Consider the strawberry: its familiar flavor and texture; its fresh, sweet smell. Now imagine the same fruit distilled and carbonated for a refreshing soda, slow-roasted for a reinvented strawberry shortcake, made into a creamy strawberry ice cream and a chewy strawberry leather, and combined with coconut cream and crisp chocolate pastry. Alone, each dessert is a taste of paradise, but together this “fourplay,” or tasting, created by Johnny Iuzzini, superstar pastry chef of the celebrated four-star restaurant Jean Georges in New York, is a sophisticated explosion of a familiar flavor that begins with the taste of strawberry rich on your tongue and ends with an effervescent tingle in your nose. Far from the conventional slice of cake at the end of a meal, Johnny’s seasonal creations—four mini desserts in a quartet of complementary flavors and textures—are a culinary adventure. In Dessert FourPlay, he shares his secrets and inspirations, delivering standout recipes for incredible desserts that can be served alone or combined into his signature fourplay groupings, creating the perfect sweet finale for any meal. With the home cook in mind, Johnny offers tips on simplifying professional recipes and provides basic recipes for transcendent cakes, cookies, tuiles, ice creams, sorbets, granités, and more. These building blocks can be used to create magnificent multifaceted desserts, or they can be perfect desserts by themselves. Some recipes have surprising versatility: the shiny smooth chocolate glaze Johnny uses to ice cakes doubles as the ultimate hot fudge sauce; a lemony madeleine batter becomes a layer in a cake. Iuzzini pairs cool with hot, crispy with creamy, sweet with spicy, and the expected—chocolate, strawberries, and cinnamon—with the unexpected—chiles, beets, and chocolatey puffs. The result: desserts that refresh, inspire, and satisfy beyond expectations. Dessert FourPlay invigorates all the senses and inspires home cooks to create innovative desserts of their own.

Learn to create plated desserts like a master, with recipes from the World and National Pastry Team Championships Considered the Olympics of the pastry arts, the World and National Pastry Championships were founded by Michael Schneider in 1999. Since then, it has grown into the United States' most prestigious and popular pastry competition, aired annually on TLC. Now, in Plating for Gold, pastry chef Tish Boyle presents the most spectacular dessert recipes from the first decade of the competition and shows how you can recreate the same award-winning desserts in your own kitchen. Plating for Gold includes 50 recipes for absolutely spectacular desserts created by expert pastry chefs like Ewald Notter, Jacquy Pfeiffer, and Sebastien Cannone, all presented in easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions. You'll find whimsical and delicious one-of-a-kind recipes like Strawberry Soup, Vanilla Panna Cotta Napoleon, and Almond Tartlet; Hot Chocolate Soufflé, Ginger Mousse, and Tropical Parfait; and Yin-Yang Flourless Chocolate Cake, as well as insight and advice from top pastry chefs on perfect plating. Includes advice on essential equipment, stocking your pastry kitchen, and perfect flavor pairings to help you create your own original recipes Features enticing full-color photographs of finished desserts, as well as hand-drawn sketches to illustrate plating techniques and provide endless inspiration Offers a behind-the-scenes look at the world of pastry competition, with candid photos and insider advice from some of today's best pastry chefs Whether you aspire to compete with the best at the Pastry Team Championships or simply want to impress guests at your next big dinner party, Plating for Gold is the gold standard in dessert cookbooks.

James Beard–award-winning pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini returns to basics in this complete baking course in a book with everything a home baker needs to confidently turn out 150+ sweets with sophisticated flavors. Iuzzini starts by sharing his expert tips on fundamentals such as making caramel and mixing butter cakes, with accompanying step-by-step photographs, before moving on to recipes for Salted Caramels and Sticky Caramel Date Cake. After mastering the simple method for making light-as-air meringues, anyone can make ethereal espresso marshmallows, mile-high soufflés, and chewy French macaron sandwich cookies. Readers can finally expand their cake and ice cream horizons to embrace flavors as thrilling as those in Brown Sugar-Molasses Layer Cake and Bitter Orange Ice Cream. The 250 photographs include both instructive technique shots to reassure bakers at every turn as well as stunning photographs of the ready-to-eat treats. With Sugar Rush, baking at home has never been easier—or more inviting.

The ideal companion to Flour—Joanne Chang's beloved first cookbook—Flour, too includes the most-requested savory fare to have made her four cafés Boston's favorite stops for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here are 100 gratifying recipes for easy at-home eating and entertaining from brunch treats to soups, pizzas, pasta, and, of course, Flour's famous cakes, tarts, and other sweet goodies. More than 50 glorious color photographs by Michael Harlan Turkell take the viewer inside the warm, cozy cafés; into the night pastry kitchen; and demonstrate the beauty of this delicious food. With a variety of recipes for all skill levels, this mouthwatering collection is a substantial addition to any home cook's bookshelf.

Alex Talbot and Aki Kamozawa, husband-and-wife chefs and the forces behind the popular blog Ideas in Food, have made a living out of being inquisitive in the kitchen. Their book shares the knowledge they have gleaned from numerous cooking adventures, from why tapioca flour makes a silkier chocolate pudding than the traditional cornstarch or flour to how to cold smoke just about any ingredient you can think of to impart a new savory dimension to everyday dishes. Perfect for anyone who loves food, Ideas in Food is the ideal handbook for unleashing creativity, intensifying flavors, and pushing one’s cooking to new heights. This guide, which includes 100 recipes, explores questions both simple and complex to find the best way to make food as delicious as possible. For home cooks, Aki and Alex look at everyday ingredients and techniques in new ways—from toasting dried pasta to lend a deeper, richer taste to a simple weeknight dinner to making quick “micro stocks” or even using water to intensify the flavor of soups instead of turning to long-simmered stocks. In the book’s second part, Aki and Alex explore topics, such as working with liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide—techniques that are geared towards professional cooks but interesting and instructive for passionate foodies as well. With primers and detailed usage guides for the pantry staples of molecular gastronomy, such as transglutaminase and hydrocolloids (from xanthan gum to gellan), Ideas in Food informs readers how these ingredients can transform food in miraculous ways when used properly. Throughout, Aki and Alex show how to apply their findings in unique and appealing recipes such as Potato Chip Pasta, Root Beer-Braised Short Ribs, and Gingerbread Soufflé. With Ideas in Food, anyone curious about food will find revelatory information, surprising techniques, and helpful tools for cooking more cleverly and creatively at home.

The ultimate guide to gourmet cupcakes, featuring grown-up flavors (figs! whiskey! fried chicken!) and the delicious story of a family saved by a love of sweets No food coloring. No fondant. No red velvet. Upscale bakery Robicelli’s has become a buzzed-about, in-demand purveyor of decidedly adult cupcakes. Nixing cutesy, pastel-colored dollops of fluff for real ingredients and rich French buttercreams, the husband and wife team have reinvented the cupcake craze for a more sophisticated palate, making each a small piece of the greatest cake ever made. Now their extraordinary recipes are available to the home cook. Now their extraordinary recipes are available to the home cook, including: The Laurenzano (fresh fig cake topped with goat cheese buttercream, fig balsamic gastrique, and crisp prosciutto flakes) The Brooklyn Blackout Cake (chocolate cake with chocolate custard buttercream, dipped in homemade fudge and rolled in chocolate cake crumbs) This book captures not only the Robicelli’s unique take on baking but also their edgy, unapologetically hilarious take on life, including how they survived severe economic setbacks to launch the country’s hottest cupcake brand— a venture begun with thirty dollars in borrowed quarters. Offering both cupcake recipes and a recipe for life that calls for a stash of “emergency cake,” Robicelli’s: A Love Story, with Cupcakes is a baking book like you’ve never seen before.

Presents a collection of recipes for each month of the year, with a focus on seasonal ingredients and menus for celebrations and holidays.