Dessert FourPlay: Sweet Quartets from a Four-Star Pastry Chef: A Baking Book

by Johnny Iuzzini, Roy Finamore

Consider the its familiar flavor and texture; its fresh, sweet smell. Now imagine the same fruit distilled and carbonated for a refreshing soda, slow-roasted for a reinvented strawberry shortcake, made into a creamy strawberry ice cream and a chewy strawberry leather, and combined with coconut cream and crisp chocolate pastry. Alone, each dessert is a taste of paradise, but together this “fourplay,” or tasting, created by Johnny Iuzzini, superstar pastry chef of the celebrated four-star restaurant Jean Georges in New York, is a sophisticated explosion of a familiar flavor that begins with the taste of strawberry rich on your tongue and ends with an effervescent tingle in your nose.

Far from the conventional slice of cake at the end of a meal, Johnny’s seasonal creations—four mini desserts in a quartet of complementary flavors and textures—are a culinary adventure. In Dessert FourPlay , he shares his secrets and inspirations, delivering standout recipes for incredible desserts that can be served alone or combined into his signature fourplay groupings, creating the perfect sweet finale for any meal.

With the home cook in mind, Johnny offers tips on simplifying professional recipes and provides basic recipes for transcendent cakes, cookies, tuiles, ice creams, sorbets, granités, and more. These building blocks can be used to create magnificent multifaceted desserts, or they can be perfect desserts by themselves. Some recipes have surprising the shiny smooth chocolate glaze Johnny uses to ice cakes doubles as the ultimate hot fudge sauce; a lemony madeleine batter becomes a layer in a cake.

Iuzzini pairs cool with hot, crispy with creamy, sweet with spicy, and the expected—chocolate, strawberries, and cinnamon—with the unexpected—chiles, beets, and chocolatey puffs. The desserts that refresh, inspire, and satisfy beyond expectations. Dessert FourPlay invigorates all the senses and inspires home cooks to create innovative desserts of their own.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published December 30, 2008

Reviews

[Alisa]

Ooohh....look. My boyfriend's book is on sale for $1.99. (Ok he's not really my boyfriend but he's dark-haired, tattooed, and is a pastry chef. The perfect trifecta).

http://www.amazon.com/Dessert-FourPla...

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely scrumptious cookbook filled with dreamy desserts and page-licking photos. Very sophisticated was my first impression. I'm a novice baker (I basically make cookies and lemon poppy seed bread) and these recipes definitely seem geared towards those who can create magic in the kitchen. That would not be me. However, if I had a neighbor who had mad baking skills, I would gift this book to them with some gorgeous bowls and wooden spoons and make not-so-subtle hints that I would like to apply to be a test-kitchen taster.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not your grandma's desserts - I loved some of the ideas and the flavor combinations. although I am not sure I would have the presentation or all of the techniques I think some of these ideas inspired me a bit.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this for the plating and fancy stuff - exactly what Dave HATES. This is something that I will recreate at home, but not with the fancy plating - I think I pulled at least 20 recipes to try. I'm super intrigued by using invert sugar to make ice cream.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chef Johnny Iuzzini is a genius. What Johnny does with food is what Val Emmich does with music.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johnny rocks the pastry scene with an intro to molecular gastronomy in the pastry world. I've been waiting for the sequel for way too long!