Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts

by Gordon Ramsay, Roz Denny

Here, Gordon Ramsay aims to demystify the art of dessert-making. There are the basic building blocks - fruits, ices and creams, mousses and souffles, crepes and batters - that can be served alone for everyday meals or in combination to impress. Then come the stand-alone dishes - homely favourites and special-occasion desserts - and a final chapter on vital accompaniments - biscuits, s[ponges and meringues. Throughout the book Gordon offers the benefit of his short cutsand tricks of the trade.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 7, 2001

About the author

Gordon James Ramsay is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur, television presenter, and writer. His restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 17 Michelin stars overall and currently holds eight. His signature restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, London, has held three Michelin stars since 2001. After rising to fame on the British television miniseries Boiling Point in 1999, Ramsay became one of the best-known and most influential chefs in the world.
Ramsay's TV persona is defined by his fiery temper, aggressive behaviour, strict demeanour, and frequent use of profanity, while making blunt, critical, and controversial comments, including insults and sardonic wisecracks about contestants and their cooking abilities. He combines activities in the television, film, hospitality and food industries, and has promoted and hired various chefs who have apprenticed under his wing. He is known for presenting television programmes about competitive cookery and food, such as the British series Hell's Kitchen (2004), Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (2004–2009, 2014), and The F Word (2005–2010), with Kitchen Nightmares winning the 2005 British Academy Television Award for Best Feature, and the American versions of Hell's Kitchen (2005–present), Kitchen Nightmares (2007–present), MasterChef (2010–present), and MasterChef Junior (2013–present), as well as Hotel Hell (2012–2016), Gordon Behind Bars (2012), Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back (2018–2020), and Next Level Chef (2022–present).
Ramsay was appointed an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 New Year Honours list for services to the hospitality industry. He was named the top chef in the UK at the 2000 Catey Awards, and in July 2006 he won the Catey for Independent Restaurateur of the Year, becoming the third person to win three Catey Awards. Forbes listed his 2020 earnings at US $70 million and ranked him at No.19 on its list of the highest-earning celebrities.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I will say that you need a more professional mixer, cookware and money to make most of these recipes, they are quite well done. The book features interesting combos like the Baked Roasted Baby Pineapples with cloves and Chinese Five-Spice Powder, or Apricot and Cinnamon Mousse, or even Red Berries with Hibiscus and Basil Syrup. The pictures were gorgeous, but I wished there were more of them. He is very good at explaining techniques, equipment and basics to those of us without advanced culinary training. I forget that he was trained as a pastry chef first before he went on to have all the other qualifications of a Michelin-level chef. Plus it has a foreword by another of my favorite chefs, Anthony Bourdain, who is also impressed with his cooking. I would love to own this book for my cookbook collection!

[Roxy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book. Full of gorgeous colour pictures. Great size for a cookbook. Has lots of good recipes but also tips and techniques for basics like coulis and pastry that can be used in loads of other recipes. Simple and well thought out. Great for the everyday cook but also full of inspiring flavours and ideas for the more avid gourmet.

[Andrea]

French macarons which have never worked out for me...try as I might!

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the desserts sounded tasty.

[Douglas Shore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a sweet tooth, dessert person who would (if I could) eat something sweet for breakfast - lunch and dinner!

Suffice it to say; a book aptly called just desserts should be my wet dream.

This!

This book!

This book is!

It's a disappointment!

From a technical standpoint, this book works; it will teach you what you need to know and how to achieve it. From a creative, "what delights await" style, it fails to deliver even the most basic of what I want.

Dessert (to me) is exciting. I should have a label tagged on every page. Instead, I have two in a book of over one hundred and fifty recipes.

Let me be clear. I am not picky - far from.

But I wanted more, nay, I expected more, Gordon, which is disappointing. (I'm not mad, just disappointed!)