# Pastry Chef Books



## lisacay (Aug 3, 2014)

I am a self taught Pastry Chef. I have decorated cakes for 24 years & just make desserts for fun. I live in a fairly small town and a new upscale restaurant opened back in November. They couldn't find a pastry chef in this area and the GM loves my cheesecakes, so they asked if I wanted to work for them. I only make dessert there & don't work a lot of hours a week which is great because I also homeschool my kids. I have a couple of questions:

What textbooks, cookbooks or other resources would be a good choice for me to improve my skills & learn new things?

What books are used in culinary pastry school? 

My girls love to be in the kitchen also. We are just getting into high school in our homeschool and I am wanting to teach them culinary arts at home. What textbook, cookbook, or other resources would be a good well rounded program I could teach them myself at home or online for dual credit?


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Lisacay,

  I always went back to Joe Amendola's books .Bo Fribergs, and the CIA books are also pretty good.

I'm going to show my age but I have the monthly additions and the books from Yves Thuries who I met and consider one of the best Chefs.

Panini


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## lisacay (Aug 3, 2014)

Thanks Panini! I'll look for some of those.


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## jellly (Jan 3, 2005)

I agree with Panini and would add Bakewise by Shirley Corriher or one of the Rose Levy Beranbaum books.  Yes, these are targeted towards home cooks, but I have never found a better pound cake than the lemon one in Bakewise.  They cover a lot of basics and have a lot of information on the whys of baking.

I have many professional pastry books but I think it sounds like these will fit with what you are currently doing.  Both Bo Friberg and the CIA pastry books cover a range of pastries including breads, eclairs, breakfast pastries and entremets.


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