Grand livre de cuisine d'Alain Ducasse (desserts de patisserie)

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This is the second instalment of Alain Ducasse's series of "grand" cookbooks, and after going through it you can't but be amazed at how this chef has developed several books and made each one highly original. Without doubt, Ducasse is one of the great master chefs of all time, and this book is arguably one of the greatest cookery books of all time. Each chapter is beautifully put together with clear recipes and instructions. It's in French, but an English version is being published, too. This is a book for the serious gourmet or professional chef - it's quite expensive and a bit too heavy to have on the coffee table - but I think it's a bargain for the life's pastry work of such a wonderful chef. It has fantastic diagrams on how to assemble the desserts and step-by-step guidelines so everything can be followed precisely. The sections are broken down into fruits, chocolates, petits fours and breads. The bread section is my favourite. We have tried out various recipes in the kitchen and they all seem to work quite well, but we made certain changes that only a professional chef would know about. One of the recipes we tried was croque agrumes croustillant, but we struggled with the tuile, so we changed the way we incorporated the butter. After that it was fine. We filled it with lemon bavarois, topped it with lime curd, put some mandarin sorbet on the side with a citrus fruit jelly and garnished it with blood orange sorbet. Perfect. With beautiful photography, this book delivers the perfect insight into the art of one of our greatest living chefs, and I am sure you will see many of his desserts in restaurants near you soon. But if you simply want to learn to cook, save your money and buy Delia's *Complete Cookery Course* instead - and use the change to get some decent equipment. Jason Atherton, executive chef, Hilton Dubai Creek Grand livre de cuisine d'Alain Ducasse (desserts et patisserie) ADF, €160 (£108) Available from [www.ad-formation.com ISBN: 2-9616473-55