French Patisserie: Master Recipes and Techniques from the Ferrandi School of Culinary Arts

This book is humongous. It weighs over 9 pounds. With that being said it’s beautiful. Lots of great recipes, techniques, instructions, pictures, and illustrations. I bought this book with so many others that were on cyber Monday sales. I’m very happy with this purchase. It was a great price for a lovely book, even though it is pretty heavy

I don’t usually leave reviews but I felt compelled to after receiving my book. An instructional French pastry book would not be complete or authentic, without well written step by step instructions for simple traditional to phenomenally complex recipes, accompanied by beautiful pictures on high quality paper. Down to the ribbons for page markers, the book’s authors and contributors thought of everything. Nothing has been left out, from quality ingredient recommendations, to tips on how to prepare each tiny component to make the perfect pastry. I am literally in love with this book, and studying from cover to cover. I can only express my gratitude and appreciation for the contributors of this book who must have spent so much time, and passed on their traditions. I am only a home cook, but I have loved cooking and baking for my whole life. I care about making my food perfect for my loved ones, so they can understand the love I put into it. That is why I am so grateful for this book. You must purchase if you have a passion for baking and appreciate tradition as well. Ce livre est parfait et très spécial, il faut l'acheter !

I have nothing but nice things to say about this text. It's a massive book -- coffee-table sized for sure -- and it's full of exemplary instruction on pastry basics, as well as some beautiful, classic recipes. The instructions for techniques are accompanied by large, clear photos. Ingredients and equipment are noted ahead of time. If you don't have the time or money to go to pastry school, this is a great compromise in terms of self-paced learning.

First of all, this book is HUGE! Much, much larger than I anticipated, make sure you have room on your bookshelf for this massive tome. I think it weighs at least 5 lbs. A real steal for the price, though. Many of the simpler recipes are broken into steps and illustrated with photographs, so you can make sure you are learning the basic techniques correctly before moving on to the more challenging recipes. This book also has many similar recipes at increasing levels of difficulty, with Step 1s being sophisticated yet reasonably attainable for the home baker, and Step 3s being more on an award-winning professional pastry chef level. I've already learned so many tips and techniques that I didn't know before! Highly recommended, if you have the space! ;)

ITS LIKE A COLLEGE ART HISTORY BOOK: A HUGE THICK VOLUME OF PHOTOS OF BEAUTIFUL ART WORKS. I HAVEN'T MADE ANYTHING FROM IT YET THOUGH, BUT IT SURE IS A TREASURE JUST TO BEHOLD.

Such a comprehensive guide with great pictures and instructions. I love that there are recipes for every level so you can progress in your skills.

I am in LOVE with this book. It’s become my night time reading (heads up, it’s very heavy). It’s printed on superb paper and the imagaes are amazing. I just tried the Macarons. I got all my ingredients ready as well as all the machinery, pots, piping bags etc. Very quickly I came to realize that this recipe must have been halved or quarterd (at least) from a commercial amount because there was no way that my stand up mixer would be able to whip up 3 Tbls of egg whites as the recipe called for... The whipping blade didn’t even touch them at the bottom of the bowl! The recipe also asks for another 3 Tbls of egg whites, to be separately mixed with an immersion blender and the food coloring. Again, the blades of the immersion blender didn’t even touch the egg whites, and I had them in a tight measuring cup to be able to blend them. Yet.... if you look at the images that accompany the instructions (see attached image), the book shows as if the amount is so much that the rounded part of the blender practically get’s covered... all with one and half egg whites! This is physically imposible. Same happened with melting 1/2 a cup of sugar with 2 Tbls of water to reach 245 degrees aprox. How to put your candy thermometer into that itty bitty amount, even if you use your smallest pot? It’s almost imposible without touching the bottom of the pot. I wound up scrambling an trying to improvise... needless to say the result was so far from what macarons are supposed to look like. BUT... if I may say so, I had never eaten such yummy tasting ones! I can not show you my end result... it’s too embarrassing... Oh... one more thing. The instructions after you have everything ready to assemble the macarons is quite deficient (I was aiming for chocolate macarons). They say to pipe the ganache on to the bottom of one macaron shell. But they also asked you to put that ganache in the fridge at least an hour ahead of time. Now, you are going to assemble them and the ganache is waaaay to hard to pipe! And there is no explanation as to how to pipe this hard ganache or why they have you place it in the fridge to begin with. I believe that at least this particular recipe was not tried out with the listed amounts on their ingredient list. So some may ask why 4 stars? Because I have learned so very much from this book. Because it is a beautiful book. Because I’m not giving up on it. Not quite yet! If I find other issues with the book I will update my review. For now... read the recipe thoroughly and keep in mind this issue.

Essential cookbook. Any serious chef should own a copy. Brilliantly put together.

Başucu kitabı niteliğinde, çok ayrıntılı, profesyonel içerik.

Excellent Pastry Book with lots of beautiful pictures in clearly explaining the techniques that makes pastry making an easy to understand and to follow. I have lots of good pastry books and this one is pretty much the top of the list. I strongly recommend. A MUST have. If you. have a passion in pastry making.

clear, concise and plenty of step by step guide. great book.

must have book for any pastry chef....excellently authored!!! highly recommend it over any celebrity chefs ....

Me encantó el libro, cubre los básicos de las técnicas que se verán en las recetas además de los utensilios a utilizar. Tiene una gran variedad de recetas, me gusta mucho que la misma receta venga con tres niveles de dificultad de fácil a avanzado. Las recetas vienen con fotos "paso a paso", lo que facilita el procedimiento a la hora de hacer las recetas. He intentado unas cuantas recetas y son realmente deliciosas, las cantidades son las correctas y no he tenido problema al estar horneando. Además de ser un libro realmente bello, no sé si esto influya para ti pero para mi es algo realmente importante, las pastas son duras, la calidad de las hojas, así como de la impresión es muy buena. Tiene bastante información y es muy descriptivo pero no te abruma al estar leyéndolo, es muy fácil de seguir, tiene un diseño limpio y minimalista. Uno de mis libros favoritos de repostería francesa!