into a similar error with the author's other book, Couture Chocolate, when making the pistachio joconde, where the amount of sugar specified was clearly wrong.Some (maybe even most) recipes are fine but you really have to tread carefully with this book and you need to have a sense for correct proportions of ingredients or better yet cross reference against other sources. Having said that, I think the book is still incredibly valuable and unparalleled in its class. I just hope that the author or the publisher releases an errata sheet to make it more reliable.UPDATE: Having now used this book for a few years I stick with my original review. I use it mostly for the foundational recipes (creams, mousses, purees, cake layers) and also decoration ideas and I have not encountered any issues with those. The step by step photos and instructions are so useful! A few pictures of the things I made are attached (black current and chocolate dessert, chocolate and praline mousse cake, and a cake loosely based on the Fraisier).

The book was packaged carefully & so perfectly to keep book free from damage! loved it!!! :) Thank you! Very Impressed!!

Well written, easy to follow, very good photos.

Really good book

My copy was an older edition and had a different cover to the one shown, but that aside, the contents are identical. The patisserie techniques described are quite advanced and quite daunting to be honest. You also need quite a lot of new equipment to make some of these amazing patisserie creations, including some unique molds, this will require quite a large expense (or investment, depending on how you look at it), so be prepared for that, as well as the steep learning curve needed to master some of these techniques. Remember, to get to William Curley's level of skill requires many years of training and practice. I'm still giving it five stars, if only because as a reference it's very useful, even though I probably won't make most of the creations shown.

Love this book. Can't wait to make all the pastries..... Lot's of fundamentals. A must buy

Ce livre a fait un bon et beau cadeau très apprécié. Richement illustré et plein d'informations indispensables pour patisser comme un pro.

I really wanted to up my game with desserts and this is definitely helpfuli particularly look that a cookbook is not just a bunch of recipes and not enough pictures, but this book is balancing this out very wellI love the historical introduction to the recipes, it makes the process seem that much more special :)There are of course some omissions/errors in some recipes as already pointed out in the other reviews, bummer

Es un libro excelente, tiene desde recomendaciones y consejos hasta procedimientos con una excelente explicación de cada una de las recetas. Recomendado al cien por ciento.