I Love Desserts: Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts

I Love Desserts

Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts

by Gordon Ramsay

Just Desserts

"Gordon's dessert recipes—and the way he presents them—are magnificent, and the tone and tenor of these pages reveals everything he does. If you are looking for the real roots of Gordon's Ramsay's perfectionism...look no further. It's all here."
     — Anthony Bourdain, author of
     Kitchen Confidential,
     from the foreword

Without a doubt, Gordon Ramsay is the most talked-about chef in Great Britain. And with good reason. Classically trained in the famous kitchens of Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, Ramsay is the only three-star chef in London. He has been lauded for his daring but unfussy approach to impeccable dining, and his extraordinary flair for desserts is one of the reasons his highly acclaimed Chelsea restaurant is #1 in The Zagat's London Survey. More than a great cook (Ramsay was voted Chef of the Year by his peers), he also is a passionate teacher. His singularly direct ability to clarify the mysteries of the chef's craft is splendidly evidenced in Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts. Ramsay has such a knack for demonstrating the basic building blocks and techniques of each of his masterpieces that any reader following his step-by-step methods can recreate his irresistible treats at home.

Ramsay imparts the knowledge, talent, and magic of the professional pastry kitchen into a marvelously easy-to-use guide for the home cook. The thoroughly comprehensive Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts is organized into eight cooking chapters: Fruits, Ices and Creams, Mousses, Bavarian Creams and Soufflés, Crêpes and Batters, Comforting Desserts, Special Occasions, Accompaniments and Chocolates, and Basics. There is also a complete Reference section that includes everything from equipment and techniques to dessert wines and suppliers. Ramsay's scope is as dazzling as his irresistible creations.

Many diners often consider dessert a requisite sweet finale to an elegant meal. With an astonishing 95 percent of his Chelsea restaurant customers ordering desserts, however, Ramsay takes his dessert skills as seriously as he does all of his cooking. For Ramsay, "Roasting fruit correctly is as important as cooking the perfect turbot, or a canon of baby Pyrenean lamb." The happy result of this tireless commitment is a bounty of stunning recipes. With something for everyone, Golden Apple Streusel Tarts, Little White Chocolate and Kahlúa Soufflés, Strawberry and Vanilla Semi-Freddo, and Roasted Baby Pineapples are just a sampling of the more than 100 pleasures to inspire the home cook. Seasonally sumptuous—and just in time for late summer—there are also cooling fruit soups like Peach Soup with Mint or Lemon Balm and delicate treasures such as Summer Berry Filo Horns. Or welcome the first nip of autumn with Steamed Butterscotch, Banana, and Pecan Pudding.

Befitting a work of this depth, there are also more than 110 full-color and step-by-step photographs by Georgia Glynn Smith to tempt the eye while teaching the hand. If dessert is the last course of a meal, Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts may be the last word on desserts.

Buy the Book!

Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts
by Gordon Ramsay with Roz Denny
Laurel Glen Publishing
October 2001; $29.95/hardcover
Color photography by Georgia Glynn Smith
ISBN: 1-57145-701-1
Information provided by the publisher.