Sweet Magic

Long before he won his first James Beard Award as The Best Chef in America, before Gourmet Magazine put him on the cover of its Great Chefs issue, pastry lovers in Los Angeles would line up outside Michel Richard's bakeshop on Wilshire Boulevard like Bruce Springsteen fans lining up for concert tickets. The word was out about a sorcerer from France whose bread and pastry were better than anything in town, maybe even better than anything in Paris.
Among modern superstar chefs- both Gourmet Magazine and the James Beard Foundation have recognized him as Numero Uno-- Michel Richard is unique. In contrast to the pious and serious image of many gods of gastronomy (have you ever seen a picture of Alain Ducasse smiling?), Richard has a permanent smile as wide as a pie plate. He is a playful and joyous Mozart compared to the rest of the world's strenuous and serious Wagner. What makes him different? In a word.....dessert.
Dessert is the happy course, the playful course, the part of the meal that means fun. Before Michel Richard cooked his first cote de boeuf or filled his first foie gras terrine, he was a pastry chef. It is in a way the most exacting and precise form of cuisine yet the one that also demands the soul of an artist and the instincts of a magician.
Sweet Magic presents fifty foolproof dessert recipes but, even more valuable than that, it will share the knowledge to unlock the inner dessert wizard in every home chef so that crusts are crispier, fruit fillings are fuller bodied, and chocolate is even more sensual. He will teach the newcomer and the old hand alike how to seduce the most flavor and texture out of every ingredient and will introduce some new players into his symphony of sweetness.
By including fifty desserts in all, Michel will have the room to explain, in greater depth, the thinking and the craft behind every aspect of desserting. Rather than relying on formulaic headnotes, which are often little more than space fillers in most cookbooks, he will develop the theory and practice of dessert in a series of mini-essays throughout the book that will explore, explain, and entice. His playful and practical line drawings will add personality and an artistic flourish that will set the book apart from purely photographic books.
Included will be American classics like pecan pie and pound cake, Richard classics like the microwave chocolate floating island and the espresso cloud, French classics like profiteroles and Christmas log (buche de noel), fruit favorites like tarts and pavlovas, and, of course, plenty of cookies. SWEET MAGIC will also include essays and tips on the most common problems faced in dessert-making.
Beautifully illustrated with the chef's own drawings, this scrumptuos book will be a holiday must-have for anyone with a sweet tooth.