The Pastry Chef's Companion: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for the Baking and Pastry Professional

Great guide for those studying the art of professional baking.

I received this as a textbook while attending Le Cordon Bleu for my baking and pastry class. I loved the book so much that I gifted this one to my grandmother who is a baker. She loved it as well. When it says comprehensive, it really means comprehensive. This book outlines complementary flavors combinations that can be used for all types of cooking applications, not only baking. This is truly a wonderful book and would make a great gift for the baker in your life!

I am a professional pastry chef and have a similar pedigree as the authors. Their book would have been terribly useful in school and I'm a bit bummed that I'm only now getting a copy. It's very thorough on all the topics, and I find it useful to help translate my pastry geek-speak into terms those around me can understand. Specific tools, uncommonly talked about products, techniques, etc are all briefly touched on in the book. The charts in the back are phenomenal. They cover seasonality of produce, pairing of ingredients, and even troubleshooting for common problems with finished product. Definitely for those who are intrigued by the world of baking and pastry!

While I like that this book goes on to define lots of different baking elements I was hoping that it would also provide more direction on when each item should be used and how it impacts the baked good. It only did this to a small degree. I really love the back of the book and the explanations on what went wrong. Overall, if you like to bake it's a really good book to keep on your shelf.

This is such a great book! I don't think I have ever read anything of this calibur before. So, there is really nothing to compare this book to. It matters not whether you are a pastry chef, chef or an eager-to-learn devotee of food, this book will give the guidance you need to further your knowledge! This is a reference of terms and definitions as well as the pronounciation of each. Fantastic book!

If you bake, get this book. Great tips and tricks to improving your bakes. Huge glossary of definitions so multi-cultural recipes are a breeze.Get this book

I was not careful in reading info about book before I bought it. Information can just as easily be found on internet.

To me, this pretty-much sums up all the word you would ever need for being a Pastry Chef. I had to purchase this book due to again, for my class. It cover almost all my vocabulary that I need to memorize for the class. Great reference & great guide for all you Baking needs. I did not know that there is so many terms for just baking. Great book to have...