I Am Grateful or Dessert University

I Am Grateful: Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude

Author: Terces Engelhart

With locations in San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin, and Los Angeles, Café Gratitude has become well known for its inspiring environment and distinctive, flavorful organic foods. In I Am Grateful, cofounder Terces Engelhart presents her and her husband Matthew’s view of life and business philosophy. She also presents her story of personal healing, sharing highlights of her recovery from food addiction while explaining the benefits of a raw lifestyle. The book’s gorgeous, full-color photographs accompany easy-to-follow recipes for the café’s most popular items, making it easy for readers to prepare live foods at home. Recipes include café favorites such as the “I Am Luscious” raw chocolate smoothie, “I Am Bountiful” bruschetta, “I Am Elated” spicy rolled enchiladas, and “I Am Amazing” lemon meringue pie with macadamia nut crust.

Go to: Vegan Express or Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook

Dessert University: More Than 300 Spectacular Recipes and Essential Lessons from White House Pastry Chef Roland Mesnier

Author: Roland Mesnier

As Executive Pastry Chef at the White House for almost twenty-five years, Roland Mesnier has been responsible for creating thousands of elegant, delicious confections and dazzling desserts for hundreds of state dinners and family occasions. An accomplished teacher as well as a master chef, he now shares his expertise with home cooks in Dessert University.

This beautifully illustrated volume is a complete course in making the full spectrum of spectacular sweets -- from breakfast pastries, cookies, and pies to fresh-fruit desserts, frozen confections, and cakes. Recipes in each chapter are organized from the simplest to the most complex, and Chef Mesnier walks you through each step, pointing out common mistakes and offering insights on technique gained from his years as a professional. Most of these recipes need few special ingredients and almost no fancy equipment; nearly everything can be purchased at a well-stocked supermarket, department store, or kitchen supply store. Chef Mesnier includes tips on techniques, ingredients, and serving suggestions, and offers home cooks practical advice, such as how to fill and use a pastry bag and the best way to whip egg whites. A resource list is also included, so cooks can find the more unusual ingredients they need to make these delectable creations.

Mesnier starts off with his fresh-fruit desserts, including uniquely wonderful recipes such as Bananas in Raspberry Cream, Blueberry Fool, and Poached Peaches with Chestnut Mousse. He moves on to creamy custards, puddings, soufflés, mousses and Bavarians, ice creams, meringues, crêpes, and breakfast treats (including buttery brioche and croissant doughs). Chef Mesnier's cookieand bar recipes will fill your cookie jar with such treats as Chocolate Chip Cookies, Almond Crescents, Orange Butter Cookies, Brownies, and Florentine Squares. There are sweet and savory tarts, and cakes ranging from the simple (Lemon Pound Cake) to the unusual (Peanut Butter and Jelly Roulade Cake) to the sophisticated (Chocolate Champagne Mousse Cake). Ambitious home cooks can even try their hand at making chocolate candy and sugar decorations. A chapter on syrups, sauces, and other dessert components completes the book.

More than fifty black-and-white line drawings throughout illustrate Chef Mesnier's instructions for the more complicated recipes, and there are sixteen stunning color photographs of finished desserts.

Home cooks and professionals spend hundreds of dollars in formal cooking classes to learn what masters like Roland Mesnier have to teach. In Dessert University, Chef Mesnier has distilled the experience and expertise of an extraordinary career into one accessible, user-friendly volume. Whether you're a novice who has never picked up a rolling pin or an accomplished cook looking to hone and enhance your skills, this is truly a book you cannot do without.

Publishers Weekly

Thanks to Mesnier's tremendous dessert reference, everyday home cooks can now whip up the very sweets the author has been serving to the First Family and White House visitors for the past 25 years. French-born Mesnier, who was hired by Rosalyn Carter in 1979, is honorary president of the World Cup of Pastry, but his culinary know-how stretches far beyond the intricacies of croissants and brioche. After all, he's been working in America and serving international heads of state for a quarter century, so he's well versed in classics like Cheesecake, Baked Alaska, Brownies, All-American Apple Pie, Oatmeal Cookies and Rum Raisin Ice Cream. His cookbook isn't to be taken lightly, however; there aren't a ton of speed-saving shortcuts, nor are there revised, easier versions of detailed dishes. That said, the recipes, for the most part, call for basic supermarket ingredients, with the occasional trip to the greenmarket for fresh fruit. (In fact, Mesnier is a huge fan of fruit desserts, and he offers a wide variety of options for low-calorie sweets that don't sacrifice flavor for calories, like Mango Tropico Souffle.) With advice on techniques and short but revealing asides on Mesnier's interesting career, the book is at once an indispensable guide to preparing desserts and fascinating armchair reading. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

White House pastry chef for 25 years, Mesnier writes that although he certainly spent much of his career preparing desserts for elaborate state banquets, he was also making everyday desserts for an American family at home. A cooking teacher as well as a chef--he designed the curriculum for a professional program at L'Academie de Cuisine in Maryland--he had long wanted to write a dessert book for home cooks. With Chattman (Mom's Big Book of Baking), he has done just that. His encouraging, engaging style makes the book approachable for even novices, but accomplished bakers will also learn from this impressively detailed compendium. Although Mesnier was trained in France, and many of these desserts are French classics, he updates or streamlines traditional techniques as he thinks necessary--and he includes a selection of all-American desserts. He provides a vast amount of information on ingredients and other culinary matters. Highly recommended. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

CONTENTS

Introduction: Devoted to Dessert

ONE

The Secrets of Simply Wonderful Fruit Desserts

TWO

Light and Silky Puddings, Custards, and Soufflés

THREE

Versatile Mousses and Bavarians

FOUR

Frozen Desserts from Simple to Spectacular

FIVE

Magical Meringues

SIX

Delicate Crêpes and Delectable Fillings

SEVEN

Memorable Breakfast Pastries and Perfect Pastry Doughs

EIGHT

Cookies You Can Count On

NINE

Favorite Tarts and Pies

TEN

Perfect Cakes for All Occasions

ELEVEN

Chocolate Candy and Decorations at Home

TWELVE

Sugar Decorations for Passionate Cooks

THIRTEEN

Syrups, Sauces, Glazes, and Other Dessert Essentials

Appendix: Mail-Order Resources

Metric Equivalencies

Index