Plating for Gold: A Decade of Dessert Recipes from the World and National Pastry Team Championships Hardcover – June 13, 2012

Very in depth book that covers the construction of a dish with many techniques and recipes by some very good chefs. Visually the book is appeal but I would say this book is for advanced chefs or pastry professional. This book is definitely one of my personal favorite pastry or plating inspiration books.

Anyone who wants to be an upper tier pastry chef would be advised to purchase this book for the exhaustive photos and recipes. There's no better idea source for artistic inspiration than this book. Because of this, I have to give it 5 stars. What I don't like about this book is that probably the most interesting parts of these creations are the chocolate and pulled sugar decorations. That's why I bought the book. So of course I want to know how to make those. But each time I saw something I wanted to make, it referred me to page 308 where there is a basic sugar syrup recipe. And that's it. So I make the recipe, then what?? I realize it's a bit complicated, but even an overview would be appreciated. I have a general notion of how to make sugar art but I wanted insight on how each of those ornaments were made. There was thorough instruction on how to make the tuile ornaments, like the abstract wafer on the cover. If you want to tackle any of these recipes, you will need a lot of time, research and education. Unless you're already a gourmet pastry chef of the top level. Then this would be a good idea file. So if you're looking for nice photos of pulled sugar and chocolate, this is great. If you're looking for a manual on how to make pulled sugar ornaments, this won't work.

I bought this book for the idea of flavor combination and plate decoration. I like the sketch plate desserts and the nice pictures.About recipes, some are great but some are not.

Technically quite laborious, but easy to understand, and try them in our catering. We will try to apply . The recipes are clear and the ingredients (mostly) easy to find in our piece of earth, as well as the way the dessert is set up for plating, causing a whoau!.

THis is a great book, nothing in there is not to complicated to do, no crazy ingredients or techniques. Just the regular equipment, silicone pans, ice cream machine. Great detail on every dessert, plating illustrations, lots of pictures, great desserts in here. 30 bucks well spent, I have taken a couple of things out of here for my dessert menu as we speak

For professional culinarians, this book is a wonderful illustration of proper plating techniques, as well as, different products and use. I would highly recommend this book to professionals seeking ideas and/or wanting to expand their repertoire.

great book but not for beginners as the recipes are difficult and not that well explained. As a professional it's interesting knowing how this competitions take place and all the mise en place you have to do in order to enter this contests. Great book, great ideas!

This book helped me pass my finals in my first semester of pastry. Photos are beautiful & every recipe I tried was easy & looked great. If you do nothing but look att the plating you will love this book.