| | |  | Culinary Books | Home » » The Pastry Chef's Companion: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for the Baking and Pastry Professional | | | | | | | Description: | | With more than 4,800 terms and definitions from around the world plus ten appendices filled with helpful resources, The Pastry Chef's Companion combines the best features of a dictionary and an encyclopedia. In addition to the current terminology of every component of pastry, baking, and confectionary arts, this book provides important information about the origin and historical background of many of the terms. Moreover, it offers coverage of flavor trends, industry practices, key success factors, a resources list, illustrations, and phonetic pronunciations. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Glenn Rinsky | | Paperback:
| 384 pages | | Publisher:
| Wiley | | Publication Date:
| February 28, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0470009551 | | Product Length:
| 8.96 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.04 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.92 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.3 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.9 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.9 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.1 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.25 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 17 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 17 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 found the following review helpful:
 Do You Need This Book?Jan 17, 2010
By M. Hill
I am a home baker, not a professional or a culinary arts student. 309 of the 375 pages of the book are a glossary of usual and unusual baking terms, types of pastry, almost anything and everything associated with the discipline. The problem is that this book is filled with information and terms that are readily available on the internet. When a term in a cookbook is unfamiliar, I type it into a search engine. It takes an instant to obtain an answer, in fact it takes less time than taking out this book and looking it up. My interest in baking is substantial, but even so, the book makes for dry reading (like reading from the dictionary) to simply sit and absorb the contents - which I assume wasn't the intended purpose. From my perspective, although the extensive amount of research that went into compiling this comprehensive volume is obvious and admirable, the reality is this reference book would have been absolutely invaluable to a wide audience 15 or 20 years ago.
The remaining 64 pages of the book contain some universally useful information. Tables are included for Important Temperatures Every Pastry Chef Should Know, Weight and Volume Equivalents for Most Common Ingredients, Sugar Cooking Stages, Conversion Formulas and Equivalents, Seasonal Fruit Availability, The 12 Steps of Baking (Bread baking), Classic and Contemporary Flavor Combinations and What Went Wrong and Why - an area in the book where common baking mishaps are discussed. Some of the information, like Sugar Cooking Stages, is common information that appears in many cookbooks, but some of the tables are inspired and will be helpful to all. The book finishes up with a list of Specialty Vendors and the references utilized in the creation of the book.
The book is a 6 x 9 inch paperback with no photographs and it it printed with dark brown ink. The font size appears to be 10 point. The information in this book will be particularly useful if the reader does not have regular access to the internet or a need exists to have this information in a single volume.
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
The Pastry Chef's CompanionDec 12, 2008
By Sandra Brent
"Catering Goddess"
I am in the hotel industry and don't know how I survived all these years without this book! It assists me when I talk to customers so that I can easily explain items and show pictures to them. The only problem is that I need to get another copy so that I have one at home and one in the office. I think that anyone who likes to bake or is a "foodie" needs to BUY THE BOOK!The Pastry Chef's Companion: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for the Baking and Pastry Professional
10 of 11 found the following review helpful:
The Pastry Chef's Companion a Comprehensive resource guideDec 01, 2008
By Judy Shinn
This is an excellent reference tool I highly recommend for any baker or pastry student. I am enrolled in the Le Cordon Bleu Diploma in Patisserie and Baking and have found this an invaluable resource in my studying and baking. Fellow students have also purchased this book along with our school library. The author's have done an amazing job in their research and organization, I refer to this book on a regular basis. Thank you!
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Excellent ResourceNov 28, 2008
By Lisa Hurly
I am not a professional baker but this book helped me feel like one. It is informative, easy to use and a wonderful resource. I bought five of them for friends who love to cook and suggest anyone does too!
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
good infoApr 05, 2009
By sweetpastry89
I enjoy this book, I like the info in the back of the book and it reminds me of the culinary guide, but this focuses on the pastry aspect which i love. i recommend this book for sure. explains the definitions of what pastry items/ingredients are
See all 17 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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