The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th Edition Hardcover – March 5, 2002

I have just begun to plan on spending many years baking gourmet pastries with this cookbook. A pastry chef friend swears by this book, and she recommended it to me. I'm so glad that I now have it. The recipes are priceless.

The tips from Chef Friberg make this hefty book worth the hefty price tag. The recipes are presented in both large bulk and smaller batch forms. Along with the recipes are nuggets of wisdom to help the home baker be a success.One of the lessons I've gleaned from the book is that, when making a cheesecake, one should let the cream cheese come completely to room temperature before incorporating it into the recipe. Also, when the cheesecake is ready to go in the oven it should be in a water bath. The recipe I've used for years never gave these simple instructions. When I made my cheesecake for Thanksgiving dinner this year, I followed Chef Friberg's advice and was pleasantly surprised at the creamy texture of the cake and the beautifully even top. In the past my cheesecake had fallen quite deeply in the middle and was grainy.Included with the professional baker's tips are anecdotes about the author's personal history. With the recipe for dog biscuits he tells of his love for his two Akita "puppies," Shiro and Kuma. These stories, instead of detracting from the book, make it much more personal. Chef Friberg tells why these recipes are important to him and why he wants to share them with his reader.Some of the recipes are probably beyond the skills of most home bakers, but it's still fun to read them and dream.

I purchased this book during my senior year of college as a culinary arts students at Johnson & Wales University in 2002. Even now, 14 years later, I still cherish it dearly. It is well written, the formulas are fantastic and the baked breads, pastries and desserts turn out great and tasty. What I loved most when I originally purchased it back then, is that it was written in the style of a veteran chef, speaking to and teaching younger apprentices the fundamentals and foundations of baking. It is filled with little anecdotal stories, best practices tips and scientific breakdown of the baking process. What I love most about it now, after having worked in the industry, is that I see and know first-hand, the artistry and wisdom in the formulas. I have made countless creations using Bo's formulas and although I have tweaked some over the years, I still keep the essence of what the original formulas were trying to convey. Whether a professional chef or culinary student at home, this book is highly recommended. Due to the yield sizes and techniques, it may be a bit intimidating for home bakers.

Love it! When I first bought CIA Pro Chef, I received some introductory coverage of baking and pastry. I wanted to go deeper and form a basis for this entire other world of culinary arts, so for the longest time I had planned on buying a guide like this. I've only gone through the first chapter because I'm wickedly busy with my career activities, but I'm already fully satisfied with what I bought. The way I know is when I'm standing in line at the grocery store and there's a wonderful, fancy baking and pastry magazine on the rack, I know I don't need to buy it because Bo's book gives me everything I need. When I finally finish this book I'll move on to the Advanced version of this book. Culinary arts is a hobby of mine, and as a home chef I challenge myself on both sides of cooking- general cuisine and baking/pastry. So for me this book is a necessary part of my collection. (BTW, I bought the Kindle e-book version of this, and it's been working out perfectly for me.)

Everyone says baking is a science and yet many baking recipes online and in some books are vague in their directions especially for beginners. This book is different it describes in detail what you are trying to do (chemically speaking) and tells you when it's done versus over done (mixing and cooking wise). For me it's taken the fear and mystery out of baking.As a bonus it also tells you how to plate some of the desserts. How FUN!Also the recipes are given in weight which (according to the book) 1) will give you more consistent results and 2) frankly it's easier to deal with. I just zero the scale after each dry ingredient added into the mixing bowl and spoon in the ingredients (saves me washing several smaller bowls).The recipes do seem to be bigger batches than normal online recipes, but in some cases that's a good thing. For example I made crepes (which were better than ANY crepes I've had even without any filling), the bigger batch is not actually that big because it may take several tries to get the hang of putting in the right amount of batter and swirling your pan fast enough.

I am new to baking myself but have know good pastry at home in the pastry shops for years. I have over 10 baking books but nothing comes close to this one. All the other books seem to give you okay or even good outcomes but not the good pastry shop or bakery results.After trying to make a blueberry muffin like in my local pastry shop, I tried Martha's, Ina Garten, and various website recipes and they were good but not quite like the ones from my pastry shop. I then tried this recipe and sure enough it was exactly like the ones I pick up on saturday mornings, I even saved one and cut it in half to compare.I also have being trying to perfect the Sacher torte, Epicurious and another book gave okay results but not as good as this one.I recommend this to anyone who wants the professional results, the other books seem just one level below this book. And I just started reading it.