[.ca] Charlie Trotters Desserts (ISBN 089815815X)

From Amazon.com:
"I have always considered desserts to be of equal importance to the savory food," Charlie Trotter writes in the opening pages of his lavish Charlie Trotter's Desserts. "My approach to desserts celebrates a fruit-driven style, where flash and visual pyrotechniques \osic\c are shunned in favor of celebrating the glorious flavors of a perfectly ripe piece of fruit at the height of its season." The illustrations for this book (which won the James Beard award for Best Food Photography) don't quite square up with that statement. It's hard to imagine more pyrotechnics and more visual flash. It's also a little hard to imagine how many hands went into the creation of any single dish. These are not simple desserts for the everyday cook. Rather, this is a catalog of the kinds of desserts that can be created when fabulous food products and fantastic culinary talents all converge at a single kitchen. It's a coffee-table document of possibility. Two Watermelon Soups with Frozen Yogurt Soufflé and Chocolate Seeds is certainly a "doable" recipe for the home cook, and the assembly makes no big demands. The real trick with this dessert, as with most of the desserts in this book, is finding the "perfectly ripe piece of fruit at the height of its season." If you are a cook with access to such fruit, have at it. If your grocery store or supermarket buys the usual picked green fruit found in the commercial fruit pipeline, then take a copy of this book to your produce manager and complain loudly. Charlie Trotter's Desserts is divided into Soups and Sorbets, Citrus Fruits, Berries, Tropical Fruits, Tree Fruits, Vegetables and Grains, Custards, Nuts, Spices, Chocolate, and Chateau d'Yquem. Combinations are stunning. Surprises are endless. You'll discover such delights as Meyer Lemon Pudding Cakes with Persimmon and Tarragon Anglaise, Pineapple Tarte Tatin with Ginger-Hokkaido Squash Ice Cream, Rosewater Crème Caramel with Primrose Sauce and Black Pepper Tuiles, and Macadamia Nut Chocolate Cakes with Coconut Emulsion and Sugarcane Ice Cream. After living with this book you'll never look at a dessert menu in quite the same way. --Schuyler Ingle

Really, what is the point here?:
Get serious people, there is no way in a million years that most of us would ever successfully assemble one of these over-the-top recipes presented in this book. The extravagence displayed here is totally off the deep end, and is beyond the means or talents of most cooks, so why market this cookbook in the first place? Only other professional chefs would be capable of pulling it off, but they are also capable of making up their own fabulous recipes without Charlie Trotter's help. Supposedly, we are to "draw inspiration" from these recipes. What a load of crap. I could take a second-year violin student, throw the sheet music for Paganini's 24 Caprices at him, and tell him to draw inspiration from the music, even if he couldn't hope ever to play it. What is the point of that, other than to frustrate a person? This is nothing more than ridiculous self-indulgence on the part of another celebrity chef who apparently doesn't give a damn about we lesser beings who are simply trying to put a nice meal on the table.

Don't try this at home...:
Have you ever traveled cross-country to Chicago just to dine at Charlie Trotter's? I have, and it was one of the best meals of my life. This book and the others in the series are great at giving you a feel of what the real thing is like. The pictures are outstanding and the combinations just wow you. But if you think for a moment that any cookbook would allow you to duplicate what Charlie does, you are mistaken. Some cookbooks are for those who want to follow a recipe and duplicate it. This is not one of those. This is for people who want to understand the Chef's unique cuisine and appreciate it for the art that it is.

excellent ideas and photos, but not for the practical chef:
charlie trotter creates some of the finest courses i've ever seen. the only problem with this is, nothing contained within this series of books is even remotely practical or feasible from the home kitchen. the ingredients he uses are sometimes impossible to find (even when ordering through a professional kitchen), and the equiptment required for them aren't usually owned by the common cook. so, if you're serious about trying to create an award winning entree or desert, and have the time, patience, equiptment, and endless exotic produce, this book is perfect for you. the rest of us will just have to admire the pictures.

Don't try this at home...:
Have you ever traveled cross-country to Chicago just to dine at Charlie Trotter's? I have, and it was one of the best meals of my life. This book and the others in the series are great at giving you a feel of what the real thing is like. The pictures are outstanding and the combinations just wow you. But if you think for a moment that any cookbook would allow you to duplicate what Charlie does, you are mistaken. Some cookbooks are for those who want to follow a recipe and duplicate it. This is not one of those. This is for people who want to understand the Chef's unique cuisine and appreciate it for the art that it is.

A stunning Cookbook to stretch your abilties & patience:
What a knockout of a cookbook! Visually it is just so well done. Nothing else like it! Difficult to do the recipes, not for beginners or the faint of heart. Ingredients most of us have never heard of, nor know where to go to find them. But inspirational, and some of them even from our homes can turn out for that very special occassion when some dazzle is needed at the end of a culinary adventure. Try Mango Compote with Green Tea Creme Brulee or the Peach=Polenta Upside-down cake with almond sherbet. Also, pick up his new book as Charlie Cooks at Home. Much more friendly.