Who isn't captivated by the sheer beauty of French pastry? But it's what's inside that really counts. Are you persuaded by just a pretty face? Any patissiere worth his pates aux choux is very much obsessed by what's inside. Top Parisien patissiere, Carl Marletti shows a luscious cross-section of a religieuse and shares the ingredients in quite an innovative way. Do visit.
The innards of a macaron from Patisserie des Reves'chef Pierre Conticini's cookbook,Sensations. Who knew what mysteries lurked within? A page from a guide to Pierre Herme's L'Ecole Ferrandi. Herme mentions many times that he'd like to be an architect - but he is, isn't he?A cross section of a piece of cake at Des Gateaux et du Pain...
In my mad pursuit to paint French pastry I nearly fell over in a faint when I discovered this FAB book, called I think, Encyclopedia of pastry dough - 100 kinds of pastry dough and petit gateau (旭屋出版MOOK) Essential reading for professionals and pastry artists.
If only I knew a bit more Japanese besides 'arigato'/thank you...
Wouldn't it be lovely to know the French names of all these yummy ingredients. Any volunteer translators out there?
Second best to knowing what's inside...
Would be a proper knife to cleanly cut through the pastries. A PBer mentioned Kyocera ceramic knives are the best and I'm getting one today. It's Japanese too...
Yellow Bird keeps telling me if I had a proper knife I wouldn't make such an awful mess. Hmmm...(shrugs) "c'est la vie".