Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts [Paperback]

Just Desserts is a very fine book of puddings from energetic three-star Michelin chef Gordon Ramsay, expertly marshalled for the domestic kitchen by Roz Denny. Ramsay's imagination is obviously caught by the sweet course: he expends a great deal of innovative thinking to it with fascinating results. He is inclined to roast his fruit, for example, caramelising it for greater intensity of flavour; or he might deep-fry it, as in the elegant and fantastically nonchalant Fruit Tempura. His ices and creams include voluptuous nut creams and lavender, orange flower water or liquorice ice cream. Oriental flavours appear in ethereal dishes like the Thai Rice Pudding with Coconut and Lemon (serve with mango coulis) or Banana and Passion Fruit Sorbet. Cheesecake is light and flavoured with pumpkin. Proper homage is paid to comfort food, with recipes for Bread and Butter Pudding (Ramsay makes his with baguette and laces it with Baileys liqueur) and Steamed Toffee, Banana and Pecan Pudding. The chocolate recipes are particularly fine, with a Chocolate Mocha Tart standing out. Just Desserts is also an excellent primer of patisserie techniques, its explanations and illustrations of the standard syrups, pastes, sponges and pastries of the restaurant kitchen, here translated into domestic terms, being particularly lucid. The professional mysteries of the mousse, the parfait, the bavarois and the various manifestations of the meringue are made wonderfully clear. No holding back, then. --Robin Davidson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Gordon Ramsay has earned an extraordinary 12 Michelin stars for his restaurants in London and New York. Now a celebrated television presenter, Gordon's award-winning television series include Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, The F Word and Hell's Kitchen. His other bestselling cookbooks - A Chef for All Seasons, Gordon Ramsay's Secrets, Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy, Sunday Lunch, Fast Food, 3*** Chef and Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite - are also published by Quadrille.

Here, Gordon Ramsay aims to demystify the art of dessert-making. There are the basic building blocks - fruits, ices and creams, mousses and souffles, crepes and batters - that can be served alone for everyday meals or in combination to impress. Then come the stand-alone dishes - homely favourites and special-occasion desserts - and a final chapter on vital accompaniments - biscuits, sponges and meringues. Throughout the book Gordon offers the benefit of his short cuts and tricks of the trade.

PRAISE FOR GORDON RAMSAY

I think Gordon Ramsay's a genius - a chef at the top of his game Jamie Oliver

Gordon Ramsay's puddings are perhaps the best in London Jonathan Meades, The Times

Anthony Bourdain, bestselling author of Kitchen Confidential on Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts

Desserts, in a restaurant setting, usually require a level of precision and delicacy which ordinary line cooks - and most chefs - find intimidating. I've called pattissiers the neurologists of the kitchen, strange and often obsessive perfectionists who move outside of the normal rythms of kitchen life, dancing to music only they can hear. When I discovered that Gordon Ramsay, a chef whose food and relentless drive I have come to greatly admire, was, at one time, a pattissier, (for Guy Savoy no less) it explained a lot for me.

Chefs, we have come to believe, are modern day alchemists, part magician, part personality - artists and madmen. In these food and chef-crazed times, where great attention is paid to the comings and going of our culinary demi-Gods, Gordon has certainly been referred to, spoken of, written about as having exhibited all of the above qualities; England's Greatest Chef or England's Greatest Bully - depending on what tabloid you're reading at the time.

The truth is far more complex - often incomprehensible to outsiders, but perfectly reasonable to professionals. When you want to be the best, insist on being the best, when you're the only three star chef in London, for instance it's not enough to cook brilliantly. You have to cook brilliantly EVERY night. Every plate has to be perfect. The food has to be sublime, creative, gorgeous to look at, unwaveringly consistent, whimsical on occasion, evocative of other times, other places, happy moments, childhood memories. A sensitivity, a gentleness is required - a degree of understanding of both human nature and the physical forces of the universe which a brutish megalomaniac is unlikely to possess. A pastry chef, on the other hand....

What makes these recipes and these presentations so magnificent are what makes all his food - from ameuse geules to entrees so strikingly good - the tone and tenor of these pages inform everything he does. If you are looking for the real roots of Gordon Ramsay's perfectionism, a window into this particular chef's soul, look no further. It's all here. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Gordon Ramsay has earned an extraordinary 12 Michelin stars for his restaurants in London and New York. Now a celebrated television presenter, Gordon's award-winning television series include Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, The F Word and Hell's Kitchen. His other bestselling cookbooks - A Chef for All Seasons, Gordon Ramsay's Secrets, Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy, Sunday Lunch, Fast Food, 3*** Chef and Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite - are also published by Quadrille.