Cookbook Watch - Highly recommended!

Today, I have two really, really, really good cookbooks to tell you about. (Both are in Swedish - I sure hope they'll make it into translation, so more can enjoy them.) I'm really excited about both, and have been ever since I knew they were in the making, and I'm also lucky enough to have met both authors - great guys.

First, "Den Franske Bagaren" ("the French Baker") by Sébastien Boudet. He is indeed a French baker, and a pastry chef. I've taken a course for him before, and wrote about that experience here. You can find his blog here. This is man who firmly believes that anything worth doing is worth doing well. Very well, actually. There's no room for inferior ingredients, substitutes, or haste. You want pancakes? Well, you start the day before, because then they'll be the best they can be. No compromise.

And I love this. I don't live by it - far from - but I do admire the ideas and the steadfastness of it all. And most of all, of course, the food. Or in this case, the bread, the food and the pastries. The book has detailed instructions for lovely bread (not the kind of thing you whip up in an afternoon - some take three days), beautiful pastries and desserts, and also rustic French food like Potato au Gratin (with one litre of heavy cream!). I will definitely cherish this book, and enjoy trying out the recipes. And I really do mean to get back to my sourdough baking... now that I'm about to spend a year at home with the new baby (another month to go), maybe I'll manage!



Next, Daniel Roos beautiful "Desserter med stil" ("Stylish desserts"). Daniel is a very tall pastry chef with huge hands, who still manages to make the daintiest little things. (You can find his blog here.) His desserts are truly works of art, which is definitely reflected through the gorgeous photos in this book. He freely shares his recipes, and while the recipes are short and to the point, they're also un-complicated and confident.

That said, I couldn't help laughing when I came to the last chapter, which is called "advanced desserts". They are. But I think most people would probably call the whole book quite advanced, and even a bit intimidating. Well, I'm not saying these recipes are for everyone - you DO want to be somewhat experienced in the kitchen - but he's really making restaurant-style plated desserts much more approachable for the home cook. Now, I plan to try a lot of these - but realizing my limits, I won't be upset if I don't manage to plate them as beautifully as Daniel does. I'll settle for great flavors! And for confidence, I plan to start with his Tiramisu, which isn't scary at all. This is truly a book for dessert lovers who want to take things to a new level.