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While reviewing The Art of the Dessert, I took the opportunity to contact Ms. Amernick to invite her to participate in an interview. She was incredible accomodating and willing to help eGullet Society members as they prepare desserts from her book – an attitude that is clearly reflected in the book itself. This is obviously not a person who hoards knowledge, but seeks to share her experiences with the world. Here are a few thoughts that she has shared with us: What was the first pastry that you remember making? Strawberry Tarts. I was fascinated with pies, pastries and most of all fruit-filled tarts. I was just out of college and off for the summer. I baked all manner of miniature tarts. Who have been your culinary role models? Gaston Lenotre, as soon as I became aware of him, but I loved Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simca Beck. Then, I revered Yves Thuries. If you were standing next to someone using your book in their kitchen, what would you whisper in their ear? Get a scale if you don’t have one, and USE GRAM MEASUREMENTS. I fought long and hard to get grams into the book. The theory is that Americans don’t like to use grams, but, well, don’t get me started. What is the food that you love so much that you would gorge yourself on? Maryland Strudel, I love it almost more than anything. Then I might go for the Cranberry and Cassis Bars, and then the Prune Turnovers. What technique or skill would you still like to hone up on? I’m doing that right now with breads and starters. I got a great sour going and I’ve been really happy with the fat sourdough loaves I’ve been making and the soft sour white rolls, as well. But the area I really would like to get involved in is chocolates. I have a lot of gaps there. I never really had any true training in most of the pastry and definitely creative chocolate would be the place I’d need to start. What pastries did you eat while you were growing up? Hot Milk Sponge Birthday cakes, maybe some cookies, but my mother was more of a cook than a baker. But she taught me to make very thin Blintzes so that when I made crepes, they were paper thin. How has the opening of Palena impacted your pastry work? Definitely going more for the a la minute style of plating. When I worked at Jean Louis, there was the big pastry cart and everything was made, finished and set out to serve. Now I like all the components to be made ahead and then the dessert to be completed on order. It’s a little slower to serve, but the pastry is always fresher and crisp instead of soggy. But now that I’ve stepped back from the day to day at Palena, I don’t always follow what is going on in the dessert station all of the time. What was the most memorable time at the White House? It would have to be when the kitchen was koshered for the Begin/Sadat Peace Accord in 1980. What do you consider the most difficult pastry skill to master? Probably pulled sugar. I did it so much in the ‘80’s that I have no finger prints left. I had to have my prints taken 3 times and then get a note from the doctor explaining why I have no fingerprints, when we were applying for the liquor license for Palena. Closing thoughts? This book killed me. I have never worked so hard on anything. The bakery and restaurant were backbreaking and I was no spring chicken then (57). Tack on a book and I could barely stand up.The first two books, Soufflés and Special Desserts were a piece of cake (no pun intended) compared to The Art of the Dessert.

The Art of the Dessert Ann Amernick with Margie Litman ISBN: 978-0-471-44381-0 2007 I look back in fondness to the day I decided that making bars and brownies didn’t excite me any longer. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat them as if they were manna. But, when it comes to time in the kitchen, I much prefer to create something with pizzazz. My spouse says that my sadomasochistic side prefers desserts that take days of preparation for seconds of pleasure. I think he’s right. My culinary transition came with the purchase of Professional Baking from Gisslen and Le Cordon Bleu. With Professional Baking I began to see the techniques behind the complicated desserts that I wanted so badly to make even though I had no formal training. Like many cooks who venture into the more adventurous realm, however, I find that the more "advanced" baking books leave the non-professionally trained pastry hobbyist behind due to technical jargon and unwritten assumptions. Adding to the problem are the books on the other end of the spectrum that offer recipes, however refined, that are still just for bars and brownies, which again, is not my interest. There are few books in the middle that offer both – the basics and pizzazz. Enter The Art of the Dessert, the latest offering from famed American chef, Ann Amernick! Previously, Amernick has authored,Special Desserts and Souffles. Her fame has grown over the years, including working as assistant pastry chef at The White House, and now includes co-owning the Palena Restaurant in Washington DC. She has been nominated for the James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef five times, and is regularly on “Top Pastry Chef” lists released by various publications. With The Art of the Dessert I began to see the techniques behind the complicated desserts that I wanted so badly to make even though I had no formal training. Amernick (along with collaborator Margie Litman) has created that middle-ground book that allows the pastry enthusiast without a degree or years of apprenticeship to make desserts that push the envelope. This hearty, cloth-bound guide presents cakes and tortes, pies and tarts, cookies and candies, and other warm, cold and sandwiched desserts. Some desserts are simple one-item sweets, while others include multiple components assembled into a tower of sugary grandeur. Along with over 100 recipes the reader gets a teasure trove of sub-recipes for the components that go into each overall dessert, making this book an immense wealth of information on the basics of fine pastry construction. Each recipe is very clearly organized, easy to follow, and detailed enough to ensure success. This is the book you need to make a fancy looking dessert easy to make. Aside from the premium recipes, the aspect of the book that I found most useful was Amernick’s precision. Unlike comparable books where you have to flip back and forth to find sub-recipes (“To make this torte, make the gènoise on page 31, the pastry cream on page 46, the frosting on page 74…”), this time-saving gem includes all of the recipes and sub-recipes in order and on the same page. Her precision carries forward into her ingredients where she calls for very specific flours, sugars, butters, etc., all of which her years of experience have found to be the best for the task at hand, and largely available in most communities. For example, “I have also found that the lower the fat content in cocoa, the higher a génoise will rise. For chocolate génoise, I would use Droste cocoa, which is Dutch-processed.” Such tips are indispensable for both the novice and the professional. She also spends significant time encouraging the reader to “know your oven.” Feeling that I knew my oven, but wanting to be true to her instructions, I tested my oven according to the book, and was surprised to find that my oven is, in fact, wildly inconsistent and uneven. The upside is that I now have an excuse for every burnt or undercooked pastry! The downside is that my oven will have to be replaced. The only area that I found lacking in the entire book was photos. As chronicled on a recent eGullet topic, photographs can be very inspiring and instructional in pastry work. The book skimps in this area with only a handful of glossy color photos, augmenting these with a dozen or so recycled background images. These background images become confusing since they appear to be associated with a certain recipe, but in reality, are totally random. This one shortcoming aside, though, the book is easy enough to follow for a beginner, challenging enough for an avid home cook, and full enough of expert tips to make it invaluable for the professional. This is one pastry book that is already covered in spilled chocolate and flour in my kitchen. And as for the photos…I’ll just have to take my own! We can post our creations from the cookbook with photos here.

I was the lucky recipient of The Art of the Dessert, and I'll be posting my review this weekend. I'll also be starting a thread for us to make the desserts in the book, which I'll start with the ones I tested. There's also a little surprise coming for all of you dessert afficienados out there! So, go get the book and let's have some fun.

Caviar are a snap if your solutions are correct. And with the 96 dropper, you can have thousands of caviar in minutes. I did chocolate caviar a few months back on a tuile - yummy! The ravioli I haven't had as much luck with. That's definitely technique. You can get the Lochness monster pretty easily but you'll need to work on the ravioli.

From today's NYT

I think this could be a top 10 most difficult eGullet request! What about a pavlova sweetened with stevia? That would be really pretty, would have no flour or sugar, just sweetened meringued egg whites and fresh fruit. If you wanted the custard filling, then you could use a mascarapone, again sweetened with stevia.

As I walk away with tail between legs, I'll have to delve into the numerous coffee and espress topics in the forum to get up to speed. The irony is Kevin Knox (Coffee Basics) is a good friend and he was always trying to get me to appreciate good coffee...it was a vain attempt.

I'm embarassed to ask since to me a good coffee has caramel and chocolate and whipped cream and sprinkles... (you get the idea), but what's the difference then between a Palombini and a Peet's - knowing that Peet's roasts to order and has an Italian roast and Espresso roast.

I was thinking the same thing. Its funny that there might be interest in an American bakery in a city (Paris) that most people think of as the gold standard when it comes to bakeries. Either way, good luck and keep us posted on your success!

The chocolate chip cookie Bake-Off would be a great starting point .

Check out this and other topics on the subject in past posts.

Ultimately that's your decision. You know your market and competition best. If you can pull off a 10%, then great...who knows though, you may be able to get more, or may end up less. The key is knowing your true cost for every truffle that leaves that shop so you can price from there.

I'm no rice expert and I would suggest you check out this topic or this one. I use hitomobore for sushi, and I was once told by a customer that Calrose included talc. I have no confirmation of that. But I have always assumed calrose was a poor man's sushi rice since its more readily accessible at the grocery store.

This topic is cracking me up! The peppermint story reminds me of many chili pepper miscalculations (but I'll leave those to another topic).

We've got that eGullet synergy happening here! Great idea Vanessa. How long would a tuile stay dry? Depends. I've done some that are more sugar based such as this one It stayed dry forever. But I've done others that are more like crisp, thin sugar cookies which would absorb the cake moisture. Either way, I would decorate right before serving to maximize the crunch. Besides the mouth-hurt factor, I went in this direction because of the mouth-glue factor. I hate having my teeth stuck together.

Thanks for all of the replies. I really appreciated the illusion to a karate belt (albeit a joke) because just as I wouldn't wear a black belt into a studio unless I had earned it, I didn't want to step into the kitchen misrepresenting myself. I'll get the whites and put a duct tape name badge that says, "NOT A CHEF" that way there will be full disclosure. Thanks again.

Anna, I also wanted to congratulate you on a beautiful dessert. Its funny because I made a saffron mousse and wanted to decorate it with a pine nut brittle (very similarly to what you did), and had the exact same problem. I wanted the texture contrast, but it ended up being painful in the mouth. I've leaned toward tuile/cookies or other items for that reason.

Great - this will make a little girl very happy! She really wants certain flavors, and now it looks like she can have them.

I sell it at my store, but I've never used it. I think the fragility of regular phyllo would be compounded with whole wheat. If I ever get the motivation I'll do something basic and post the results.

I certainly agree with you that quality should match the prices. I'm still not quite in agreement on the coffee machine. You said espresso machine which to me implies multi thousand dollar piece of imported hardware that's not easily fixed or replaced on a weekend. You have enough legitimate concerns that I'd give them an inch on the coffee.

Are there any rules for what someone should/can wear in the kitchen related to how it relates to training and education. As a self-taught, untrained person, are there any chef's jackets/shirts that would be inappropriate for me to wear in my commercial kitchen?

The recipe I have calls for: 1 C. Sugar 1/3 C. Light Corn Syrup 1/2 C. Water 1/2 t. Flavoring Can I substitute a flavored syrup like my Armenian sour cherry syrup? I have all sorts of fun syrups but I need to know if they would work. I'm open to any recipes. Thanks.

A specialth item! Geez, I use mine 3-5 mornings for eggs, and probably every night for something...I even throw in a lunch here or there. Sarcasm aside, these aren't marketed for the commerical kitchen - they are marketed for home use, so they should be judged for the use they were intended...and I still say that mine looks today just like it did when I got it, and performs the same too.

Before I understood the technology, I sent back a pan that had lines on the bottom. I now describe them as the marks you see after you run your fingers over velvet - you can see them but no difference in feel. There was nothing wrong with my pan, and they sent me a brand new one - no questions asked.

I think that's more a customer service issue. I've sent pans back to a number of companies over the years. Some argue with you and some just say 'here's a new pan' My experience is that SD leans toward - here's the new pan.